Makin' Cake
A documentary film slicing into race, class & equity through the cultural history of baking
Writer and performance artist Dasha Kelly embarks on a cross-country journey to explore the cultural history of baking in America.
Film Trailer
A first look at Makin' Cake — the cross-country journey through the cultural history of baking -and equity- in America.
Film Description
In Makin’ Cake, writer and performance artist Dasha Kelly embarks on a cross-country journey to explore the cultural history of baking in America. Through conversations with bakers, scholars, and social scientists—and through live footage from her nationally touring stage production—Kelly explores how the history of cake reveals the country’s “baked in” structures of inequity.
Blending documentary storytelling with performance and personal experimentation in the kitchen, Makin’ Cake uncovers how a beloved dessert reflects deeper questions of race, class, and access in American life. Along the way, she steps into the kitchen herself, attempting to bake while unpacking the layered histories behind everyday ingredients.
Add Your Ingredient to the Conversation
Watched the documentary or attended a live show? Share the thoughts and reflections that rose for you once the batter settled.
Production & Screenings
Snapshots from the film festival circuit, scholar interviews, camera equipment, and on-location filming across America.
Makin' Cake Marquee Premiere
Dasha Kelly at the festival screening under the Makin' Cake marquee banner.
Milwaukee Film Red Carpet
Celebrating the documentary journey on the Milwaukee Film festival red carpet.
On Location Scholar & Educator Interview
Cinema Lens
Travel Lenses
Director Statement
Cake shows up at our most joyful moments—birthdays, weddings, holidays, graduations. It is the symbol of celebration. But when I began researching the history of baking, I discovered that the ingredients, tools, and labor behind cake tell a much deeper story about who had access to resources, whose labor made those celebrations possible, and whose stories were left out of the recipe.
Makin’ Cake grew first as a stage production where I combined performance, history, and storytelling to invite audiences into a conversation about race, class, and equity. The film expands that conversation. Traveling across the country, I spoke with bakers, historians and social scientists who helped illuminate the complex history behind everyday ingredients.
This documentary invites audiences to see something familiar in a new way. Cake becomes a lens through which we can examine power, citizenship, resilience, and celebration in America. My hope is that viewers leave not only hungry for cake—but also curious about the stories and inequities baked into our foundation.
Dasha Kelly
Director, Writer & Performer
Film Credits
The bakers, historians, legal scholars, and extension educators who illuminate the recipe of America in Makin' Cake.
Bobby Outlaw
Premier Cakes
Raleigh, NC
Tracy Outlaw
Premier Cakes
Raleigh, NC
Kimberly Adams
Signature Sweets
Milwaukee, WI
Donna Donald
Past National President (retired), NEAFCS
National Extension Association of Family and Consumer Sciences
Kate Hoy
NEAFCS Extension Educator
Raleigh, NC
Jayne McBurney
NEAFCS Extension Educator
Garner, NC
Mackenzie Johnson
NEAFCS Extension Educator
Spencer, IA
Jane Henderson
NEAFCS Extension Educator
Amelia, VA
Karen Munden
NEAFCS Extension Educator
Virginia Beach, VA
Lisa K. Taylor
NEAFCS Extension Educator
Carson City, NV
Aubrion Edwards
NEAFCS Extension Educator
Houston, TX
Teisha Holliman
NEAFCS Extension Educator
Houston, TX
Tara Brown
NEAFCS Extension Educator
Waurica, OK
Julie Garden-Robinson
NEAFCS Extension Educator
Fargo, ND
Doug Kiel, Ph.D
Professor of Native History and Politics
Northwestern University; Evansville, IL
Nan Kim, Ph.D
Professor of Public History
University of Wisconsin; Milwaukee, WI
Kali Murray, J.D.
Professor of Law
Marquette University; Milwaukee, WI
Andrew Schneider
Baking Instructor
Milwaukee Area Technical College; Milwaukee, WI
Keosha Nelson
Baking Instructor
Milwaukee Area Technical College; Milwaukee, WI
Kurt Fogle
Baking Instructor
Milwaukee Area Technical College; Milwaukee, WI
Rebecca Sharpless, Ph.D
Professor of History
Texas Christian University; Fort Worth, TX
Merry Weisner-Hanks, Ph.D
Distinguished Professor Emerita of Gender and Women’s Studies
University of Wisconsin; Milwaukee, WI
Robert S. Smith, Ph.D
Harry G. John Professor of History / Director of Center for Urban Research and Teaching
Marquette University
Tamu Jones
Sister, Show Baker
Makin' Cake Stage & Production
Dasha Kelly
Director & Host
Dasha Kelly
Dasha Kelly is a writer, performance artist, and creative change agent whose work bridges storytelling, performance art, and social inquiry. She is the author of award-winning poetry, essays, and fiction, and a mainstage storyteller and host with The Moth.
A Poet Laureate Emerita for both the City of Milwaukee and the State of Wisconsin, Kelly is also a National Laureate Fellow with the Academy of American Poets. An alum of HBO’s Def Poetry Jam, she has served internationally as an Arts Envoy for the U.S. Embassy. Her nationally touring stage production, Makin’ Cake, explores race, class, and equity through the cultural history of baking.