GREENVILLE — A Newberry native who learned to bake in Bush River is now earning honors for her creations.
Susan Greene McMakin grew up in a home where her mother, Becky Greene, and grandmother, Lucy Greene, were great bakers.
While growing up McMakin would spend her summers with her aunt Betty Magill, who sold cakes to the public.
McMakin remembers those summers, “I liked to sleep but she would not let me and I would watch her decorate cakes.”
Soon McMakin was helping Magill by making leaves for the rosebuds to go on cakes.
After graduating from Newberry High School, McMakin started studying architecture at Clemson but did not graduate.
McMakin later wanted to find a way to spend more time with her daughter, Eleanor, who is now 9 so that she could get by working a full time job.
So the baker roots came out and she opened Couture Cakes of Greenville.
The fewer hours has not panned out as McMakin’s cakes have gained fame and her services are in demand.
This week for the fifth year in a row, Couture Cakes of Greenville has been given the WeddingWire Bride’s Choice Award and for the second year in a row TheKnot.com’s Best Weddings 2013 award.
McMakin says the awards are “awesome to get.”
She adds she gets them by her customer’s bragging on her work and posting good reviews for her in social media.
“They put online how awesome we are,” she said. “It validates what everyone is saying.”
And she adds that with the new designs in cakes her studies in architecture at Clemson help her have the knowledge to balance her designs.
In addition to doing wedding cakes, she also makes birthday cakes, cupcakes, cakes for corporate buyers and other deserts.
“I am known as the cake boss in Greenville,” she said.
But while she is known for her work in Greenville, McMakin still does work for people in Newberry.
In fact, last weekend she did a cake for a local 50th wedding anniversary.
She adds she also has customers from Columbia, Hendersonville, N.C. and Georgia.
“My parents are proud of me. They were worried when I dropped out of school,” said McMakin of parents, Bobby and Becky Greene.
Couture Cakes is located at 1325 Miller Road, off Woodruff Road near I-385 in Greenville and can be reached by calling 864-288-6610.
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