Origin Story

I consider the production of desserts to be one of my favorite art forms. I think there’s something truly wonderful in spending hours, days – weeks, even – creating a piece of art that exists in its completed form for only a few hours, which is then deliberately deconstructed and persists only in photographs and memories. As everyone deserves something special that reflects both their taste and personality, I love to create cakes that are as unique as the individuals and events that occasion them.

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Sugar + Slate started as a social media-based art portfolio; an avenue to document my progress in cake and pastry while working in various restaurants and bakeries between Wilmington, North Carolina and Atlanta, Georgia, and organically grew into the full time business that it is today. My core belief in life is that I am here to create things that make people happy, and cake has proven to be quite a catalyst for happiness.

I draw inspiration from my grandmother, Anne Slate, who secretly wrote a cooking and baking column in the local newspaper under a pen name and was my first baking instructor. Aside from her love of the kitchen and general Southern etiquette and style, she was an avid fan of miniatures and spent years building and decorating dollhouses with my grandfather. I believe I inherited both her love of culinary artistry and her eye for fine detail, as some of my favorite cakes are the ones I end up fixating upon with tiny paintbrushes and tweezers.

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- Whitney