tastes like yum

My name is Christina and I am a 25-year old kitchen addict.  I grew up baking alongside my mom, venturing on to bake on my own at a young age.  The only sort of formal training I have had was a one-quarter ‘Foods’ course in middle school, which admittedly, did not teach me anything my self-taught mother had not.  Much of my culinary training has been self-taught through good ol’ trial and error.  Discovering fondant, gum paste and the wonders of candy-making re-fueled the fire for baking and sweet-making that has long since burned within.

I was raised an omnivore. later becoming a vegetarian during college.  April 1 2009 will mark my first official year as a vegan, or as some folks say, my veganversary.   In my kitchen, there are no eggs, no dairy products, no honey–no animal products, including things like bone-char process sugar or milk-derived emulsifiers.  While I will admit I have a very light “GO VEG!” agenda, I’d much rather make really delicious things we can all enjoy together in  frosting-faced harmony.  Thus, I use the best ingredients I can, organic, local, and fair trade as often as possible, to really make the goods shine.  For people who think all vegan goods taste like barley-malt sweetened cardboard, please think again!  Honestly the fear of giving up yummies turned me off veganism… till I learned a few tricks, and now I am loving baking and the sweets I produce even more than when I was an omnivore.

And contrary to popular belief, I do sleep at night.  I don’t stay up all night baking.  Usually.