This downtown Perry bakery has been ‘sabotaging diets’ since 2010. What’s their secret?

Mark Riley and Patrick Taylor are regular customers of Simply Southern Sweets Bakery in downtown Perry.

The two friends, who are equipment operators for the city of Perry, stop in the family-owned bakery “whenever we can.”

They each get their favorite go-to baked good each time and a drink to wash it down.

Riley’s choice is the strawberry mini-cake, while Taylor favors a slice of an old fashioned buttermilk cake with chocolate icing.

“It’s just good, delicious, all around,” said Riley, who was introduced to the bakery by Taylor about six years ago when Riley started working for the city.

Simply Southern Sweets Bakery at 1002 Ball Street is owned and operated by husband and wife team Dan and Debbie Arledge. She’s the baker and he’s the face of the bakery. They celebrate their 26th wedding anniversary this month.

“I feel like they’re made with love in here,” Taylor said of the baked goods. “That’s definitely the reason why we come, and we’re always greeted.

 “I feel like family every time I come in here. They always ask about how our day is, making sure we’re staying hydrated, and every time we come in, they know exactly what we get. We don’t really have to say much. You get your chocolate, you get your strawberry, and that’s why we just feel like home.” 

Margilu Mims is a longtime customer of Simply Southern Sweets Bakery, ordering their old fashioned 12 layer chocolate and caramel cakes and chocolate sheet cakes for holidays, family gatherings and to give to people such as for a birthday.

She’s already got her order in for one of each for Thanksgiving.

Mims is also a fan of the bakery’s divinity and brownies, and like Taylor and Riley, she thinks the world of the Arledges.

“It’s all good – just like we made at home,” Mims said of the baked goods. “I’m just thankful they’re here, and I’ve enjoyed them for a long time.”

Simply Southern Sweets Bakery has its roots in the annual Peaches to the Beaches in 2009 when Debbie Arledge and her mother-in-law Lora Arledge decided to see how their baked goods would sell.

Peaches to the Beaches is a two-day annual yard sale that stretches along Ga. 341 for more than 200 miles from Barnesville to Perry to Brunswick.

The women sold out each day by noon. That success led to selling their baked goods at farmers markets in Perry and Warner Robins.

In 2010, the women opened Simply Southern Sweets Bakery at its original storefront at 1101 Washington St. in a section of what is now Coldwell Banker Free Realty.

The Arledges refer to the Washington Street storefront as the “preacher’s room” because the building once served as a home with two separate rooms on each end with their own entrances where traveling preachers could stay.

“Dan turned his mom and dad’s back porch into our first certified kitchen, so we would bake there, load everything up in carry-alls, and take it to the preacher’s room,” said Debbie Arledge, noting the storefront was open on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.

Just before Mother’s Day in 2015, the bakery moved to its current location on Ball Street.

Dan Arledge, who was involved from behind the scenes from the beginning, jokes that he worked in “production and the gathering of materials.”

Debbie Arledge interjected, “Even if it was 2 o’clock in the morning, we ran out of sugar, he was there to go get it. Wash dishes ….”

Dan Arledge chimed in “manual labor. I did repairs on anything that was needed.”

He took on a visible role when the Ball Street storefront opened, greeting customers, working the cash register, taking orders. 

He also handles all the paperwork and still does the purchasing.

Debbie Arledge is almost always in the back of the storefront baking in the kitchen, where she’s baked since Dan Arledge built their storefront kitchen.

Before Lora Arledge retired in 2019, she continued to bake at the certified kitchen back at her home. Her husband, the late Rev. Thomas Arledge, brought her and her goods to the storefront.

Debbie Arledge’s children – Erica Bradshaw and Kristen Matlock  – also helped out at the bakery making layer cakes in the early years.

Simply Southern Sweets and Bakery has remained in continuous operation “sabotaging diets,” according to its business card, since its first storefront on Washington Street.

The Arledges closed the Washington Street location after business on a Saturday and reopened at the Ball Street location on a Tuesday.

Also, although the Ball Street storefront closed to foot traffic during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the bakery remained open with customers able to call in orders for pickup at the storefront door.

The Arledges attribute the success of the bakery to making goods in small batches and ensuring the quality stays consistent.

Another batch of brownies, for example, won’t be made until all the brownies on display for sale are gone. Their bakery goods stay on the shelves for only three days.

“Most of the time, we sell out in three days,” Dan Arledge said.

If the baked goods don’t sell out, the treats go home to the grandkids. When his father served at St. Christopher at the Crossroads in Perry, the baked goods went there, quickly sold and the money went to the church.

“But another thing,” Debbie Arledge said about the bakery’s success, “I think is … Dan calls people by name.

“When you come in the door, he makes you feel like family.”

Simply Southern Sweets Bakery is best known for its six and 12 layer cakes.

Two six layer cakes – old-fashioned buttermilk chocolate or burnt sugar caramel – are generally available in the storefront until sold for walk-in customers. But most cakes, including all 12 layer cakes as well as pies, are ordered in-store or by phone for pickup.

Cake orders are usually a quick turnaround, except for near Thanksgiving and Christmas. 

The Arledges already have more than 50 holiday orders, many with multiple cakes, taped to a wall. Usually two weeks ahead of each holiday, they’ll stop taking cake orders to be able to fill existing orders on time.

“Some people, when they pick it up at Christmas, say, ‘Just stick (the order) right back up on the wall for Thanksgiving,” Dan Arledge said.

Inside the storefront, display cases house all sorts of goodies – again in small batches – including sour cream pound cakes and cream cheese pound cakes.

Pralines, an award winner for Debbie Arledge, also can be found in the storefront. Her divinity, which she considers a Christmas candy, sells well all year round.

The bakery offers mini-cakes and cake slices for double and individual servings that also provide an opportunity for customers to try a cake before ordering a whole one. 

Simply Southern Sweets Bakery always keeps on hand old-fashioned buttermilk chocolate or burnt sugar caramel cake slices, Debbie Arledge said.

Mini-cakes or cake slices include carrot, cinnamon roll, red velvet, peanut butter, coconut and strawberry.

Some other baked goods often in the storefront include old-bashioned bundt cakes, brownies and peanut butter cookies.

A chalkboard of what’s available for the day is often set outside the storefront or found inside.

What customers won’t find is anything made with yeast. That means no doughnuts, no breads.

All the Simply Southern Sweets Bakery recipes are kept secret, though Dan Arledge said they may consider publishing a cookbook one day down the road.

“I’ve had to take over pretty much all of Miss Lora’s recipes,” Debbie Arledge said. “Dan does her lady fingers and the pecan crisp, but I’ve had to take over the sugar cookies, peanut butter cookies, the coconut cake, her pound cake cookies, just because they’re people’s favorites.”

Debbie Arledge’s recipes come from cookbooks that she’s gathered from all sorts of places over the years and then tweaked to her liking.

“If it calls for milk, I’m putting buttermilk in it,” she said. “I mean, it’s just good old-fashioned homemade flavor.

“Buttermilk does give it a different thickness and slightly different texture.”

No preservatives are used in her baked goods, which is the reason for a shorter shelf life than most store-bought baked goods.

“It’s all like you would make it at home,” Debbie Arledge said. “Fresh. Lots of pure vanilla, quality cream cheese, quality butter.”

When asked what sets their bakery apart from the rest, Debbie Arledge said, “I think it’s the small batches, and we bake on site. And I make a cake just for you.”

Debbie Arledge, who’s 58, started cooking at age 13.

After her parents separated, her mom worked at the former Red Carpet Inn in Perry where she lived with her mom, two sisters and one brother.

“We were not lazy kids,” Debbie Arledge said. “We helped clean the rooms. I loved helping in the kitchen. I’d wash dishes, and when I turned 13 … I cooked the buffet after I got out of school.”

But she didn’t do any baking initially.

“The dessert line was pudding in a cup,” she said.

By her junior year in high school, she was entering dessert contests through school clubs she was active in and winning – placing first in regional and state competitions.

The Arledges also sell a few antiques in the bakery storefront, including Fenton, McCoy and Anchor Hocking glassware.

In the future, the Arledges plan to close the Ball Street storefront and open a country bakery shop in front of their home property just a couple miles east of the Georgia National Fairgrounds & Agricenter toward Hawkinsville off Ga. 224.

“It’s going to be a place where it can serve as a pickup location and have refrigeration, hopefully, and water,” Dan Arledge said. 

Debbie Arledge said, “I’d love to have a porch on it with a couple of rocking chairs.”

Dan Arledge already has created a commercial kitchen in their home, and Debbie Arledge will go back to a cottage license like in the early days of the bakery.

“I’ve been saying for the last four or five years that we’ll probably give it one more year,” Dan Arledge said before closing the downtown shop and opening the country bakery shop. But then, “We give it one more year, and we give it one more year.”

The couple are now considering making the transition in the summer of 2027. But Dan Arledge added, “I wouldn’t put that in stone.” 

Simply Southern Sweets Bakery is open 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday. The number is 478-224-CAKE (2253).