LOVE CAKE

Love Cake is an earnest LGBTQ+ love story set against the trials of the Covid-19 pandemic, exploring what it means to love unconditionally through difficult times.

Four years ago, Bryan Hicks left a lucrative corporate job to open a bakery with his trans girlfriend, Nadia Brooks, in conservative Houston, Texas. Their journey has been rocky from the start—they had to sue a transphobic landlord just to lease their space. Now, with the pandemic squeezing their finances, Bryan takes a loan from a shady lender, only to face even deeper trouble when he can’t pay it back. Left with few options, he rents out the bakery for an underground trans strip show, resulting in chaos and a ransacked store, pushing him to his limits.

Moving back in time, the story reveals the origins of their bakery dream, from Bryan’s first “love cake” for Nadia to Nadia’s last-ditch effort to save the shop by entering a televised baking competition. At the same time, Bryan is struggling to support both his queer son and a daughter whose political leanings are growing more conservative. Can he salvage his bakery and relationship, or will he lose them both?

Bell’s clear, straightforward prose captures both the cozy warmth of the bakery and the electric energy of Houston’s underground. Love Cake explores the nuances of trans-cis and interracial relationships, the cultural tensions of MAGA-era politics, and the toll of the pandemic, creating a story that feels timely, raw, and profoundly resonant.