Wille's Bakery

Before Wille's Bakery opened in Cape Girardeau, Leonard Wille was photographed years earlier while working at Wagner's Bakery in Jackson by G.D. Fronabarger.

May 29, 1977 Southeast Missourian

Sweet treats a specialty at Wille's Bakery

The days start early for Leonard Wille, owner of Wille's Bakery at 1001 Independence. He and his son Ralph are at work by 2:30 a.m., six days a week, preparing pastries for their customers.

Mr. Wille has been in business in Cape Girardeau for four years. Before that, he spent 33 years working for Wagner's Bakery in Jackson. "I just came up through the ranks," he said.

He enjoys his job. "After you've been in it as long as I have, you almost have to stay. You don't know anything else," he said. What he enjoys most is decorating the cakes. He estimates that he and his son prepare 100 to 150 cakes each week. "I enjoy all of it except the hours," he said.

Long Hours

And the hours are long. Employes come to work at 5 a.m., the bakery is open for business at 5:30, and they don't close until 5 p.m.

Everything the Willes prepare is made "from scratch." "We don't buy anything prepared," he said. He steam-cooks all the fruit for fillings in a boiler. He has a pizza machine which he uses for pies which can turn out a finished pie, ready for baking, in about a minute.

The most popular pastries at Wille's Bakery are Yum-yums (a Danish doughnut) and cream horns, Mr. Wille said. Mrs. Mary Wille, Leonard's wife, said she enjoys meeting the people who come in. "You get to the point where you almost know their orders," she said.

The Willes have plans to do some remodeling this summer. Mr. Wille wants to paint and install some new floors.

Everything usually runs smoothly for Mr. Wille. Many of his cakes and much of the dough for the next day is prepared and tucked away in a walk-in cooler where it will be ready when he needs it.

One embarrassing moment that he remembered with a smile was when a woman once stopped by to pick up a wedding cake. Mr. Wille was carrying it out to her and the cardboard bottom collapsed, the cake dropped and Mr. Wille caught it in his hands, but "messed it up," he said.

The woman had 30 minutes before the cake has to be at the wedding, so Mr. Wille went into high gear, and in that half hour, redid the icing on the cake. "The cake itself was all right," he said, "but the icing had to be completely redone."

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Feb. 3, 2003 Southeast Missourian column by Scott Moyers:

Wille's Bakery returning

Stopping at Wille's Bakery was a morning ritual when I was a seventh-grader on my way to Schultz School. My friend Billy and I would park our bikes outside 1001 Independence, race in and order us up each a baker's dozen of sugary doughnut holes.

Once, we even had a contest to see who could eat their doughnut holes the fastest. That race ended with a quick-thinking customer's interlocked fingers around my stomach and a discharged doughnut hole snailing down the display case.

Later, I'd heard Wille's had moved to Jackson, and I wasn't sure what happened after that.

Then, last week, I found out that Wille's Bakery was opening again in Cape Girardeau, this time at 1215 Broadway in the old Patrick's Cleaners Building. The store is expected to open in March.

Leonard Wille, now 73, operated the Cape Girardeau bakery from 1973 until 1985 before moving it to Jackson. This time, his son, Ralph Wille, who also has been a baker his whole life, is running the bakery and his father will be helping out.

"Since high school, I haven't done anything else," Wille said. "I learned it all from Dad. We're just a couple of old scratch bakers."

The new bakery will have a drive-through and the doughnuts will be made from scratch as well as danish and some cakes. Unlike the olden days, the new Wille's won't make wedding cakes or bread.

"We're going to have to streamline things a little more," Wille said. "We can't get as big as we once did. I just want to stay leaner."

There will also be milk and coffee.

Wille said he was glad to be getting back to Cape Girardeau.

"Cape was good to us," he said. "We did really well when we were there."

But I wouldn't recommend eating those doughnut holes too quickly.