W
orking more than 15 hours a day on your feet may sound like torture, but for Heather Stallings, owner of BytheGrace, those hours represent a miracle. Born with disorders that affected her legs and joints, Stallings suffered through 14 major childhood surgeries. At the age of 14, after an experimental treatment failed, her doctors said there was nothing more they could do. In and out of hospitals while her parents worked, Stallings spent much of her childhood with her grandmother. She paints the scene vividly. “My grandmother liked to have my Granddaddy’s dinner on the table every day at 5:30 p.m. So, at 4 p.m., we’d go upstairs, turn “The Young and the Restless” on the black and white TV in the kitchen, and Grandma would let me help her make a from-scratch dinner.” This ritual sparked an interest in culinary arts for Stallings, but more so, it created an indelible link between cooking and love.
in Raleigh asked her to create something special for St. Patrick’s Day. She provided two options: Guinness caramel and chopped pretzels over a chocolate AngelCake, and a pistachio AngelCake drizzled with Bailey’s glaze. “They went over well,” she says humbly. While she was still saving to afford a storefront, Stallings initially operated BytheGrace primarily by filling orders, like the London Bridge Pub arrangement, through restaurants. Just as that business picked up, life threw her a curve ball: COVID-19 stalled restaurant orders. While most would see this as a setback, Stallings saw it as an opportunity. “My life has made me the queen of silver linings,” she jokes.
FINDING THE SILVER LINING
Stallings says it was the name that came first. “It just kind of came all at once, BytheGrace AngelCakes,” Stallings says. “I told people about them before I made a single one.” Her cousin insisted that Stallings stop talking and start acting. In 2018, she invited Stallings to sell AngelCakes at a market event for female entrepreneurs. Inspired by cumulous clouds, Stallings wanted the creations to taste like biting into a cloud. She took her time, creating a couple of batches before
After being resigned to living with crutches for life, a chance conversation between Stallings’ mom and a doctor brought hope. In her 20s, Stallings received a new knee—and a new lease on life. “It really is by the grace of God that I’m walking, that I’m able to do what I love,” she says. But, she adds, “I wouldn’t be who I am without everything I went through.” Her journey solidified a credo she tries to live by. “When something happens, I think it’s important that instead of asking why this happened to me, ask what this can do for me.” When restaurant orders dropped, she realized she had an even playing field with storefront bakeries. She focused her attention on a new website and started taking delivery orders. Within a few weeks of her website’s March 24 launch, she needed to hire an employee to keep up with delivery demand.
she felt they were ready to bring to the market. Once there, she sold out quickly. With 5 grams of protein and no fat, AngelCakes are the perfect treat for health-conscious dessert lovers. “They taste like a guilty sinful pleasure, but you don’t have to work out for two hours after you eat one,” Stallings says with a smile. Though her signature food is AngelCakes, Stallings has gained popularity for savory foods like smoked gouda mac ’n cheese, spinach dip and barbecue chicken eggrolls. Also known for creating imaginative foods, London Bridge Pub
“People have been so generous with their shoutouts and [with] sharing posts. My customers are so kind and just seem to be excited about the food,” she says. Though the constant demand speaks to the quality of the foods she creates, Stallings says it has always been about more than that. “Giving good food to people makes their heart happy,” she says. “It brings them joy, and that’s the most important thing to me.” Learn more about BytheGrace and the foods offered there at bythegrace.co.
A SIGNATURE TREAT IS BORN
JULY/AUGUST 2020
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