For as long as I can remember, I have been awakened on my birthday by a singing someone carrying a tray with a candle burning atop a cinnamon roll. And not just any cinnamon roll. It has had to be a cinnamon roll from Ida’s Pastry Shoppe.

Though I never met Ida, through the work of her hands she became a part of my family’s memories. When I recently drove past the little street the bakery sits on and noticed the marquee that told of her passing, more than ever I wanted to know Ida’s story. So, I stopped in and asked.  

What follows is a look behind Ida's bakery counter, to see how she lived out the American dream and how her son Brian now carries on the legacy of Ida’s Pastry Shoppe.

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Ida Korf and her husband Harold opened Ida’s Pastry Shoppe in 1981, and they made quite a team. Harold would arrive at the bakery at 5 pm and bake all night, while Ida would start at 5 am to run the store and decorate the cakes and cookies. Their son Brian, who took over the business about 10 years ago, remembers early on when his parents bought him a stool so he could wash the dishes. It wasn’t long before his hands were in the dough.

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Brian told me that Ida’s love for pastries and baked goods began when she lived in the Netherlands.

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Her dad was a baker, and she had such sweet memories of working beside him as a little girl. She also used to tell how in the Netherlands she loved to ice skate, ride bikes with her family, and listen to her grandparents read from the big family Bible.

But not all her memories overseas were joyful. When she was born in 1943, Germans were flying overhead, and bombs were going off. Her parents even dug a hole under their table to hide her father and brother so the Germans wouldn’t take them away.

When Ida was 10, her family left for America. The joke was that this baking family came over on the “Cookie Boat.” The whole family had to learn English. It came more easily to Ida and her brother than it did for their parents. Her dad found a job working for Steenstra’s Bakery and soon opened his own a bakery in Hudsonville , Bloemendaals Bakery, after their last name.

Ida used to talk about how much she learned from working with her dad. She continued using his Dutch recipes when she and Harold opened Ida’s Pastry Shoppe. She had a passion for baking and decorating and for designing cupcakes, and she loved working with her husband and children.

Holidays were a busy time for the bakery. They would make racks and racks of dinner rolls and pies. She always would say they were thankful to have so much work and thankful when it was over.

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Ida's cookies had what some might call a secret ingredient. She would only use Hudsonville butter.

Besides Harold and her sons, Ida did hire people to help in the bakery. And for those she hired who weren’t family, it wasn’t long before they felt like family—some staying on to work there for years and years.

Brian said it’s still like that today, one big family. He talked about the store manager, the girls who work and decorate during the day, and the guys who work at night, “They’re fantastic.”

One of Ida’s sayings about her work that Brian often heard was, “If you’re going to take the time to do it, do it right.”

And that she did. Ida was named Woman Entrepreneur of the 89th House District in 2001, and in 2018 she won MLive’s poll for best bakery in Grand Rapids.

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Ida also was fond of saying phrases like: “I always try to look out for the good parts in a person. Life goes better that way,” and “I have a good life. God is so good to me,” and “Each day is a new experience. Life is never boring.”

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Ida’s words and actions left a lasting impact on those she worked with as well as her customers.