How I miss this baking challenge. I miss this baking community. I miss gathering friends and family to put together an event that attracted passionate, ambitious and adventurous bakers paired with their community counterparts who enjoyed home baked desserts, baking stories/heritages, and the thrill of competition. We built a community in the spirit of helping persons in need by baking to fundraise for great organizations like Miriam’s Kitchen and Martha’s Table.
I wanted to post this before closing and archiving the Makes-Me-Wanna-Shout Baking challenge website this year. Yes, this is the final post.
Why did I stop? The obvious and #1 reason is sponsorship. Good vibes and intentions can only go so far. Eatonville Restaurant, the Zora Neale Hurston-themed restaurant that featured the winning deserts, closed its doors in 2017 at the 14th & U location. I was happy to have the support of other wonderful sponsors, but they had to set new priorities and visions in a competitive market. And in a sense, so did I.
A few years ago, I received the results from my annual physical and it was determined that I was pre-diabetic. The results said I needed to make some dietary changes. Sadly that meant cutting back on my home baking.
I’m no health expert, but my glucose numbers made me look at the Makes-Me-Wanna-Shout Baking Challenge from a different perspective. Though I’ve always emphasized that cakes, pies, and other desserts were “special occasion food,” there were other baking and gastronomic habits that contributed to my situation outside holiday or gift baking sweet treats. Ironically, it was not the desserts that spiked my numbers. It was the carbs in combination with sugar. The fact being carbohydrates in many of the foods I enjoyed for pure pleasure (even the low calorie ones) naturally converted to sugar once digested.
The first habit to go was my weekly buttermilk biscuit baking. Every week, I’d roll out a dozen biscuits to enjoy two with breakfast 3 times a week especially Sundays. The biscuits separated perfectly in the middle, and I’d smear a teaspoon of raspberry preserves on top. I kept a few in the freezer to take to my mother to enjoy. Apparently even white unbleached flour wasn’t helping my situation. How I miss my biscuits.
The second adjustment was homemade snacks like popcorn. I still make popcorn in the metal pot. I don’t own a microwave. I season the oil with a tablespoon of cumin, turmeric, salt, a dash of cayenne pepper and a dab of butter. I would pour 1/3 cup of kernels into the pot and shake until they all exploded into yellow chewable popped carbs. And before Shondaland’s “Scandal” made it popular, I was pairing my buttered popcorn with a glass of red wine – twice a week. Sometimes it would serve as dinner, but I discovered I wasn’t getting enough protein. I’ve since cut back on the popcorn to ¼ cup once a week and a slice of cheese or another protein on the side.
Then there was the homemade guacamole. That wasn’t the culprit but the tortilla chips whether made from yellow or blue corn, sweet potatoes, whatever were hard to put down even after the guacamole was gone. I would go through a party-size bag of chips in 2-3 days. Now I make pita chips out of whole wheat pita bread. Not the same but goes well with homemade vegan chili, lentil soup, and of course hummus. Protein is key.
Exercise. I was always doing some form of physical exercise or walking 3-4x-a-week. That was increased to 365/days year. Fifteen – thirty minutes. No matter what kind of diet you have, exercise is key. In fact that was not a lifestyle change. More of a promise to keep.
I do more label reading than novel reading. Thank goodness we have labels on our pre-prepared foods and should insist on more. For years I had no idea how much extra sugar and carbs I was ingesting in frozen, canned or bagged foods. Couple this with portion control. I’m not a bread baker so when I buy bread, I have to know how much added sugar is in a single slice. How many carbs. How much fiber.
Through all this, I still had a need to maintain my connection with baking, I tuned in to the Great British Baking Show on PBS. This series has been my comfort food. I’ve never been able to get through an entire season with a dry eye. I envy the judges tasting these wonderful creations and variations on heritage desserts. I never envy the bakers but admired their dedication, creativity, passion, and overall kindness to one another. I could see community rising in the baking.
A year later my glucose test showed improvement, but still slightly out of the normal range. I’ve always been a fan of prevention, so the changes and new habits I adopted became permanent.
I have no intention of giving up baking for the holidays. And if I bake at all, I still make announcement to share my bakes though being out of practice, I probably will have to do a test bake before gifting. Fruitcakes with a wine batter, topped with cognac-soaked dried cherries, then dowsed with Bourbon (thank you for the recipe Paddy Bowman) are still on the holiday to-do list but I bake fewer. Gingersnaps, another holiday staple, go well with aged Swiss or sharp cheddar cheese. I’ve learned to enjoy apples without sugar, only cinnamon for flavoring so there’s the possibility of hand pies. And there’s always that special occasion pound cake for a crowd. I will have one slice if I get to it first.
Last week, I got the results from my physical. My glucose levels are now normal, but just below last year’s pre-diabetic level. I’v set a new goal to be inside the normal range and not at the edge. That will give myself some wiggle room. Maybe staying the course will guarantee success.
Though I’m still contemplating ways to bring people in community for good causes around baking, it will most likely look different than the Coconut Cake, Chocolate Layer Cake, and Pie Challenges. I’m very proud of our first winner Decoyise Brown who was featured in the
The wonderful sponsors: Eatonville Restaurant, King Arthur Flour (I will use this flour for my holiday baking as always and thank you for producing a whole wheat baking cookbook), WUSA-TV, Nelson Massey, Whole Foods Foggy Bottom, FoodMuse Media, Giant Food, operation: eatery, Girl Meets Food, Flavor Magazine, Foodshed, Miriam’s Kitchen (our first beneficiary), Martha’s Table (our second beneficiary).
Our fantastic judges: Andy Shallal, Joan Nathan, Brenda Rhodes Miller, Lisa Yockelson, Rebecca Layton Gunther, Melissa Harris, J.C. Hayward, Mary Kong-DeVito, Demetri Recachinas, Lindsey Buss, Janet Cam, Pamela Hess, Susan Reid, Scott Schenkelberg, Garrett Fleming, Rafael Nunez.
Marsha Weiner who helped me launch tweak and re-tweak our baking challenge process, and the Great Chefs potluck group for jumping in and handling the logistics. A smooth operation raises the fun.
I know I’m forgetting someone. There are so many people who got this thing on its feet.
I’m still involved in making community by sharing meals together on a smaller and neighborly level when I can. There’s a great need for setting our welcome tables, sharing stories and a meal for the greater good and understanding.
Thank you all for making baking memories to be cherished forever.
With much appreciation.
Michon Boston