Sweetie was the center of entertainment for my daughter’s 3rd birthday. There was a mix of ages of children there, but mostly 3 year olds, and it was amazing how Sweetie was able to keep them all focused on the task of making frosting for their cupcakes for such a long time. The parents were also interested and it was neat for the kids to be able to make and then eat their own creations. It was nice to have someone “out of the ordinary” (i.e. clown, superhero character etc) and the kids, both boys and girls, really enjoyed Sweetie.

–Kelly Welsh Dwyer, San Francisco

Sweetie the Baker is the alter ego of Dawn Trook.

With over 35 years of performance experience, a twenty year teaching career under her belt, she decided to combine her work experience and take it on the road. Since, as long as she could remember, starting in her great-grandmother’s kitchen, she’s been a baker as well, her performances occur in her longest-lived happy place, the kitchen.

Her performance training started in San Diego, where as a child she studied at San Diego’s Junior Theater and The Old Globe Theatre before graduating as best actor and with a Thespian Society Scholarship from Chula Vista’s School for the Creative and Performing Arts. She went on to study acting at the University of California, Irvine, and acted over the years at various theaters in California and in Texas, where she performed for the Big Bend Players and as a graduate student in acting at Sul Ross State University. Her most recent role was as Titania, Queen of the Fairies, in the Merced Shakespearefest’s production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”

From 1996-2001, she had a career as a solo performance artist, studying under early performance innovator and painter, John White, and later running Babel Arts in San Diego and teaching solo performance workshops for them, nurturing the careers of several new, innovative performance artists.

As a teacher, Dawn’s first pupil was her little brother, to whom she taught the colors, alphabet, and early reading skills. Her adaptability is evident when one takes a look at her teaching career: she went on to teach a variety of subjects and populations in a varied contexts including independent living skills to developmentally disabled adults,  creative writing to people of all ages at schools, universities, in bookstores, and galleries, visual art to high school students at a juvenile detention facility, and a variety of arts at day camps, including her exclusive “Dawn Camp” in San Francisco.

Recently returning to San Francisco after a five year stint as a lecturer in writing at the University of California, Merced, she now offers a flexible booking schedule and performs for and teaches children from two years old to young at heart adults as Sweetie Pie the baker.

Not only a home baker, Dawn worked as a baker and cook on and off at restaurants, cafes, and bakeries in San Diego, Irvine, Texas, and Berkeley as well as running two home bakery businesses: Dawn-baked Goods and House of Butter. House of Butter’s apple pie was listed as one of America’s six best apple pies by the Huffington Post in 2010.

As Sweetie, Dawn has performed in a variety of schools, home kitchens, bookstores, galleries, and made numerous festival appearances, and is ready to set up her magical bakery of delights in your venue today!