Meet Kim & Cleve Wickliffe | Owner

We had the good fortune of connecting with Kim & CleveWickliffe and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Kim & Cleve, maybe we can start at the very start – the idea – how did you come up with the idea for your business?
Cleve & I have always been foodies. We have both baked for family most of our lives but Cleve had a true passion for baking. He was always baking cinnamon rolls for our friends and family. One weekend I told him I thought we should sell them. He told me if I could sell them, he would bake them. That evening, I posted them on Facebook for sale and by morning we had 12 orders! From there, the business started to grow. As it grew, we expanded the baking categories and both left our corporate jobs to pursue our passion full time.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
Swirls is a labor of love. We are passionate about great food made with quality ingredients. Food that looks amazing is great, but food that also TASTES amazing, that is our mission. When someone tells us how good our food tastes, that is the best compliment we could receive! Once we had become successful at markets and had an active website, opening a brick & mortar location in Celina seemed like the next natural step. Finding the right location was not easy! We wanted to be downtown on the historic square but every door we tried to open was immediately closed. We knew the right place would present itself at the right time. And so, we waited and kept working on our brand and products.
Just when we were beginning to wonder if we would ever find a spot, it finally happened. There was an available building on the square! It was built in 1925 and in need of renovation but was perfect for us. Everything worth having is worth the wait.
Our bakery will specialize in scratch made cinnamon rolls but we will have cookies, cupcakes, cheesecakes…all the goodies you can think of plus savory breads, a full service espresso bar with boozy options and a weekend brunch with bottomless Mimosas. The perfect spot to come hang out or grab goodies to go!

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
We would have to spend some time in Celina, of course! If it was a week long trip we would have time to take them to all of the restaurants on the square- Tender Smokehouse, Toasted Walnut Table & Market, Bongo Beaux’s, Lucy’s and Papagallo’s. We could shop on the square at Annie Jack Boutique, Terramania and Buff City Soap and visit the museum. For evenings, we could spend one at Little Wooden Penguin and play a round of mini golf or head on over to Rollertown to sample local beers and hear some live music.

Outside of Celina, we would take them to the Dallas Arboretum and to dinner at Saint Ann or R&D Kitchen (definitely two faves for us!) as well as The Star in Frisco for a tour of the Cowboys facilities and brunch at the Common Table.
After all of this time out and about, we may need some down time at home and could order our favorite take out from Celina Asian Bistro.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
We would love to thank our families for all the love and support and especially for those in our families that inspired our love for cooking and baking. We would also like to thank all of our friends, supporters and business partners for always believing in us, our products and our dream to open our storefront in Celina!

Website: www.swirlsbakery.com

Instagram: @swirls.bakery

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/swirls-bakery

Facebook: @swirlsbakery2021

Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/swirls-bakery-celina