Tell Me Something Sweet Bakery is now open at 930 East 15th Street in downtown Plano. It’s the first restaurant venture for husband-and-wife duo Candace and Kevin Ford. He makes the food while she serves as the operations manager.
“He likes to say that he’s the baker and I’m the brains,” Candace says.
Kevin is actually a third-generation baker. His grandmother, Magnolia Dawson, once fed people during the Great Depression. She passed her skills down to her daughter Dolores, who in turn, passed them along to Kevin. While the name of the business may sound like a play on a famous song, it was actually something that his grandmother used to say to him.
Fast forward to 2020, and the Fords were finalizing plans to start the business as a cottage bakery. Then the pandemic threw everything into disarray. In April 2021, they were finally able to test their concept at the Frisco Fresh Market. They quickly sold everything they had.
For the next six or seven months, they continued selling at the farmer’s market every weekend. Then, they took this show on the road going to places all over North Texas and as far away as Canton and Waco.
This past May they were finally able to secure funding for a brick-and-mortar location. Candace said she was thrilled when she ran across the available space that was already set up to be a bakery.
“It’s a great area. It’s eclectic. There’s a lot of foot traffic, and there are a lot of events in the park right across from our location,” she said. “We are hoping to really be a benefit to the community as well as to the other merchants and residents around here.”
The store is open six days per week, closed on Mondays. It offers desserts like pound cake, layer cakes, bars and cookies. Tell Me Something Sweet also sells breakfast items like kolaches, muffins, scones and quick breads. Customers may also order items for delivery on the store website or through all of the major food delivery apps.
Candace and Kevin also work as pastors to support nonprofits. They moved to Texas from Chicago eight years ago because they thought it would be a better place to raise their family. Today they have a 20-year-old son at UNT as well as three daughters, ages 14, 12 and 7. She says that family was a major motivation for starting their business. They hope Tell Me Something Sweet becomes a place where people come by with their little ones to get a special slice of cake or a cookie. However, Candace does have one condition.
“Just remember, we’re not responsible for the sugar intake afterward,” she jokes.
