Margie’s Mixing Bowl

After a childhood of traveling the country due to her late father’s naval career, baker and business owner Margie Mire considers herself to have two homes.
Born in Meridian and graduating from high school there, Mire received a bachelor’s degree in business administration at Mississippi State University in Starkville.
As an adult, she moved to North Carolina and later Arizona before heading home to Meridian.

“Meridian is definitely my home,” she said.

Since 2014, Mire has built a career providing sweet escapes, from gourmet cupcakes to custom cakes and other treats for the families and children of her hometown at Margie’s Mixing Bowl.

Two years after finding success in Meridian, she opened a second location, in Starkville, her second home. Mire and her family have regularly attended MSU ballgames for years.

In October, she brought Margie’s Mixing Bowl to Highway 12 West in Starkville, where she has seen lots of small business success stories. That is what inspired her to make her move.

Margie’s interest in baking began five years before she opened her first bakery. It all started with her daughter’s first birthday.

“I couldn’t find a baker in town to make her a birthday cake,” Mire said. “So I decided to try baking it myself. I put pictures of it on Facebook, and the reaction was really positive.”

Requests to make cakes for others started rolling in. One of her earliest was for her nephew — in the shape of a two-headed dragon.

Soon, Mire found herself running a bakery out of her home kitchen.

“There was sugar everywhere,” she said.

She and her husband finally decided it was time to open a storefront, in the Broadmoor neighborhood of North Meridian.

“I sold out by noon on my first day,” Mire said.

During the week, when days and baking begin at 4 a.m., Mire’s focus is on cupcakes.

“Cakes are a weekend thing,” she said. “That’s when parties and weddings are. I wanted to be able to offer something else on weekdays.”

“My bestselling flavors of cupcakes are wedding cake, chocolate chip cookie dough and strawberry, which is made with fresh strawberries,” Mire said.

Her daughters, ages 8 and 6, say their favorites are wedding cake and cookies and cream, while her husband, Scott, prefers the key lime pie flavor. Mire likes chocolate chip cookie dough and the Mississippi Mud Pie cupcakes.

At the Meridian location, Mire also offers wedding cakes and French-style macaroons. She even hosts birthday parties for small groups of children, where they decorate their own cupcakes and share pizza.

Mire said she owes much of her success to the people of Meridian — “the support of the people there has been just phenomenal” — and Starkville, where “everyone is so nice.”
“Plus, I bleed maroon,” she said, “and having gone to college here, it feels like my second home.”

For now, the main focus in Starkville is cupcakes but Mire hopes to expand.

“Once we get our footing, I hope to be able to include all of our services,” she said.

The bakery also offers seasonal flavors, such as strawberry lemonade in the summer, Bailey’s Irish cream for St. Patrick’s Day, chocolate covered strawberry and red velvet cheesecake for Valentine’s Day, pumpkin spice and chocolate bourbon pecan pie in the fall and gingerbread and hot chocolate at Christmas.

While Mire’s short-term goal is to be able to expand her custom cake services to include the Starkville location, she has her sights on more Margie’s Mixing Bowls in the long term.

“It’s personal,” she said. “It lifts you up. I love the smiles I get, especially from kids. I am hoping to build Margie’s Mixing Bowl into a successful business that maybe I can pass on to my daughters someday and hopefully enrich others’ lives while I do it.”

Photos by Jeremy Murdock / © The ‘Sip