Baking Quotes

“It looked like the world was covered in a cobbler crust of brown sugar and cinnamon.”
― Sarah Addison Allen, First Frost

“This was why she enjoyed baking. A good dessert could make her feel like she'd created joy at the tips of her fingers. Suddenly, the people around the table were no longer strangers. They were friends and confidantes, and she was sharing with them her magic.”
― Marissa Meyer, Heartless

“Baking is like washing--the results are equally temporary.”
― Patricia Briggs, Raven's Shadow

“Mrs Forrester ... sat in state, pretending not to know what cakes were sent up, though she knew, and we knew, and she knew that we knew, and we knew that she knew that we knew, she had been busy all the morning making tea-bread and sponge-cakes.”
― Elizabeth Gaskell, Cranford

“Whenever a state or an individual cited 'insufficient funds' as an excuse for neglecting this important thing or that, it was indicative of the extent to which reality had been distorted by the abstract lens of wealth. During periods of so-called economic depression, for example, societies suffered for want of all manner of essential goods, yet investigation almost invariably disclosed that there were plenty of goods available. Plenty of coal in the ground, corn in the fields, wool on the sheep. What was missing was not materials but an abstract unit of measurement called 'money.' It was akin to a starving woman with a sweet tooth lamenting that she couldn't bake a cake because she didn't have any ounces. She had butter, flour, eggs, milk, and sugar, she just didn't have any ounces, any pinches, any pints. The loony legacy of money was that the arithmetic by which things were measured had become more valuable than the things themselves.”
― Tom Robbins, Skinny Legs and All

“The measuring and mixing always smoothed out her thinking processes - nothing was as calming as creaming butter - and when the kitchen was warm from the oven overheating and the smell of baking chocolate, she took final stock of where she'd been and where she was going. Everything was fine.”
― Jennifer Crusie, Maybe This Time

“Pecans are not cheap, my hons. In fact, in the South, the street value of shelled pecans just before holiday baking season is roughly that of crack cocaine. Do not confuse the two. It is almost impossible to make a decent crack cocaine tassie, I am told.”
― Celia Rivenbark, You Can't Drink All Day If You Don't Start in the Morning

“Sophie and I would use her Christmas break to make homemade treats from our very own kitchen. I mean, if thousands of meth addicts can do it, why can't we?”
― Celia Rivenbark, You Can't Drink All Day If You Don't Start in the Morning

“If you bake a cupcake, the world has one more cupcake. If you become a circus clown, the world has one more squirt of seltzer down someone's pants. But if you win an Olympic gold medal, the world will not have one more Olympic gold medalist. It will just have you instead of someone else.”
― Steven E. Landsburg, The Big Questions: Tackling the Problems of Philosophy with Ideas from Mathematics, Economics, and Physics

“Through enjoyment we endure.”
― Florence Ditlow

“The Second Law of Pies: they must be baked, not fried (or boiled, or steamed).”
― Janet Clarkson, Pie: A Global History

“He drained and sugared the frozen cherries, put them on the stove over medium heat until their juice warmed, thick syrup, sweet-tart and perfectly balanced.
"That smells like Heaven."
"Taste it." He fished a spoonful of soft, warm fruit from the saucepan and fed it to her.
"Marry me."
"We gotta seal these first.”
― Daria Lavelle, Aftertaste

“He knew immediately what he should cook for Maura, the journey he would take her on.
They could make them together--- varenyky. Thin-skinned dumplings bursting with lightly sugared sour cherries, their warm, dark juice flooding your mouth. Or the cheese kind--- soft, sweet kernels of curd luxuriating in a pool of liquid butter. The meat ones, his dad's take on pelmeni, beef and pork and black pepper and onion, boiled first and then pan-fried, brown and crispy, doused in a poultice of white vinegar and sinus-clearing Russian mustard and thick sour cream.
Hell, he'd cook all three.”
― Daria Lavelle, Aftertaste

“She hummed under her breath as she rolled out and began kneading the proved dough for the cinnamon buns. Usually, this was when Dina would lace a spell into the bake. For something like a cinnamon bun or a muffin, she might put in that feeling you get of wrapping yourself in a soft, woolly blanket. Baking magic worked best when it was peppered throughout the process.”
― Nadia El-Fassi, Best Hex Ever

“Adding firewood to the hearth, she made a thick syrup by mixing rosewater and dark meadow-flower honey, a gift from Lord Zopyrus. Setting the pot aside to cool, she turned her attention to the cake's filling. From the storehouse, she fetched a sackcloth filled with pistachios that she had harvested herself the previous fall.
Pistachios always reminded Roxannah of her father. Not the man lying in his bed now, the one who had a barbed tongue and heavy hand.
No. Pistachios remind Roxannah of the father she remembered from her girlhood. The quiet, amiable man who hadn't yet been ruined by the cruelty of war and too much wine. For a moment, her eyes welled.
When she had been little, her father had taken her on one of his rambles through their land. They had ended up in the pistachio grove. Plucking a young fruit from a fat cluster, he had peeled off the pink and green outer skin to show her the split seed inside.”
― Tessa Afshar, The Queen's Cook

“She pushed the memory away as she shelled the small hill of pistachios. In the stone mortar and pestle, which had been in her family for two generations, she added the green and purplish kernels, along with a generous pinch of cardamom seeds, before pounding the mixture into a paste. Folding in a dollop of honey, she tasted the thick paste. The nutty flavor of the pistachios blended with the spiced perfume of cardamom and the sweetness of honey to create a mouthwatering blend that would serve as the perfect filling for the cake.
By now, her syrup had cooled enough to start the dough. In a large clay bowl, she mixed cow's milk with soft butter and the syrup, adding an egg and finally the wheat flour. It was only second-grade wheat, but it was good enough for a cake.”
― Tessa Afshar, The Queen's Cook

“Imagine," I whispered, breaking the companionable silence, "if all it took was a single bite to know you're not alone in this world."
"Then let's bake enough to feed an army of lonely hearts," Drake said, his voice tender and resolute.”
― Sabrina Cassidy, A Gargoyle Gripe

“She stopped at a post from Sierra. A small plate held a neat, square dessert: perfect layers of wafer cookies, banana slices, and pudding, topped with browned meringue and cookie crumbs. It looked like a fancy version of the banana pudding her dad used to get from a bakery in their neighborhood. He'd told her his mom rarely made dessert, but that this pudding was one of the few she did make. It was always a momentous occasion, he'd said, to come home and see a box of Nilla wafers and a bunch of ripe bananas sitting on the counter.
Mae eagerly scrolled down to read the caption.


Banana pudding is the first dessert I ever learned to make. My grandma taught me how when I was six. Watching pudding thicken over the stove, layering Nilla wafers and banana slices, whipping egg whites into stiff peaks, I fell in love with baking.”
― Shauna Robinson, The Townsend Family Recipe for Disaster

“WEEK ONE: Summer Abundance

Almond-Infused Hot White Chocolate over Iced Berries
Cold English Summer Pudding
Fresh and Easy Strawberry Crème Brûlée
Peach Cobbler D'Ours with Ginger Ice Cream
Limoncello Sorbet and Wild Maine Blueberries


WEEK TWO: Simple Comforts

Classic Tarte Tatin
Warm Cherry Crisp with Vermont Maple Cream
Almond Biscotti Tiramisu
Old-Fashioned Gingerbread and Lemon Sauce
Spiced Pear and Roquefort Flan


WEEK THREE: A Multiple Chocolate Orgasm

Grand Marnière Chocolate Mousse
Torta Caprese
Chocolate-Dipped Strawberries
Profiteroles with Dark Chocolate Kahlúa Sauce
Quick Chocolate Soufflé”
― Sarah Strohmeyer, Sweet Love

“Those cherry madeleines were astonishing. It was absolutely genius to pair them with cucumber and dill sandwiches, and the delicacies of your macarons... Crepes alive, you should win the episode."
Freya giggled and glanced over at her. "Did you just say, 'Crepes alive,' Claire? Baking nerd alert."
Claire shrugged, still grinning. "I was raised in a pub, and my parents wanted to keep us from using that kind of language that might be overheard at the White Fox, so we had to make up all kinds of expressions. Mine just happened to be baking related--- son of a biscuit, sugar, crepes alive, cake and a custard."
"You might be the biggest dork ever," Freya told her, still laughing. "But your rhubarb crème brûlée tartlets were awesome. Daring to do the mushroom vol-au-vents, but it worked out.”
― Rebecca Connolly, The Crime Brûlée Bake Off

“Claire looked again at the ingredients Mrs. Clyde had brought, finally realizing it was only sugar, a torch, and a variety of topping choices. Not the ingredients to make a dessert, but to finish a dessert.
Which meant this treat had been planned out ahead of time, regardless of where the evening would have taken place.
No matter what the dessert actually tasted like, this was already the most deliciously sweet thing that had ever happened to her.”
― Rebecca Connolly, The Crime Brûlée Bake Off

“2 AM baking sessions, The oven heat chasing away the cold winter gloom, Slow dancing as we wait on the timer, Our laughter filling the banana bread scented room.”
― Frances Woodard, Strings Of Fate

“If she could communicate as easily with words as she could with butter, flour, and sugar, she would've saved a lot of time (and a lot of calories) spent standing at the tiny kitchen counter in the tiny apartment that she shared with her roommate, Owen, mixing cookie dough by hand because there was no room for a stand mixer, coaxing lemon curd to thicken on the ancient electric-coil stove, and waiting for the chocolate cheesecake to set up in the crowded fridge next to all of Owen's protein shakes.”
― Adam D. Roberts, Food Person

“Here's to making fictional messes so we can keep our readers guessing and real kitchens smelling delicious.”
― Lori Cleary, Pawsitively Deadly: A Katy Kent Mystery Book 1

“Baking is a dark art, the kind of sorceress-given gift I do not possess a single ounce of.”
― Elliott Rose, Taming the Heart

“Making a dessert is nothing less than crafting a smile.”
― B. Dylan Hollis, Baking Across America: A Vintage Recipe Road Trip

“Switching on the lights above the kitchen island, I turned on the stove and started melting some butter. I poured it into a mixing bowl, then added some monkfruit sweetener, an egg, a splash of vanilla extract, then whisked it until it became light and fluffy. And here was the twist I was planning: instead of Oreo and white chocolate, I was using matcha and dark chocolate as substitutes. The carbohydrate content in matcha was super low, so I wanted to experiment with different recipes using matcha powder, hoping to offer several items in that flavor at the bakery.
After adding some plain flour, baking powder, a pinch of salt, and some matcha powder, I mixed them all to form a dough, then added some dark chocolate chips and several crushed matcha cookies into the mixture.”
― Cynthia Timoti, Salty, Spiced, and a Little Bit Nice

“A cardamom bun is less sticky than the cinnamon-scented kanelbullar; more giving than the currant-freckled curls of the Chelsea bun, but just as much fun to unravel as you sip your coffee. You can spend a pleasing afternoon making a batch of buns. The milk-enriched dough is spread with ground spice, sugar and butter, sliced into wide ribbons then fashioned into an untidy knot. Each cook seems to have their signature tangle. The surface is speckled black and white, a gritty mix of caster sugar and ground cardamom. The salt and pepper of Swedish baking and my drug of choice.”
― Nigel Slater, A Thousand Feasts: Small Moments of Joy… A Memoir of Sorts

“Ginger cake is perhaps the most magical cake of all. I bless the way you don't have to cream the sugar and butter together and gently beat in the eggs or sieve in the flour. I like the fact that you just put the syrup and black treacle, sugar and butter in a pan and melt them. That you then stir in the eggs, flour and spice, pour the runny batter into a cake tin and bake it. Literally magic.”
― Nigel Slater, A Thousand Feasts: Small Moments of Joy… A Memoir of Sorts

“Some stories, like sourdough starters and second chances, were only just beginning.”
― Valerie Loyer, Cupcake Crime at Maplewood Bakery: Where the Cupcakes Are Sweet and the Motives Are Sticky