Tina Marie’s

I passed this store front on my way to a meeting. After the meeting I was still feeling like some baked goods and was hoping the store was still open past noon. It was and saw on the door it was open until 5pm. Sweet. I walked in and was greeted I believe to be the owner and she kept stating that she made everything from scratch and could make anything I wanted if I called. I looked to see what they had available then. Mainly, basic cupcakes and muffins and cookies. Also a couple pies. I asked for a vanilla cupcake and pumpkin muffin. Pumpkin seem to be the theme that day as it was in everything. I also asked for the peanut butter pie thinking I was getting a slice but I got the whole pie. Well, I chucked that up for my own error for not asking if they did slices. I enjoyed all items. I shall return in the future.

Tina Maries has been a Shawnee staple for quite some time. Her bakery good fans just keep on growing! I’ve seen her baked goods at Price Chopper… rumor has it other places are contacting her to carry them too!
Tina has a passion for making quality pies, cakes, cupcakes, cinnamon rolls (those are a huge favorite!), and MORE! Her place has a homestyle feel to her place — nothing elaborate… so she can focus on baking and charge reasonable prices. If you want a fancier bakery with beautiful, expensive, but moderately tasting baked goods… there are many of those out there, but if you want something fresh, yummy and reasonably priced… THIS is the place to go!
Check out her meringue pies… the meringue is so high & fluffy!!! Yum Yum! She makes all the traditional flavors and many additional ones too! I recommend that you CALL AHEAD for the cake, pie, cupcake, cookies or other tasty treat… so she can make sure she has it ready when you come in. It’s not unusual that her goodies sells out!

Tina Marie’s has apparently been in business for quite some time, supplying baked goods to local stores, like Price Chopper. In recent months, a store front has opened along Johnson Drive. We have been keeping an eye on it for awhile and finally decided to give it a shot this Saturday afternoon in hopes of snagging a piece of pie. The building and lot are not in the best shape, but we still ventured inside. We were met by, I guess the owner, who, instead of greeting us started yelling to the back of the store barking orders to the people in the back. There was a small child sitting on the prep area in the back (a little iffy). We meandered around boxes on the floor of Christmas decorations that were being taken down. The front display case had about a dozen dry-​looking cupcakes and a couple of pies. I made my way to the back display case, which contained some doughnuts. I wasn’t interested in those… by that time she had come out to the small dining area and started shuffling those pesky boxes out of the way of foot traffic… then she finally acknowledged our presence by saying «sorry for the mess.» I asked if she had any pie — «Yes. Custard and Key Lime.» Sold by the slice? «No.» Ok. Hmm. She went and got a fresh tray of cupcakes, that didn’t look to bad and we were hopeful the toddler in the back hadn’t been sticking his fingers into. I asked what flavor the cupcakes were… Apple and Strawberry. She gave a pretty good description of the cupcakes, then changed her mind and redescribed them. The strawberry ones were pretty, there was a slice of fresh strawberry on top. The apple looked, eh, not so great, but we decided to take 2 of each home with us since the pies looked lovely but were a bit expensive, especially since we only really wanted a small sweet treat. As she was packing up our order, she started yelling orders back to the kitchen again. This is a habit that really needs to be broken.
We were pleasantly surprised with the cost of the cupcakes: $ 1 each for a regular-​sized cupcake; especially one that contained a piece of fresh fruit. We headed home to give them a shot.
Well, as expected, the apple was a little past it’s prime… maybe day old, maybe just not the best to start with. Kind of a dense, muffin texture with some odd-​colored icing on top. The icing was a cream cheese icing, which definitely made the cupcake edible. There were chunks of actual apple in the cupcakes. It was a nice effort. They were edible, but not something I would crave. Maybe worth one more try.
Next was strawberry. MMM. There was some unnecessary coconut on top as decoration, which kind of interfered with the taste and texture. There was strawberry purée or jam mixed into the cupcake batter, which was nice and gave some moistness. The icing was nice and not over done and the berry on top was really yummy.
So, although the experience THERE was a little iffy, we will definitely be back. Considering we got 4 cupcakes for about the price of 1 of the gourmet cupcakes from local places that are always prettier than they are tasty, it definitely was not a fail.
I’ll have to give her doughnuts a shot too. They looked like frozen doughnut blanks, but who knows, maybe they will be a surprise like the strawberry cupcakes.