Senior Yujia Ding keeps a food blog to share her baking recipes with others
Tumblr is the new fad. A typical blog post consists of daily complaints, worries, achievements and life. However, blogging is not only about spieling everyday thoughts, but also about connecting and sharing with others. Similarly, senior Yujia Ding uses her Tumblr to share her baking adventures and recipes with her friends. For many of us, cooking is making toast or pouring cereal into a bowl, but for Ding baking is a hobby turned into a passion.
Ding was inspired by the food blogs she constantly follows. Instead of posting photographs of the beach or her friends, she posts sets of photos of her homemade pastries before and after they are baked, blogs the recipe and about where she adapted it from.
"I used to write [the recipes] in a book, but every time I used it, it’d get dirty or the recipe would change a little," Ding said.
All the recipes in the blog are from other people, but they have all been modified according to Ding’s taste.
"People tell you you’re supposed to follow [the recipe] precisely," Ding said. "I do to a certain extent, [but] then when I get to the vanilla or sugar, those kind of things, I vary a little."
Not only does she change the amounts of ingredients to her own liking, Ding also makes her own frostings, crusts and fillings from scratch, in addition piping her own designs onto cookies and cakes. Because of her love for baking, Ding has received many baking-ware gifts such as baking pans, a silicon spatula and a standard mixer, which have allowed her to slowly bake beyond the pre-made brownie and cookie mixes.
Ding spent the majority of her winter break trying to create a frosting that was just right for her brownies. It came down to whether to use malted chocolate or cocoa powder and how much oil to add.
Through Tumblr, Ding is able to share her tweaked recipes and photos with her friends, including some of who have used the recipes.
"Whenever I feel like baking, and I have nothing in mind, it’s nice to have something there to draw ideas from," senior Tammy Su said.
Su has used Ding’s Vanilla Cookie recipe because she felt that recipes from friends, like Ding, are more reliable than a random recipe found online.
The food blog may be a document of Ding’s baking recipes, but her passion for these love-filled goodies have definitely gone beyond the words and helped to spread the joy of sweets and happiness.
Ding’s food blog: www.asweettooth.tumblr.com
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