Rebecca Curry makes sweets in Oak Cliff with Dolce

With her parents fostering “a creative household,” Curry decided to go to music school at the University of Texas at Austin, earning a degree in voice. She went on to live in Germany for about three years, spending time in Austria and living with a “German peasant” whom she cooked for all the time.

Eventually, Curry moved back to the United States where she landed a corporate job. She would be the one eager to bring food each year for the office Christmas parties and for all her family potlucks. After her dad passed away on Thanksgiving Day in 1999, her mom began inviting neighbors and friends over to the house each Thanksgiving. Thanksgivings then also became Easters, and the gatherings would grow to include up to 50 people.

With her parents fostering “a creative household,” Curry decided to go to music school at the University of Texas at Austin, earning a degree in voice. She went on to live in Germany for about three years, spending time in Austria and living with a “German peasant” whom she cooked for all the time.

Eventually, Curry moved back to the United States where she landed a corporate job. She would be the one eager to bring food each year for the office Christmas parties and for all her family potlucks. After her dad passed away on Thanksgiving Day in 1999, her mom began inviting neighbors and friends over to the house each Thanksgiving. Thanksgivings then also became Easters, and the gatherings would grow to include up to 50 people.

“It was so nice because all of these people got to know each other through coming to events at my mom’s home,” she says. “Some of her piano students would come, neighbors, college friends. I mean, anybody. If they didn’t have a place, they could come to my mom’s house, and I always say, ‘There are a couple people that cook, and a lot of people that eat,’ and I love doing that. I love doing big-scale events and whatnot.”

When her nephews moved to Colorado and had gone off to college, she was looking for a way to keep baking for others.

“I just kind of thought, ‘I wish there was some place I could take food or donate food, and try new recipes that I like to do,’” the Kidd Springs neighbor says.

That’s when she thought of the AIDS Services of Dallas and came across their No Tie Dinner nearly a decade ago. Curry describes the annual event as a gathering of different people coming together for one big party in support of the organization.

She recalls asking her mom about participating in the event for the first time, and her replying that it seems like a lot.

“And I said, ‘Mom, I make more than that at Christmas,’” she says. “I felt like I needed to have a name and not just be me (for the event) because a lot of the participants were restaurants. At that time, I had a cat who was the sweetest guy in the world, and sadly, he ended up being diabetic, but his name was Dolce.”

Thus, what she calls her “business/hobby,” Dolce, was born. For about a decade while still working her day job, Curry has been selling a variety of sweets including pies, cookies, caramels and ice cream.

“I have never known anybody that loves sweets like my dad. He loved ice cream, he loved sweets,” she says. “I love to make ice cream, and part of the reason I love to make ice cream is because my dad loved it.”

Besides her love of making sweets, Curry discovered her passion for painting during the pandemic. Many of the events that she had scheduled were canceled, the hours at her previous job “went through the roof,” and she struggled to have a work-life balance for quite some time. On top of that, she received a health diagnosis that was difficult.

Painting became something she could add to her desserts.

“I have a nerve problem with my hands, but I found out that I could paint, and I paint every day, and I had never done decorated cookies,” she says. “I never wanted to deal with royal icing and piping … so I thought, ‘I wonder if I can paint cookies,’ and yes, you can. And so I started doing decorated cookies, and I paint them. I either use food grade markers or I paint with food coloring.”

Curry is trying to get back to baking more often and sharing her work with the Oak Cliff community. She says she loves being able to hang out with others and share her decorated cookies as they combine her love of baking and painting.

“I just love the creativity of it, and I love really good food,” she says. “I mean, I enjoy what I make, and there’s something for me about the creative process, whether it’s in the kitchen or, you know, painting.