Every great bake begins the same way. The finest ingredients, in the right order, with the right time and temperature, always turn out perfect. Shellane Brown's life has followed that same quiet logic, though she'd be the first to tell you she simply follows her faith and her heart.
Oddly enough, the story is as easy as baking a cake. Family was the flour, the foundation of her recipe for success. They funded the dream when it was only a dream, put their own careers and retirements on hold, and when the work grew heavy enough that she wanted to set it down, they simply wouldn't let her.
Community would become her "proofing" ground, those quiet moments at peace that allowed her rise, first in Stone Mountain and again in Fayetteville. Shellane never expected lightning to strike twice. Faith was the prayer behind a lease signed on a building that had yet to be built. Three Food Network Championships, a Halloween Wars crown no black competitor had ever worn, and the name Woodstone. Woodstone has come to mean belonging as surely as it means cake. Fold the ingredients together, and what rises is not simply a baker, but a woman who took her life’s story and made something that sweetens her community and beyond.
Every business has a center of gravity. At Woodstone Bakery and Cafe, it's family. Start with Shellane's mother, Veronica. She is the one who solves the problem before anyone's finished naming it, who'll drop everything in Stone Mountain and drive to Fayetteville with a trunk full of supplies. On paper, she's the CFO: bills paid, payroll run, licenses renewed. In truth, she's the woman who stayed up through the small hours when Shellane first started baking, and who still swears each new cake is the best one yet.
Then there's Erica, who set aside her own dreams to help open Apple-Butter Bakery as COO and head baker. Today she runs logistics, procurement, quality control, and even returning to school to finish her degree. “They were all there to endure the storms,” says Shellane, “eventually we got to the promised land together.”
The Fayetteville chapter began almost by accident. It was 2018, and after seeing an Instagram post about Trilith, an anniversary trip was planned. Shellane and Daniel, her husband, first wandered into Trilith, back when it was barely a place at all. "There wasn't much then, maybe thirty homes and a sales center," she recalls. An agent walked them through the vision, and for a couple already drawn to the intimacy of New-Urbanism, it took hold. They'd seen other planned communities across the Southeast, and if she's honest, most hadn't felt built with them in mind. "Many didn't feel too welcoming as a young black couple," says Shellane. "Trilith immediately felt different." For two creative people who make their living telling stories, "we knew Trilith was a community we wanted to be a part of." After much prayer, they signed a lease on a site unseen, and it was one of the biggest faith moves in her life. The rest, as they say, is history.
What they built lives and breathes under a single roof... her Apple-Butter Bakery cakes and pastries on one side and Daniel's Gilly Brew Bar on the other, serving coffee, personally roasted several times a week. They keep the two businesses deliberately separate, a boundary drawn early to spare a young marriage the weight of it all. “We thought it wise to run our businesses separately so that business doesn’t interfere with our relationship,” says Shellane. “We are always helping one another in any way we can.”
To add to the appeal, Apple-Butter Bakery in Fayetteville is a "help-yourself" bakery. Order online, get your pick-up date, and it's kept for you in a refrigerated locker so you can swing by anytime you're able. Want a fresh slice of the best chocolate cake you've ever tried? Swipe your credit card and grab it from the chilled vending machine. Brilliant!
Shellane and her family hope to be able to expand the footprint of the business in Trilith to better serve their amazing customers at that location. “Our new community has welcomed us with open arms and has supported us since opening day,” says Shellane. “Our regulars are some of the most loyal people you’ll ever meet. Our neighbors love us in and out of the business.” It is much more than a bakery and café; it is family and community rolled into one.
We are good enough, we are gifted, and as long as we don’t hold ourselves back, we can allow the world to see us win.”
“I hope I encourage other young kids who may not have seen people who represented them on TV compete with the best of the best and win it all."