Photo by Alice Gao
It was an obsession with old-fashioned baking books and booklets and homespun collections of parish recipes from all over America that, over a decade and a half ago, fostered a new dynamic interest in baking that continues to this day. So when I came across The Vintage Baker, I knew it was for me. Just reading it puts me in a very happy place. Although Jessie Sheehan, its author, has tweaked and updated recipes, they comfortingly, reassuringly retain their vintage character, sporadic exotic spicing notwithstanding. Let me give you a flavour: butterscotch pie with rum-black-pepper whipped cream; peanut butter custard pie with marshmallow whipped cream; lemon chiffon pie with coconut whipped cream; devil’s food sheet cake with sea foam frosting; milk chocolate malted pudding. It’s hard to stop, so very seductive is just the list of titles. But what I bring you is this retro-tinted beauty: Silver Cake with Pink Frosting.
From The Vintage Baker by Jessie Sheehan
Published by Chronicle Books, 2018
Photographs by Alice Gao
Photo by Alice Gao
