Deep Sea Sugar & Salt

In Seattle’s Georgetown neighborhood, there’s an emerald green building bearing a historic plaque. First designed as an inn in 1904, the location became the Carleton Avenue Grocery seven years later. There, the shop functioned for over a century, eventually claiming the title of Seattle’s oldest grocery store.

When Carleton Avenue Grocery shuttered in October of 2017, Charlie Dunmire acquired the space with the help of a Kickstarter campaign, transforming it into a bakery known for its elaborate layer cakes. Dunmire got her start in cake world dreamland when she launched Deep Sea Sugar & Salt in an Airstream in the Georgetown Trailer Park Mall.

Since she set up permanent digs here, the shop has been packed with a series of wildly inventive whole cakes, cupcakes, and—most notably—individual slices of dramatically striated layer cakes in flavors like London Fog, which comes soaked in honey-and-Earl Grey syrup and topped with bergamot mascarpone cream, and Carrot Pineapple, with a browned butter cream cheese frosting. 

Deep Sea Sugar & Salt has since moved to a new location outside of the Georgetown neighborhood, where they continue to churn out creative and delicious baked goods.