If you have a sweet tooth, then Oct. 14 might become your favorite day. It marks a national holiday made to celebrate and enjoy the best desserts that add a little sweetness to our day. For National Dessert Day, we are celebrating 8 Black pastry chefs who have made a name and a following for themselves by doing what they do best: baking sweet, tasty goods.
Camari Mick was destined to become a chef from a very young age. After dinner, she always wanted one thing—something sweet. That’s what influenced her to start baking desserts with her mother’s help. She pursued a bachelor’s degree in pastry arts and is now a renowned pastry chef in New York City. At the height of the pandemic, she launched the Musket Room’s all-day café and became the restaurant’s first executive pastry chef.
She earned two other titles: executive pastry chef and partner of the restaurant’s sister location, Raf’s. Some of her desserts are inspired by her Jamaican roots, like her jerk ice cream and rum cake. Last month, Mick announced that she was leaving her executive pastry chef roles to open something new called L’Atelier Ébène. There, she will focus on creating savory dishes with Afro-Caribbean influences.
Jocelyn Delk Adams’ Grandbaby Cakes isn’t just about making sweets. It’s about continuing a legacy of love and celebrating wins. Adams was inspired to become a pastry chef by her grandmother, who would often make delicious, melty desserts from fresh ingredients.
Now Adams is taking her family recipes and putting a modern spin on them to share with the world. Her dishes not only look sweet but are also comforting. Some of the dessert foods she’s shown on her Instagram include: Butter Pecan Butter Swim Biscuits, No Bake Kool Aid Pie, and even Apple Dumplings.
Vallery Lomas will leave any follower on her page with a watery mouth. Her Instagram is full of various recipes, both cooked and baked. She started baking consistently during grad school to relieve stress.
That turned into her creating a food blog. She later decided to compete on the fourth season of Great American Baking Show and won. Her historical success made her the first Black winner on the show. As for her food, she isn’t afraid to try something new with a traditional dish. This includes her Hummingbird Cake, which is a mix of carrot cake and banana bread. There’s also her Cranberry Cornbread, her Marbled Chocolate Pumpkin Pie and her Pear & Cardamom Upside Down Cake.
Chef Jatee Kearsley is the owner of Je T’aime Patisserie in Brooklyn, New York. The menu features several sweet French bites that include fruit danish, sweet creamed cheese kolachi, and pineapple rhumm baba. She too got her start at an early age and fell in love with the craft. As a teenager, she had bake sales outside of her Queens apartment every summer. One trip to Paris sparked her desire to open her first bakery with Parisian-style pastries. The best part is she doesn’t use processed ingredients or coloring. Instead, she uses fresh fruit and jams.
Benjamina Ebuehi’s journey to becoming a pastry chef didn’t begin in the kitchen. It simply started with her love for eating sweet treats and baked goods.
In 2016, she turned that love into a passion and appeared on The Great British Bake Off, where she reached the quarter-finals. Now working as a food stylist, Ebuehi shares the beautiful baked goods on her Instagram. She’s even written three cookbooks and is a regular columnist at Guardian Feast. Adding on to her already full plate, Ebuehi uses her love for baking to give back. She’s an ambassador for Luminary Bakery, which is a program that empowers women who experience domestic violence, sexual exploitation, and homelessness.
Bree gives her audience vibrancy and fun with her pastries. She primarily showcases her cake pop art on her Instagram page, Bree Bakes. Mini desserts usually have a theme based on the season or holiday. She may even get creative with the design and mold cakes into other food shapes.
Daphane DeLone works as a pastry chef in West Hollywood at a seafood restaurant called Connie and Ted’s. She’s been there since 2022, and all the baked goods, including the desserts, are made in-house. One thing she’s known for is her infamous whoopee pies. It is a sweet, fluffy treat that’s a cross between a cake and a cookie. She has a Sweet Potato Spice version of it and a Chocolate one with vanilla filling. But the current flavor on Connie and Ted’s menu is the Lemon and Lavender Whoopie Pie, with a buttercream filling.
Tiara Bennett’s goal when starting The Pastry Box was to bring some joy into her neighbors’ lives during the pandemic. She would sell sweet treats in front of her apartment and make enough to turn her dream into a reality. In 2023, her bakery was born. She made history with this feat by becoming the first Black-owned restaurant in Manhattan’s East Village in 25 years.
