I learned how to bake from my mother. She has a bed and breakfast in the south of France and would offer appetizers, dinner, and dessert. Because people would stay for a long time, you’d have to switch up dessert, and I’d go out to the garden to bring her the produce. I was always assisting her and learning from her, but when I moved to New York that was the moment I realized I enjoyed baking for myself and not just helping my mother. I was missing her baked goods a lot. I didn’t realize how fun and nice it was to have that until I moved here.
All of my worries go away, and I can spend hours and hours just focusing on baking. It brings so much peace, and I can just be myself and get into the zone.
I always compare baking to therapy. I paint and draw a bit, too, but there’s something about when you put your heart into baking. It’s scientific, so you have to be very focused. When I do that, all of my worries go away, and I can spend hours and hours just focusing on baking. It brings so much peace, and I can just be myself and get into the zone. In New York it’s always so busy; there’s always so much going on, so it’s nice to have time to just be myself. 
When I worked in the art world, I would make cakes for my friends on the side, and they grew sick of it. They were like, “You should start selling these.” I got laid off from my job during COVID, and it was a whole thing with my visa. It was also hard to find another job in the art world.
It was special to see people finding a bit of joy in baked goods.
My fiancé had just opened a restaurant called Sunday to Sunday and was doing a takeout window for pastry and coffee. Because I was just bored at home during COVID I was like, “I can help out and make banana bread and cookies.” It started there, where I’d be in the basement helping the cooks, and eventually people started coming back for the banana bread and cookies. I started feeling so much joy from people eating my food. It was peak COVID, so it was special to see people finding a bit of joy in baked goods.
It wasn’t a moment where I was like, This will be my career for the rest of my life. I still might change careers one day, but right now it’s a passion that is still growing day by day. I’m still seeing where it goes. 
I get a lot of inspiration from my roots and where I’m from. I have a lot of fun pairing different ingredients before I’ve even picked a recipe. Rosemary, for example, I’ve been really liking recently, so I’ll see what I can pair it with. Or maybe it’s ricotta. I'll try to make a ricotta cake based off what I know about ricotta. It’s a little bit of intuition and what I’m feeling in the moment, and then that’s where the science comes in. I still have recipes that I’m trying to nail, but the most stressful part is that now there is a whole shop and people are coming to get cakes they will eat later. There’s a sense of wanting to make a cake last, so I’m still trying to rework recipes to meet that demand. It’s a constant process.
Decorating the cakes has also been different now that I have a team and the shop. Flowers are also so seasonal and ever-changing, which is fun for me because it keeps me on my toes and trying new things constantly. But it’s hard to train someone else because then a month later we need to use different flowers and start all over. But most inspiration comes from home.
A part of my cakes is that they’re homemade; they’re kind of overflowing and have fresh flowers. They don’t need to be perfect.
My mother has this huge garden, and I grew up going to the gardens and learning about them all from my mom and learning which ones could go into food. She would use a lot of chamomile and herbs in salads, so I learned, like, Oh, this is a thing, and you can eat them. She would also put them on her cakes, and that would give a scent to the cakes, too. It’s very simple and rustic. A part of my cakes is that they’re homemade; they’re kind of overflowing and have fresh flowers. They don’t need to be perfect. 
The matcha cake I made today I used to make a lot back in the day when I was baking from my apartment. One of the reasons I started making it was because I was friends with the owners of MatchaBar. I love matcha; I drink it every day. When they had sent me matcha I thought, Oh, I’ll try and put it in a cake. I used it at a weekend pop-up with them, and people were really excited about the matcha-and–white chocolate combo. It’s been a while since I’ve done it, though, so I think I need to bring it back. 
I bake with Little Sheet and Holy Sheet, but I also flip them upside down to serve them or keep them in display cases for a pop of color. I love the dark-raspberry-pink color and the bright yellow. Stir Crazy is also amazing; they’re such great quality. This was my first time using Beyond Measure, and it’s great because it’s hard to find a good measuring cup that you can put in the dishwasher and the measurements won’t chip off.
It adds more fun to my day-to-day baking.
I’ve realized, though, that there aren’t a lot of fun baking tools out there. That’s why I love these products. It’s fun to show the process of baking, and when I’m taking photos you don’t want an ugly bowl in the background. These are all modern and stylish. It adds more fun to my day-to-day baking. 
I’m excited for this July because we’ll be changing up our flavors. I might be coming up with a new style of cake that isn’t a sheet cake or mini cake. We’ll also be doing some pastries like a lemon-thyme bar, so people can come in and have a little bite with their coffee. I’m excited to work on those for the summer.
