17 and Baking

28 Comments

• 1. Tania  |  April 15, 2009 at 7:51 pm

  Hi Elissa~
  Just commenting to say I love your blog!
  I came upon it by chance (through Preston’s blog) but now I visit regularly to read your updates. Love the photography too- makes me hungry every time.
  I’m starting to get inspired to try some of my own baking :)
  Can’t wait to see the birthday cake!

• 2. Josephine  |  July 19, 2009 at 5:00 pm

  Hi Ellissa, I love to cook and I love to browse food blogs! I have to say yours is one of the best-organized sites I’ve ever seen. Even better, your site is a dime among nickels–you can SPELL, punctuate and frame an intelligent sentence! Thank you for being a literate teen, you give hope to the civilized world and you are one AMAZING cook!

• 3. Lauren  |  July 25, 2009 at 7:48 pm

  Love your blog! you are quite talented :) my mom owns a bakery and im always happy to see people my age baking!

  keep up the good work

• 4. Hillary  |  November 14, 2009 at 9:28 pm

  Can you tell me how to make a recipe list like yours above? I can’t figure it out. I have only managed to create a new page with a parent page. Hmmm…

  • 5. Elissa  |  November 14, 2009 at 9:33 pm

    Hillary – I wish wordpress could automatically make a recipe list, but sadly, I have to do it manually. I created this as a page (not a blog post) and every time I post a new recipe, I manually update the page.

• 6. SeattleDee  |  November 17, 2009 at 10:49 am

  I just found your blog, thanks to today’s Nancy Leson post in All You Can Eat, and I love what you are doing. Your writing draws the reader into the heart of each experience and the photography is impressive. I7 and Baking joins the list of must-read bogs.

  My first adventure will be to read more of your older posts and then I’ll schedule time to explore some of your recipes. A future “Throwdown” weekend using your Dad’s lox and bagels vs. my recipes is mighty tempting too.

• 7. Michelle  |  December 26, 2009 at 8:36 pm

  I would LOVE LOVE LOVE if you made an apple or peach Strudel !

  I love Strudel but I don’t know how to make it!

  Strudel us!

  Lots of Love from New York, USA

• 8. Wicksie :]  |  December 28, 2009 at 9:15 am

  This is a really random question and I really like your blog, but what happens when you turn 18? Are you going to rename it 18 and baking? Yea random but it occurred to me that you can’t be 17 forever. :] I love your blog! Especially the pictures, they’re so pretty :]

• 9. Elissa  |  December 28, 2009 at 1:07 pm

  Wicksie – Thanks for the comment! I am turning 18 in April but plan to keep my name as is for a couple reasons. Firstly, it would be so hard to change the link to my blog, and anyone with a link to me would have to change it too. Secondly, I just like 17 and Baking… 18 and Baking doesn’t have the same ring to it! :)

• 10. Baylee  |  January 1, 2010 at 9:06 am

  Is it true if you add pumpkin pie filling to a cake to substitue for oil, it takes away calories and tastes just as good, or even better? I heard this from my aunt and I wanted to know before I tried it.

  • 11. Elissa  |  January 1, 2010 at 12:00 pm

    Baylee – I think by “pumpkin pie filling,” you mean “pumpkin puree” or “canned pumpkin.” You can used pumpkin puree as a substitute for eggs, or oil, and applesauce also works. Here’s the thing though – sometimes, butter/eggs/oil/fat is necessary for the recipe. So for some baked goods, like fancy cakes or pastry, I would not recommend this. But for recipes where exact measuring is less important, like muffins or quickbreads, you can try substituting. Personally, I don’t like the texture you get, but it definitely reduces calories and can still taste good.

• 12. Warm Vanilla Sugar  |  January 27, 2010 at 4:34 pm

  I have the same question as Danica.
  I understand making a page, but when you want to link to “Banana Bread” for example, how do you go about doing that?

  Thanks! You’re doing a great job :)

  • 13. Elissa  |  January 27, 2010 at 4:39 pm

    Vanilla Sugar – I’m going to send you an email and let you know how :) Thanks for the nice comment!

• 14. Warm Vanilla Sugar  |  January 28, 2010 at 7:16 am

  Thank you! Everything looks great now. You’re a great help!

• 15. Michael  |  March 17, 2010 at 11:20 pm

  Here is something to wrack your mind around, a Kouing Aman. YES i spelled it right!

  Let me know how it goes!

• 16. ashton38  |  April 6, 2010 at 2:52 pm

  Holy smokes, your amazing. I have a huge passion for cooking and my mom always said I should write a cook book… like this will ever actually happen. But I wanted to just say your really inspiring for other young cooks out there just trying to make life happen. I’m 18 love cooking, live with my boyfriend have a job, and love photography as well. PS your pictures are awesome look exactly like things out of a cook book I swear. Keep up the awesome work.

• 17. Binita  |  April 23, 2010 at 11:31 pm

  Your Blog is AWESOME ! well done ! your recipes are amazing, and photography is stunning ! What kind of camera do you use to take your pictures? You are definitely an inspiration to us all ! :-)

  • 18. Elissa  |  April 24, 2010 at 12:26 am

    Thanks Binita! I use a Canon Rebel XTi with two lenses: a 50mm 1.8 and a 50mm 2.8.

• 19. abby  |  July 4, 2010 at 8:24 pm

  hey i absolutely love all of your recipes :D i plan on being a pastry chef when i’m older so i’m always looking for new things to try…you’re very creative and i love that especially with your 4th of july cake which i thought was sooo cool…i plan on making that next 4th of july to impress my family but of course ill give you credit…im personally known for my cookies cuz theyre my favorite to make…especially my chocolate chip peanutbutter ones…hope you do well in college :D

• 20. Somebody  |  July 22, 2010 at 8:12 pm

  You should make a tab for just pictures, because sometimes I just want to look at the food lol [:

• 21. DanielleSho  |  August 2, 2010 at 7:30 am

  Elissa, your blog is fantastic. I found it through tastespotting.com and I’ve had it bookmarked now for months. I can only imagine how much time and effort you must spend on this–and it shows!

  p.s. Planning on trying the Orange Cinnamon Honey Sticky Buns soon. I’ll let you know how it goes! :)

• 22. Zoe  |  September 16, 2010 at 4:10 am

  hi you should make parmeairs they r really good

• 23. it only gets butter!  |  October 19, 2010 at 12:49 pm

  sorry my email is hannahchoo89@hotmail.com

  typo!

• 24. BossLadyN  |  October 26, 2010 at 11:30 pm

  Elissa,
  I too have been inspired by you. I’m a 40 something home cook that loves to entertain with food. I always have people asking me to email them my recipes. i specialize in sugar free treats, but love cooking good restaurant quality foods with fresh ingredients.

  While hunting for a good banana bread recipe I stumbled across your site and fell in love. I fell in love with the recipes, the web site look and functionality, your writing style, your pictures. All of it.

  So, you’ve inspired me to start my own blog. So now when people ask me for my recipes I can just direct them to my bog and they can pull them up themselves.

  Thanks,
  Natalie

• 25. chelcie ross  |  December 9, 2010 at 10:36 pm

  your recipes look so delicious! I cant wait to go home for winter break from college and make some of them!

• 26. Ann Connors  |  March 3, 2011 at 9:27 pm

  Just wondering id you have a recipe for the macaroons you have pictured on your website? after reading your scrumptious description I am so wanting to make some… I tried thus past holiday season and none of the recipes turned out satisfactory- as you said it masked with sugar- I am looking for the toasted coconut chewy macaroon as you described.
  Thanks Annie

  • 27. Elissa  |  March 4, 2011 at 2:08 am

    Annie – Every post has a recipe at the end. :)

• 28. Kay  |  June 1, 2011 at 8:11 pm

  I found your site through Keep It Simple Foods!

  Just reading the posts…I love it!!!
  This will be my challenge. I hope to try and recreate your masterpieces :)