Coffee & Treats in Kings Mountain

The baker behind Style And Grace Cupcakes is something of an alchemist; she transforms simple ingredients such as brown sugar and fresh strawberries into moist cupcakes crowned with decadent buttercream frosting. She also bakes cookies, cookie pops, and diabetic-friendly cupcakes made with Splenda. Find these handcrafted desserts at the Gastonia Farmers Market, or have them delivered to your door.

Hollie, the lady behind Sugar Diva's Custom Cakes, bakes fresh, homemade treats from fine ingredients. The business specializes in custom cakes for special occasions such as weddings and birthdays, fashioning them with multiple tiers, elegant accouterments, and stunning designs. They also specialize in smaller treats, which range from gooey chocolate chip cookies and brownies to cupcakes, chocolate fudge, made-to-order pies, and old-fashioned candies.

Family-operated The Shake Shack dishes out locally renowned Tony’s Ice Cream year-round inside its 1,000-square-foot digs. Customers choose from 27 different flavors—16 in the winter months—of Tony’s Ice Cream, made just 20 minutes away in Gastonia. Retro memorabilia such as vintage board games, toys, and a real-life Six Million Dollar Man line shop shelves, tickling the eyes of patrons as they casually tackle cones, floats, sundaes, banana splits, and other creamy delicacies.

From beaches to barbecues, summer means different things to different people. In Katina Cloud's case, it means baking. She spent her girlhood summers in Mississippi helping her grandmother craft homemade cakes. Their bond sparked a love for baking that Katina honors to this day at Kitty's Delights. Made in small batches and individually wrapped, her 10-plus gourmet cookie flavors range from almond toffee to white-chocolate peanut butter. Besides her main cookies, Katina bakes gluten-free varieties, assembles gift baskets, and creates special cookies to benefit Cindy's Hope Chest, an organization that helps women battle breast cancer.

Each morning, owner Karen Quinn and her crew of bakers bear steaming cupcakes from the oven at Pat-a-Cakes Bakery and frost them with thick layers of smooth buttercream. Bakers shuffle stacks of fresh eggs, flour, and sugar to craft sweet batters for cake foundations. Customers choose two cupcake flavors for their dozen, carefully mulling over red velvet, carrot, almond, and chocolate options. Lemon-infused confections help to balance dulcet feasts and sneak outside the jurisdiction of embezzling sugarplum fairies. Patrons may opt for mini cupcakes, which serve as bite-size rewards, and less Lilliputian desserts are ideal for sharing with a companion, a fellow partygoer, or a favorite llama.