Ashley Woodad makes baking four-layer cakes look easy. Photos by Erika Bolin.

AUGUSTA, GA. - The Boll Weevil is tucked down next to Augusta’s Riverwalk. It is an eatery and sweetery that dishes out the most splendid of desserts.

Starting with what was once an abandoned warehouse, property owner George Harrison took an idea for a “simple sandwich shop” and turned it into a downtown institution.

“We were just beer and popcorn. But we kept having to add on to accommodate customers,” Harrison said.

 

The restaurant serves fancified casual foods with homemade bread and desserts. Those desserts, which are ultra-decadent, made the Boll Weevil locally famous.

Harrison said he was inspired to add the broad dessert menu after a visit to California.

 

“It’s been a long time now, but I’d been visiting in Long Beach. We were out on Second Street. It was about two in the morning and we went to a bakery for dessert. You had to stand in line to get pie.”

 

He watched with an entrepreneur’s interest. “I saw that it was a phenomenon.”

 

Upon returning to Augusta, Harrison began ordering an upscale distributor’s cakes. But he had another epicurean epiphany after the costly apple pie cut badly.

 

“We had been using these flame-glazed apples for a dinner entrée,” he said. “I thought, ‘This is too good for just that.’ One day I asked, ‘Can’t we make something in dough that’s our own?’”

 

Viola! The Boll Weevil’s “Apple Blossom” was created. Harrison laughs: “Today we can’t keep them in stock. We bake them all day long right here. And still we run out.”

 

The shop’s master baker, Ashley Woodard, agreed, adding, “It may be our easiest recipe, but it’s the most popular.”

The blossom is as simple as American apple pie. It is made of spiced apples (sugar and cinnamon) baked in a pastry shell. But then it’s topped with caramel and served with a big scoop of ice cream. You get two for $4.95.

 

Years after the Apple Blossom became popular, the Boll Weevil is now so dessert oriented it has three full-time bakers.

 

Woodard runs the on-site bakery like a queen bee delegating the filling of a comb. She said once Boll Weevil’s industrial sized mixers are in gear, the small team can bake more than 350 layers of cake in a day. Most of the cakes served are a towering four layers high.

 

Presently, there is no public access to the bustling bakery. “We were going to do a public bakery but we decided against it,” Woodard said. “If people want a whole cake they can just ask. They run between $30 and $35. A slice of any of our desserts is $4.95.”

 

To keep Boll Weevil’s cakes unique, Woodard admitted she did some sleuthing from the tried-and-true cake peddlers. “The cakes we were buying were so expensive. I started to recreate my own versions. Like the Caramel Fudge Pecan Pie,” she said, lowering her voice.

 

“I kind of duplicated the recipe as best I could. Mine is a layer of caramel, then a layer of brownies, then a layer of homemade fudge. Then it gets topped with toffee bits.”

 

She has just invented a couple desserts from scratch, too. “I have two new cakes called the Raspberry Rhapsody Cake and Canary Cake. I’ll be getting them out there this week.”

Boll Weevils’ other daily dessert finds are also all-American. They also serve the ancient traditional versions of Red Velvet Cake and Hummingbird Cake.

 

Woodard said of the delicious duo, “Our Red Velvet is made very traditional down to the cream cheese frosting. The Hummingbird is coconut and pineapple and cinnamon in a white cake batter. People love them.”

 

She leaves out that these two, like most of the indulgent slivers served, are the size of a small loaf of peasant bread. They are rich and designed to bring out your inner child. Gooey goodness commingles gleefully with the eye-popping portion.

 

The Boll Weevil also offers a daily sugar-free dessert so diabetics can indulge along with their sweet-toothed companions. Obviously, this is one place that’s serious about supplying all Augustans a sweet escape.

 

Boll Weevil Café and Sweetery
10 Ninth Street
Sunday-Thursday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.
706-722-7772
uniquelyaugusta.com