Baking has been a lifelong love of mine. Actually, it’s more accurate to say that I’ve always had a love-hate relationship with it.
I am a perfectionist at heart, something that almost destroyed me in my undergrad years at UC Berkeley. Realizing that I’m not the best at something irked me to my core. With baking, there is such a high investment of time, energy and ingredients, that it’s easy to be up in arms over a recipe that didn’t work out exactly how you planned. *Cue a supercut of GBBO meltdowns.*
Although I was an avid experimental baker in high school, I didn’t feel comfortable with baking unless I had all my essential tools and equipment. And for a while, I stopped baking altogether. It wasn’t until I visited my family back home in California and lugged my KitchenAid Stand Mixer in my carry-on that I felt inspired to bake again. I think that transporting 30 pounds of metal across the country does that to a person!
I started baking for my friends here in New York, and rekindling a passion for a pastime I thought I left behind years ago. There’s something special about sharing cookies or cakes that you made with your own two hands. When I’m following a recipe that I’ve pored over with zealous eyes on Instagram, I’m in the zone. And when the stars align and the final product tastes just as good as it looks, I’m just over the moon.
Earlier this year, I came up with the name of “The Dusky Kitchen” on a plane ride to JFK Airport coming back from the Philippines. I thought of how much I was looking forward to baking again in my small apartment in Brooklyn that I share with my 3 roommates. Despite the fact that we only have one window in the common space, the little rays of light that stream into the kitchen are beacons of happiness.
In pre-COVID times, I used to only be able to bake at dusk too. Hopping off the G train, and straight into our semi-lit space, I felt at peace just measuring ingredients partly in the shadows. Now that I’m WFH indefinitely, I’ve had more time to bake and start this blog.
I always thought you had to have a perfect influencer life to create a baking blog i.e. the perfect kitchen resplendent with ornamental limes à la Dakota Johnson’s abode, the perfect camera, the nicest equipment… But here I am, doing the thing with what I have scattered in the nooks and crannies of my apartment. All in all, I’m just so excited to share my baking creations with you!
Forgive the lack of natural light in my baking pics. It’s a little dusky in here.
