MILFORD, Ohio — Holston's Baking Company is one of three finalists for "The Best Bakery in Ohio." The owner, Amy Holston, is counting on your vote, which is open now until August 20, 2023 at noon.
Amy told WCPO she started baking when she was 16, using one of her grandmother's cookbooks. To this day, she says she uses the same apple pie recipe from that cookbook. She's an Air Force veteran, and was a competitive body builder and nutrition specialist who fell into her new profession sort of by accident.
In December 2020, during the pandemic, Amy wanted to buy her husband a birthday cake. She said after getting a few quotes, all of them seemed to be too expensive. That's when she decided she was going to bake a cake herself. Her husband posted her creation on Facebook, and then multiple people started asking her if she could bake them cakes.
"All of a sudden, just like everybody was everybody was just like 'can you do me a cake?' Can you do me a cake?' and it was like wildfire, we didn't see it coming," said Holston. "I'm just a self-taught baker, I started in my house, it means the world to me. I'm having a hard time putting all of this into words."
For months, she was baking in her home kitchen, but she had to make a decision of whether or not to scale it up or scale it down. Amy decided to scale it up so she opened a store in August 2021 at 922 OH-28 in Milford, just off of the I-275 exit.
"If you told me five years ago this is where I'd be, I probably thought you were a little crazy, but it's just been amazing and the whole journey has been amazing, the community is amazing," said Holston.
If you would like to vote for Holston's Baking Company for "The Best Bakery in Ohio," click here.
