Today we’d like to introduce you to Shellane Brown.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Shellane. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I made my first cake when I was 21. It was my best friend’s birthday and I was nominated to make the cake. It’s a good thing that I don’t get discouraged too easily because though she loved it, I knew I needed some work to reach the level of my favorite decorators on TV. It was my favorite thing to do back then; I would come home from college every Sunday for church and spend all afternoon watching Ace of Cakes with mom.
Some random day between junior and senior year at Georgia State, I knew I needed a change. To be truthful, it wasn’t so random: I was quickly falling out of my love with music and was weary that I was committing to a career that I would never truly embrace. I thought about my fondest memories… many of which included countless hours in the kitchen with my mom or Aunt Mary Helen typically begging for the beater.
I’d lick every nook and cranny till it was without spot. My eyes would turn to sadness staring at my bare beater and then the sound of a glass bowl sliding across the table turned my entire world upside down. “You mean, I get to lick the bowl?!”
It wasn’t difficult to decide what I should do after graduation, I just needed help. The obvious choice were my lifelong cooking partners, my mom and big sis. We rented a shared space in Inman Park and from day one, we were booked every weekend for almost 2 years.
We quickly outgrew that space and started looking elsewhere but a new move meant a lot of cash.
Looking for said cash during the recession wasn’t the most promising idea ever so after a while, we decided to take a break. I moved to San Francisco to study under some amazing decorators and learned more than I could’ve imagined. I was asked to take over a prominent bakery in the hippest area of the city but I knew I wasn’t supposed to stay.
Two weeks after I arrived back in Atlanta, I met my now husband, Daniel. He encouraged us to reopen and to not get discouraged by the banks. Thank God for family.
We were able to reopen in our hometown of Stone Mountain with their help and everything we serve is from our collective cookbooks.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
There has been some real challenges in our journey. The biggest hurdle was financing our brick and mortar. We were denied 3 times by the banks/SBA and I was emotionally drained from trying to get the bakery up and running. My extremely supportive parents, aunts, and uncles stepped in to make it possible for us to get open. Finding talent to scale our business has been a close contender. The demand for our custom cakes is so much greater than our ability to make them fast enough.
After 3-4 years of recruiting for a lead cake decorator, I gave up on that option and have since trained one of our staff members, who started off as a clerk, to be my cake decorating assistant. We’re definitely able to send more orders out the door but still not where we need to be to service all of our customers.
Please tell us about Apple-Butter Bakery.
Apple-Butter Bakery is a family-owned and operated community bakery. We make delicious cupcakes, pies, cookies, brownies, and cakes.
However, we are known for our wedding and custom cakes. We make everything from small and detailed to large and extravagant specialty cakes. That’s what got us started in the first place. I’m so proud to be in my hometown of Stone Mountain. Not a lot of new businesses take root here.
It’s full of chain stores and low quality retail franchises. We took a big risk moving from Inman Park to Stone Mountain but we did it because no one else was. I remember growing up, wondering why we had to drive so far to get X, Y, and Z done… I want my neighbors to have access to quality product in their own community instead of going to Decatur or Snellville to do so.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
While we were looking for our future building, we wanted a space where we could grow so we wouldn’t have to move if business blew up. In retrospect, I would’ve chosen a smaller space. I learned you really don’t need a ton of space to bake, even at high yield.
That alone would significantly cut down on overhead costs and increase our profit margins. The bakery I worked for in San Francisco was quite a bit smaller than our current space and made it work by scheduling staff to work almost 24 hours (bakers first, prep cooks second, decorators last).
Pricing:
- Cupcakes $3.25 each, 6 for $18, 12 for $35
- Cookies, $1.25
- Brownies $2.50
- Mini pies $ 2.75
- Whole Cakes starting at $30
Contact Info:
- Address: Apple-Butter Bakery
Stone Mountain Square Shopping Plaza
5370 Stone Mountain Hwy, Suite #600
Stone Mountain, GA 30087 - Website: www.applebutterbakery.com
- Phone: 678-476-0902
- Email: info@applebutterbakery.com
- Instagram: @applebutterbakery
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/applebutterbakery
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/apple-butter-bakery-and-custom-cake-shoppe-stone-mountain-2
- Other: https://www.instagram.com/applebutterbakery
Image Credit:
Kiyah C. Photography
Dorsey Creative
Apple-Butter Bakery
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