Oct. 1 will be the last day to walk into Brown Betty Dessert Boutique in Northern Liberties to snag cupcakes.
After 12 years, Norrinda Brown Hayat and her mother, Linda Hinton Brown, say they plan to close their shop to focus on wholesale opportunities. Chief among them is a partnership with Patti LaBelle and Walmart that has Brown Betty's sweet potato pound cake loafs in more than 500 stores.
Hayat, a Washington-based lawyer, and Brown, a retired teacher, opened their first location in 2004 in Liberties Walk, near the current location at 722 N. Second St. Among the bakery's distinctions was coverage in the Oprah Magazine, appearances on the Katie Couric Show and the Food Network with Duff Goldman. Both Food & Wine and National Geographic named theirs among the best cupcakes in America.
The Brown Betty Cookbook, published in 2012, provided stories behind some of the shop's hits, including a sweet potato cheesecake and an obscenely delicious bundle of calories in the form of a chocolate ganache layer cake called Hattie Don't Play.
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