- [Dara] Reactions like this... - The bourbon pecan cake that I ate from you yesterday, I compare that to my grandma.

That's all I can say.

I gotta have one.

- [Dara] And this... - And they have so many different flavors.

Oh, man, I like all of them.

- [Dara] Are common comments when most people eat cakes from the Huntersville Company, BlueWagon Pound Cakes.

- I have the coconut pound cake and it just melts in your mouth.

- [Dara] With over 60 flavors ranging from lemon to more exotic ones like mango daiquiri, maple bacon, and... - Red Bull pound cake.

And that Red Bull was a smashing home run.

- [Dara] Yes, you heard that right?

A pound cake made with the energy drink Red Bull.

- When he tasted, he was like, "Man, I could feel the the acid coming through my nose, man."

- [Dara] And the people making those flavorful cakes are husband and wife, Kenneth and Reshia Dawson.

- I couldn't or wouldn't even do this without him.

- [Dara] From their home kitchen, they bake each cake from scratch with creamy butter, sugar, and a few family secrets.

- This is flour and some more stuff that can't be named, okay?

- [Dara] They make a good team.

Reshia handles the mixing and Kenneth does the baking.

- This is the favorite cake of my barbershop people.

So, yes, my barbers, the big old bust up guys, they like birthday cake.

- [Dara] Although they have dozens of flavors they bake now as a business, it all began with one simple flavor, vanilla.

It's special to Reshia, because it's the first flavor she learned as a child in the kitchen with her mom.

- My mom was a single mom.

I'm the only girl, so, hey, who ends up in the kitchen?

Me.

But I was always with her by her side learning how to bake.

- [Dara] Baking may have brought her joy, but to pay the bills she took on different careers.

- I always thought I would be a teacher of sorts or even doing hair, 'cause I went to beauty school as well.

So this baking, never anywhere in the forefront of my mind, ever.

- [Dara] Same story for her husband who's an award-winning musician.

- Well, see, I've been in sales almost all of my life... - [Dara] Despite where life had already taken them, they knew in 2017 it was time to bring their talents together to create tasty treats.

- To do it with your wife, the person that you love and you're in love with, it is so easy.

It's sweat-less.

It's like our sanctuary.

It's almost like a piece of Heaven for us.

- [Dara] And that piece of Heaven they feel is the same one they want others to feel too.

- So BlueWagon Poundcake is also a ministry.

So we go out in Charlotte, and we hit the streets, and we witness and minister to the lost.

We evangelize the gospel.

- [Dara] Reshia recalls a time when they were selling cakes, but dropped everything to comfort a woman in need.

- He called me, and he said, "I need you to come in.

"I need you to come in."

And so she was sitting there.

She was going through a very difficult time and I just grabbed her.

I just hugged her.

- [Dara] Michelle Blackett received that hug.

A hug she still feels years later.

- I was in a dark moment, probably the darkest in my life.

I had lost my husband unexpectedly.

When she entered the salon, she didn't ask my name.

It is almost as if she knew who I was.

She came in arms wide open, took me in her bosom, and prayed for me.

- [Dara] And prayer helped Reshia get through battles like childhood sexual assault and depression.

- The psychiatric ward of the hospital, they go put me on new medicines.

I'm in therapy.

So that went on for 10 years, a lifetime of working.

- [Dara] However, in the midst of her pain, she kept baking and finding ways to serve others, which helped her heal.

- You wanna live with purpose and you want to impact others' lives, because who's to say me touching her life, who is that life going to touch afterwards?

So it may touch lives I'll never see.

- [Dara] But there are a few lives she and her husband touched that she did get to see.

- The sweetest people in the world and my friend.

Hey, we're gonna get together.

- All right.

- I can see God all over you, man.

(group laughing) - [Dara] Back in 2020, during nationwide unrest over the murder of George Floyd, the Dawsons wanted to use their cakes to create unity.

- So we go to the police station in Kannapolis.

I talked to the chief, that guy there.

He said, "Hold on, Dawson, you the guy selling cakes?"

And I said, "Yeah," and he said, "Man, come on over.

"What you wanna do?"

So we went there and we ministered them and brought up a bunch of cakes, had prayer, had a beautiful time.

- [Dara] It's moments like that the Dawsons enjoy most.

(mixer whirring) (upbeat music) Even on those tough days when they're baking between 200 and 300 cakes or spending money out of their own pockets.

- My whole thing is, well, to bring a smile to someone's face, I want to...

If they were having a bad moment before they tasted the cake, when they put that in, they forget that whole bad moment, even for that small period of time that it brightens their day.

- [Dara] And if you ask these customers, they'll tell you the cakes are doing just that.

- The chocolate, oh, my God, I'm addicted to that.

The chocolate.

Now my wife loves the banana pudding cake.

- Ms. Reshia, this mango, ma'am, I'm hooked on another one of your flavors.

- [Dara] So when you see the blue wagon rolling, just know there's more than cakes coming your way.

There's a load of love too.

For "Carolina Impact," I'm Dara Khaalid.