Taste With Tori: Brown Betty Dessert Boutique
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Do you remember the cakes and cookies your grandmother made from scratch?
If you do you might even remember sitting in her kitchen and watching her bake.
In this Taste With Tori, Vittoria Woodill reports on a local family bakery.
It's not just an ordinary bakery.
The cakes come with a slice of life and love.
This is the sweet story of Brown Betty Dessert Boutique.
The cakes and cupcakes here aren't just beautiful.
They have personalities too.
There's the "Hey Thelma" cake, the "Sing Little Alice" cake and one called "Only For Eliza".
The reason for the cake's names is as sweet as the icing.
"My mother would always set the girls down, my daughters, and tell them about the family, tell them about the women in the family," said Linda Hinton Brown, the bakery's owner.
That's right, Linda has named many of the delectable delights here those women.
"It just put a good feeling through the family and they became just so proud," she explained.
Like the "Dear Ruth" cake which is a chocolate sour cream cake with chocolate icing and shavings.
It's named for her great-grandmother Ruth.
"Jean's Road Trip" is a red velvet cake honoring her Aunt Jean.
There's the "Ask Rose".
That's a chocolate cake with raspberry filling and named for Rose Hinton Martin who was the aunt everyone went to for advice.
"She was the first to go to college in my father's family and so therefore when things came up it was 'oh well ask rose'," Brown said with a smile.
There's also the "Aunt Eva", a pineapple rum pound cake for the woman who took in Linda's mother when she came to Philadelphia in the 30's.
And the "Hattie Don't Play".
It's a double chocolate cake named for Hattie Hinton who was Linda's sassy paternal grandmother.
"You had to do what she said, no doubt about it , did not have to be said twice," said Linda describing that cake's name and legacy.
Even the name of the bakery, "Brown Betty" is a family recipe combining Linda Brown's last name and her mom's name, Betty.
It's Betty's homemade desserts that started it all.
"My mom was baking for all the church functions and that's how she became known for her poundcakes," said Linda.
The bakery is a family affair.
Linda runs the business with her daughter Norrinda, an attorney in Washington, D.C. and her youngest daughter Norrina who knows the importance of that wall.
"Most of those women are no longer with us, so it's a good feeling to know their memory is carried on and other people who didn't know them are inquiring about them," said Norrina.
Their photos hang on a wall just inside the bakery door.
Linda loves when her customers take notice of those old black and white photos of the women.
They look at the pictures on the wall she says and they'll tell her that one or two may remind that customer of their own mother or grandmother.
"I've had customers in here who we've had to hug and they just wanted to tell a story 'oh I have a Thelma or I have Rose in my family'," she says.
Linda's mother Miss Betty is 92-years-old now and in good health.
She occasionally comes to the bakery.
Brown Betty Dessert Boutique opened in 2004 and has a second location at Liberty Place.
We've set up link here so you can check out Brown Betty's Dessert Boutique.
http://www.brownbettydesserts.com/our-story
And you can let Vittoria know about your favorite places and why you like them at https://www.facebook.com/vittoriawoodill/
