Longing for a piece of Carmel cake that tastes like your grandmother baked it from scratch? A sweet tooth for your auntie’s sweet potato pie? Look no farther and visit Brown Sugar Bakery on the South Side of Chicago and taste a slice of heaven. Owner, Stephanie Hart, created Brown Sugar Bakery to offer southern tasty treats to urban dwellers. Baking is her passion and she truly puts her heart and soul in everything she bakes. Stephanie shares with In Chi City (Chicago) her love for baking, why she does it and what’s next for Brown Sugar Bakery.
ICC: How did you discover your love for baking?
Stephanie: I really missed the love I had for the baking my Grandmother and aunts did. They baked with love. I wanted to save the memories and recreate what they did and share it.
ICC: What was the first thing you baked?
Stephanie: The easy bake oven. I used to love that when I was a little girl. It was chocolate cake with chocolate icing.
ICC: What is the concept behind Brown Sugar Bakery?
Stephanie: I really wanted to have a community that I remembered with cakes that are very traditional in the African American culture. Pineapple coconut, German Chocolate and red velvet cakes. I wanted to have a bakery where you could get a piece of sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie along with apple pie and peach cobbler.
ICC: Why did you name your bakery Brown Sugar?
Stephanie: I love Rock n’ Roll, Rolling Stones had a song called Brown Sugar and I loved D’Angelo and his song Brown Sugar. It was very fitting.
ICC: Brown Sugar Bakery’s flagship is on the South Side of Chicago. Why?
Stephanie: There were other entrepreneurs opening businesses that wanted a community (for the) middle class; it is possible for us to have it here (on the South Side). We all support each other and uplift one another and that is what I remember growing up.
ICC: What other locations can your tasty goods be found?
Stephanie: Café Carmel, Nothing But Sweets, Goddess and the Grocery (both locations), Mac Authors, The I Love Food Group Restaurants, Café Exchange on 71st Street. Also, Linen Café a great new coffee shop and exclusive baker at 1925 E. 95th St.
ICC: What other services does Brown Sugar offer?
Stephanie: We are moving into offering space for meetings. I do all kinds of custom cakes, catering consulting and creating event decorating.
ICC: What are your specialties? What is your favorite thing to bake?
Stephanie: My absolute number 1 seller is my Carmel cake and I am really proud of that, it seems to make the most people happy. My favorite cake is pineapple coconut cake. I stick to the recipe (of using) cream cheese and juicy pineapples. The cakes are not always perfect, they look just like grandma used to make it and I am proud of that.
ICC: You are also known as the hip-hop celebrity baker around Chicago. Who are some of the people you have baked for?
Stephanie: Paul Wall, the comedian Monique, (I did a) record launch for Plies. We had the honor of baking cakes ordered by Michelle Obama when Barack was Senator. It’s a lot of fun. It gives me an opportunity to take our culture and give it back. It’s a lot of fun and it’s great. I love music and I am looking forward to doing a cake for 365 Mafia because they say ‘they got the keys to the bakery’. Jeezy talks about super cake and that’s what I got over here.
ICC: What are some of your most unique cakes that you have created or baked in the past?
Stephanie: We are going to feature in December through January an Obama cake. It is a Red Velvet cake frosted with Chocolate topped with vanilla cream cheese icing, pecans and more chocolate. The red represents the blood of the people, chocolate (represents) black, cream cheese (represents) white.
ICC: Tell us about Stephanie Hart.
Stephanie: I was born in Detroit and I left there as a young girl to live in (Chicago’s) West Suburbs. I came to the city and fell in love with the urban life in Chicago. Then I started my first technology business that was based downtown for 20 years. But I wasn’t too happy and wanted to do something different. I got tired of traveling for my telemarketing company Power Line. I remembered some of my happiest memories eating my family’s sweet treats and sitting around the table.
ICC: What’s next?
Stephanie: I want to expand more in Chicago with another location and branch out to DC, they can use a little brown sugar. I can’t wait to do a cookbook and I also would like to do a television show. I definitely want more people to share this kind of baking skills on their own. Finally sale baking mixes in the grocery store to recreate our recipes at home.
ICC: What are your favorite three things about Chicago?
Stephanie: We have a world-class skyline. I love it! We live in an urban city with a body of water as big as an ocean. I am proud to be in a city with so many entrepreneurs and I love networking here. Although I want to expand I want to take this flavor and share Chicago.