Wow. It has been over 2 years since I last posted. Let's see, in April of 2011, the bakery was growing
out of control, I had interns to help control the madness and a building manager that wanted everything but my firstborn child.  That April, I was looking for a storefront to plant our bakery... permanently. We found a great place off of Marrietta Street in Downtown Atlanta, negotiated a great deal, and after two SBA loans, realized that I can't rely on the government to help with my dreams. So I left. I bought a one-way ticket to San Francisco Airport and took a breather from the 2 years I devoted to Apple-Butter Bakery.

I love San Francisco with all my heart. I knew that city is where God needed me to be. I worked at two bakeries with totally different business models; one was a neighborhood bakery and the other did mail-order specialty cakes. Amazing experience at both companies. I grew more in those six months than I did in 6 years of my life. Everything was going great, I had epiphany after epiphany. I fell in love with Jesus in Oakland; the day before Easter. That alone flipped my entire world around. I made amazing friends while I was there too. Long story short, my time in Cali was done. My mission was complete. I bought another one-way ticket back home.

Two weeks later, I met my now-husband, Daniel. You can read more about us at our blog Kingdom Cakers. He encouraged me to start the bakery back up. At this point, I decided that all I wanted to do was serve Jesus and do ministry. I had no idea how I could do that baking cakes. I spent 14 months working at Victory World Church to learn the basics of ministry. Little did I know that I would get life lessons daily and gain the foundations of how to run a business to glorify God. There I learned that I can love people and bless them by doing what I love. I was made to for this... so this is what I'll do.

So now comes October 2nd and my dreams are coming true. After a lifetime of knowing and 4 years of trying, Apple-Butter Bakery will open it's doors for business this month. I'll use this space to post the joys and the struggles for you all to share it with me and to remind me where God's brought me when it gets tough in the days to come.

Thank you for joining me in this journey,

Shellane

#WINNING
This Charlie Sheen blitz is working its way to me. SMH. But I have alot to be excited about! Apple-Butter Bakery won Atlanta's Tastemaker of the Year Award from The Chozen Awards! I blogged about our nomination a couple months ago and what an honor it was just to be nominated... but to win?! Who-woulda-thunk? I am overwhelmed with joy... and to receive the honor the day before my 24th birthday? INSANE! Okay, well I guess I have some loyal customer in this great city. I thank you all for voting for us, we promise to keep this fire going and we won't stop now!

Look! We even made it on the homepage!

I had the opportunity to do another cake for Ngozi Thompson, the wonderful mother of Issa's Thompson, Jive Record's youngest rapper... ever. I have seen my share of artist throughout Atlanta, but Issa is not to be confused with the rest. He is a very talented (and adorable) 16-year old lyricist and businessman (CEO of Wolfpack ENT). You NEED to check him out... (right after you finish this of course) Issa's YouTube

 His mixtape dropped last month and Ngozi had the idea to use the artwork of the album for his cake.
 I was very nervous about molding his face from modeling chocolate. I had never had the opportunity to make a realistic impression of a face.... not only for it to look realistic, but to look like him as well. Daunting.

But here's the finished product:

Ngozi was kind enough to invite me to the party so I got to see Issa perform and once again, I was very impressed. His stylist post a blog about her trip to Atlanta and her time with his family. We even got a shout-out! View Blog Here. I can't wait to see what's next for this young man (and what cakes we get to do next).

Issa's 16th Bday and Signing Party Cake

LIGHTS AND LINEN!" - Jeanette Torres
I had the pleasure of being a vendor at the Munaluchi Atlanta Tweet-Up held at the gorgeous Loft at Castleberry Hill. (Must save that venue for future occasions). The event was filled with fabulous minority vendors from the city of Atlanta. The talent in the room was overwhelming!!!!
I met tons of bridal professionals including Mrs. Jeanette Torres, Lead Designer at Light It Up Event Productions. Now being a graduate of DeKalb School of the Arts, I already knew how important lighting is for a production, but when I tell you that After talking with Jeanette, I vow to never put on an event without professional lighting design from Light It Up! Even though The loft had beautiful construction and finishes, Jeanette and her beau made that place shine!
Now these are pictures of their work, not of the event, but as you can see, lighting plays an enormous part in the ambiance and experience of an event.

Lights in the appropriate color bounce off the details you want to highlight and can hide what you don't want your guests to see.
Ah-may-zing, right? Their rates are surprisingly affordable considering their designers have experience with platinum-selling artists' tours and Broadway. Why would you not light up your event? Yeah, I can't think why not, either.
Photos property of Light It Up Event Productions

I get excited over the little things in life... such as you liking us on facebook. I got so giddy that I made a QR code to make it easier on you. :) Go ahead, you know you wanna...

There have been quite a few highlights along the journey of building Apple-Butter Bakery. It seems as though we may have reached a very bright one.  Apple-Butter Bakery has been nominated as Tastemaker of the Year by The Chozen Awards. As per their website, the Chozen Awards was created to inspire, impact and empower the Greater Atlanta community in honor of the unsung heroes who make this city so great. Nominees are selected in 15 categories in the areas of business, entertainment, health, hospitality and the arts and are voted on by the public.
Tastemaker of the Year is a category recognizing an outstanding restaurant/eatery/hospitality venue in the City of Atlanta. We are very honored to have been nominated and I thank everyone who supports us along the way.

Please take a second to vote for us by March 16th!

January - Andes Dream - Chocolate Cake baked with Andes mints, filled with chocolate fudge & mint filling.

February - Banana Caramel  -Banana Cake with Cream cheese and fresh caramel filling
March - Neopolitan -A layer each of Chocolate, strawberry and vanilla cakes filled vanilla buttercream

April - Sunrise - Swirls of cherry and orange cakes filled with cherry/orange filling.

May - Bananarama - Banana Cake filled with Caramel, Banana creme and Chocolate Ganache.

June - Turtle- Dark Chocolate cake filled with chocolate ganache, caramel and chopped pecans

July - Espresso Chip - Mocha-chip cake with espresso-ganache filling.

August - Root Bear Float - Root beer cake filled with vanilla buttercream

September - Apple-Butter Cake - To mark our 3 Year Anniversary, we're debuting this Butter cake swirled with apple-cinnamon streusel (made from our fresh Apple-Butter) filled with sweet cream cheese icing.

October - Chocolate Banana - Layers of chocolate and banana cakes with banana cream cheese.

November - Sweet Potato - Rich sweet potato cake with brown sugar cream cheese frosting

December - Irish Cream - Bailey's Irish Cream Cake with a Bailey's chocolate-ganache filling.