Overland Park’s 3 Women And An Oven bakes cakes and cookies with love and butter

A few weeks ago, I popped in to Pour Coffeehouse in Olathe to indulge in espresso, sparkly sugar drop cookies and cinnamon-scented granola.

The coffee was brewed in-house, but the deliciously sweet treats were from 3 Women And An Oven, a bakery at 14852 Metcalf Ave. in Overland Park. I’d never been to the bakery, so last week, I made a special trip south to check it out.

The small “boutique” bakery, located about a half mile north of 151st and Metcalf in the Heatherwood Village Shopping Center, sells much more than granola and sugar drop cookies. The glass-front case at the counter boasts a tempting array of cupcakes piled high with swirled buttercream frosting, macarons in sunny pastel colors, fudgy chocolate brownies and frosted sugar cookies shaped like bowties, autumn wreaths and Royals jerseys.

Triple-tiered stands atop the counter flaunt cookies in every flavor, from classic chocolate chip and peanut butter to Snickerdoodles and lemon with blueberry buttercream. And nearby shelves are stocked with cookie mixes, vegan granola bars, birthday candles and decorative cake stands.

I was glad that the two customers ahead of me ordered a few dozen cupcakes each for upcoming parties, because I needed a few minutes to figure out what to order.

Opened in 2004, 3 Women And An Oven is known for its 24 Carrot cake and Pink Champagne cake. I ordered one miniature Bundt cake, or “baby cake,” in each flavor. The three-bite cakes cost $2.25 each and are crowned with dollops of cream cheese frosting (for the carrot cake) and buttercream frosting (for the Pink Champagne) dusted with edible glitter called “fairy dust.”

The cute cakes taste as good as they look and are made in-house with real butter and no preservatives.

“We bake like our mothers and grandmothers used to bake,” says co-president Jayne Torline.

Other flavors include chocolate peanut butter mousse, coconut key lime, red velvet and vanilla. Seasonal cake flavors include bananas foster and pumpkin spice. Torline says the bakery also recently added pumpkin bars topped with maple cream cheese icing “that just happen to be gluten-free.”

The shop has been adding more gluten-free options lately.

“But just because it’s gluten-free, doesn’t mean it has to be dry and tasteless,” Torline says.

Torline, who has a background in sales and marketing, runs 3 Women And An Oven with Stacey Webb, a professionally trained chef with a passion for pastries.

Torline says she and Webb have “a work marriage.”

“It includes a lot of respect and a lot of love,” Torline says.

Originally there were three women behind the bakery, but one is no longer affiliated with the business. Torline likes to say that the third woman in “3 Woman And An Oven” is represented by everyone else who works at the bakery.

Their business has grown over the past decade: You can find 3 Women And An Oven products at Dean & DeLuca and New You Health Studio in Leawood, Coach’s Bar & Grill in Kansas City, the Overland Park Arboretum and Coffee Cake KC, a local food truck.

The business employs about a dozen people, including several artists and decorators who specialize in custom cakes. Recent creations have included a Star Wars-themed wedding cake complete with a light saber-toting bride and groom and a fondant and styrofoam “faux cake” that emulated the look of stained glass.

Other bakery creations are completely edible but almost too cute to eat. I’m a fan of the “kiss sandwiches” ($1.75), which squeeze buttercream frosting between two freshly baked cookies. Try the chocolate chip version, which squeezes colored sprinkles and vanilla buttercream between two crumbly cookies studded with hunks of Callebaut Belgian chocolate.

Prefer pie? Follow 3 Women And An Oven on Instagram or Facebook and watch for news about the bakery’s upcoming pie sampling day. Torline says the shop will dole out free samples and accept discounted Thanksgiving orders for deep-dish, 10-inch pies in flavors such as caramel apple.

This story was originally published September 22, 2015 at 4:56 PM with the headline "Overland Park’s 3 Women And An Oven bakes cakes and cookies with love and butter."