A Southern Girl Bakery
Romonia Daniel has been baking for more than three decades. A native of Lawrenceville, Georgia, a suburb about 30 miles northeast of downtown Atlanta, she credits her knowledge and love of the craft to her grandmother. “I used to sit in the kitchen with her every weekend and watch her bake,” Daniel said. “I was always watching her and absorbing what she was doing without really knowing it at the time … [and] come to find out, once I was older, I realized that I loved to bake just like she did.” Daniel, who moved to New England in 2013 and now lives in Portsmouth, runs A Southern Girl Bakery (10 Fourth St., Suite 102, Dover, 343-1708, sgirlbakery.com) with the help of her daughter, Courtney. The bakery features a wide variety of authentic Southern treats, many of which she has enjoyed making for her friends and family over the years. Grab-and-go cases are regularly stocked with freshly baked cookies, brownies, blondies, lemon bars, cupcakes and more. Daniel accepts custom cake orders for all types of occasions, as well as orders for other items, like banana pudding, milk chocolate rum balls, and Southern-style cobblers with flavors like peach, blackberry, apple and cherry. She keeps many flavors of vegan and gluten-free cakes and cupcakes on hand and has recently introduced various “booze-infused” cupcake flavors. The Scene recently caught up with Daniel to talk about how she’s bringing her traditional Southern recipes to the Seacoast, and about some of her top picks for must-try items at the bakery.
How long has A Southern Girl Bakery been around?
Officially, A Southern Girl Bakery has been in existence for two and a half years, [but] we only got the storefront in the last eight months or so, I think, so September-ish. … I’ve always wanted to have my own bakery, so we went ahead and started putting stuff in the works so that we could get it done.
What is an essential skill to running a bakery?
Patience and persistence. … You just have to roll with the punches and keep a positive attitude to keep going, because you’re not going to have a successful bakery overnight. It’s going to take some work, you have to want to be there, and you’ve just got to hang in there and stay with it.
What makes A Southern Girl Bakery unique?
We’re holding true to authentic Southern recipes … and we’ve got a really good following for those. … I’ve kind of kept to the traditional way for the most part, even though I’ve tweaked some and come up with some of my own … but the ones I got from my grandmother still hold true to the way that I bake today. Our vegan and gluten-free recipes are also staples. My daughter’s two youngest sons have severe allergies, so I started working on recipes to find stuff that they would be able to enjoy.
What is your favorite item that you offer?
I really like the lemon bars. It’s a bright dessert with the sunshine yellow color and buttery flavor. That has got to be my top favorite thing to make.
What celebrity would you like to see ordering from A Southern Girl Bakery?
If I were to get an order from First Lady Michelle Obama, I would probably just lose my marbles. Even if she were to just come by, that would make my whole year, my decade, my millennium, however you want to call it. … I would ask her what she would like, and then I would probably give her, like, 25 of those, so she could never run out!
What is something that everyone should try?
The lemon bars, or, the next thing I’d suggest to them after that would be the red velvet cupcakes. Not to toot my own horn, but they really are a wonderful cupcake.
What is your favorite thing about being on the Seacoast?
The seasons that are not winter [laughs]. Besides that, I love that the people here are very welcoming. … I’m really loving the warmth and the positivity that I’m getting from our customers.
— Matt Ingersoll
Photo courtesy of A Southern Girl Bakery.
