C/O Cee, Unsplash
These local Hamilton bakeries have Valentine’s Day Menus sure to make your day extra sweet!
Whether you are craving some comfort, looking for the perfect gift or just want to spread some love to friends and family, you can never go wrong with delicious desserts. Here are some bakeries with Valentine’s Day treats meant to bring love and care with their beauty and scrumptiousness.
Cake + Loaf Bakery
Instagram: @cakeandloafbakery
Located in the Kirkendall North neighbourhood of Hamilton, this is your one-stop sugar cookie shop with a number of sweet options on their Valentine’s menu, including “We Belong Together Like” sugar cookies. Iced in pink or teal with white cursive on top, these heart-shaped sugar cookies are showcase your choice from the 15 most popular food duos over the years such as avocado and toast or peanut butter and jelly. Alternatively, you can create custom cookies with any two names to create your own iconic duo!
If you are looking for an activity to do on your own or with a partner, you can paint your own Valentine’s Day cookies with two blank sugar cookies, two cookie paint-palettes and two paintbrushes.
Cake + Loaf Bakery has vegan options as well, including chocolate heart peek-a-boo sandwich cookies filled with pink icing shown through a heart-shaped window and covered in a dark chocolate drizzle and sprinkles.
Li’s Sweets & Treats
Instagram: @lissweetsntreats
Li’s Sweets & Treats delivers to Hamilton and surrounding areas and has a Valentine’s Day Special with options that look absolutely delicious! If you are searching for a small budget-friendly gift or want lots of variety already pre-packaged for you, this shop is ideal.
You can order a small box with chocolate covered strawberries, or a medium box with chocolate covered strawberries and red velvet truffles. Lianna’s large boxes have iced sugar cookies, soft sugar cookies, red velvet cookies, chocolate covered strawberries and red velvet truffles. However, if you only want cookies, you can get a dozen cookies for $20, choosing from red velvet, iced sugar cookies, soft sugar cookies, chocolate chip cookies with hearts and shaped chocolate chips.
Perrella Cakes
@perrellacakes
Cookies, cookies and more cookies! Perella Cakes is a custom cake maker and decorate in Hamilton and has the cutest Valentine’s Day cookies.
If you want hearts, you can have single hearts, pairs of hearts together, or a heart struck by an arrow. Perella also has lettered cookies that spell out love, accompanied by hearts and sets of heart-shaped cookies with little messages for your Valentine including “Be Mine”, “I Love You” and “Hugs.”
For more detail, Perella can draw different images on her cookies, for example a lobster saying, “You’re My Lobster,” or a cookie with a sandwich and the phrase, “I love you more than Joey loves food” for the Friends fans out there.
For family and friends, there are also Valentine’s Day Decorate Your Own Cookie Kits with 12 heart-shaped sugar cookies, four colours of royal icing and six varieties of decorations.
Dolled Up Desserts
Instagram: @dolledupdessertsbaking
My housemate’s personal favourite, Dolled Up Desserts is a gluten free and vegan bakery in downtown Hamilton. Their Valentine’s day menu is open for pre-orders, including choices that are classic and unique and some surprises still to come. They have Valentine’s Sprinkle Sugar Cookies, Black Forest Cake Brownies, Red Velvet Oreo Cheesecake Blondies and Buttermilk Scones. With weekly rotating flavours, their Vegan Heart Macarons have seasonal flavours including candy cane two tone, gingerbread and vanilla snowmen. They also freeze well. After all, why should Valentine’s Day occur only once a year?
Furthermore, the Valentine’s cake flavours at this bakery are truly one-of-a-kind, from coconut passionfruit, earl grey blackberry and chocolate raspberry to a customizable macaron cake.
This is a great option to suit many dietary needs but make sure to check the ingredients if you or your Valentine has a nut allergy.
Photo by Ainsley Thurgood/Photo Assistant
Four delicious recipes you can try this holiday season
I know the holiday season is here when I begin to see Christmas Pillsbury cookies at Fortinos. During my first year at McMaster University, my friends and I went through over a dozen boxes of Pillsbury cookies and it was always an intense battle to get our hands on them at the grocery store. I still remember the smell lingering in our communal kitchen all throughout December finals.
I’ve never been much of a baker myself but during the pandemic I have been cooking and baking more fresh food. This year I’m especially looking forward to making winter holiday treats for my family and friends. I’ve gathered below a few beginner and budget-friendly recipes from friends and fellow Mac students.
The Recipe: London Slices
The Chef: Una Pasagic, a human behaviour student, shares her Bosnian family holiday recipe.
Ingredients:
Dough:
Filling:
*Allergy warning: walnuts
Directions:
Dough:
Filling :
Assembly:
The Recipe: Vegan brownies
The Chef: Emma Sood, a student studying psychology, neuroscience and behaviour, shares her favourite vegan dessert recipe.
Ingredients:
Directions:
The Recipe: Toblerone cookies
The Chef: Subin Park. This is a recipe I learned from a friend. You can never have too many chocolate chip cookies!
Ingredients:
Directions:
C/O Dolled UP Desserts
Katarina Poletto, the founder of Dolled Up Desserts, reveals her journey from the Health Sciences program at Mac to opening her own bakery
After graduating from her undergraduate studies in health sciences at McMaster University in 2016, Katarina Poletto was ready to begin her master’s degree at the University of Chicago. However, her plans took an unexpected turn when she decided to take a year off to pursue her true passion — baking. She opened her award-winning bakery, Dolled Up Desserts, that same year, specializing in gluten-free, vegan desserts with a pin-up vintage twist.
Poletto entered the health sciences program at McMaster thinking she would go into medicine. But when she realized she didn’t want to pursue it anymore, she began to explore her other interests in holistic health and wellness.
“I really went in a really different direction than most of my peers. In second year, I realized I wanted to [do something different] because I became disenchanted with the medical system,” said Poletto.
For her fourth-year thesis project, Poletto had researched alternative therapies for eating disorder treatment under the supervision of Dr. Parmjit Singh and she wanted to continue on a similar pathway for her career, focusing on research and policy making for alternative therapies and holistic health.
Poletto received an offer and scholarship to attend the University of Chicago for graduate studies in social service administration and policy in the fall of 2016. However, it all changed when she received the Summer Company grant for entrepreneurial students after learning about it from her partner, and now husband, earlier the same year.
With the $3,000 and business mentorship provided through the grant program, Poletto started Dolled Up Desserts.
Poletto had always loved baking and grew up in a household with a sweet tooth. However, during university, she developed intolerances to gluten, dairy and eggs. Following this change in her diet, she began to bake for herself more because she noticed there was a gap in the market for high-quality gluten-free and vegan baked goods.
“Oftentimes, [gluten-free food] tastes like cardboard or sandpaper and I wasn’t going to settle for that. I really focused on trying to make tasty gluten-free items,” said Poletto.
Poletto was already an avid baker, baking at least twice a week, and worked on converting all her recipes into gluten-free and vegan items she could enjoy. With her recipes and knowledge about the gap in the market, she was inspired to create a business to fill that gap.
Dolled Up Desserts started as a wholesale gluten-free and vegan dessert manufacturing business. Within the first few months after the launch, the business saw tremendous growth and the demand for her products were high. In fact, the Union Market at the McMaster Student Union Centre was one of her first customers.
Seeing the great potential for her business, Poletto never turned back to her graduate studies.
“I had no idea what I was doing. I was absolutely just going at it, learning as I was going and I felt confident in that,” said Poletto.
In July of 2020, Dolled Up Desserts finally opened its brick-and-mortar location on James Street to offset the losses during the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to opening the physical location, Dolled Up Desserts was mainly focused on providing dietary-inclusive desserts for restaurants, school cafeterias, stadiums, hotels, banquet halls and other event centres. However, during the peak of the pandemic, they lost many of their food service customers.
“We were doing some really big things leading up to the beginning of 2020 — huge, massive things — and we lost it all in a week when the lockdown happened because gluten-free and vegan products aren’t part of a restaurant’s core business. It’s an accessory product that’s good to have. So, I’m grateful for the store. It’s definitely given us a bit more presence in the community and given our brand awareness overall,” said Poletto.
Poletto is still looking to get the business back in the food service sector while continuing the store front as it is her firm goal to have inclusive desserts be available and accessible everywhere.
Looking ahead into the holiday season, Dolled Up Desserts will soon launch their holiday menu at the end of November. The holiday menu occurs once a year where every item is replaced with the best of the best, limited-edition Christmas and holiday themed baked goods.
The story of Dolled Up Desserts may not be a typical one. Poletto did not pursue a predictable career in the science field coming out of the health sciences program, but she says the skills and knowledge gained from the program have been integral to her success and starting a business for the first time.
“From the outside, it’s really hard to see this and it’s gotten lost in translation over the years, but the health sciences program really gives learners the opportunity to develop different skills to be lifelong learners and do and learn about things that interest them in a way that makes sense to them,” Poletto explained.
Poletto valued the inquiry learning model from the program the most which allows the students to be directors of their own education.
“[Inquiry] is a free form space or you to try and unlearn all the things you’ve learned from traditional school . . . and that learning model really opened up my mind and awareness to who I am as a person and really helped me develop the skills to be a lifelong learner,” said Poletto.
“[Inquiry] is a free form space or you to try and unlearn all the things you’ve learned from traditional school . . . and that learning model really opened up my mind and awareness to who I am as a person and really helped me develop the skills to be a lifelong learner,”
Katarina Poletto, Founder of Dolled Up Desserts
Today, Poletto often returns to McMaster as a guest speaker and mentor for health sciences and commerce courses.
Poletto’s journey of wanting to go into medicine to opening her own bakery has been challenging and difficult. So what’s the secret ingredient behind her success? She says flexibility and open-mindedness to new opportunities.
“If I was so focused on, ‘This is the way I have to do things and this is the only goal I have,’ I would have never [started Dolled Up Desserts]. I believe having goals is really important, especially long-term goals, but there also has to be room for flexibility and opportunity there. If you are ever presented with a really exciting thing that may be off kilter to what you think you should be doing, just do it because you never know — it could change your life,” said Poletto.
“If I was so focused on, ‘This is the way I have to do things and this is the only goal I have,’ I would have never [started Dolled Up Desserts]. I believe having goals is really important, especially long-term goals, but there also has to be room for flexibility and opportunity there. If you are ever presented with a really exciting thing that may be off kilter to what you think you should be doing, just do it because you never know — it could change your life,”
Katarina Poletto, Founder of Dolled Up Desserts
C/O @mysweetooth_hamilton
McMaster graduates share their love for Asian desserts while sharing their culture with the Hamilton community
Food is a powerful unifier that transcends all cultural or language barriers. Sharing food can open people’s minds to diverse traditions and values while also encouraging empathy and tolerance. Even if you have never travelled to another country, you most likely have had foreign food and learned about its significance before.
For immigrants, eating traditional cuisine is especially important as it helps them to carry a piece of their culture with them wherever they go. For others like Jia Tian, the co-owner of an East Asian gourmet bakery, MySweeTooth, eating Chinese food and other treats from her childhood serves as a means of coping with homesickness.
Tian moved to Canada from Hong Kong when she was in high school and later studied electrical engineering at McMaster University. At the time, she never imagined she would be opening an Asian fusion bakery in Hamilton with her life-long partner, Peter Sun, who moved to Canada from Shandong province in China in grade 13 before majoring in economics at McMaster.
After Tian graduated from McMaster, she proceeded to start her graduate studies. However, she began to doubt if electrical engineering was what she truly wanted to do. She knew she wanted to pursue a career she had a passion for, but her passion was in baking — not engineering.
Moreover, she missed all her favourite treats she had in Beijing and wanted to pursue her dream of running her own shop where she could share her pastries from her culture, from strawberry whipped cream chiffon cakes to mouth-watering cream puffs. As difficult as it was to decide, in 2009, she took a step-back from her studies to enter the food business industry.
“It was not easy because I needed to tell my parents about my decision — that part was definitely not easy. But I guess once you know what you want to do, you just go full speed on what you want to do and put your whole heart at it,” Tian said.
With unfaltering support from her husband Sun, who also re-directed his career path to join her in her goal of running a bakery, Tian began working at various shops including the Williams Fresh Café at the Hamilton Health Sciences building.
“Peter supported my decision and my dream. He’s very supportive. We ended up doing this together because he wanted to make sure that I get to realize what I had a vision for. So, he worked with me and I couldn’t have done it without him. He really brings a different perspective and [skillset] when it comes to running a shop,” said Tian.
The couple first opened MySweeTooth online in 2013 and on Jan. 8, 2020, they finally launched their brick-and-mortar location on Main Street West. They chose to stay in Hamilton as Tian had an uncle living here and it was important for her to stay close to family. She also preferred Hamilton’s small-knit community and quieter, slow-paced atmosphere coming from the busy and loud city of Beijing.
Besides recreating her favourite childhood memories and flavours through MySweeTooth, Tian’s other goals for the business included sharing and representing East Asian culture in Hamilton through food. For example, for Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival Day, which is a day when the moon is believed to be the brightest and fullest and families get together to celebrate, they sold mooncakes and shared the cultural significance of the holiday.
“We feel that if we can have our shop selling tasty Asian influenced, Asian fusion desserts, there will be more people who can try our desserts and get to know our Asian culture better….I think that once you know a culture a bit better, it eliminates some misunderstanding. People are scared of things they don’t really know and we’re hoping our shop is not just a place that makes desserts that taste really good, but also a place that will showcase our Asian culture,”
Jia Tian
Since MySweeTooth opened, it has received lots of positive attention. Just a quick scroll through the comment section of the bakery’s Instagram page is enough to demonstrate the enthusiasm and love their customers have for their delicious treats.
Nonetheless, operating their physical location during the COVID-19 pandemic has been difficult. In addition to coping and adapting to COVID-19 restrictions, they were confronted by hate from members of the community who were disrespectful towards their COVID-19 store policies. In September, their window was vandalized over their sign asking customers to wear their masks and stay six feet apart inside. Though Tian emphasizes most people have been kind and supportive, she posted the image of the vandalism on the shop’s Instagram page to highlight some of the challenges small businesses and other hospitality services have been facing during the pandemic.
“For us, of everyone who we’ve met, the vast majority of people are very supportive and understanding. We are happy to see that because we understand the community is also suffering right now. So, we are doing whatever we can to also give back to the community and to remind people that although it is difficult for us, it can be more difficult for some of us than others. There are people who lost their jobs, lost their homes and [are] living on the streets because of COVID-19,” explained Tian.
Tian and Sun’s response to the hate is another example of their tenacity and their work towards fostering community. Since the beginning, MySweeTooth has always been about repping Asian culture in Hamilton and sharing its traditions. During your time in undergrad, it is perfectly normal to feel confused about your identity or uncertain about your career path. To all international or immigrant students or those who may be struggling to fit in, Tian shares a message about the importance of not losing your heritage and believing in yourself.
“It is important to be proud of your cultural background because that’s what makes us special — that’s what makes us who we are . . . It’s very important, for not just Asian students, [but] for any student to remember and know their heritage and make sure more people know about it. You can do it with anything — you can do music, art, cooking, baking — there are many ways to do it. Even just to tell your friends about something that’s special in your culture is a way to contribute. So that’s what I want to share with the students at Mac: be proud of who you are and do something you really have a passion for,”
Jia Tian
The story of MySweeTooth is one about love, passion and community. Tian and Sun have demonstrated these three ingredients are everything you need to achieve success and happiness.
The bread episode of The Great British Bake Off is notoriously difficult. Every season, contestants struggle to capture that perfectly crunchy crust with a light and fluffy interior. For something with so few ingredients, bread can be extremely finicky. Just one wrong move and you’ll be left wishing you’d never started. As one example, if it’s undercooked it can wind up doughy and inedible. But fear not! With this short recipe and a dash of patience, you’ll soon have your very own freshly baked bread to enjoy.
This recipe is adapted from Edna Staebler’s “Neil’s Harbour White Bread” from her book Food That Really Schmecks.
The Ingredients
1 cup lukewarm water
1 teaspoon white sugar
2 tablespoons yeast
2 cups lukewarm water
1⁄2 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon salt
1⁄2 cup canola oil, or substitute vegetable oil
8 cups all-purpose flour
Part One — Making the dough
Part Two — Proving yourself
Once you’ve finished kneading the dough, it needs a chance to rest and rise—also known as proving. To do this, place the dough in a large bowl that’s been lined in oil. Flip the dough to cover both sides in oil. Loosely cover the bowl with a damp cloth and leave it to prove in a warm spot for 1-2 hours or until it has doubled in size. Leaving it by a sunny window is generally your best bet. Here is a trick to know when you’re ready to move to the next step: when you stick your finger in the dough, your imprint should remain.
Punch the dough down until it has deflated a bit, and divide into 4 equal-sized loaves. Place the loaves onto parchment-lined sheet pans and let rise for another hour in the same sunny spot, covered in a damp tea towel. Make sure to leave room between the loaves.
While you’re waiting for the dough to rise, go enjoy spring days that will hopefully be here soon. You could go for a hike, grab coffee with a friend or maybe catch up on the Netflix show you’ve been binging. Better yet, invite someone over for a date and impress them with your incredible baking skills. You could even make the dough before class and then finish it when you get home.
While you’re waiting for the dough to rise, go enjoy spring days that will hopefully be here soon. You could go for a hike, grab coffee with a friend or maybe catch up on the Netflix show you’ve been binging. Better yet, invite someone over for a date and impress them with your incredible baking skills. You could even make the dough before class and then finish it when you get home.
Part Three — Let’s get this bread
Take the same four loves on the parchment-lined pans and bake at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 20-30 minutes, until both the top and bottom of the loaves are golden, and the loaves sound hollow when tapped on the bottom. After you’ve removed your loaves from the oven, let them cool on a rack. This is the hardest part, but trust me, if you try to eat it right away you’re going to burn your tongue.
Voilà! You now have four delicious loaves of bread, perfect for any kind of sandwich you can think of. If you try this recipe, make sure to tag the Silhouette, we would love to see your baking adventures!
Voilà! You now have four delicious loaves of bread, perfect for any kind of sandwich you can think of. If you try this recipe, make sure to tag the Silhouette, we would love to see your baking adventures!
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Hamilton’s apple season kicked off this past weekend with Apple Fest Weekend, as part of Food Literacy Month. Orchards are officially open, and there’s no better time to go out and pick some apples. I have a habit of picking way more apples than any one human can possibly eat. To make use of all them, I pull out a classic apple crisp recipe to bake and share with friends. Although honeycrisp apples were used for this recipe, you can use any baking apple.
There’s no better way to enjoy fall than with some freshly baked apple crisp and a nice cup of tea while bundled up in a scarf. This recipe pairs best with orange pekoe or chai drinks.
This recipe is a modified version of Apple Crisp II by Diane Kester.
The Ingredients
For the apples:
10 cups all-purpose apples, peeled, cored and sliced
3/4 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
¼ cup water
For the topping:
2 cups quick-cooking oats
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups packed brown sugar
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
1 cup butter, melted
Caramel drizzle (optional):
1 cup butter
1 cup light brown sugar
The Preparation
When you’re peeling the apples, it helps to peel them over a sheet of newspaper (just as long as it’s not a copy of the Silhouette). When you’re tidying up,wrap them up in the newspaper and put them directly into the compost bin. This saves a lot of time cleaning up the counter. The prep takes about 30 minutes, but by far the most difficult part is waiting for the apple crisp to finish baking.
Note: If you find it’s too sweet, you can cut the white sugar down to half a cup.
The Baking
The Finishing Touch
If you aren’t in the mood for orange pekoe or chai tea, this crisp is also great with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream. Share it with friends, or eat the whole thing yourself. I won’t judge you. Make sure to tag The Silhouette if you make this recipe at home!
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Rachel Katz often shares her cooking and baking with other people. After a time, people began to tell her that she should start a food blog. While Katz decided a blog would be too much to handle whilst being a full-time graduate student, she figured Instagram would be a manageable platform. So last summer while she was working one job and had relatively free evenings, she started her food Instagram, Fork in Progress.
On the account, Katz shares photos of the recipes that she’s tried. Unlike many other food accounts, her unfiltered photos project accessibility and make anyone scrolling feel like they could get in their kitchen and make the same meal.
The recipes that Katz tries are not necessarily easy, but she believes basic kitchen confidence can be applied to make more complicated recipes. She looks for recipes with very specific instructions that she can follow along with. She also looks for versatile recipes that she can add her own flavours to. In her captions, she highlights her innovations and provides tips.
One benefit to Instagram for her is the interactivity. It is easy for her followers to ask her questions and provide feedback. The platform also makes it possible for her to share step-by-step videos that break down the recipes into easier steps. This is to prove to people that anyone can learn how to cook delicious dishes.
“I was frustrated with a lot of students… saying ‘oh I have no time to cook’ or ‘I don't like cooking’… [But] food is so important, food is delicious and there's a kind of pride that you get from making your own food that you don't really get from anything else,” Katz said.
Katz understands how difficult balancing food with student life can be. The McMaster grad lived in residence in her first year where the meal plan limited the choice she had over what she ate. In her second year, she shared a six-person student house with a tiny kitchen. In both years, she didn’t feel like she had a fully functional space where she can cook her own meals.
For Katz, this resulted in patterns of disordered eating. In her second year, she committed to recognize these patterns in herself so she can create healthier eating habits. Preparing her own meals has been one tool in repairing Katz’s relationship with food.
In her third year, Katz moved into a two-person apartment with a nice kitchen. In her new kitchen, Katz explored cooking more. Working at the Silhouette also encouraged her as she began to regularly bake for the office. This practice allowed her to receive feedback on her food and grow as a baker.
“I don't use words like clean… or like detox, cleanse… [T]here are all of these other food bloggers out there who use those lines and a lot of recipe bloggers who have these crazy extravagant recipes. But there wasn't really anyone to fulfill the student niche for people who wanted to cook actual meals but didn't really know where to start,” Katz explained.
While developing a healthy relationship with food is important to Katz, food is also a tool that she uses in her relationships with others. Cooking is an activity that she likes to do with family and friends. Her food-related memories stretch all the way back to her childhood.
Katz grew up eating a lot of homemade meals. She is inspired by her mother, who is an accomplished home chef and baker. Not only does she adore the chocolate chip cookies that she grew up eating, but she also admires her mother’s diligence. Her mother can spend months trying to perfect a recipe.
Now an adult, Katz is making her own food memories, many of which include food she’s made for others. For her, cooking for people is a way of shaping their experiences for the better. By making a caramel corn cake for her partner’s birthday, she was able to make the day more memorable. When she makes her mother’s birthday cake this year, she will make that day more special.
However, as the name of her account indicates, Katz is still growing her skills in the kitchen. She wants her followers to continue learning, experimenting and trying new things.
“[H]aving a name that has associations of things that are not quite perfect, that I'm still learning but it doesn't mean that I don't know anything, I think… that embodies the mentality that I'm hoping I can encourage people to take with food and feeding themselves,” said Katz.
For this reason, Katz is not focused on monetizing Fork in Progress, as she and her followers operate within a student budget, she does not want to promote products that are inaccessible. While she would consider a column in a publication, she believes the account can only remain authentic by staying fairly small.
As long as she’s a student, Katz wants to continue spreading positive messages about food and cooking. She wants Fork in Progress to show students that they can make their own cakes and eat them too.
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Becky Sutherland can trace her love of baking back to two key influences: her mother and her independent nature.
The youngest of five by the margin of six years, Sutherland was self-reliant from an early age. “I always had a thing in me that I wanted to do something on my own, and seeing my mom in the kitchen all the time just made me feel inspired. I wanted to do the things that she was doing.”
Sutherland’s ambition to pursue baking began in elementary school. When asked what she wanted to be when she grew up, her response was always a baker.
The allure of baking is familiar to those who not only enjoy eating the resulting treats but also appreciate the process involved.
“With cooking, a lot of the time, you have, [for example], a vegetable, and you cook it and it’s a transformed vegetable. But with baking… you take all the elements and it turns into something completely new and different,” Sutherland said.
Her own learning process may best exemplify Sutherland’s enthusiasm for her craft. She is almost entirely self-taught; a high school co-op in a professional kitchen gave her a set of basic cooking and knife skills, but her desire to perfect her technique came from a combination of her mother’s influence and a number of books by Sutherland’s idols.
“I have tons of gurus… My favourite baker is Christina Tosi, who started the Momofuku Milk Bar in New York City… I use a lot of her techniques, and that’s what got me more into the very technical side of baking,” she explained, adding that it takes a considerable amount of time to learn how to tweak her techniques to create certain flavours and textures.
“[I’ve done] a lot of trial and error on my own… making a lot of mistakes to figure out my own thing. But that independence in me would rather experience things myself, make the mistakes and learn from them.”
Over time, Sutherland’s hands-on approach to learning and mastering her techniques has allowed her to grow beyond the kitchens where she learned how to cook growing up.
Originally from Toronto, Sutherland moved to Hamilton in the spring of 2014, initially to help her friends, who were in the process of launching 541 Eatery and Exchange on Barton Street.
“They knew I was a trained barista, that I’d done cafe management stuff and they reached out to me during times when they needed help before they opened [and] help train new staff,” she explained.
“I wanted to move out somewhere,” she said. “I knew didn’t really want to stay in Toronto; I love the city but I don’t really like living there… so I had a really strong draw back to a smaller city again.”
After moving to Hamilton, Sutherland was taken on to revitalize the café side of Baltimore House on King William Street, giving her free time to also try her hand at baking. During this time, she perfected essential techniques and recipes, and when Baltimore House converted the café side to become part of the bar, Sutherland left to help 541 with their baking program.
“At first there wasn’t very much of a system implemented there and I saw a need for that and I knew that I had a skill level where I could help them out… I just kind of have a heart for the place.”
Sutherland committed her summer to volunteering with 541 Eatery and Exchange after which she worked as the baker at the then-new Saint James Espresso Bar and Eatery on James Street North. As Saint James grew in popularity, so did Sutherland’s baked goods.
Eventually, her treats caught the eye of Erika McMeekin, the woman behind the Hamilton-based Academy of All Things Awesome, a local initiative that aims to increase the city’s creativity by partnering with local artists and organizations for various events. Sutherland ran a “Treat Yo’self” workshop through the AoATA, and later participated in the Hamilton Flea event run by McMeekin and her sister, Whitney.
“Ever since that first class we did together, she [had] really put a fire under me and I started feeling more inspired to take ownership of my baking and making it my own thing,” Sutherland said.
"I decided I was going to take January off to really crunch down and think more seriously about [whether] I wanted to pursue something more serious with baking."
Becky Sutherland
Owner, Luv, Becky
Since starting to take her baking more seriously, Sutherland has identified three main phases of her work, a system she picked up from her mother. “She would always go through these phases of making something and she’ll make it over and over and it’s her favourite thing to eat and then she’ll perfect it and then it’s like, on to the next thing.”
Sutherland’s first phase was creating what was, at least to her, the “perfect” chocolate chip cookie.
“That was my first thing that I really developed my method and exact measurements for. So my recipe for that is totally perfect. I wouldn’t change anything about it,” she said.
She then moved onto scones, a project she undertook when she returned to 541 as their main baker. “I was like, ‘alright, I have never made scones before but I’m going to take a whack at it’,” she said, chuckling. She then followed the same process, testing recipes and learning what, to her, went into the perfect scone.
Currently, Sutherland is in the process of perfecting three different types of pie. “Pies I think I’m still working on,” she admitted. “I think pies are really fun because there are so many types of pie that you can make and they all have a few different techniques.”
Sutherland’s three focuses are a traditional fruit pie, a graham cracker or cookie crusted custard pie and a cocoa and rice puff crust chocolate pretzel pie, which has become one of her signature items.
“I don’t really put anything out there that I’m not really, really proud... I’m very much a perfectionist in that way. I want my product to be consistent and for people to connect to it in a way that each time they come back to get it, it’s the same thing.”
Sutherland considers the Hamilton Flea her “big push” to creating her own brand. Her positive experience at the event led her to create her professional Instagram and name: Luv, Becky.
In August, Sutherland took a step out of her comfort zone and left Saint James to pursue her own baking on a more full-time basis. She briefly returned to Baltimore House to work as a bartender until December of 2016.
“I decided I was going to take January off to really crunch down and think more seriously about [whether] I wanted to pursue something more serious with my baking,” she said, citing the need for a business license and a proper venue to bake her products. “I did get my business license so that’s been a good little push. But right now I’m still deciding how big I want it to grow.”
Like many young business-owners, Sutherland is concerned about growing too big too quickly. “I’m not going to super commit to a bunch of places right now because taking that next step turns it from something that’s kind of still hobby-like to something where I’m like ‘this is a real business now I need to take care of a lot of things’,” she said. Sutherland added that she will reevaluate her growth once she feels more comfortable with her business and her audience has grown.
"With cooking, a lot of the time, you have, [for example], a vegetable, and you cook it and it's a transformed vegetable. But with baking... you take all the elements and it turns into something completely new and different."
Becky Sutherland
Owner, Luv, Becky
Currently, Sutherland’s pies can be found at the Brain on James Street North, and she enjoys doing custom work for customers with personal requests.
While Sutherland was quick to say that she does not define her trajectory in terms of successes or setbacks, she was able to identify multiple turning points in her career so far, the first being her decision to leave Saint James and start her own business.
“That was a big step for me and just making that step was difficult but it empowered me to try to start something on my own; something I’d been thinking about but hadn’t made any moves towards doing,” she said. “I didn’t have the confidence to do it, but I just had to force myself out of my comfort zone so that I could grow that confidence myself.”
Sutherland was adamant that while she is happy working for herself right now, she would also be happy to go back to working for another restaurant or café.
For Becky Sutherland, it all just comes down to a love of baking.
Nothing quite says summer like the gooey deliciousness of s’mores. But sadly, it isn’t possible to go camping every weekend for your favourite summer treat, and your neighbours will most likely call the fire department if you make a bonfire in your backyard.
So avoid the fire hazard and still get your favourite summer treat from the comfort of your own home! After all, what’s better than s’mores? Cookie s’mores!
What you’ll need:
8-inch baking pan
½ cup butter
¾ cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
¾ cup graham cracker crumbs
1 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
¾ cup chocolate chips
1 cup of marshmallow crème
Directions:
1) Preheat your oven to 350° and grease your baking pan.
2) Beat butter and sugar in a large bowl until the mixture is light and fluffy. Then add the egg and vanilla to the mixture and beat together. Stir in flour with graham cracker crumbs, baking powder and salt into the butter mixture.
3) Split the dough in half, pressing half of the dough into the greased pan.
4) Spread marshmallow crème on top of the dough and scatter the chocolate chips on top of the marshmallow crème and dough.
5) Scatter bits of the remaining hald of the dough over the chocolate chips and carefully press into an even layer.
6) Bake your cookie s’mores for 30 – 35 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool completely on a rack and cut into bars (makes 16 bars).
And don’t forget to be creative with this recipe! Instead of buying graham cracker crumbs you can just as easily buy graham crackers to smash to make the crumbs! Same goes with the chocolate chips and marshmallow crème. Instead of chocolate chips try peanut butter chips, mint chips, or whatever your favourite chocolate bar is (Note: the bigger the chocolate bar the longer the baking time, only by a few minutes). Instead of marshmallow crème, buy marshmallow’s (any flavour) and melt them yourself (please don’t microwave the marshmallows, things will get messy fast!)
Natalie Timperio
Senior InsideOut Editor
Double chocolate, fudge layered, candy coated, cream cheesed iced, sprinkles-on-top. While these frills may apply to many desserts, this recipe is anything but. No fancy ingredients, no complicated directions. It’s an old time favourite, a timeless classic, a ‘brings me back to my childhood days’ kind of treat.
They’re crispy without too much of a crunch and have just the right amount of sweetness without making your stomach ache afterwards. They’re not costly nor will they eat up much of your time to bake – though you’ll probably be eating them most of the time.
This dish is none other than the chocolate chip cookie. And it’s something that most of us all know and love. I find its best enjoyed when secretly stolen from your mother’s bear-shaped cookie jar (at least, that’s how I remember the cookie jar).
The homemade chocolate chip cookie is not to be underestimated. Chips Ahoy! or PC’s Decadent Chocolate Chip Cookies just can’t compete, so don’t even try telling friends and family that you’ve baked those wannabes from scratch.
People recognize a homemade chocolate chip cookie when they eat one, so flouring your apron, buttering your nose or “accidently” burning your hand in the oven won’t fool them.
I don’t promise this to be the healthiest of dessert choices, but I promise it to be one that can help to put a smile on your pissed-off partner’s face, make your friends (momentarily) forget that you stabbed them in the back, or perhaps dissuade your professor from giving you a failing grade. (Disclaimer: bribery is strictly prohibited at McMaster University and can result in serious consequences – but if you’re really in the shitter, then what do you have to lose?)
These chocolate chip cookies can be consumed with anything, be it milk (plain or chocolate), tea, coffee and, to hell with it, even alcohol (Bailey’s is best).
Seal a few in a Ziploc bag and bring them to class; peers will gaze at you with envy or possibly even murderous hatred (because yes, these chocolate chip cookies are really that good). putting meaning back into the phrase “to die for.”
If you don’t buy it then I dare you try it. This chocolate chip cookie recipe will have you shouting to the high heavens in sincerest thanks for bestowing you with such awesome ingredients to make thy chocolate chip cookie.
Yes, it may cause fits of delirium and inexplicable happiness, but of course, no less is to be expected from this chocolate chip cookie recipe. So tie on that apron, pull out the oven mitts and get on that baker’s hat, if you have one. It’s time to do some baking.
Ingredients
1 cup All-purpose Flour
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Salt
1/4 cup Sugar
1/2 cup Brown Sugar (firmly packed)
1/2 cup Shortening
1 tsp Vanilla
1 Egg
1 cup Chocolate chips
1/2 cup Nuts (optional)
Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Sift the all-purpose flour, baking soda and salt onto wax paper.
3. Mix the sugar, brown sugar, shortening and vanilla well in a bowl.
4. Beat in the egg.
5. Mix in dry ingredients.
6. Stir in the chocolate chips (and the nuts, if using).
7. Drop the mixture by tsp onto a greased baking sheet.
8. Bake 8-10 minutes.
