Wilkerson Moravian Bakery

Wilkerson Moravian Bakery is the oldest name in Moravian baking — a fifth-generation family bakery that has operated since 1925, now with a retail shop and drive-thru on South Stratford Road in Winston-Salem, NC. The Wilkerson family built its reputation on two things above all: Moravian sugar cake and Moravian cookies rolled paper-thin, both made from recipes handed down for a century.

The bakery’s specialties trace directly to the Moravian traditions that shaped Winston-Salem — the same traditions preserved a few miles away at Old Salem Museums & Gardens. Alongside the sugar cake and cookies, the shop turns out Carolina cheese straws made with extra-sharp cheddar, love feast buns, and seasonal specialties like hot cross buns, and it ships nationwide.

Be sure to check out the pictures below to get a feel for Wilkerson Moravian Bakery before you go — or to relive the visit after.

A Baking Dynasty Since 1925

The Wilkerson story starts with a love feast and a marriage. As a young man, Dewey Guy Wilkerson attended a love feast service in North Carolina — a traditional Moravian gathering centered on a simple shared meal — where he met Clara Jones. The two married in 1919, and that romance set the table, so to speak, for a baking dynasty.

In the early 1920s in Greensboro, Clara’s father Frank Jones sent his sons out to collect bricks to build a large commercial brick oven. Brick by brick, the Jones brothers and Dewey Guy Wilkerson — who brought an engineering background to the project — constructed the oven that launched Jones Brothers Bakery in 1925. Wilkerson drew his inspiration from the Moravian heritage of neighboring Winston-Salem, and the Moravian sugar cake and whisper-thin Moravian cookies the family brought to fame became the foundation of everything that followed.

Five generations later, the Wilkerson family is still at it, and still leaning on techniques that were never written down. As the family puts it, the best recipes and methods aren’t in books — they’re passed down by generations of master bakers, an approach they call the “Wilkerson Way.” The bakery’s motto, “taste tells the truth,” reflects the same idea. After decades built largely on wholesale and nationwide shipping, the Wilkersons opened their Stratford Road retail bakery and drive-thru, and were named recipients of the Triad Business Journal’s Family Business Award in 2022.

The Sugar Cake, the Cookies, and the Cheese Straws

The Moravian sugar cake is the product the family first became famous for, and it remains the signature. A yeast-raised dough made with pure butter, local honey, and real potatoes, topped with a melted brown sugar and cinnamon glaze, it’s a Winston-Salem holiday tradition treasured year-round — and best served warm from the oven.

The Moravian cookies are the other legend. Rolled paper-thin — the family remembers when the spice version was called a “glass cookie” for its tendency to shatter if handled roughly — they’re a genuinely difficult thing to make well, and Wilkerson’s century of practice shows. They come in several inspired flavors, from the traditional spice and sugar through variations like orange brandy and butter rum.

Beyond the two Moravian staples, the shop is known for Carolina cheese straws made with extra-sharp cheddar, pure butter, and a pinch of cayenne (a rosemary-and-four-cheese version pairs well with wine), plus love feast buns — the slightly sweet, buttery buns served at Moravian love feast services — and seasonal specialties like hot cross buns. Free cookie and cheese straw samples are usually on offer in the shop, and the drive-thru runs a coffee-and-sugar-cake-bite special. For anyone who can’t make it in, Wilkerson ships nationwide, including through Goldbelly, with holiday gift boxes and pop-up shops in November and December.

Good to Know

Location: 593 South Stratford Road, Winston-Salem, NC 27103 (with drive-thru)
Phone: 336-829-0407
Hours: Check the Wilkerson Moravian Bakery website for current hours
Founded: 1925 (as Jones Brothers Bakery, by Dewey Guy Wilkerson and the Jones brothers); the family later opened its Stratford Road retail bakery and drive-thru
The family: Fifth-generation, the oldest name in Moravian baking; Triad Business Journal Family Business Award, 2022
Signature products: Moravian sugar cake and paper-thin Moravian cookies (several flavors, including orange brandy and butter rum)
Also known for: Carolina cheese straws (extra-sharp cheddar; a rosemary four-cheese version), love feast buns, and seasonal hot cross buns
Shipping: Nationwide, including via Goldbelly; holiday gift boxes and seasonal pop-up shops
Moravian connection: Products trace to the Moravian traditions that founded Salem in 1766, preserved today at Old Salem Museums & Gardens
Best for: Moravian sugar cake and cookie lovers, holiday gifting, cheese straw fans, and anyone exploring Winston-Salem’s Moravian food heritage
Pair with: The full Winston-Salem food and beverage cluster; Old Salem Museums & Gardens and Historic Bethabara Park, where Winston-Salem’s Moravian and love feast traditions began; or Camino Bakery and Dough-Joe’s Doughnuts & Coffee for the rest of the local bakery scene

A Winston-Salem Highlight

Some things are worth doing the slow way. Wilkerson has been rolling out Moravian cookies since 1925, and the family will tell you the recipes were never written down — they’re passed from one generation of bakers to the next, five generations deep now. In a city built on Moravian tradition, that’s the kind of continuity that means something.

The sugar cake is the place to start. Yeast-raised, made with butter, honey, and real potatoes, and finished with a brown sugar and cinnamon glaze, it’s a Winston-Salem holiday staple that’s genuinely best eaten warm. The paper-thin cookies are the other essential — so thin the spice version was once nicknamed the “glass cookie” — and they’re a hard thing to make, which is exactly why a century of practice matters.

Grab some cheese straws while you’re there, take a sugar cake home to warm in the oven, and treat it as part of the larger Moravian story. The traditions behind these cookies go back to the settlers who founded Old Salem in 1766 and held the region’s first love feast at Bethabara in 1753 — and Wilkerson has been carrying them forward for a hundred years.