Joy Keys chats with Brown Betty Dessert Boutique

Norrinda's love for her grandmother and mother's baking and desire to bring a modern bakery to Philadelphia's pastry scene that focused on taste as much as design (in the way old school bakeries used to) is what compelled her to "convince" her mother to open Brown Betty Dessert Boutique. Brown Betty Dessert Boutique is named after mother/grandmother, Elizabeth Ruth Hinton (friends and family call her either Betty or Liz). It is a good for us (and now you) that Betty's natural gift for baking rubbed off on her only daughter, Linda. Today, Linda and a team of meticulous bakers and creative decorators produce each delicious cake that Brown Betty makes.

A lawyer by day and round-the-clock entrepreneur, Norrinda Brown Hayat splits her time between Washington D.C. where she is an attorney with the federal government, and her hometown of Philadelphia where she runs the city’s most beloved bakery, Brown Betty Dessert Boutique.

Norrinda has been recognized as both an attorney and an entrepreneur.  Just recently she was featured in the Philadelphia Business Journal.  Brown Betty, which has been featured in local and national publications such as Philadelphia Magazine and O Magazine, was named the ‘#2 Bakery in the Country’ by TLC on their show, ‘Bodacious Bakeries’. 

Norrinda can now add “author” to her list of professions that details the family’s history, photos, and recipes that, when mixed together, are the ingredients for her growing cupcake empire with The Brown Betty Cookbook