Inside Sweets Through Time: Exploring the Evolution of Dark Desserts

Our dessert recipes are essential to our culture, as they have likely been passed down through generations and hold a special place in our hearts. Black desserts like pound cake, 7-up upside-down cake, red velvet cake, sweet potato pie, and peach crumble are important because there is a story behind their recipes. On July 7, we invited several Black women, bakers, and renowned chefs to discuss the cultural significance of each treat and the role of social media in amplifying their rich history in our communities, as well as explore the evolution of Black desserts from slavery to today. Moderator Kelli Browne took the stage at the Food And Wine Festival Experience with Jocelyn Delk Adams of Grandbaby Cakes, Chef Rozi of Rozisweets, and Chef Tregaye.

The ladies explained how they came to love and revere desserts and how they were able to put their own spin on age-old traditions and processes. Delk explained that her business was started because of her grandmother’s delicious dessert recipes. “I started Grandbaby Cakes, my website and the name of my first cookbook, 12 years ago, with all the recipes inspired by my grandmother. But then I wanted to take her recipes and put my own spin on them. I wanted the desserts to have a little bit of my personality. I wanted them to be fresh and unique. So I started combining ingredients or playing with them, kind of remixing them,” Delk said.

Chef Rozi recalls her early experiences with desserts and being around the elders in her family. “Like everyone, it always comes from a grandmother and a mother. So I was born in Liberia, West Africa, and I grew up with my mother in my grandmother’s kitchen. I just remember sitting there, watching them walk to the stove; they’re walking to put frosting on a cake, and it’s like a symphony happening,” she said.

Sometimes it’s hard to get recipes from our elders because they often don’t use measuring utensils! Chef Tregaye experienced this. “When I started my website, I would talk to my grandmother when she was still alive and ask her for recipes. Of course, she didn’t necessarily know the ingredients and the proportions. 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 year. I feel like it’s my living family cookbook. It’s my living cookbook, and it has all these recipes from my family that I forced them to write down,” she said.

Delk believes that remixing recipes is a way to keep the tradition of black desserts alive. “It’s by remixing the original recipe that we keep them alive. I think it’s time to teach our kids about the history of black desserts. By taking these old trends and mixing them with new ones, they will live on forever,” Delk said.