Cake as an Act of Protest
Here’s a truth I know: sometimes, the only thing you can do with the rage, the heartbreak, and the absurdity of modern life is to bake a cake. Not just any cake. A cake that means something. A cake that raises a middle finger to the people and systems that would rather you sit down, be quiet, and accept their version of how things are done. Because if you are going to be underestimated, or dismissed, or patronized, or excluded from the table, you might as well bring dessert.
People think protest is always marching in the street, bullhorn in hand, or chaining yourself to a statue outside city hall. Sometimes it is. But sometimes, protest starts in your own kitchen, in a chipped ceramic bowl, with a battered wooden spoon and a recipe you refuse to follow. Protest is about taking up space, making noise, and refusing to shrink. Cake just happens to be my favorite weapon.
Baking is radical when you do it for yourself. Baking is radical when you do it for your people, especially when your people were never meant to be included in the first place. There is a reason every movement and every rebellion has always found a way to feed itself. Bread lines, community meals, kitchen tables crowded with plates and stories. You want to disrupt the system? Feed people who were never supposed to be fed. Make something sweet for the ones told they are too much, too loud, or not the right kind. You want to survive a week of headlines, betrayals, and relentless bureaucracy? Bake the cake.
Protest cake does not look like the ones on magazine covers. Sometimes it is lopsided, sometimes the icing slides off, sometimes you burn the bottom because you are ranting about a judge who cannot find bias if it hit him with a subpoena. That is fine. That is part of the point. The world wants perfect; protest cake is honest.
I have baked cakes because that is all I could do in the moment. I have baked cakes with recipes passed down from women who survived things I will never know about and never have to, thanks to them. I have also, for the record, eaten an entire cake in the secrecy of my own home after a truly bad day in court because sometimes the only protest left is refusing to deprive yourself of something indulgent and socially unacceptable.
Baking is chemistry, but it is also alchemy. Rage becomes sustenance, bitterness becomes sweetness, loneliness becomes a feast. It is the slow, patient art of making something out of what you are handed, refusing to apologize for the mess, the volume, or the fact that the whole kitchen smells like sugar and rebellion for days.
So this is my invitation. The next time someone tells you to pipe down, do not make it about you, or let the grownups handle it, bake a cake. Make it from scratch, from a mix, or from whatever you have. Bring it to the table you were told you did not belong at, and serve it with a story about why you are there. If someone does not want a slice, that is their loss. More for us.
Here is to protest, to sugar, and to never sitting quietly at the table or anywhere else.
A Cake Recipe for Protest and Celebration: Tres Leches
If you are looking for a cake that refuses to be subtle, one that soaks up everything thrown at it and comes out richer for the struggle, let me offer you my favorite cake to honor resilience. Tres Leches. This is a cake that shows up at every kind of gathering: celebration, protest, mourning, reunion. It is classic in Mexican, Central American, and pan-Latino communities for a reason. It says, this is our table. We are here to stay. We will be as sweet, as rich, and as unapologetic as we need to be.
Tres Leches Cake
Ingredients
1 cup all-purpose flour
One and one half teaspoons baking powder
One quarter teaspoon salt
Five large eggs, separated
One cup sugar, divided
One third cup whole milk
One teaspoon vanilla extract (measure with your heart or rage)
One can, twelve ounces, evaporated milk
One can, fourteen ounces, sweetened condensed milk
One quarter cup heavy cream
For the topping
One pint heavy whipping cream
Three tablespoons sugar
One teaspoon vanilla extract (measure with your heart or rage)
Ground cinnamon, optional
Sliced strawberries or mango, optional for serving
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease and flour a nine by thirteen inch baking dish.
2. In a bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.
3. In a large bowl, beat egg yolks with three quarters cup sugar until pale and thick. Stir in milk and vanilla.
4. Gently fold the flour mixture into the yolk mixture.
5. In a separate bowl, beat egg whites to soft peaks. Gradually add the remaining one quarter cup sugar and beat to stiff peaks.
6. Fold egg whites into the batter in thirds. Do not overmix.
7. Pour batter into the prepared pan. Bake for twenty five minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
8. Cool cake for fifteen minutes. Poke holes all over the top with a fork.
9. In a pitcher, whisk together evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk, and one quarter cup heavy cream. Pour slowly over the cake, letting it soak in.
10. Chill cake at least two hours. Overnight is best.
11. For topping: Whip cream, sugar, and vanilla to soft peaks. Spread over the cake. Sprinkle with cinnamon and garnish with fruit if desired.
12. Serve unapologetically.
What struck me about the protests on “No Kings Day” was people from every race, sex, gender, age, state, and any other socially constructed category, coming together because of the horrific behavior of power towards people who make our community beautiful.
I honor the people who are being attacked daily and who make our lives richer and more beautiful by being here, with a cake that absorbs everything it is given and turns it into joy. If that is not protest and celebration at once, I do not know what is. Serve big slices. Take up space.
As an American, I want you to know you already belong at my table, and you always will.
With gratitude,
Dr. Tracy A. Pearson, J.D. is a legal, political and cultural analyst, writer, host, and and researcher, who appears weekly as a Contributor on the SiriusXM network, SiriusXM Progress Channel 127, on John Fugelsang’s Tell Me Everything.
She is an expert in implicit bias, investigations, corruption, abuse of power, and law, and she appears on various networks explaining complex issues in simple ways. You have seen her on NewsNation, Cheddar News, Fox5DC, NOWLIVE from Fox, KNX LA, Los Angeles’ longest operating talk radio station, and other ABC, NBC and CBS stations.
Dr. Pearson is currently writing a book based on the first study on implicit bias in workplace investigations and which is cited in the California Labor and Employment Law Review and Capital & Class (Sage Journals)
She is the host and Executive Produce of the podcast What We Don’t Know with Dr. Tracy available on Apple Podcasts, Patreon, and with free samples anywhere you find your favorite podcast.
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