Five local women will share their cake traditions at one of the Let Them Eat Cake demonstrations next week.
The women all sell baked goods at the Dixie Classic farmers market. And they all share a knowledge and passion for baking that started at an early age.
Lisa Leonard joined her aunt Shirley Phillips at the market about five years ago. "I came down to the market one time to help my aunt and I just started baking. That was it," she said with a laugh.
She and Phillips sell pies, cookies, candies, cakes and more at the market. They are usually joined by Leonard's grandmother Gwendolyn Leonard.
"Everybody in our family can bake and cook. It's something that runs in our family," said Lisa Leonard, who at 34 is now a full-time baker.
Gloria Jean Mitchell is balancing her baking career with her 32-year job as a stock-room worker at Cintas uniform and apparel company in Greensboro. She has been baking since she was a young girl. "I was the baby of my family. I was always attached to my mom. So she would let me stay with her in the kitchen, and she would teach me everything."
Mitchell makes brownies, tarts, pies and more. Her most popular cakes are pineapple and coconut.
Mitchell took the death of her mother hard five years ago. Ultimately, she said, baking helped her get over her grieving. "I would go to work and come home and cry," she said. "My sister said one day, ‘Why don't you bake something?'"
She has been baking and selling at the market ever since. "Now, if I get something on my mind, I just go in the kitchen," Mitchell said. "It takes your mind off anything that's bothering you."
Jackie Crawford also learned to bake from her mother. But her mother was a professional who cooked at the former Hotel Robert E. Lee in downtown. "I always used to bother my mother, asking her to bake different things," Crawford said. "One day she said, ‘I'll just give you the recipe and you can do it yourself.' I've been baking ever since."
Crawford has been baking for friends, family and others for more than 30 years. She is particularly known for her five-flavor pound cake. She didn't go into business until 2006. "I always would bake something when somebody called me up and asked," she said. "I like the challenge of it. Like when my sister-in-law brought me a picture of a golf bag. I had to figure out the logistics (of making a cake to look like it). It's rewarding."
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