Christopher is 11 years old - almost 12, and just recently he has discovered a love for baking. He has been vegetarian since he was born - and vegan for the past couple of years. A few months ago he started baking up a storm - and it's been pretty much constant since then. Whether he'll decide to pursue vegan baking as a career is uncertain - but one this IS certain - anyone who gets to go to dinner at his house is pretty lucky!
Christopher puts the finishing touches on a vegan ice cream cake that he made for his brother’s birthday.
Christopher is 11 years old – almost 12, and just recently he has discovered a love for baking. He has been vegetarian since he was born – and vegan for the past couple of years. A few months ago he started baking up a storm – and it’s been pretty much constant since then. Whether he’ll decide to pursue vegan baking as a career is uncertain – but one this IS certain – anyone who gets to go to dinner at his house is pretty lucky! I was lucky enough to be invited recently, and it spurred me to ask him for an interview, which he graciously granted. So here you are vegan bakers, young and old – a little bit of fresh inspiration for your kitchen!
Vegan Mainstream: How did you get started baking?
Christopher: I got started by baking a cake. I enjoyed it so much that I decided to start doing it whenever I’m free.
VM: How long ago was that?
C: Probably in February of this year. I guess I started out before that by helping my mom making cookies, and then I asked her if I could bake a cake one night and I really liked it.
VM: Why do you like it?
C: It’s fun because I get to try new things, and then I can see if I like them or not.
VM: What kind of things do you like to bake?
C: I like to bake cakes and pies the most. My favorite recipe is a Chocolate Cinnamon Cake from Dreena Burton’s book Eat Drink and Be Vegan. I use a chocolate frosting with it that I found online.
VM: Why baking rather than cooking?
C: I’ve always like sweets more than dinner! I like baking things that I like eating more often.
VM: How does it make you feel to make food for your family and people you love?
C: It makes me feel good, especially when they like them, but it doesn’t make me feel good when they don’t like them. I’m learning that that’s part of cooking though. I made a pie that I hated and everyone else liked – it’s hard for me to make pies. That makes me want to make them even more and figure out how I’m able to do it.
VM: Is anyone helping you?
C: My mom helps me quite a bit
VM: Is it hard making things with vegan ingredients?
C: I don’t think it makes a difference to me – it’s just a different way of baking – especially because that’s how I’ve always done it. My mom used to use eggs, but for a long time we have used egg replacers, so I think it’s easy to bake with vegan ingredients.
VM: Do you think this is something you might want to do when you get older? As a job?
C: Possibly – if I don’t find anything else I enjoy more – but I really like baking.
Christopher, with his Chocolate Cinnamon Cake
VM: Do you ever make your own recipes up?
C: I will at some point, but right now I’m still learning, so I’m sticking to recipes.
VM: What are some things you have learned about baking?
C: One thing I’ve learned you shouldn’t do is take pie filling from one recipe and a different pie crust recipe and try making that together because the pie crust doesn’t always cook properly.
VM: What’s your favorite kitchen tool?
C: My favorite kitchen tool to use is probably the food processor or the Kitchen Aid. I like them because they speed things up, and I find they make things much nicer, smoother.
VM: Do you have any advice for other aspiring young bakers?
C: Just make it, try it – and if it’s good you can keep making it, but if it’s not, don’t use the recipe again.
VM: Where do you find recipes?
C: I find most of the recipes that I like in Dreena Burton books, and quite a few on the internet. I type in “vegan pie recipes”, or something like that and I look at reviews that people have made – I look through the ingredients – sometimes it doesn’t always work out, but lots of times it does.
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