Sugar, Spice, & Everything Nice: Sweet Dough Bake Shop
What baking scents take you back to cozy days in the kitchen? Is it cinnamon, caramel, vanilla, or all of the above? Learning to bake for Traci Thompson lives in her fond memories of older, wiser women guiding her young hands to make cookies, cakes, and everything else delicious. Now, after years of homemade goodness, Sweet Dough Bake Shop is the place where that sugar-dusted nostalgia lives.
Nestled in Heron Village in North High Point, Sweet Dough Bake Shop is going on two years of selling made-with-love goodies, but Traci’s dream for the bakery began well before the grand opening. In Wilkesboro, NC, Traci grew up spending lots of time baking with her mother and grandma at home. While just one taste of any of Traci’s baked goods would convince you otherwise, talent like Traci’s had to start somewhere. She shared a sweet memory of attempting to bake biscuits in her grandma’s kitchen…without her grandma’s help.
“My sister and I were little,” Traci remembers about the morning she and her sister tried to surprise their grandmother with her own recipe of buttery biscuits, “We just started throwing stuff in a bowl.”
The cherry on top? There was no biscuit recipe, just a whole lot of flour all over the place, and a bewildered grandma.
“She didn’t know whether to laugh or cry,” Traci says. While the biscuits didn’t turn out, Traci’s interest in baking even as a little girl was just the beginning of a lifetime of beloved baked goods. Where are those childhood recipes now? Right behind the counter. The peanut butter bars and oatmeal cookies come from her family, and Aunt Linda’s chocolate cake was a loving addition from her husband’s side of the family.
Traci and her husband are self-described foodies, so aside from family recipes, they have extensively explored bakeries all around the country, tasting inspiration wherever they traveled. They followed her husband’s job to Asheville, and enjoyed perusing the bakeries there. When they lived in New York City for a spell, Traci was between working real estate and discovering the goodies that the big city had to offer. Then, Seattle brought her new inspiration in the form of giant, showstopper cinnamon rolls.
Traci says, “One of our favorite coffee shops had these huge cinnamon rolls, and that was one thing that I absolutely loved about that bakery was how big their cinnamon rolls were. It was a wow factor when you walked in.”
Finally, she made it all the way back to High Point during the COVID-19 pandemic, and had those Rain City cinnamon rolls on her mind. The bake shop idea struck Traci on a regular day, when she found the location vacant and realized it would make a lovely bakery. What do you say when the perfect opportunity to live out your dreams is right through an empty store window?
Traci says, “Let’s try it. Let’s go on a new adventure.”
And thank goodness she did! Sweet Dough Bake Shop came to grace our city with treats from miles and miles away that you don’t even have to hop on a plane to get a bite out of, and let’s not forget the childhood flavors, well worth reliving.
“We wanted to bring all of our favorite goodies that we liked from the other places that we’ve lived, as well as the childhood recipes that I had growing up,” Traci says.
Now, having grown from an original business plan of just three bakers to a work family of thirteen, Traci has all new reasons to love baking.
“Instead of being in a kitchen by yourself, you’re in a kitchen with three or four other people that have the same passion as you. It makes you really close to the people you work with.”
With thirteen different upbringings come thirteen unique childhood recipe books, all brought together under one roof to help every customer find that taste of home. One big change that Traci’s bakers faced was the shift from home kitchens to giant stand-mixers and all-new baking rules.
That’s where science comes in. Behind the display case of treats is a blend of professional and home bakers alike with just one goal in mind: bring High Pointers those simple, wholesome flavors that we crave. For a small business, the mix of the head and the heart is invaluable. Where the home bakers bring their tried and true know-how, the professionals bring answers to baking science. Together, dreamy new recipes are made possible.
Though Traci’s baker’s dozen of bakers might seem a little cozy for one shop, for Traci, there are never too many cooks in the kitchen.
She says, “the best part about it is that we’re such a small team and almost everybody’s been here since day one. We have just become this family.”
For Sweet Dough, family is not just behind the counter. Loving regulars follow the ins and outs of the menu changes. While they try to rotate the items so that new creations can take the spotlight, that often means pulling something off to avoid overcrowding the selection. When customers see their beloved treat off the menu, Traci talks of how she always has to promise her regulars that though that treat is gone, it will inevitably rotate back in.
"It's very neat watching when a recipe goes out and then we replace it with something else, how customers just get so angry about it," Traci says. With so many tasty treats, no matter what they swap it’s bound to be somebody’s favorite, but don’t worry too much because as Traci says, “It will be back.”
Along with trying out new desserts comes the risk that it won’t come out according to plan, but Traci takes it all in stride. One of her favorite parts of baking, Traci reveals, is trying out all kinds of new flavors and goodies.
“The most fun thing about it is experimenting and trying new flavors and then seeing people’s reactions to it. Sometimes they’re bad reactions, but it’s still fun.”
Experimenting for a baked goods store takes a few more taste testers than trying out recipes around the dinner table at home. So those lucky regulars that Traci has come to know are the same people whose emphatic yesses help get brand new treats on the menu.
“We put some out to sell and get feedback from our regulars. They’re who I trust the most. We have our regulars that will definitely give their opinion, so we’ll go back and slide them a piece and let them take it home. And then we’ll hear about it,” Traci says.
With two years of business nearly under their belt, Sweet Dough Bake Shop’s future is looking sprinkle-coated. Traci shares that her plan to send even more High Point folks home with a dessert and a smile is to continue reaching out to the community alongside taking further steps in marketing their sweet treats.
Sweet Dough already makes for a friendly neighbor. They donate to churches and schools, send out mailers and gift cards, and give dessert coupons to the kids at Triad Pediatrics. Their nook in Heron Village is a community of its own with other shops like Capras and Fleet Feet always ready to collaborate, but ambition doesn’t stop there. Since opening, Sweet Dough has grown in confidence and almost outgrown their space. Whether their next move is to hunt for a bigger, or even a second location is on the table is still up in the air.
Traci says, “This was my dream, and now the second dream…I’m not sure yet.”
Sweet Dough Bake shop is already a dream come true for dessert lovers, and Traci’s advice for other passionate individuals is to take the same leap she made. What has made Sweet Dough stand out from your run of the mill dessert stop is the depth of heart that has gone into making reality as sweet as the daydream.
To hopeful business owners, Traci says, “Do it. If it’s your passion and you love to do it, it’s naturally going to be successful because your heart and soul is in it, and people can see that.”
In the meantime, Traci will be with her Sweet Dough family, baking up a storm to bring sunshine to any cloudy day. Her good intentions are sprinkled in every corner of the shop. When she talks about how she wants customers to feel, it is very clear what kind of warm welcome you can expect.
“I want them to feel like we have a good variety. I want them to have great customer service. I want them to feel like they’re not at all being a bother. We’re so happy that they’re here, and we want them to feel that. We want them to feel that we put our heart and soul into it,” Traci says.
So if you need a sweet treat guaranteed to be made with heart and soul, you know where to find Sweet Dough Bake Shop.
“We want them to feel that we put our heart and soul into it."
Traci Thompson, Owner of Sweet Dough Bake Shop
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