A Good Day to Bake | Benjamina Ebuehi
Intro: Welcome to the number one cookbook podcast, Cookery by the Book with Suzy Chase. She's just a home cook in New York City sitting at her dining room table, talking to cookbook authors.
Benjamina Ebuehi : My name is Benjamina Ebuehi, and my cookbook is A Good Day to Bake.
Suzy Chase: I'm not someone who needs an excuse to bake. First line in the cookbook. And it's funny because I find baking so hard. Going through the ritual of bringing out your measuring scales, pouring out flour, et cetera, you call a beautiful thing. And I so envy that. Talk a little bit about the messages you received from people who nailed a technique or discovered how therapeutic baking can be.
Benjamina Ebuehi: It's so beautiful and just so rewarding hearing how baking can be that thing for so many people, especially over the last few years that the whole world has had, that baking has been something that they've been able to turn to, to unwind as a distraction and to just kind of switch off from the world. And so to be able to play just a small part in that has been really, really rewarding.
Suzy Chase: You've said lining the tin, greasing the sides, chopping up butter to weigh out, those little steps just feel really, really soothing. Did the pandemic lockdown help you realize this, or did you always find this process soothing?
Benjamina Ebuehi: Subconsciously, I'd always found that quite soothing, more the processes of baking and not as much as the end steps, but just the little bits in between to get there. But the pandemic, I think, definitely allowed me to almost step back and be able to articulate that and spot it in others and in myself a lot more, just having a time in our lives where everyone just was forced to slow down in so many areas of their life. I think the pandemic really helped me to just see those small little moments, those small little rituals and habits that we do and just really appreciate them on such a different level.
Suzy Chase: Would you please read the first paragraph on page nine, starting with "There's often a moment."
Benjamina Ebuehi: Of course. There's often a moment in most recipes where I have a little pause to take it all in. It could be that split second just before you pour ganache over your chocolate cake or smoothing the batter in the pan right before it goes in the oven. It could be that fleeting moment where you feel the full weight of your knife as it sinks into your cake for the first slice, or the few seconds you take to admire the sheer volume and silkiness of your meringue. It's those brief, but meaningful steps of a recipe that are unwritten but can feel the most rewarding, the moments that make you say, "Yes, I'm doing this right, and this feels good."
Suzy Chase: I feel like this cookbook, for me, redefines the art of baking.
Benjamina Ebuehi: Oh, I love to hear that. I think I would agree, and that was partly my intention and I think that came across. It wasn't what I sought out to do straight away in the beginning, but as I was writing and as I was developing, I think that kind of came across more and more, just really wanting people to not be so, I guess, maybe obsessed with the end result or fixated on what it looks like and... Because when you do that, you just get so disheartened if it doesn't work, if it doesn't look the way it does in the picture or it's just not Instagram perfect.
Benjamina Ebuehi: But I really wanted to just remind people that the steps and the processes to get there are just as, if not more, important, and you can learn more from the processes sometimes more than what you get at the end. And so just wanting people to approach it in a different way and just really enjoying each step, focusing on everything that you're doing, the little things, the flavor that you're putting in, the time and the energy that you're putting in rather than what does it look like at the end.
Suzy Chase: In the cookbook, you wrote, "Peeling ribbons of parsnips, scooping out the seeds of squash, pulling back the thick skin of plantain are small, but necessary steps that I like to be fully present for in anticipation of what's to come." The idea of being present is interspersed throughout this cookbook. Can you talk a little bit about that?
Benjamina Ebuehi: With cooking and baking, it's such an all-consuming thing. I mean cooking, especially, I guess it's something we have to do. You want to eat, you've got to cook. And just with the pressures of modern life, it's just so easy just to rush our way through all of that, and so just reminding ourselves to be present in moments of baking and cooking I think just allows us to appreciate things in such a different way.
Benjamina Ebuehi: And sometimes I said that it sounds really cheesy, just appreciate the small things, but I think it just makes us more fully aware of our surroundings, of what we're doing, of why we're doing what we're doing. I can be peeling veg and be just sometimes even just thinking about what I'm grateful for that day. It's just such a nice time just to really, really slow down and I guess, yeah, appreciate the small things.
Suzy Chase: I was interested to see that your very first chapter is entitled Herbs and Teas. Can you talk a little bit about that? And how did that come to be the very first chapter?
Benjamina Ebuehi: Flavor has always been number one for me, and I knew that I wanted to have the chapters set up by flavor. So we've got herbs and tea and chocolate and spice. But also in a, I guess, more quieter way, I wanted it to reflect seasons, almost. So the herbs and tea chapter to me feels quite fresh and quite springlike, the earlier parts of the year. And I guess we go into summer with the stone fruits and berries and then more into autumn with the vegetables and the beige and chocolate and that sort of thing. So I wanted to start with something that was really light and fresh and, I guess, new in a way. Spring is always associated with newness and blossoming, and so that's kind of the tie-in that I wanted to bring to that first chapter.
Suzy Chase: Could you describe your Earl Grey, orange and white chocolate traybake?
Benjamina Ebuehi : So I love this cake. Earl Grey is one of my favorite teas. It's so floral and fragrant. It's a tea that I choose at about three or four o'clock in the afternoon when I want something sweet.
Benjamina Ebuehi : And this cake is... it's really light. It's not a heavy, overly buttery sponge cake. It's made by whisking our eggs, so it's a really light, whisked sponge. And I love infusing tea into cakes, into anything that I'm baking with. I mean, it's just such an easy way to incorporate more flavor without doing lots and lots.
Benjamina Ebuehi : And so we steep some, Earl Grey tea into our milk and then that gets folded into the batter, and that's where a lot of the Earl Grey flavor comes from. And the orange complements the bergamot flavors in Earl Grey, and so you've got a really nice, zesty but warm flavored cake.
Benjamina Ebuehi : And once it's baked, it gets steeped with an Earl Grey orange syrup, and that keeps it moist as well. And the white chocolate buttercream just brings a creaminess that cuts through some of that floral, citrusy flavor and just ties the whole thing together. Yeah, it's a cake that I really, really love.
Suzy Chase: So carrot cake is your first love. What is the key to great carrot cake?
Benjamina Ebuehi : For me, great carrot cake needs a good amount of spice. I think I've had so many carrot cakes where I'm just not getting much flavor. And I think it's a cake that can take a lot more spice than maybe we think, and not just cinnamon. So I love using cloves. I love using ginger, a bit of cardamom, some black pepper. It's a cake that can definitely take a lot of spice. So I like a spiced carrot cake.
Benjamina Ebuehi : I like a chunky carrot in my carrot cake. I don't like it grated too fine. I like something that brings texture. So a good, course-grated carrot is a top tip for a good carrot cake. And of course, you need a cream cheese frosting for a carrot cake. I don't want any buttercream. It has to be a cream cheese frosting. But also, it's something that's not sickly sweet. You want it just to not overpower the flavor of the spices, so something just mellow to bring it all together.
Benjamina Ebuehi : Yeah, and I'm not someone who likes nuts in my carrot cake as well, which is a little bit controversial. Some people love-
Suzy Chase: What?
Benjamina Ebuehi : I know. I just like my nuts on top. I don't like it chopped through. I know. It's a bit of a strange one.
Suzy Chase: That is funny because you like bigger pieces of carrot, but not nuts. Interesting.
Benjamina Ebuehi : Yeah, I try sometimes nuts distracting for a carrot cake when it's in the batter. So I like my nuts on top of the cream cheese.
Suzy Chase: Distracting. That's funny. So you have a full chapter devoted to spices. And you talk about how vanilla is the second most expensive spice in the world, but it gets a bad rap for being boring. I don't think a vanilla is boring at all.
Benjamina Ebuehi : It's funny because when I chat to food friends or people who are really into baking and cookbooks, vanilla is not necessarily seen as boring to them. But I think for the vast majority of people, vanilla's always seen as plain. It's the safe choice. It's just something that you kind of throw into everything just because you think it should be there.
Benjamina Ebuehi : And so I wanted a cake that was like, "Yeah, vanilla is the front and center of this cake." We're going to use really good vanilla pods to get the very best flavor and yeah, just celebrate it in the sponge, in the Swiss meringue buttercream where you can see the flecks of vanilla come through, and just really celebrate a spice that is used day in and day out by bakers absolutely everywhere, but just having it completely front and center and not hidden a ]way.
Suzy Chase: There's nothing better than seeing those flecks of vanilla.
Benjamina Ebuehi : Oh, it's... Yeah, you see that and you know, you're going to be into something really good.
Suzy Chase: Speaking of something really good, there's something about beige food that makes us all think of comfort. You say it's always a good day to bake something beige.
Benjamina Ebuehi : Oh, beige food, brown food, is, I think, just unanimously known as comfort. It's the food that you want to bake again and again or cook again and again. Something about it just feels so unpretentious. It's not trying to be something else. It's not trying to be dolled up and made fancy. It's homely, comforting, something your mom would make or your grandma would make, and it just warms your belly and makes you smile. So beige food for me is just... Yeah, it's that good, comforting, homely, nostalgic sort of food that we all love.
Suzy Chase: And the only problem with it is it's not Instagramable.
Benjamina Ebuehi : Yes.
Suzy Chase: I found.
Benjamina Ebuehi : Yes, not Instagramable, but we all know that it's going to taste amazing.
Suzy Chase: Can you just chat a little bit about how you celebrate unlikely ingredients and how they show up in this cookbook, like the plantain?
Benjamina Ebuehi : Oh, the plantain fennel quiche recipe is another one that I really... I mean, I love all the recipes, but there are few that really stand out, and that is one of them.
Benjamina Ebuehi : I think I've made it a mission to include plantain in every cookbook that I ever write, but it's an ingredient that we grown up eating at home from a Nigerian background. It's a staple in our kitchen. We have it all the time, and so I really wanted to include it in a way that was, I guess, different than the way that we grew up eating it or that my family would be used to having it and just showing its versatility and how much it can be used in so many different recipes.
Benjamina Ebuehi : And so having it in a quiche was just so... My mom saw it and she was like, "Quiche with plantain? What on earth is that going to be like?" But she really, really loves that recipe, and my aunt loves it too. Just that sweetness of the plantain against the cheesy and anise seed fennel filling just works absolutely well. Yeah, just bringing it in, in a way that doesn't feel too different.
Suzy Chase: Over the weekend, I made your recipe for Blueberry and Lemongrass Pavlova on page 58. You say it's the smell of sunshine. I love that. Can you describe this recipe?
Benjamina Ebuehi : Oh, this is a good one. This is a good one. And I've said that about all of them, but this is a good one. I mean, pavlova is honestly one of my favorite desserts. If I'm having people around, I'm going to do a pavlova. Christmas, I'm going to do a pavlova. Summer, Easter, I'm making a pav. But this one is a special one.
Benjamina Ebuehi : And I love pavlova because you can remix it so easily. You can switch out what toppings you want. So once you've got the base down, you know how to [inaudible 00:12:27] meringue, it's really fun to switch up. So for this one, I really wanted a recipe with lemongrass. And I had tested so many different ways to incorporate it, and nothing was quite working or fitting with what I had in mind. And so I ended up making this blueberry and lemongrass.
Benjamina Ebuehi : It started off as a jam that I was going to use in something else, but I just... It just was far too sticky. It just didn't quite fit with what I had, and so I made it more as a, I guess, compote, a filling. And I had some leftover meringue from something else and I ate it together and it was just wonderful.
Benjamina Ebuehi : So honestly, the smell of lemongrass is one of my favorite scents. And I said it smells of sunshine because to me, it honestly really, really does. It's so bright and it's just so zingy and fresh and it just... You can't smell it and not want to smile. And so it gets cooked down with some blueberries and you just leave it to infuse, and then you spoon it onto your meringues with some cream. And it's just such a fresh and delicious dessert, so I really love this one as well.
Suzy Chase: So last year, I had Nigella on my cookbook podcast, and she inspired me to make my first pavlova.
Benjamina Ebuehi : Oh, wow.
Suzy Chase: And she normally makes one big one, but I love that your recipe is for six individuals.
Benjamina Ebuehi : Yeah. I do love an individual pavlova. One, because it means you get one all to yourself. Also, it's just... Sometimes a pavlova can be too big and also, it can be quite intimidating for people who haven't really made a lot of meringues. When you're doing one big one, it just feels like everything is going to go wrong. But when they're smaller, it just feels a lot more manageable, and you can make them whatever shape you want. They do cook on a bit quicker as well. So I do like individual meringues when I'm making them for a small group.
Suzy Chase: In the acknowledgements, I thought it was sweet that you thanked your Instagram community.
Benjamina Ebuehi : Honestly, I feel like everyone should because yeah, the Instagram community is absolutely wonderful. I know for some people, it can be really up and down, but personally it's just been such a great experience on there. And those are the people who make your recipes, who give you feedback, who tell you what worked and what didn't work and who inspire you with new things. I am inspired by so many people on Instagram with just ideas and styling and what they're doing.
Benjamina Ebuehi : And yeah, these are the people who support and who buy the cookbooks, and so it would've been insane of me to not thank them. They are a massive part of what I do, and I wouldn't be able to do a lot of what I do without community on Instagram. So yeah, they are wonderful.
Suzy Chase: Now to my segment called Dream Dinner Party, where I ask you who you most want to invite to your dream dinner party and why. And for this segment, it can only be one person.
Benjamina Ebuehi : It has to be the queen, Nigella. It has to. I've never met her before, but just so inspired by her and all the incredible books and recipes and writing that she's done. Yeah, she's a huge, huge inspiration. Just her demeanor, she just seems just so kind, like if I met her, she would actually be incredibly just kind and warm and she'd give me lots of good advice. So that's someone I'd love to be able to cook for.
Suzy Chase: Where can we find you on the web and social media?
Benjamina Ebuehi : So I'm on Instagram, and my handle is @bakedbybenji. That's where most of the fun happens, over on Instagram. And also my blog, carrotandcrumb.com, where I post some recipes and bits and bobs like that. So yeah, that's where to find me.
Suzy Chase: To purchase A Good Day to Bake, head on over to cookerybythebook.com. And thanks so much, Benjamina, for coming on Cookery by the Book podcast.
Benjamina Ebuehi : Thank you for having me.
Outro: Subscribe over on cookerybythebook.com. And thanks for listening to the number one cookbook podcast, Cookery by the Book.
