The Baked Good: A food truck that bakes for a purpose

From spending her childhood days in the kitchen with her mother, to now dedicating hours each day to baking for her food truck business, Katie Seevers has accomplished a career in what she truly loves.

In 2019, Seevers opened a bakery – The Baked Good – out of her home in Burlington, North Carolina, where she provides a service of products like specialty cupcakes, cookies, brownies, muffins and more to locals, businesses, event vendors and Elon University students. 

Although she always had a knack for baking, Seevers spent several years at a traditional 9-to-5 job before moving into her prior work for a nonprofit. It was in this role that she realized she ultimately wanted to bake full time.

Part of Seever’s job in her nonprofit work was to organize and run fundraisers. One fundraiser, supporting The Cupcake Kids, required her to make thousands of cupcakes in preparation for the event sale. Some people at the fundraising sale then spent up to $5,000 per cupcake because they knew that the money from the event was going to help children in Uganda through The Cupcake Kids charity project, Seevers said.

“That’s where I started thinking more seriously about baking – both as a potential job and a way to give back to others,” Seevers said. “The fundraiser was truly a step in the direction to go toward where I’m at now.”

Continuing her work for a nonprofit, Seevers began baking more frequently for her friends – one of whom had a son at Elon. Her friend posted about Seevers’ baked goods that she ordered on an Elon class parents' Facebook page, and suddenly Seevers found herself baking and delivering orders to Elon nonstop to fulfill message requests her friend was receiving. 

Shortly after, The Baked Good was officially created as a business.

In the early days of The Baked Good, Seevers loved crafting and delivering care packages filled with her homemade baked treats to Elon students. Then in March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic struck, and students went home. Business suffered a little at first, Seevers said, but customers kept ordering baked goods that could be shipped by the dozen. 

“There's a lot of Elon parents and families in the community that are incredibly supportive,” Seevers said. “It’s really amazing when I receive that kind of love from other people.”

When students arrived back at school that fall, the number of orders and deliveries increased again. She knew an addition to The Baked Good would only supplement the business, so in August 2021, Seevers opened a food truck to add to her at-home bakery.

A food truck allowed her to start going to corporate events, weddings and farmers markets. As Seevers began to go to more and more events around North Carolina, she enlisted the help of her daughter Claire.

It was one thing to manage orders and bake mostly by herself before, but navigating food preparation, talking to customers and payments by herself presented more difficulties. So she was grateful when Claire began attending for truck days, Seevers said.

"I also really wanted to help out with the food truck because I just like talking with all sorts of people in the community," Claire Seevers said. "I really love going to the Elon Farmers Market the most and talking to the students there."

The Baked Good has been consistently at the Elon Farmers Market on many Thursdays for over a year now, according to Seevers.

Students like Elon senior Abbey Goodchild enjoy regularly attending the market to go to the food truck for a pick-me-up coffee or lemon bar -- her favorite baked good to order.

"I like going every week while they're in season to treat myself. It's my favorite stop at market," said Goodchild. "It's also just nice because I'm always greeted with a smile, and they know my name now."

Aside from the Elon Farmers Market, The Baked Good has also attended the Eno Rivers Farmers Market in Hillsborough.

Markets for food trucks to attend, as well as the number of trucks, have grown across the country. But the industry wasn't always as popular as it is now.

Nationally, by 2021, there were over 32,000 food trucks, according to data from a March 2023 Zippia Food Truck Analysis Trend Report. Beginning in 2019, there was a spike across the country in the growth of food trucks — and The Baked Good first opened during that increasing popularity in the industry.

When it came down to a business addition for The Baked Good, Seevers said that not only was a food truck more fiscally responsible for her business, but it offered her more flexibility in her daily routine than purchasing a storefront would.

“It's great because I can also just be here in my kitchen to bake for events and deliveries, but I can also just take a break to make dinner or answer my children’s schoolwork questions,” Seevers said. “It’s just nice that I can do all of that and not worry about being at a separate place and then having to come home.”

Having a food truck and baking from home allows continued support from family, said Seevers. Aside from working with her mom during food truck events, Claire enjoys assisting in baking, finding new recipes, keeping the calendar organized for events and, most importantly, running The Baked Good’s Instagram account. 

“My mom is really good at what she does,” Claire Seevers said. “But there are definitely times when I like to hop in to assist in cleaning or organizing because business can get overwhelming sometimes. My favorite thing to do is take photos and post on Instagram for her though.” 

While working with family provides benefits – like not needing to hire external employees – it can be challenging sometimes. 

“It's much harder to work with family than it is [to work] with people that you don't really know or that you're just friends with,” Seevers said. “It's harder because you're going to be blatantly honest with your family members, while you would probably hold back and be kinder with someone that's just a friend or colleague.”

As a mother of six children, Seevers has always been passionate about caring for others and helping people in need. These values of hers play into their business name, logo and tagline, “Baking Good. Tasting Good. Doing Good.” The logo represents a muffin tin with a heart design as one of the six muffins in the pan. 

“It may be cheesy, but a heart because I care. I’ve always had a heart for people that are in need, especially children,” Seevers said. “So incorporating the fact I worked for a nonprofit also played into the naming and logo design for the bakery.”

The “Doing Good” aspect also ties to Seevers’ career in nonprofit work before she opened the bakery and truck because 10% of all sales from The Baked Good go to different charities in the Alamance community. 

“It’s more than just business and baking at the end of the day, for me, it’s about giving back and supporting others,” Seevers said.