A love of baking and of Libby came together at last for this new business owner.

Molly Woodruff has been baking for almost 55 years, starting when she was five years old with a “Barbie cake” (an angel food cake with a Barbie doll stuck in the middle).

She recently moved to Libby where she’s set up her cookie-making business Molly Babies.

Prior to opening up her business, Woodruff worked as a fourth and fifth grade teacher and then became a music and performing arts teacher for kindergarten through fifth graders.

While teaching, she started a catering business out of her house. The cookies were a product of the catering projects, but people started requesting them more and more.

“That’s when I thought, I’m just going to do the cookies,” Woodruff said.

The cookies are based off of a Swedish cream wafer recipe, which includes two shortbreads and a cream filling.

Her lemon cookies were the first, which are also the most popular. Then she started experimenting with other flavors such as coconut, peppermint and key lime to name a few.

She admits that some of her experiments — such as lavender — didn’t turn out as well.

“[The lavender] kinda turned grey looking, and it tasted like floor polish and soap,” she laughed. “So I didn’t continue with those.”

Her other cookies took off, steadily growing in popularity to the point where she started shipping her cookies across the country — making and shipping thousands to a wedding in Kansas.

Even big names have had her creations.

Woodruff claims that after making cookies for former U.S. First Lady Laura Bush and her friends, she received a letter on White House stationery from Mrs. Bush, praising her cookies.

On top of the cookies, Woodruff also made wedding cakes, specializing in wedding cakes topped with fruit.

She also makes heart-shaped chocolate cookies that she sells to wineries around Valentine’s Day. The cookies are also features in boutiques in Washington.

Woodruff moved back to Libby, her “happy place,” earlier this year with her husband, George Woodruff.

Growing up in Libby, she loved the snow and missed it when she moved away.

She also loved a certain pink house in Libby while she was growing up. Everyday, she walked by on her way to school.

“I used to walk by that house and think, ‘I’m going to live there someday,’” Woodruff said.

Many years later, her husband would tell her, “If you like that house, we’ll get that house.”

They moved in earlier this year.

Bethany Rolfson is a reporter at The Western News and can be reached at 293-4124, or by email at [email protected]