Our dessert recipes are essential as a culture, as they’ve likely been passed down through generations and hold a special place in our hearts. Black desserts such as pound cake, upside down 7-up cake, red velvet cake, sweet potato pie, and peach cobbler are significant because there’s a story behind their recipes. On July 7th, we invited several Black women prominent bakers and chefs to discuss the cultural significance of each sweet treat and the role of social media in amplifying their rich history in our communities, as well as exploring the evolution of Black desserts from slavery to now. Moderator Kelli Browne took over the Food And Wine Festival Experience stage with Jocelyn Delk Adams of Grandbaby Cakes, Chef Rozi of Rozisweets, and Chef Tregaye.
The ladies delved into how they came to love and revere desserts and how they could put their twist on age-old traditions and their process. Delk shared that her business was started because of her grandmother’s delicious dessert recipes. “I began Grandbaby Cakes, my website and the name of my first cookbook, 12 years ago, with all recipes inspired by my grandmother. But then, I wanted to take her recipes and put my spin on them. I wanted the desserts to have a bit of my personality. I wanted it to be fresh and unique. So I started combining ingredients or playing around, sort of remixing,” Delk stated.
Chef Rozi remembers her early moments with desserts and being with the elders in her family. “Like everybody else, it always comes from a grandmother and a mother. So I was born in Liberia, West Africa, and I grew up in my mom in my grandmother’s kitchens. I just remember sitting there watching them walking to the stove; they’re walking to put the icing on a cake, and it seems like there’s a symphony going on,” she said.
Sometimes, though, it’s hard to get recipes from our elders, as they often don’t use measuring utensils! That was Chef Tregaye’s experience. “When I started my website, I would talk to my grandmother when she was still alive and ask her for recipes. Of course, she did not necessarily know the ingredients and the ratios. So, I really took it upon myself to want to record those recipes, and I feel like my website now has over 1,000 recipes that have millions of readers every single year, I feel like it’s my living family recipe book. It’s my living cookbook, and it has all of these recipes from my family that I have forced them to write down,” she said.
Delk believes remixing recipes is a way to keep the tradition of Black desserts alive. “Creating remixes of the original dessert recipe is how we keep them alive I think that’s our moment to teach our kids Black dessert history. Taking those old trends and mixing them with new will allow them to live on forever,” Delk stated.
