Charlotte McGehee of Debbie Does Doberge. Photo by Andy Cook.

Ask a New Orleanian about doberge cakes, and you’ll probably hear something like, “A doberge is the only way to celebrate a birthday!” Or, “I ship one to my daughter in Houston every year!” Or, if you’re a doberge beginner, a constructive “It’s pronounced ‘do-bash!” Like so many New Orleans foods, the doberge is a product of locals’ fierce loyalties and quirky traditions.

It’s no surprise, then, that the doberge has remained largely unchanged since New Orleans baker Beulah Ledner invented the pudding layer cake—a modified version of the Hungarian-Austrian dobos torta—back during the Great Depression. Maurice French Pastries and Gambino’s both own the rights to Ledner’s original recipes, and their chocolate and half chocolate/half lemon doberges continue to be staples at New Orleans birthday and holiday celebrations today.

But recently, at least one local baker has been giving the doberge a serious makeover. Her name is Debbie Does Doberge, a.k.a. Charlotte McGehee, and her fledgling doberge business is putting a uniquely modern twist on the 80-year-old dessert.

McGehee, 28, first learned to make traditional doberge as a teenager working in bakeries in her hometown of Baton Rouge. While orders for the notoriously labor-intensive cakes elicited groans in some of her coworkers, McGehee welcomed doberge duty. “I’m a little OCD, so I became the go-to girl,” she says.

It was only years later after moving to New Orleans that McGehee began making her own doberge. She hatched the idea after a boozy night of brainstorming with a friend and coworker from her old job at Wine Institute of New Orleans, and starting selling her cakes out of the wine store in early 2009.

In keeping with her alliterative business name, a spin on the 1970s porno flick Debbie Does Dallas, McGehee’s original concept was for “erotic doberge.” Since then, the name has stuck, the concept not so much. The most risqué product Debbie Does Doberge puts out is the “naked doberge,” a shell-less version that leaves the cake and pudding layers exposed. But McGehee’s tagline—“Not Your Grandmother’s Cupcakes”—applies even to her G-rated business.

First, there are the flavors. Other local bakeries do strawberry, caramel, vanilla, even praline doberge; Debbie’s flavors make Willy Wonka look unimaginative by comparison. There’s watermelon, blackberry cobbler, PB&J (with your choice of jelly pudding), root beer float, pistachio, chocolate-dipped banana, and “breakfast doberge” made with blueberry pudding, a coffee maple shell, and garnished with candied bacon.

Even more unusual, McGehee’s doberges are not cakes but “cupcakes,” made by stacking eight thin layers of cake in decreasing sizes to form a softball-sized pyramid. They’re a bit too big to hold in your hand and bite into, but for that there are “dobites”—smaller, bona fide finger-food cake-lettes that are almost too cute to eat. Almost.

In yet another über-modern touch, Debbie has plans to operate a refurbished VW food truck. That means New Orleanians will soon see their favorite birthday cake reincarnated as bite-size street food. Grandmother would probably find this all very confusing.

Since last fall, Debbie Does Doberge has been operating out of the kitchen at Twelve Mile Limit, former Coquette bartender Cole Newton’s Mid-City dive/cocktail bar specializing in cheap-but-quality drinks and barbecue. During the day, the bar’s kitchen is occupied by sides of brisket and tubs of mac and cheese, so McGehee and her boyfriend/business partner Charles Mary do their doberge duty at night, baking between the hours of 10 p.m. and 10 a.m. “We don’t get much sleep,” says McGehee.

It’s easy to see that Debbie Does Doberge has embraced the trendier side of New Orleans food culture, but while many of today’s other trendy food businesses—and there are quite a few in New Orleans these days—are evolving separately from the city’s traditional cuisine (think pop-up burger joints, popsicles, or Neapolitan pizza), Debbie Does Doberge draws upon an established New Orleans food tradition and adapts it to today’s foodie sensibilities. The result is an example of old and new food cultures brought together, fused into one fondant-frosted package.

Of course, many of Debbie’s customers are still hard-line traditionalists who want to enjoy doberge as they’ve known it all their lives, and McGehee can play it straight with traditional sizes and flavors when asked to. “People are always going to insist on chocolate,” she says. “Always.”

Debbie Does Doberge’s cakes are available at W.I.N.O., Twelve Mile Limit, and by special order at DebbieDoesDoberge.com (504-383-DEBB).