We’ve long been a fan of Sydney-based food, travel and design blog, Love Swah. So when self-confessed baking-mad author, Sarah Shrapnel, agreed to chat with us we couldn’t wait to ask her about her baking and blogging inspirations.
Many of our customers confess to loving cooking from an early age so we’d love to know what’s your earliest baking memory? Is there something in particular you remember baking and thinking ‘I’ve nailed this’?
My mum got my sister and I involved in baking from an early age. I have fond memories of us all creating and decorating crudely formed cookies and licking melted chocolate off our fingers. She encouraged us to be creative in the kitchen, and I was often hovering about trying to help/getting in the way. Mum would go through the newspaper every weekend and cut out recipes she liked and stick them into a giant folder for future reference. I remember taking one of those recipes and baking these delicate sesame seed biscuits filled with homemade dulce de leche when I was younger. Everyone loved them and I thought “I’m kind of good at this!”
How did you get into blogging about baking?
I started baking regularly during my final year of school for stress relief. When exam pressure was getting the best of me, stepping into the kitchen and surrounding myself with butter and sugar was my salvation. I soon began baking cakes and other desserts for friend’s birthdays and they would often ask for the recipe. After emailing off a recipe for the millionth time I decided to create a space online where I could share all my recipes and baking knowledge. And Love Swah was born!
Are there any books or blogs you turn to for baking inspiration?
My favourite baking books are Momofuku Milk Bar by Christina Tosi for creative and innovative dessert ideas and The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook by Tarek Malouf for classic recipes, both which I refer to regularly. Blog wise I love anything David Lebovitz does, and same with Izy from Top with Cinnamon.
What’s your most popular recipe? Why do you think the readers’ love it?
My most popular recipe is for my Lonely Girl Pancakes. It’s a super easy, single serve pancake recipe and you don’t have to be a girl, nor lonely, to enjoy it. The majority of my most popular recipes are for single serve recipes – whether you don’t want to have lots of leftovers or you lack self control to stop at one serve (that’s me!) my readers definitely love this way of baking. I also did a series of Microwave Mug Cakes which were a big hit, especially my banana mug cake – it was like banana bread in a mug. I received lovely emails from around the world, including a lady from Japan where conventional ovens aren’t commonly found in kitchens. She was thrilled she could create a cake in minutes in her microwave!
And finally, let’s talk appliances! What kitchen appliance could you not live without?
I’ve got my sights set on owning a Smeg retro style fridge one day but at the moment I couldn’t live without my Breville stand mixer. I use it nearly daily when baking and it makes arduous tasks like whipping egg whites and creaming butter and sugar a breeze! It’s lasted me years and is still going strong.
Thanks so much to Sarah for taking the time to talk baking with us.
