Sinless Sweets offers healthy desserts at new location in Evans

The impetus for Sinless Sweets, a new dessert shop that just had its soft opening in Evans on Saturday, sprang from the loss of a child.

“This business started at a time that I needed it the most and didn’t even didn’t even realize it,” said owner Amber Connor. “This whole business started as a kind of a beauty from ashes.”

She had been 20 weeks pregnant and found out she was expecting a girl. Four days later in March 2020, she miscarried.

The miscarriage came as the COVID pandemic was in its early stages. Local business, such as Evans Fitness Center, where Connor worked at the time as a personal trainer, started closing. Connor instinctively turned to one pastime to comfort her amid the compounding heartache and worry.

“Baking has always been a passion of mine, but it’s also always been a kind of a stress reliever for me,” she said. It was “a way for me to kind of deal with that grief was to just get in the kitchen and start baking.”

Connor started sharing posts of her desserts on social media, and they were shared by her friends. People began asking her to bake for them. She would prepare pastries during the day, then drive around delivering them in the evenings with her two-year-old in tow.

Connor’s fitness background had long sparked creativity in the kitchen that helped her discover how to make healthy treats. As implied by the shop’s name, Connor specializes in healthy confections: gluten-free, low-carb, sugar free and even vegan dishes. As a fitness trainer and a former bikini competitor, Connor was all too familiar with being particular about what and how she eats.

“I started creating desserts out of protein powder,” she said. “I would make protein mug cakes and protein brownies and things like that.”

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After experimenting with swapping ingredients for some of her favorite desserts, Connor developed a knack for health-conscious baking that would later have her fitness clients first asking for recipes, then just requesting to buy the baked goods themselves.

“Well, at that time, I just I didn’t have the time to do it,” said Connor. “But when COVID happened, and the miscarriage happened, that was a time for me to really get the kitchen and just express my talent.”

By the time Evans Fitness reopened, Connor was making more money from baking sales than her job as a trainer. By April 2021, Sinless Sweets had acquired a food truck.

“What started out with this horrible loss ended up being something that the Lord really put on laid on my heart,” said Connor.

The bakery’s first brick-and-mortar location will have its grand opening Jan. 21; but its soft opening was as busy as Sinless Sweets has ever been. Plenty of customers came in, ordered cakes and lined up to look at the desserts on display, which Connor says is a small portion of a menu she’s still narrowing down.

Several visitors have been loyal customers since Connor started selling in March 2020. Brownies, as well as blondies, along with carmelitas and specialized blueberry pop tarts are among fan favorites that also were big sellers that first day.

For someone like Connor who lives helping and getting know people, the shop is an opportunity to help people, whether it’s a former client with diabetes who wants to eat healthier; or helping a friend’s child, who can’t eat dairy and is yet to eat their first birthday cake.

“It’s really cool to just make relationships with people,” said Connor. I get to talk to people and learn about their families the struggles that they experienced with diabetes, or gluten allergies or weight issues, and we get to help with all of that.”

Sinless Sweets is located at 4336 Washington Road, Suite B, Evans. For more information visit its Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/sinlesssweettreats or its website at

https://www.sinless-sweet.com/.

Skyler Q. Andrews is a staff reporter covering Columbia County with The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.