The Shug behind the Spice
I’m Laura, but I mostly answer to “Shug,” a nickname which started during my childhood in rural South Carolina, and followed me well into adulthood.
Asheville NC is currently home, and I’m a baker, foodie, adventure-seeker, runner, former Obama staffer, and Carolina Tarheel.
I grew up baking with my Mama. My favorite childhood memories involve Mama and me in the kitchen at my parents house, standing at the kitchen island helping bake one of her famous scratch-made cakes. Words of affirmation was certainly not her love language, but baking and cooking was.
Shug & Spice started as a food/baking blog in 2015, as a way to share my Mama’s recipes and cooking tips, while I was living in Arizona. Fast forward to fall 2021 — I was finishing up the Weekend Executive MBA program at UNC Chapel Hill, and with the encouragement of some amazing professors, coaches, and classmates, I successfully launched my interactive group baking business, Shug & Spice.
My Mama was the most authentic person I’ve ever met. I can’t think of a better way to honor her than by sharing the joy of baking with others. Baking is not about everything being perfect; but rather, it’s about the experiences we share with those we love along the way. Two years into a global pandemic, we’ve all learned how quickly our worlds can be turned upside down at any moment. Life is incredibly short and fragile. It’s that bittersweet happiness of treasuring things that are vanishing.
As Mama used to say, you gotta savor the sweetness in life, one scratch-made treat at a time.
From Asheville, with love,
-Shug
