Feature image: Yes, that bucket of oysters is really a cake! Owner Anna Echols also offers doughnuts, cupcakes, cookies, and more in One Belle’s café area.
One Belle produces its fair share of traditional, tiered wedding cakes — they’ve made as many as 18 in one weekend — but is best known for its custom creations.
Think Madame Tussauds meets Willy Wonka: An ice-cold keg. A big bucket of shimmery-shelled oysters. That bass you caught fishing last month. They look like sculptures but are actually carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, or banana cake with chocolate fudge, or coconut-rum cake with pineapple custard.
From start to finish, most designs take three days or more. One Belle has even constructed a replica of Kenan Memorial Stadium at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The assembly alone occupied four decorators for more than eight hours. To owner Anna Echols, disbelief is the best compliment: “I always want someone to ask, ‘Is that a cake?’”
One Belle Bakery
1616 Shipyard Boulevard
Wilmington, NC 28412
(910) 769-3280
onebellebakery.com
In North Carolina, spring brings the scent of fresh-cut grass and memories of helping Dad mow the lawn.
Nostalgic burger joints are like time machines, delivering something extra special that keeps us coming back.
This tiny city block in downtown Greensboro once had a gigantic reputation. Not so much for its charbroiled beef patties — though they, too, were plentiful — but for its colorful characters and their wild shenanigans.
In the 1950s, as Americans hit freshly paved roads in shiny new cars during the postwar boom, a new kind of restaurant took shape: the drive-in. From those first thin patties to the elaborate gourmet hamburgers of today, North Carolina has spent the past 80 years making burger history.
