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I’ve had my eye on the workings of Brown Sugar Bakeshop for some time now via their Facebook and Twitter pages, but I’ve only just made it there recently. Located in the River Market shopping area of downtown Little Rock, the bakery is surrounded by quality restaurants and shopping, and seems to be positioned nicely to succeed. The shop is clean, cozy and aesthetically pleasing, easily luring the sugar-craving downtown crowd as they helplessly pass by its welcoming doors. But don’t let the warm-and-fuzzy appearance of the bakery fool you…there are all kinds of confectionary kookiness going on inside.

Brown Sugar clearly has a thing for red velvet. And why not? Red velvet seems to be the hottest thing in baking since the national cupcake boom began a number of years ago. Brown Sugar is putting out the obligatory red velvet cupcake with cream cheese frosting, but they are also dishing up red velvet cookies, cheesecake, and more. In fact, they have declared September 11-15 to be “Red Velvet Lovers and Aficionados Week,” where they will be serving up RV cinnamon rolls, RV brownies, RV ice box pie and more. If you are one of those red velvet fanatics, this may be right up your alley. I sampled some of their red velvet creations and I found them to be tasty, especially the cheesecake, but I’m still not sold on the whole RV craze. Many bakers simply throw a couple drops of red food coloring in the batter and slap the name “red velvet” on whatever they’re making. I guess it’s working out for them, but it seems increasingly difficult to find a bakery making a distinctly rich, cocoa-filled, buttermilk-laced, true red velvet. Nonetheless, I enjoyed my selections at Brown Sugar and wouldn’t be too put out if I had to eat there again. RV cinnamon rolls, in particular, may be worth returning for, and perhaps they will finally convince me that all this RV tomfoolery is worth the hype.

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Apparently, September is also “National Breakfast Month.” I’m sure you are kicking yourself right now, wondering how you forgot about that one. No worries, Brown Sugar has got some completely wacky things going on to get you back in the breakfast spirit. Every Saturday in September, Brown Sugar is rolling out their “meaty cupcakes” in honor of some classic breakfast dishes. Are you ready for this? Some of the cupcake flavors they’ll be serving up include maple-bacon, chicken and waffles, French toast and country ham, and the non-meaty mimosa cupcake. These cupcakes are obviously not for the faint of heart, but if meat and buttercream frosting is your thing, this is an opportunity you won’t want to pass up.

Brown Sugar still offers up a wide variety of the more traditional bakery fare…items such as Belgian chocolate chip brownies, cookies and cream pie, and lemon cream pie. Follow them on Facebook or Twitter to stay up to date on the shop’s daily specials, you’re bound to find something that tickles your fancy.

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Brown Sugar Bakeshop
419 E 3rd St, Little Rock
Hours: Tues-Sat 11AM-5:30PM

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