A Slice of Tradition: A Conversation with our First Fruitcake Competition Champion, Trevolyn Sullivan

The air hangs heavy with the scent of cinnamon, ginger, and rum. Sunlight streams through the kitchen window on Christmas Day, illuminating a mahogany-colored cake with a faint aroma of rum, spices, and candied fruit. This is no ordinary cake; it's Fruitcake, also called Black Cake, Rum Cake, or even Rum Plum Pudding depending on where and when in the diaspora you’ve emerged from. The rich loaf, a dense tapestry of flavors from all over the world, is steeped in more than rum, but in Jamaican history and tradition.

*Trevolyn Sullivan with her 1st place trophy for the First Annual JMCC Fruitcake Competition.*

After an eventful win at the Jamaican Museum and Cultural Center's (JMCC) First Annual Fruitcake Competition, in Stone Mountain, GA, we caught up with our first place winner, Trevolyn Sullivan, to talk about her prize-winning cake, and her tale of family, flavors, and the enduring legacy of Black Cake.

"When I grew up in Jamaica," Trevolyn reminisces, "it was always fruitcake, never Black Cake. But when I moved to the U.S., I discovered that 'fruitcake' here has a completely different meaning."

She laughs, "I would speak with Americans and they’d say ‘yuck, that’s nasty, like medicine.’ Initially, I couldn't understand why they were saying that, and over time I discovered that they were talking about a totally different thing than what we were. Our Caribbean fruitcake is something else entirely."

Trevolyn's journey baking Black Cake didn’t begin with a passion for baking. As a computer engineer by training, she never called herself a baker, but when her mother-in-law, the keeper of the family's treasured recipe, passed away, Trevolyn knew the tradition couldn't die with her. “My mother in law, in my mind, made the best fruitcake I had ever tasted. And just before she died, I asked if she would give me the recipe.”

She gave me just about all of it that she could.” But, there was something missing from the recipe. “She didn't remember the temperature of the oven. So, I had to come up with the rest of the recipe through trial and error.” After a few years, she landed on a recipe that has grown her reputation, and led her to start her own business, Decadent Delicious Black Cakes, where she bakes traditional Black Cake, and reinvents the classic cake as both vegan and as mini bundt cakes.

“I was never interested in baking, but I was interested in eating the cake.”

— Trevolyn Sullivan

Years of tweaking and perfecting culminated in Trevolyn's triumph at the JMCC competition. Her cake, a testament to her dedication, stood out in a field of other worthy contenders. When asked how she felt about being the very first to win the JMCC Fruitcake Competition, Trevolyn said, “I was surprised…Surprised and not surprised. People say my cakes are good, and I know my cake is good, but it was good to have won because I'm not really a baker. I'm retired from being a computer engineer, so it's a very different trajectory that my life took with baking.”

JMCC’s Fruitcake Competition coincided with the recent release of a Hulu series adaptation of the book, Black Cake, a story following the tumultuous life of a Jamaican girl who had to live many lives and hold many secrets to survive. In the end, the thing that bound the various parts of her story was Black Cake, and Trevolyn expressed her enthusiasm for the book. “In the book, they spent more time highlighting the tradition of the cake, and how it brings us together.”

When asked about the preservation of Jamaican cultural traditions, like the baking of Black Cake, Trevolyn was adamant that they should be preserved for the next generation, and described how these traditions allow her to carry Jamaica with her. “I left Jamaica when I was 17 and a lot of Jamaica came with me. Yes, I adjusted to being here, and, my husband’s family being Guyanese, I incorporated some of their traditions, but my Jamaican tradition is strong.”

The JMCC Fruitcake Competition may be over, but its legacy is just beginning to unfold. It's a testament to the enduring power of cultural traditions, a reminder that even in a seemingly ordinary slice of cake, there lies a world of stories waiting to be told. And as Trevolyn's journey so beautifully illustrates, sometimes, the sweetest victories are those that nourish not just the body, but the soul.

We hope to see everyone again next year for the next Fruitcake Competition!

You can find Trevolyn’s cakes on her website and email her at info@DecDelBlackCake.com.

Check out photos from the First Annual Fruitcake Competition!