The Owner of Caroline's Cakes Toasts His Late Mom With A Fizzy, Festive Flavor

A more recent addition to the lineup, Pink Champagne Cake is now one of the Spartanburg, South Carolina bakery's bestsellers.

Richard Reutter can’t remember a family get-together without cake. “The first caramel one my mom [Caroline Ragsdale Reutter] served was at my christening in 1982,” says Richard, who is president of Caroline’s Cakes in Spartanburg, South Carolina. “People would make requests for them over the years, so she’d leave them on a joggling board on our front porch in Annapolis, Maryland. They’d come by, find the one with their name on it, take it, and put a check in the big red tin.”

Her hobby didn’t grow into an official business until the early 2000s when a Florida financial firm ordered a couple thousand of her seven-layer caramel confections for gifting. At the time, Caroline was able to bake only eight per day in her home setup. In spite of this, she said yes without hesitation, Richard recalls. His parents added a commercial kitchen in their basement, and the whole family helped her tie white satin ribbons around every order.

Related: Cakes To Bake Every Month In 2024

In the more than 20 years since, her desserts have become something of a legend in their own right, gracing sideboards across the country and even making a cameo appearance in the 2011 movie The Help. Caroline’s Cakes is a household name for many Southerners, and the signature red tin is a sure sign of celebrations to come. “Most people associate cake with all of these happy occasions, but it’s also a comfort food,” Richard says. “It’s there during times of sadness and bereavement too.”

""Most people associate cake with all of these happy occasions, but it’s also a comfort food. It’s there during times of sadness and bereavement too.”"

Richard Reutter, president of Caroline's Cakes

He knows this from personal experience. In July 2017 (five years after relocating her company to its current home base in Spartanburg), Caroline died of cancer, leaving Richard at the helm much sooner than they’d anticipated. Shuttering the bakery was never an option. “It’s the closest connection that I still have to my mother. This is and always will be her business,” he says. “I have a binder with all the letters, emails, and [transcribed] voicemails people sent when Mom passed away, thanking us for keeping things going because of how much she and her cakes meant to them and their families.”

A few months after Caroline’s death, Richard found himself at her desk, flipping through one of her dozens of cookbooks. He discovered a note in her handwriting beside a recipe for a Champagne-flavored sweet. “It said to try that next,” he remembers. “I was sort of wandering and drifting in grief, and that was about as obvious a sign as I could get to return to the kitchen and start putting my influence on the company—and I knew I was doing it with Caroline’s approval.”

The dessert that resulted was Pink Champagne Cake (four layers frosted in blush-colored buttercream), which is now one of their bestsellers, touted alongside the caramel one that started it all. “I want this to be a celebration of Mom—not an ‘in memoriam’ kind of thing,” says Richard. “It’s a fun, joyful business that she started, and we’re keeping it going. It’s pretty special. I’m an ‘eat cake; be happy’ type of person, and there’s nothing I’d rather be doing.”

Bring Dessert! This Mother’s Day, surprise her with a Pink Champagne Cake, which serves 14 to 20 people ($70; carolinescakes.com).

For more Southern Living news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read the original article on Southern Living.