Sugaree’s Bakery
New Albany, Mississippi
For those craving a good, old-fashioned homemade cake, look no further than Sugaree’s Bakery in New Albany, Mississippi.
“We’re a Southern-heritage bakery, so we specialize in Deep South culinary traditions,” said owner Mary Jennifer Russell.
The cakes are baked in small batches and iced by hand. To make the icing, employees melt granulated sugar in a skillet and ice the cakes one at a time, completing between 30 and 40 cakes per day.
“It’s a slow process, but it adds a lot of depth of flavor to our product,” said Russell.
With a specialty in layered cakes and homemade pies, the bakery’s signature product is the layered caramel cake; other offerings include coconut cake, strawberry cake, chess pie, sweet potato pie and pecan pie. And if those options do not sound filling enough, try the chocolate meringue pie, which is made with homemade butter-lard crust and three pounds of filling.
“It’s a huge, mile-high kind of dessert,” said Russell.
The bakery also prides itself in serving as a community leader for New Albany’s 8,500 residents.
“Some years, I spend almost half my time at community events,” said Russell, who helped found the local farmers market and runs a co-op booth there that features local meats, cheeses, grains and ice cream.
“We try to provide things that our farmers don’t have, to round out the offerings at the market and compete with larger markets in the area,” said Russell.
Topsy’s Popcorn
Kansas City, Missouri
As the oldest merchant on the Kansas City Plaza, Topsy’s Popcorn originally opened in 1929 as Patsy’s, eventually changing the name to Topsy’s. What has not changed is the popularity of the store’s caramel popcorn, cinnamon popcorn and cheddar cheese popcorn.
“We have people in their 70s come in and say, ‘I used to come here when I was a teenager,’” said store manager Rhonda Blake. “And now they bring their kids and grandkids.”
In addition to specialty popcorns like kettle corn, vanilla corn and caramel corn with pecans or peanuts, Topsy’s also makes its own line of sweets, such as maple fudge, ice cream treats and limeades. Since 1950, the store has popped over 37 million pounds of popcorn and shipped its products all over the world.
“Just today, I’ve had four people call, two from Arizona, one from California and one from Michigan,” said Blake. “It’s usually people who either grew up here or got it from somebody as a gift, and now they buy it every year.”
Compared to other brands, Topsy’s popcorn has a thicker coating and holds more flavor, garnering its world-famous status. Even many celebrities stop by to take advantage of the tasty snack item.
“One time, one of the girls from the Golden Girls came in,” said Blake. “It can be pretty exciting.”
