WELCOME TO SUBURBANE BAKING

As a child I loved looking through my mothers cook books to figure out what I could bake from the ingredients we had in the pantry. One of the first recipes I remember following was for snicker-doodles. I had never had one but I was up for the challenge of trying something new.

For me baking has never really been about eating the end result. I have two great loves when it comes to my hobby. The first one is something that I believe led me to my career in interior design. I LOVE THE PROCESS. In both baking and design you must find pleasure in the creation. If you only work to get to the end result you will miss out on the joy of ‘why’. I get the same excitement from finding just the right combination of colors as I do when I imagine flavor combinations for cakes. I LOVE measuring and lining up the ingredients in small bowls on the counter, only to combine them a few minutes later and push the oven door closed with batter laden pans inside. There is an inherent risk no matter how hard you plan in both disciplines. The scale of the risk is much different but the feeling when everything comes together is the same.

This leads me to my second great love of baking: The joy it brings to other people. Watching someone savor a mile high piece of layer cake gives me the same type of satisfaction as witnessing someone experience a space I’ve designed. They both give people joy (hopefully!).

I have been thinking about creating my own baking blog for quite some time and I really wish I had done it sooner. Over the past 2 years I started baking and decorating cakes. Work can be stressful and nothing will take your mind off stress like planning and executing a six layer cake for someones 21st birthday. Creating the centerpiece for a special day in the life of a loved one is exhilarating. So many decisions have to be made regarding the flavors and design. I began documenting the cakes and improving my photography with each new bake.

I wanted to make this page a place to document all the recipes I try, or with any luck, begin to create. I won’t only be documenting the end result of each bake but instead will be celebrating the process! I hope we can all share ideas and tips and support each other in our baking misadventures. I hope this insight into my ‘why’ gives you an understanding of the kind of baking community I want to be part of.

This should also give you a better understanding of the name The Sub Urbane Baker. I just loved the play on suburban and the idea that this is not going to be a super-refined, successes-only type blog. (Thank you to my friend Mandi for the idea.) We are all a bit messy in the kitchen but there is beauty in all of our imperfections.

Thank you!

The Sub Urbane Baker (Becky)