The new Kamala cake at Brown Sugar Bakery in Chicago did not just fall out of a coconut tree.
Baker Stephanie Hart created the cake inspired in part by a visit from Vice President Kamala Harris in 2021. The VP’s staff had pre-ordered a slice of German chocolate cake, made with coconut frosting. Harris had said it’s her favorite cake flavor, and she gets it for her birthday every year.
But Hart didn’t get to meet the vice president at the bakery, a Black woman-owned business open since 2002 in the Greater Grand Crossing neighborhood on the South Side.
“It was the height of the pandemic and I got a call from the bakery,” said Hart, who was working at the time at the former Cupid Candies factory she had just bought the year before in the Ashburn neighborhood on the Southwest Side.
“They said the vice president of the United States of America was coming to the bakery, and I hung up the phone on them,” the baker and business owner said. She thought it was a prank, but her staff called back on FaceTime. “And I could see the Secret Service.”
Hart immediately started heading toward her bakery, but traffic had already been blocked off to their stretch of 75th Street.
“But it was one of the biggest honors,” she said. “It was great for my staff morale. And it was great for our neighborhood.”
It was the first time that anything like that had happened on their street, she added, in their little business district.
“And it was an absolutely uplifting and exciting time for us,” Hart said. “It offered a type of lightness that really went far.”
Her new Kamala cake captures that lightness in chocolate mousse.
“I wanted to do something different with the outside frosting,” the baker said. Traditionally it’s a heavy coconut and pecan frosting. “So I made a whipped cream frosting, basically like a bright chocolate mousse. And I did that to represent the energy and liveliness that she’s bringing to this campaign, because you’ve got to admit the whole race has turned on its heels.”
Harris launched her presidential campaign after President Joe Biden withdrew on July 21. She officially became the Democratic Party nominee on Aug. 5. The Democratic National Convention will be held at the United Center from Aug. 19 to 22.
German chocolate cake, by the way, is not German, but all-American. The name comes from German’s Chocolate, the historic ingredient by Samuel German.
A traditional German chocolate cake has a cooked frosting made with eggs, butter and sugar, “that’s almost cooked to a caramelization, and then you’re adding in pecan,” Hart said.
Her bakery’s German chocolate cake is untraditional with its dark chocolate cake layers, “and that is because that’s what my grandmother did.”
The new Kamala cake will start with lighter chocolate cake layers, she said, spread with a coconut, pecan and walnut filling, all finished with a coconut pecan frosting.
“We’re going to come back and wrap the sides in the light chocolate,” the baker said. “Because I’m going for a particular look and color with this frosting.”
“I’m looking for a tone that represents her,” said Hart about Harris. “The whole idea of her being mixed race is what I’m going for in the look of the outside of the cake. And the reason that I’m dripping the cake with white chocolate and caramel is to represent the mixture of people in America.”
Her bakery has become best known for its caramel cake, the American southern staple with buttery yellow layers covered in the rich and radiant confection.
Brown Sugar Bakery still offers an Obama cake too, with layers of buttery yellow, dark chocolate and red velvet, all frosted with cream cheese icing, then topped with a drizzle of chocolate and pecans.
The Kamala cake just launched at Brown Sugar Bakery on Friday. It will be available as substantial slices, and as whole cakes by order.
The cake will be a permanent addition to the menu.
The baker was also inspired by Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman elected to Congress in 1968, and the first woman to run for the Democratic Party presidential nomination in 1972.
Hart feels that this election, though, is going to mark a change.
“And that will change the world forever,” the baker said. “So we’re gonna keep that cake on the menu.”
328 E. 75th St., 773-224-6262, brownsugarbakerychicago.com
More on what to get and where for a taste of democracy in Chicago, in alphabetical order by name of restaurant:
Obama Burger at Billy Goat Tavern
The former secret menu burger was created by staffers working late into the night on the first presidential campaign of then-candidate Barack Obama in 2008. Get the Obama Burger at the flagship Billy Goat Tavern location on the lower level of Michigan Avenue in the Streeterville neighborhood. It’s a modest double Cheezborger, even with its defining bacon, egg and grilled onions, all on a Kaiser roll, but when you fully dress it yourself at the condiment bar with pickles, raw onion, relish, mustard, ketchup, salt and pepper, it becomes a bold breakfast, lunch and dinner in a bun.
430 N. Michigan Ave., Lower Level; 312-222-1525; billygoattavern.com
Smoked seafood at Calumet Fisheries
Vice President Kamala Harris visited the beloved fish shack in 2023 and she got a lot, including smoked trout, pepper garlic trout, fried oysters and hot smoked salmon fresh from the wood-fired smokehouse. Get any of that, plus the fan-favorite pepper and garlic smoked salmon, and definitely the smoked shrimp if you can, at Calumet Fisheries, still takeout only in the South Deering neighborhood. The wild Gulf Coast shrimp (from old-time shrimper Dominick’s Seafood in Bayou La Batre, Alabama) hold the flavors of smoke and the sea, bracing with a swipe of mild sauce.
3259 E. 95th St., 773-933-9855, calumetfisheries.com
Chicago-style, thin crust, tavern, cut pizza at Italian Fiesta Pizzeria
Growing up, Michelle Obama’s parents rewarded her for good grades with pizza from their favorite local pizzeria, so the story goes, and later the future FLOTUS would introduce the future POTUS to that same neighborhood shop. Get an old-school sausage or unusual shrimp pizza at the Italian Fiesta Pizzeria location on 47th Street, takeout only in Hyde Park. The Chicago-style, thin-crust, tavern-cut pie will come loaded with melted mozzarella cheese no matter your topping of choice.
1306 E. 47th St., 773-684-2222, italianfiestapizzeria.com/47th-street-pizza-place
Southern food at MacArthur’s Restaurant
You’ll see framed photos of politicians and celebrities, but no shots of the young Obama family, who waited by the wall of fame in the same cafeteria line for American southern food. Get the golden fried chicken, which sells out faster than they can fry it fresh, at MacArthur’s Restaurant in the Austin neighborhood. Your meal comes with two sides, which should be the macaroni and cheese plus greens, and get the peach cobbler too, then sit outside on the lovely little patio, one of the few on the mighty West Side of the city.
5412 W. Madison St., 773-261-2316, macarthursrestaurant.com
Corned beef sandwich at Manny’s Cafeteria & Delicatessen
The historic Jewish deli-inspired restaurant has become the must-stop photo op for campaigns of all parties. Get the iconic piled-high corned beef sandwich at Manny’s Cafeteria & Delicatessen in the South Loop. Save room for a fat potato pancake too, and if you’re lucky Gino Gambarota, celebrating his 41st year behind the counter, will make your sandwich wryly on rye.
1141 S. Jefferson St., 312-939-2855, mannysdeli.com
Obama breakfasts at Valois Restaurant
Former President Barack Obama sure got out around town, and his secret may have been the most important meal of the day. Get one of his six (six!) favorite breakfasts on the menu at Valois Restaurant in Hyde Park. They range from steak and eggs to a veggie egg white omelet, but if you ask at the cafeteria in his old neighborhood, they’ll tell you that his regular order was scrambled whites, turkey sausage, hash browns, wheat toast and hot tea.
1518 E. 53rd St., 773-667-0647, valoisrestaurant.com
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