Cookbook author B. Dylan Hollis encourages budding bakers to enjoy the process

Source: The Straits Times
Author: Charmaine Lim

SINGAPORE - Though he is best known for baking strange concoctions like pork cake, chocolate sauerkraut cake and jellied meatloaf on TikTok, B. Dylan Hollis suggests a more normal entry point for new bakers.

Over a Zoom call from Wisconsin, United States, the 28-year-old American social media personality tells The Straits Times: "When I think of entry-level recipes, Betty Crocker cake mix can help you get comfortable in the kitchen. Whether it's necessary or not, it requires you to mix together dry and wet ingredients and put it into a baking vessel, so you get to actually feel out what it means to bake a cake. It allows you to get quick feedback when interacting with these items."

He is speaking in front of the iconic red-and-cream kitchen backdrop, familiar to his fans from his videos, filled with shelves of ingredients. His hardcover No. 1 New York Times best-selling debut cookbook Baking Yesteryear (2023) peeks down from a high shelf.

"Banana bread is a great, quick bread. Your bananas go bad? Just stick them in the freezer. I have a whole bunch of black bananas frozen and ready for banana bread," he adds.

Another easy treat for those with a stand mixer are meringues - egg whites whipped with sugar - baked at low heat to become "little morsels of joy with nothing but two ingredients".

But he cautions against making them by hand unless one is prepared for an intense arm workout.

He adds: "My biggest advice is to free yourself from these self-imposed restrictions that baked goods need to be beautiful. People set their expectations too high and they're afraid to fail insofar as it has to look presentable. In baking, half the time your mistakes are edible and you can't say that about many other trades."

Though he had little baking experience prior to his first video posted on Aug 29, 2020, in which he made pork cake and declared it tasted like "a good question mark", Hollis has since amassed more than 10 million followers on TikTok and 1.1 million followers on Instagram.

Known for his high energy and quick edits on TikTok, his chaotic commentary and kitchen antics include using fun names for common ingredients - moo juice, eggies and floofers - and witty jokes in response to zany and unusual recipes.

Hollis says: "People say, 'Oh, you must have crazy attention deficit disorder'. But, no, I just get really excited about anything that's old, including recipes. I am a lover of yesteryear. It's been my favourite word forever, so I'm glad I was able to plaster it on a book."

His love of yesteryear began in childhood, particularly with big band music. A childhood dream of becoming a big band leader led him to study 1940s big band jazz at the University of Wyoming, an obsolete degree given his current occupation as a content maker and cookbook author.

But music remains a creative outlet and a way of unwinding at the end of the day. During live-streaming sessions on TikTok, he also plays the accordion while waiting for something to bake.

Hollis says reflectively: "I've still been afforded my dream to be an entertainer. People often cite a period of their life where directions change quickly and they end up doing something they never thought of before. That's what happened to me. I didn't expect to carry the baker's hat, but I'm happy and honoured and I'm going to run with it."