by Sandra Hutchinson

While recently enjoying the beautiful Virginia springtime, and touring gardens during the 90th anniversary of Virginia’s Historic Garden Week, we made a short detour to the town of Marshall to have breakfast at the acclaimed Red Truck Rural Bakery.

The Marshall location is the bakery’s flagship location and headquarters; there’s a smaller location in Warrenton, Va. The owner, Brian Noyes, opened the bakery in 2009 after leaving a career in publishing in Washington, DC., to pursue his dream of operating a bakery. He quickly amassed a devoted fan base, and garnered acclaim from magazines like Southern Living, Garden & Gun, and Food & Wine, as well as from celebrities (Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey). Some of the accolades are mounted on a wall in the Marshall store. Undoubtedly Brian is well-connected!

We were impressed by the layout of the bakery: a large case displaying various pastries, and a table down the center of the café loaded with boxes containing many different varieties of cake. I loved the story of the Alma Hackney rum cake, described in the photo above, and even suggested to my choir director that he start bringing rum cake to choir rehearsals for better performance and attendance!

For breakfast, we chose the biscuit sandwich with bacon, egg and cheese. It was delicious, with just the right balance between the biscuit and the fixings.

I snuck a peak into the actual working part of the bakery, where bakers were icing cupcakes and cakes. It’s a bit hard to see, but there were literally piles of Bundt cake pans stacked on the shelves. It appeared to me that all the cakes are baked in some variety of these classic pans.

Brian Noyes has published two cookbooks featuring southern recipes since opening his bakery. I was so overcome by the breakfast sandwich that I was tempted to buy a signed cookbook, but I decided to forgo it, at least for now.

Red Truck ships its products, notably the cakes, nationwide. Click here for the bakery’s website.

We did purchase a sour cream coffee cake for the road and the trip home, and I can highly recommend it.

A side door into the bakery workspace!