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I love baking cakes for people. Store bought cakes are so boring. What do they show? That you have fifty bucks and a half hour to kill? Who even needs a cake at all at that point. Cakeake isnāt about being a cake, itās about thoughtfulness, decorum, and perseverance. I will exhaust myself and push myself to limits I didnāt know existed in order to make elaborate cakes for my friendsā birthdays. The funny thing is, I always run excessively late at finishing them, barely getting the frosting onā¦ And by the time the cake reaches its destination, it inevitably falls apart. But they always taste good. People think they canāt bake, even people who like to cook think they canāt bakeā¦ And I guess I kind of just explained how baking is hard and Iām not great at it, but thatās exactly why you should do it! Itās good to not be good at things and who knows, you could be really great at it. And if you arenāt itās still fun and makes people happy.
Oct 13, 2022
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Bake for your family! Bake for your friends! Bake for birthdays and holidays and to mark successes! A real labour of love, and such a gift to feed people!
Mar 31, 2024
in 2020, i decided i ::needed:: to learn how to make and frost a layer cake at home. i ordered the piping tools and cake spinner, watched YouTube videos, practiced my technique to get the perfect crumb and frosting texture.
fast forward to when we could finally safely gather in person, cooking and baking just felt better when i did it for others. especially making special birthday cakes, like this one hereāchocolate cake with brown butter frosting and naturally dyed sprinkles.
Jan 18, 2025
these last few months, Iāve been really into baking, intricate tiered cakes. Iām just kind of figuring it out as I go along. Iāve been making my friends cakes for their birthday. This is the most recent one I made. Iām trying to keep it as a fun, hobby and not monetize it like I do with all my other hobbies lol
Feb 21, 2025
Top Recs from @blu-hunt
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Well, first, let me just say that if you donāt read often, my initial recommendation is that you change that, and begin reading often.I love to read. I refuse to borrow books from people, and I never lend them out. Iāve always felt like there was something special about the physical copy of the book you read any story in. Something I love to do is to inscribe my books. In fact, itās sort of a rule of mine, or if not a rule, a sort of ritual. Years ago, my inscriptions started out simply, usually just when and where I got the book (i.e. Mast Books 2019) with my signature underneath. But over time my inscriptions have become increasingly more detailed. In addition to when and where I got the book, I now write everything about the moment in which I bought it, including my day preceding the moment of purchase, my mood during the actual sale, and whatever else springs to mind. After this I write another equally detailed inscription whenever I actually start reading the book. Finally, I write a culminating inscription in the back of the book as soon as I finish reading the last page. Through this process, every book I own becomes a sort of makeshift diary, demarcating the specific period of my life in which that book kept me company. Little bits of ordinary days that I otherwise would never have thought to remember become a matter of permanent record in my library. And when I flip through an old book, I remember not only my life at that time, but also how it was interwoven with the actual narrative of the book. Itās a strangely comforting feeling. Whenever someone gives me a book, I always request an inscription from them, so I never forget who gave it to me, and when I give a book, I of course inscribe it for them too. So, if you ever find yourself looking at your pile of books, big or small, and canāt remember when you read them, or who gave them to you, just start inscribing them! You donāt have to be tedious and sentimental about it like me (although being tedious and sentimental, I do highly recommend), just write a little something, and then youāll have a library of memories too. And an inscribed book really is the best gift you can give! (Along with cakes)(If you do want a good book rec, check out The Factory by Hiroko Oyamada, itās like 120 pages, so hardly a book, but a really great quick and profound little read)
Oct 13, 2022
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My most recent example of misanthropy (love this word), the one that probed my Ex to label me as such over the phone, is my current chosen state of extended solitude. Over a month ago, during a bad nightās sleep, I woke up at 3AM and decided to pack a couple suitcases and get on the next flight out of LAX. I ended up in Mexico City, where I donāt know a soul and canāt speak the language. I just had an intense desire to be alone and away from (mostly) everyone I know. And now Iāve been here for weeks and weeks, completely alone outside of a couple short visits from some good and trusted friends.Ā And so, what I would like to recommend to you is the act of leaving. Leaving everything behind you when you need to. And you probably need to or have needed to or will need to. So just do it, leave! Leave your home, the place you live, wherever it is, as often as you can, whenever the impulse strikes, if you have the lifestyle that offers you that privilege. Get on a plane, get in your car, rent a hotel. Go somewhere, anywhere, that makes you feel a little apprehensive at first, somewhere new that youāve never been, or somewhere far away that you know well and that you love. Go to see others, or go to be alone, but go for longer than you think you should. If you try to think of reasons not to leave, you wonāt, so donāt consider any of them, donāt think about it at all. You will never regret it. And if you canāt get on a plane and go to another country near or far, if you have a solid job like a normal decent person, or something seriously tethering you to one placeā¦ Then get up from whatever you are doing and go somewhere else. Start walking to a park or drive to some neighborhood youāre not familiar with and spend time alone there. Explore your unfamiliar surroundings. Just forge an escape plan, suddenly and without thought, whatever it is or whatever it looks like, and just do itā¦.
Oct 13, 2022
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Recently a close friend (my ex-boyfriend) called me a misanthrope. I felt a little insulted, but I didnāt disagreeā¦ Scrooge is a misanthrope. That guy notoriously really sucks until he isnāt a misanthrope anymore. Then everyone decides heās better. Iām not sure I agree with this. Maybe Scrooge was right all along! Scroogeās real issue was the degree in which he was misanthropic (also his hoarding of wealth but thatās not what this is about). You canāt let it control your life. But a little bit of misanthropy never hurt anyone.Ā Am I really a misanthrope? Sure, yeah, I donāt really like people! Or at leastā¦ I donāt like most people. Or maybe what I mean is that I donāt like people because I have to or because I should. The sole reason I like a person isnāt just because they are talented or successful or beautiful or (ugh) popular. Sure, if someone I do like has those qualities then thatās great of courseā¦ But for a long time, I think I may have deluded myself that some of my friendships were deeper than my attraction to those qualities and how they benefited me and vice versa. Like an ouroboros of narcissism disguised as friendship and intimacy. For a long time, I was nervous to give in to what felt like my less personable traits, like being critical of people, or being reclusive, because I didnāt want to degrade my social capital, I didnāt want to be perceived as the bitch I was afraid I really was deep down inside. But the more I felt guilt over my feelings of dislike, the more I started to hate myself, the more I started to act in ways that I never would have, had I just been more conscious of the reasons behind my lifestyle in the first place. And I know that not everybody has experienced this, but I know Iām not the only one who has. The realization that I was living a life that was a rejection of my actual self in order to protect my place in āthe worldā was not an easy one to come to. Itās not like itās easy to admit to yourself that you arenāt immune to the shallowest impulses of human behavior and connection. Itās so much easier to continue pretending that you enjoy the presence of everyone around you, that you like all the things they do and make and say. Itās easy to accept someone as being interesting and smart because everyone says they are and because they are right there looking at you, talking to you. And so itās then very easy to assume that you are also smart and interesting, because they are, or at least everyone says they are. And if questioning someone's merit also questions yours? Well itās just easier to not. Itās easy because it feels good to be liked, it feels good to be liked by people who other people like. It feels good to receive admiration for simply ābeingā. But just because something is easy doesnāt mean itās right. And just because something feels good doesnāt mean itās good for you. And this is where a little touch of misanthropy comes in to save the day. And not like, hate for mankind! Just an acceptance of your own moral failings, and those of the people around you. Itās weird because as soon as I took myself out of the center of the dissatisfactions of my life, only then was I finally able to honestly relate to everyone. Itās likeā¦ We are all equal to each other in our inadequacies, but then different in what we do about it. So, once youāve come to the realization that you might suck and that the people around you might suck, and that both of these things lend themselves to making the entirety of your life suck, you can take action!
Oct 13, 2022