Oprah Winfrey's Stunning New Hulu Series Will Make You Want to Book a Trip
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In Black Cake, heavily guarded secrets are set free. The Hulu series, based on the bestselling book of the same name by author Charmaine Wilkerson, spans decades and follows a runaway bride named Covey who journeys from Jamaica to California. Before her death, she leaves recordings for her children to share untold stories of her past, along with a beloved recipe for the sweet in the title. The murder mystery meets family drama—created by showrunner Marissa Jo Cerar and executive produced by Oprah Winfrey—takes place in Jamaica, Italy, Scotland, England, and California. And it turns out, the four-part series was mostly filmed in those places. Ahead, production designer Awel Jones breaks down the filming locations and some set design details.
Where Was Black Cake Filmed?
While shooting took place in Jamaica, Italy, England, Wales, and California, not every real-life location portrayed its on-screen counterpart. With time constraints, illness, and other unforeseen scenarios, the production required "a little bit of knitting some various different places together to give us what we wanted to make it work," Jones tells House Beautiful.
The revelatory story begins in Portland Parish, Jamaica, where viewers can spot natural landmarks such as Reach Falls. But most of the interiors, like Covey's family home, were built on soundstages in Wales. Some scenes were a seamless mix of both, like the kitchen of a hotel that was partially shot on location. "Due to illness, we couldn't finish [shooting there]," Jones says. "So we had to duplicate that completely in Wales, which was quite nice to do again."
Filming for the series mostly took place in Wales, especially Cardiff, where the production was based. "We even did a Jamaica beach inside the studio," Jones adds. "We actually put 80 tons of sand in the studio and created a little bit of an outer edge to it, and then put a green screen where the sea would've been."
One notable real-life location in Wales is St Cadoc's Hospital, located on the outskirts of Newport, which was tapped for its exterior and interiors. "That was pretty much a rundown, near-derelict building that hadn't changed much over the years, so we just kind of polished it a bit and dressed it all," Jones says.
Other cities in the United Kingdom, including Cardiff, Bristol, and London, provided backdrops of buildings and streets. A brief on-screen moment set in Rome was, in fact, filmed in Italy, but it was actually shot in the city of Verona. Covey's California home was portrayed by a real house in the Los Angeles area. The interior scenes were shot on sets that echo the happy memories of her upbringing, with the home's interior design, inspired by her Jamaican roots, featuring blue fabrics, golden wallpaper, and stained glass windows.
As you watch the series—which just premiered on Hulu—you'll notice changing color palettes across the locations. The palette starts as bright and bold in Jamaica. It becomes dull through periods set in England and especially dark when the story reaches Scotland. "The color is being drained in the same way as the joy was being drained out of Covey's life," Jones says. "And then that escape to California is where the color starts coming in and the warmth starts coming back."
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