Neighborhood resident Sibby Barrett has been baking out of her home for eight years.

But recently, she decided to make the big move to a retail location.

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Soon, she will open Dallas Affaires Cake Company and Café Georgia at 2307 and 2305 ½ Abrams in the old White Swan space.

Dallas Affaires will be a full-service bakery with fresh cakes, brownies, cookies and croissants. Café Georgia will be a coffee bar with a cappuccino machine and will serve lunch and breakfast items.

Barrett bakes about 150 layered cakes weekly in her home and has a client base of about 1,000. She makes 23 varieties of cake combinations and decorates them with fresh flowers, imported lace and ribbon.

“Everyone who comes to us becomes a customer for life,” Barrett says. “They get addicted to it.”

Before becoming a baker, Barrett worked as a florist for 11 years, but she wanted to be her own boss. So she quit her job and opened a full-service wedding business providing flowers, catering and cakes.

After a few years, she realized it was the cakes everyone raved about because in addition to tasting good, the cakes were pretty.

“There really aren’t any places who decorate cakes like we do,” Barrett says. “They’re real masterpieces.”

The cakes typically range in price from $20-$30, Barrett says.

Barrett is not making the move blindly. One of her bride customers is a business professor at University of Texas at Arlington. The instructor had her students complete a class assignment about whether Barrett should expand or not.

“They raked me over the coals and told me this is what I should do,” Barrett says.

Hours for the bakery will be 8:30 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 8:30 a.m.-noon Saturday. Café Georgia hours will be 7 a.m.-10 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and 7 a.m.-11:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

News & Notes

CELEBRATING SPRING: On April 30 and May 1, Mother Nature Garden Center, 2001 Skillman at Oram, will host an English garden party. Tea, sandwiches and sweets will be served while customers talk with gardening experts. Drawings for prizes such as plants, gift certificates and gift baskets will occur throughout the day. For information, call 823-9421.