Sweets from a local ‘Belle’

Kasie Coleman is a perfectionist. On a Wednesday afternoon in her new shop, Sugar Belle bakery on Plank Road (Map it!), she’s glancing at a lemon cream cheese pound cake, noticing its crust is too crumbly. She couldn’t possibly sell that.

Since opening last Saturday, Sugar Belle has consistently sold out of its delicious lineup of bundt cakes, whoopee pies, teacakes, cupcakes and pralines.

The problem with being a perfectionist and the new sweets goddess around town is she has to constantly bake fresh goods.

“I haven’t worked this hard since I don’t know when,” Coleman says, laughing.

Owning a bakery was something she never would have imagined a few years ago.

In 2010, she was diagnosed with an extremely rare cancer—peritoneal mesothelioma.

A former pharmaceutical rep, Coleman was in and out of work for treatment and recovery, until she was laid off. To pass the time, she started baking, just like her grandmother Mary Davenport taught her. And like Davenport, Coleman would often give away whatever she made.

“The more I baked, the more I felt her presence,” Coleman says. “It became therapeutic.”

Seeing the popularity of and the response to her confections and in need of work, she decided to open Sugar Belle.

The recipes rotate every Monday—she estimates she has almost 200 recipes stored in her head—and she makes everything from scratch. Check out her entire menu and get more information at Sugar Belle’s website. To place an order, call 355-8080. —Matthew Sigur

To read the rest of this week’s Dine, click here.