Customers enjoy cupcakes, cookies, drinks and other treats at the Little Fox Bakery on Tuesday, April 4, 2023, after the bakery announced over the weekend its decision to close due to inflation of rent, ingredients and supplies in late June. (Grace Ramey/grace.ramey@bgdailynews.com)

The sweet aroma of freshly baked oatmeal creme pies blankets the interior of Little Fox Bakery. It’s a regular day of business for the small operation – one that will be gone in just a few months.

A sugary staple of Bowling Green since opening in 2018, Little Fox will be closing its doors in late June to scale back to a home kitchen operation.

The bakery has seen a lot in five years, moving from its East Main Avenue home to its current location at 401 Park Row in late 2020.

But a series of financial bumps have prompted ownership to close the book on the storefront.

A combination of an expiring lease, rising rent, aging equipment in need of repair and store inventory taking a hit from inflation is what made mother-and-daughter co-owners Diane and Alison Taylor decide to pull the plug on the current brick and mortar setup.

“It’s not like it was one massive thing that happened, but you look at all the things that are happening and that you can reasonably expect to happen in terms of finances,” Diane said. “I just decided at age 64 that I didn’t want to sign on for another three to five years of doing this.”

Alison takes care of the bakery’s inventory. Her job was made all the more difficult thanks to wild supply chain fluctuations, cocoa powder being a recent example.

“All of a sudden those prices were just skyrocketing or you just couldn’t find it anywhere,” Alison said. “You would call four, five different suppliers and nobody has any in stock.”

Eggs also cut into the bottom line.

“One of our most expensive items is white chocolate chips, and those are usually around $115 or so for a case. There was a while where getting just a case of eggs was more costly than our usual most expensive item,” Alison said.

It’s also gotten harder for the Little Fox crew to keep custom cake prices – probably their most sought-after item – agreeable with customer’s wallets.

“There’s a really large disconnect between the price point people are willing to pay and expect to pay for a custom cake versus what they should be valued at in the market,” Alison said.

She said it’s a tricky spot to be in when the majority of your business is hinging on “constantly having to undercut to be able to meet the market with what they can afford and budget for.”

While Diane accepts that running a business is a numbers game, she was put off by the thought of continually hiking Little Fox’ prices.

“I don’t want to raise my prices any higher, I don’t want to charge $5 for a cupcake,” Diane said. “I really don’t.”

She said if the bakery decided to sign another lease and continue on its way, the small Little Fox crew – five employees strong, including Diane and Alison – would “be working just as hard and be just as insecure.”

Alison said the bakery is more about sharing food with the community rather than raking in profits, but “right now we’re not really able to do either if things keep costing what they cost.”

There are still the occasional days where downtown foot traffic brings loads of customers into the store, causing Diane to worry if she’s jumping out right as things are turning the corner.

But one more unforeseen obstacle could be a fatal wound.

“If one more thing happens, it’s going to put us deeper in debt and I don’t want to do that,” Diane said.

Diane also says she’s the kind of person who will sink a couple years into something before deciding it’s time to move on to the next venture, which may also play into the closing.

“Five years doing this is like my record for staying in a job,” she said. “Before this, (my record) was three years, so I have a habit of working really, really hard at something and then going, ‘I think it’s time for a change.’”

Despite the tough circumstances, Diane is proud Little Fox has become part of the city’s fabric and has continued to support progressive causes.

“I do feel like we’ve worked really hard to become a part of this community and support the causes that are important to us … people know us and trust us in that respect,” she said.

She said she’s especially proud of an award given to Little Fox by the local NAACP chapter and the way the bakery has backed events like Pride and politicians like former Rep. Patti Minter.

“If Patti Minter wants her poster in our window, she’s going to get it,” Diane said. “When it’s Pride day, we’re going to have our banners flying, we’re going to celebrate the things that are important to us.”

There’s no doubt Alison’s creative cupcakes have also left their mark, a roster that includes roasted red bell pepper, strawberry balsamic and butternut squash flavors.

“My favorite thing is always the weird flavor combos with the cupcakes. We do like a habanero mango or a strawberry kiwi one,” Alison said. “It’s always fun to experiment, but I usually end up being really wild about them once they’re finished.”

While the bakery’s physical location will close, Diane plans to bake treats out of her home kitchen to bring a taste of Little Fox to events like Bowling Green’s Concert in the Park Series, the Harvest Festival, Scare on the Square and Pride.

“If we don’t show up there with our rainbow macarons, there’s going to be trouble,” Diane said. “We’ll see, take it as it comes – I’m toying with the idea of doing a farmers market, but those folks like to start at 8 in the morning and I don’t like to start at 8.”

Diane will be moving further into her other career, which is freelance writing. She has published seven books for young audiences through Nomad Press and is setting her sights on writing a werewolf novel.

“I’m putting my feelers back out for that again. I think I’d rather do part-time bakery stuff and go back and do some part-time writing things again as well,” she said.

Alison has toyed with the idea of creating online baking tutorials or freelancing custom cake designs on the side but hasn’t made concrete plans.

“There’s a good chance I’m probably going to be out of food service for a little while. I started when I was 16, and I’m 32 now. It’s been a long go of working with food,” she said.

The pair will miss the bakery’s regulars, as well as getting to make birthday cakes for kids multiple years in a row.

“That’s always really fun too, as cheesy and cliché as it sounds, to get to watch these kids grow up just from being the place that their parents go to for their big special occasions,” Alison said.

Diane says she gets a kick out of repeat birthday cake customers because “most of the kids we’ve known, the little ones, they are all taller than me now.”

The bakery made its closing announcement in an Instagram post last week, receiving a flood of support from customers. Alison hopes Little Fox will be fondly remembered like other Bowling Green businesses that have closed their doors.

“I wonder if in six or so years people are going to be like, ‘oh I just really miss going to Little Fox,’” she said.

The duo are happily anticipating just being family again, saying goodbye to the tension that sometimes comes with being business partners.

“It’ll be nice just to get to hang out with each other,” Alison said.

Diane said Alison can finally go back to being her kid again.

“It’s been fun. It’s been nerve wracking, but it’s been fun.”