From the May issue: Sugarbelle founder converts therapy baking into a cottage industry
Sugarbelle founder Kasie Coleman can remember every detail of her family’s treasured recipes, including the signature cakes and desserts she sells today through Tony’s Seafood and Matherne’s Supermarket on Bluebonnet Boulevard.
Much of Coleman’s youth was spent cooking at her grandmother’s side. Mary Davenport, a cafeteria worker at Kenilworth Middle School, prepared homey Southern classics by gut and feel. She was an especially talented baker, and she showed Coleman and her cousins how to whip up flawless church supper-style layer cakes from scratch. There were no shortcuts, Coleman recalls.
“She made everything the old-fashioned way,” Coleman says. “I baked with her every day growing up, and I never forgot what she taught me. Baking became like riding a bike, or making a ham and cheese. Second nature.”
