About Layered Love Gourmet

The Story Behind the Love

Hi, I’m Kendra, and I have strong opinions about dessert. It all started with the world's greatest pudding recipe and sculpted cakes.

In 2008, I was tasting banana pudding at restaurants and falling in love, but it was never consistent. My last straw came at a family cookout, where someone served the gummiest pudding I had ever met. I went home and made the version I wished existed: thick, creamy, and consistent. At my Dallas bakery, it was the first thing to disappear at every event.

In 2013, my daughter was born four months early and spent 10 months in the NICU. Life paused. When we finally came home, I knew I wanted to build something with purpose baked in, something for her and for the NICU families still living in those hospital rooms.

In 2016, my team and I launched my layered pudding jars as Pudding on Smiles. We grew from Dallas farmers markets to local shops to the shelves at Central Market by 2018. In 2020, after a divorce and the closing of Pudding on Smiles, the brand became Dainty Puddings. I was finding my footing without a team, and I knew my time in Texas was over, even though the next step wasn’t clear. In 2025, I moved to Charlotte, North Carolina, for a fresh start and a name that finally fit: Layered Love Gourmet.

Today, I’m a home-based bakery in Charlotte, and I’ve moved on from puddings to treats I’m just as obsessed with: Softies (oatmeal cream pies), Darlings (vanilla wafer cookies), and Darling Dippers (vanilla wafer cookie dippers), all baked in small batches in my own kitchen. My Darlings are also my gift to pudding lovers everywhere, a fresh cookie to add to your own puddings and layered desserts.

Everything is made to order in a weekly batch, so it’s always fresh. Have it shipped to your door or pick up locally in Charlotte.

I’m still building this for my daughter, who is our official Quality Control Manager, and for NICU families everywhere. Every order helps keep this dream going, and you’re part of the story.

With all the love (and probably flour on my apron),

Kendra Tamika
Founder and Head Baker in Charge (HBIC)
Layered Love Gourmet