I have a complicated relationship with capital g “Growth” per this. But if there’s any Charizard-style, linear growth happening, it looks like the Then and Now of my pies journey. 5 years ago I would’ve told you I can’t bake a pie. Under the tutelage of Petra Paradez’s sage wisdom in her book, Pie for Everyone, and with the vast Inside-ness of the pandemic, I’ve come a long way. More to go.
It'll be a while before I release a cookbook. 'Til then, a few private cookie copies...
I'm a baker who doesn't know how to make pie. I mean, just look.
Alright, I can do a filling. But a crust? Why is it so impossible to achieve Peak Crust? And what kind of a baker can't serve both the world's Cake People and Pie People? Until practice makes perfect, I'm living a lie.
Experimenting with Oreos is essentially fool-proof. 'Cause Oreo.
I currently allocate a disproportionate amount of my food budget to The Study and Science of Baking Cookies. Assignments Chocolate Chip and Gingerbread (with what I guess I’ll call Regal Frosting: half buttercream, half royal icing) are pictured above.
[Aside On the top of my list of Things To Buy Once I Have a Legitimate Disposable Income is a proper pastry bag. Until then, my ziploc-with-a-hole-in-it method will do. Anyways, the gingerbread looked fine and the guys absolutely demolished them. There is no higher compliment.]
Postscript. Keep up with my Instagram for a more complete chronicle of my baking adventures. I’m a millennial: you can’t expect me to use just ONE social media platform to share the mundanities of my life.
Huila double chocolate.
Take some jelly.
Take some fish.
Look at that sandwich: delish.
I’ve been dreaming of a mermaid-themed birthday party for a while. I partially realized that dream, though lighting for all photos was kind of dismal.
The cake was a coral reef cake: vanilla buttercream frosting, vanilla sprinkle cake, topped with pirouline chocolate wafer cookies, dark chocolate, caramel popcorn, and crushed honey graham crackers. Lulu and Deenosaur were my souss. Souses? How does one pluralize sous? I can only think of sous-chefs.
I baked a Vander-family coffee cake recipe that has been passed onto us from an old neighbor, Mrs. Needleman. I never met her, but I am 100% sure she knew how to make a mean coffee cake. Still, I’ve made a few edits of my own: reduced whipping time; added vanilla, nutmeg, and molasses (for homemade brown sugar); substituted mango-oj glaze.
Rana pointed out that coffee cake actually has zero coffee in it; it is meant to be eaten alongside coffee, and was probably termed as such because of its sweetness. That “coffee cake does not actually have coffee in it” seems like one of those things that you learned later in life than you’d care to admit.
An homage to Christina Tosi’s love of candy bars, I helped ring in Miss Lulu’s 21st with this one today.
The Bad News:
I won’t be able to spend Mother’s Day with my favorite mom.
The Good News:
I will be able to spend it with some top notch Vander-Moms, and I can create-my-own Mother’s Day for La Una e Unica soon.
“Vandermom.” Put our name in front of anything and it sounds like another name.
Welcomed in my first afternoon of summer with a pie.
Baking day for a holiday Olympiad reunion. Dark chocolate cupcakes, filled with whipped cream and candy cane dust and topped with peppermint frosting. These were our concept sketches, and the real things turned out almost exactly how I’d imagined.
We were nostalgic for those competitive baking days of yore.
Lemon-cranberry bars for Thanksgiving.
I stress about the enormity of the zucchini. And then, halfway through mixing the ingredients, I realize that zucchini bread is the exact opposite way to use up lots of zucchini.
I wouldn’t say ‘famous’, but these weren’t too shabby. And I improvised a bit, as usual.
Independence Day cake! Couldn’t get a good quality shot of the inside; the lighting was just terrible.
Winging a blueberry crumb muffin with orange zest for Mother’s Day breakfast.
Double layer chocolate cake with mocha buttercream frosting for the birthday boys. No measuring devices, missing ¼ of the ingredients and it was still a hall-wide hit.
I express my love in cake. Sue me.