CHATHAM COUNTY, N.C. — These days, Berta Lou Scott finds herself welcoming customers into her 30,000-square-foot store on Hoyt Scott Road in Bear Creek, North Carolina.
“I never thought it would take this much space to make a fruitcake,” Scott said.
What You Need To Know
Southern Supreme Fruitcake & More is located in Bear Creek
It is owned and operated by the Scott family in Chatham County
Berta Lou Scott began making her fruitcakes in a single-car garage
Southern Supreme Fruitcakes & More opened its doors 30 years ago. It all started in Scott’s daughter Belinda’s single-car garage.
“We put a pizza oven and a mixer, and we were going to make some cakes,” Scott said.
She was working as a hairdresser at the time.
“I made this fruitcake every year for my customers. They loved it, they kept talking about it, when am I going to make more cakes,” Scott said.
Scott says she used to joke about quitting her day job as a hair stylist and start making her fruitcakes full time.
“I had the beauty shop in mind, and I said, 'one day I’m going to quit doing y'all's hair and go selling my fruitcake.' We laughed about it a little while, then we got serious,” Scott said.
It wasn’t until Scott’s husband, Hoyt Scott, lost his job making wood stoves that they quit laughing about it and got serious.
“I said I don’t know what we could do, make a fruitcake, and we both laughed, and we did it,” Scott said.
The Scott family set out to sell their fruitcakes at craft shows around North Carolina.
“Oh they didn’t like fruitcake. I said just try it, it’s different. We took out those things you didn’t like, and so they tried it, they walked around a little bit, and they wanted to buy it, wanted to try it again. They couldn’t believe it didn’t have those odd-looking flavors,” Scott said.
Their holiday cake took off at the Christmas show in Raleigh three decades ago.
Scott says the single ingredient that sets her fruitcake apart from the traditional cake with a bad rep is nuts.
“It’s different, because I think the way it’s cooked, it never dries out, and we take out a lot of things that overpower it, and we just put in a lot of nuts. Us southerners, we like a lot of nuts,” Scott said.
Although Scott never traveled far from her roots in Bear Creek, her fruitcake soared to heights she could never imagine.
“I actually don’t get in there and make these fruitcakes anymore. We got some good help,” Scott said.
They now make up to 3,000 pounds of fruitcake daily during their season that runs from August through December.
Scott’s children left their full-time jobs to come work for the family business.
“We had our family come in and wrap the cakes after work. Things kept evolving and getting bigger and bigger. In 2004 I was the last holdout who quit my real job and came to work here full-time, It’s been an adventure. We’ve been very blessed,” son Randy Scott said.
Southern Supreme ships its fruitcake nationwide. It has expanded to sell cookies, candy, chocolate, jelly and jams along with Christmas gift baskets made in its facility.