Sugarcoated.

California Favorite SusieCakes Is Now Battering Up Dallas.

SusieCakes.
6100 Luther Lane.
Preston Center.

If covering the Dallas food scene has taught us anything, it’s that our city is an increasingly hot commodity for prospective out-of-town businesses. But aside from being a good place to expand a company’s market reach, a special kind of Texas charm is what SusieCake’s owner Susan Sarich said made Dallas the perfect place to expand her company, which is now open Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., and on Sundays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

“I am thrilled to be in Dallas,” she says. “As our first juncture outside of California, I wanted an area with a great sense of community, because Susiecakes is all about being a neighborhood bake shop. When I started looking at different metropolitan areas outside of California, Dallas honestly intuitively just felt very right to me. I’m from Chicago, so there’s a deep sense of hospitality here that resonated with me.”

The SusieCakes model is a back-to-basics take on desserts, inspired by the treats Sarich received after school from her grandmothers. Each recipe features a simple baking quartet of butter, flour, sugar and eggs with only two or three other ingredients, depending on the item. Items like the Barbie cakes and whoopie pies reflect the shop’s Midwesterner influence in a menu of classic bakery fare.

Another popular item, the frosting-filled cupcake, is a unique take on a familiar favorite, where a quarter to half inch of frosting is embedded inside.

“[That idea] came about, really, because I love cake, but I also love frosting,” Sarich says. “And sometimes with cupcakes, I feel the ratio is off, whereas cake, you get frosting and cake with every bite. So it was trying to recreate the layer cake mix in a cupcake.”

In bringing her brand to Dallas, Sarich says that the SusieCakes team has experienced one of its most unique opening experiences to date. From curious onlookers inquiring with the construction team about the new business to receiving their first custom cake order prior to opening, it seems as though the same level of excitement is shared by both potential customers and the bakery itself.

“The people have been more welcoming than I think we’ve ever received in any community,” Sarich says. “I am excited to be a part of the community, and introduce people to SusieCakes and really show them what we have.”

Additionally, Sarich sees her business as a way to provide women with progressive careers in hospitality. With a largely female staff of culinary school graduates and those entering into the commercial baking world, SusieCakes aims to provide growth opportunities for its employees, while carrying on a family baking tradition.

Says Sarich: “Throughout my hospitality career, I saw a lot of great, motivated women leave the industry because it was hard to have a life and a career. I was working at a bar and getting home at 4 in the morning, then turning back around to do Sunday brunch. It was just kind of a crazy lifestyle, but I loved it. That’s when I really started thinking about creating a business model for women to have progressive careers in food service, without having to be open 24-7. So I took that kind of passion for women’s careers and all of my grandmothers’ 3×5 recipe cards, and the two came together.”