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Culinary
News
Culinary
Jasmine Macon ’13 and her Award-Winning Beyond Amazing Donuts
Back in 2020 Jasmine Macon ’13 baked donuts to sell for a fundraising event that happened to fall on National Donut Day (the first Friday of June) and she promoted it as a National Donut Day celebration. “There was a line at the door. We did about 300 donuts. People were super eager, and I had posted on social media, ‘Hey, if I start a consistent donut pop-up, would people support it?’ And the answer was yes.”
By 2023 her pop-ups became such a hit that she won Charlotte Magazine’s 2023 Best of the Best (BOB) Award for Best Donut Pop-Up. Earlier this year Macon’s Beyond Amazing Donuts (B.A.D.) took Charlotte Magazine’s 2025 Best of the Best (BOB) Award, Voter’s Choice, Best Donut. If you check out photos of her luscious, tempting donuts on her Instagram or website, showing off their multitude of colors, textures and toppings, you’ll see it’s no wonder her brand is pulling in impressive accolades and strong attention.
The Backstory of B.A.D. Donuts
Macon, who holds an A.S. in Baking & Pastry and a B.S. in Food Service Management, has been creating and selling donuts through different venues, from a food truck to a brick-and-mortar shop to pop-ups, since taking her first step in the donut business in 2015. As she tells the story, “I came across an ad for a donut food truck, Sugar Donuts, and thought to myself, I can make donuts. I can do this. So, I applied for the job, and for a while, I was the owner’s only employee as she worked to build her brand.”
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DQcHWsgDn0a/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA%3D%3DHer experience at Sugar Donuts, Macon says, “sparked something in me and I fell in love with donuts.” From her food truck foray, she made her way to Joe’s Doughs, a former coffee and donut shop in Charlotte. Next on her path was serving as the pastry chef at Leah & Louise in Charlotte which was just about the same time that COVID-19 hit.
“The day that we were supposed to have the grand opening for Leah & Louise, was the same day the COVID restrictions dropped.” But Chef Greg Collier, co-owner of the business, whom Macon said “knew about my donut history and passion for donuts” asked her to consider creating a pastry box of donuts to offer monthly to patrons — which led to her selling her donuts for the fundraiser and celebration of National Donut Day in 2020. Macon continued with the monthly venture throughout the duration of COVID restrictions."
When the restrictions were eventually lifted, we gradually got back to regular business,” shared Macon. But the patrons were already hooked on her donuts and wanting them more often. So, in addition to serving as the pastry chef for Leah & Louise for nearly two years, Macon used the kitchen to create donuts for a weekly Saturday pop-up held at Hex Coffee Roasters in Charlotte.
About two years later Macon was invited to partner with a local hospitality group and bring B.A.D. into a brick-and-mortar location for the next few years.
Today, Macon runs B.A.D. as “more of a mobile bakery,” she explained. “I like operating this way. It's a smaller scale, but it gives me a better work-life balance.” She now sells her donuts at farmers’ markets, cafés, shops and wholesale clients.
Macon’s Inspiration to Become an Entrepreneur
Macon’s drive to launch and run her own business began when she saw her father “doing the thing he loves the most.” He is a martial artist who has owned and operated a martial arts school for close to 30 years. “I saw my father find his passion and be able to make a living off that and I've always admired it. I always knew that I would do something for myself because I enjoyed what I saw in terms of his journey of being an entrepreneur.”
Why Confections of a Martian?
Fans of Macon and B.A.D. donuts can keep up with her life, her donuts and her love of baking through her personal Instagram, @confectionsOfaMartian. “In college,” Macon explained, “I used my Instagram as a diary entry. I would write about, ‘this is what I'm learning right now, this is what class I'm in, this is what we made, this is what I don't like, this is what I do like.’ And moving forward through life, it became my expression of my pastry journey.”
Marvin the Martian was one of her favorite characters from Looney Tunes, and her cousins and friends sometimes call her Marla. “I adapted the persona of Marla the Martian. I decided I was going to go by Confections of a Martian on my Instagram to talk about my pastry journey as a young Black woman in Charlotte.”
JWU’s Part in Macon’s Baking Journeys
“I always give credit [to JWU] for my understanding of the science of baking because my education really helped me develop my own recipe for Beyond Amazing Donuts,” said Macon. “I think Johnson & Wales gave me a perfect foundation for understanding the overall principles of baking and then applying those later on in life.”
When asked if any JWU faculty stood out to her, Macon didn’t hesitate to name Senior Instructor Harry Peemoeller. “I had so much fun in Chef P's class,” shared Macon. “Whenever I think of JWU and my experience there, he's one of the first people I want to thank. I really appreciated him, and I appreciated Associate Professor John Maas and enjoyed his class as well.”
What’s Macon’s Favorite B.A.D. Donut?
“My favorite is our Raspberry Sprinkle,” says Macon. “I don't use any food coloring in our glazes. I take the raspberries and cook them down, strain them, add a little bit of citrus and then incorporate that into powdered sugar to make the glaze. It's bright, it's tangy and it's a really good donut glaze.”
Her customers’ favorite is the Brown Butter with Sorghum Caramel. “It's a flavor that I made to honor my grandmother. When I was younger, she would eat regular white bread with butter and molasses. I thought it was nasty as a child, but now I'm like, oh, this goes together really well. So, I thought, how can I make a donut flavor that gives me that good feeling of remembering my grandma and paying respect to her? I came up with the Brown Butter and Sorghum Caramel, and people love that donut and I'm thankful that it’s our most popular one.”
Hear from Macon as she's asked about her favorites, her secrets and her tips of the trade.
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Back to her JWU Charlotte Roots
Over the past few years, Macon has been back at JWU Charlotte where she first learned her baking and pastry skills. She’s been putting smiles on the faces of students by having her award-winning donuts available for them on the first day of classes each semester.
“It's been great to see the students in their uniforms stop by and grab a donut from someone who was once in their space. That’s been a full circle moment for me, because I never would have thought I would be on the line with my business as a graduate from Johnson & Wales. I like it. It makes me appreciate the university for even reaching out and considering me to do it. They could easily order from a big business like Dunkin Donuts, but instead, they're going with an alum with a local business. It makes me feel really good.”
