BELLINGHAM, WA (MyBellinghamNow.com) – At Slice of Heaven Bakery and Cafe, innovation and exploration are at the heart of the craft.
Sibling duo Marci and Colby Abshire opened the shop in 2022 after Marci’s successful home baking operation and the team took on cooking up and delivering meals to immunocompromised community members during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Their work has been centered around the idea that no job is too difficult or too ordinary.
Slice of Heaven offers a variety of services, providing full meal catering for weddings and events as well as custom cakes and desserts. Marci described making dishes for events that she’s never attempted before but being pleasantly surprised with the results.
“I had never in my life made polenta, so I made it for these customers, and they came in and sampled. And second time I made it was for their wedding. And at the wedding, he’s like, ‘Nobody could believe that you guys had never made this before, you know.’ So, yay,” she said with a smile.
The born-and-raised Bellingham residents grew up in the Birchwood neighborhood before splitting off for college: Colby to Washington State University and Marci to Western Washington University.
Colby came back to Bellingham after graduating from college, saying that he missed Whatcom County.
“The Palouse [region] was horrendous compared to over here,” he said. “The wheat fields [were] just flat, hot in the summer, cold in the winter, no trees, no mountains, no water.”
After finding themselves in the same city once more, the siblings started work at a local business they would not name. They worked there for roughly three decades and became tired of what they referred to as activities that law enforcement deals with.
“It was a complete opposite side of the spectrum there,” Marci said. “We didn’t always deal with the most pleasant people. [There was] a lot of drug use in the business we were in before, theft and all that kind of stuff.”
She adds that operating in the confectionary business is more amiable.
“Most people are pleasant about sugar.” -Marci Abshire.
“Most people get happy when they get to see some of this stuff, and they’re like, oh, smiles,” Colby said. “Kids come in and it’s like parents are [say] ‘Don’t touch the glass.’ We’re like, ‘Oh, touch the glass.’ It’s like going into a toy store. You want to get up and get your face [close to the glass] if you got glass cleaner, people to clean it. Let them play and have fun.”
Partners in business, Colby and Marci also share a house near the Chuckanut area. Colby had been renovating the house years before to build an ADU for his mother to live in, but she passed before the renovation was complete. Marci moved in and they say their set up is both separate and connected.
“She lives downstairs. I live upstairs. Kind of meet in the middle and go our separate ways,” Colby said.
Though they’re siblings, some people mistake the duo for a married couple because of their bickering with familiarity. Marci sometimes tells people they don’t fight like a couple; they fight like brother and sister do. Marci and Colby split the business pretty evenly, but Marci pulls rank with her 51% share on occasion for on some decisions.
The team has faced frustrations after a car crashed through the front of their Samish Way storefront a couple years ago, taking out their patio space. Over the next two years, the co-owners negotiated with their insurance company before finally coming to an agreement to finance the repairs in late 2025.
“It almost put us out of business, because then [we] spent everything that was in our savings just to get back up and running,” Colby said.
Marci said in an email that they’ve signed a contract with Dawson Construction to repair the wall currently covered in a plywood panel and a window cut out with plans to begin construction in March.
Regular faces on KAFE’s This Morning with Dave, Allen and Patrice, the Abshires bring in a litany of sweets and breakfast items for the hosts and guests on Festive Fridays.
“It’s getting the point now where it’s actually, you can see where it might be successful versus two years ago, I was like, ‘If you make a mistake, you know,'” Colby said, trailing off. “And so, I think there’s kind of that overall feeling of building something of your own that actually matters.”
We are Whatcom is a weekly column featuring Whatcom County residents making a positive impact on the community. To submit a Whatcom County resident to be featured, click here.
