LOS ANGELES – Southern Girl Desserts is a Southern style bakery located in the heart of Baldwin Hills. 

For the past 13 years, they’ve been perfecting southern favorites like pecan pie, and peach cobbler. The pandemic has taken a toll on the business, but with the recent call to support Black-owned businesses, things are heating back up.

Founded in 2007, Southern Girl Desserts is co-owned by Catarah Coleman and Shoneji Robison, who combined their family recipes to create a Southern cupcake and dessert arsenal.

Some of their other menu items include: cake, puddings, cookies, and sweet potato pie.

“You have to be in a good mood to bake. If you’re going through something when you walk through that door you got to shut it down, because if you’re not in a good mood, and baking, that really affects the way things come out,” said co-owner Catarah Coleman.

Coleman and Robison come from Florida, where they were used to Southern desserts, but when they arrived in Los Angeles, there weren’t a lot of options.

When COVID-19 hit in March, Southern Girl Desserts felt a dip right away. The mall was closed, everything around them was closed. Letting people know they were open was difficult because people were scared, nervous, and didn’t know how safe it was to come out.

Luckily for Coleman and Robison, they were able to do take-out orders since they have an external door in their bakery.

“The governor said if you have a take-out situation, you can remain open. That’s the only reason we’ve been able to actually still remain open in a mall that is completely closed,” said Robison.

Even though their foot traffic has slowed down, delivery and pick-up orders have increased significantly. 

Southern Girl Desserts has been shipping all over the world on behalf of different businesses.

When Black Lives Matter took the stage in June, they really saw an uptick in their sales because people were looking for Black businesses to support. That support has continued to grow over the last few months.

“We do get people that reach out to us to express how great the item was. We have repeat customers that now want to send to other family members or friends,” said Robison.

“When it comes to comfort items it's just that. It makes you feel good. These cakes or cobblers or pies it’s a reminder to people of good times so they could take their mind out of the crazy things that are happening around them,” Robison added.

Southern Girl Desserts is located on 3650 West Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd, Suite 100, Los Angeles, CA 90008. They’re open Tuesday through Sunday from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.

If you’re interested in placing an order, go to southerngirlsdessert.com.