Latest news with #HarryBaker
New York Times
10-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
The Chiffon Cake Is Standing Tall Again
In 1927, an Ohio-born insurance salesman named Harry Baker, having moved to Los Angeles seeking a change, came up with a revolutionary cake recipe. Folding whipped egg whites into a batter enriched with yolks and vegetable oil, he discovered, yielded a sponge that was springy, extravagantly tall and remarkably moist — a striking contrast to the stark, fat-free angel food that dominated dessert menus at the time. From his small home kitchen, he supplied his so-called chiffon cakes — named after the airy, ethereal fabric — to the Brown Derby restaurant, where they became a sensation. In 1947, Baker sold his previously top-secret formula to General Mills, launching the chiffon to nationwide fame. Over time, its popularity waned as the American palate shifted toward denser, more buttery cakes, but the style endured in Asian bakeries, where it's prized for its delicate crumb, subtle sweetness and versatility. Now, with Asian flavors like grassy pandan and toasty hojicha gaining popularity in the Western pastry world, and the ubiquitous pictures of towering cakes attracting attention on social media, chiffon is experiencing a broader resurgence. Natasha Pickowicz, 40, a Brooklyn-based chef and the author of 'More Than Cake' (2023), grew up in California eating chiffon cakes from the Asian grocery chain 99 Ranch Market. She uses chiffon almost exclusively in her layered confections, baking thin slabs in sheet pans, brushing them with fragrant syrups and sandwiching them between velvety mousses and aerated creams. 'Chiffon is a perfect receptacle for building flavor because it has this ephemeral quality but also enough structure to absorb soaks, which add dimension and depth,' she says. Mina Park, 32, a Brooklyn-based baker, praises chiffon's ability to sop up thick, dairy-rich liquids and recently used it in a tres leches cake featuring Thai iced tea and barely sweetened whipped cream. For other bakers, chiffon's primary attraction is its incomparable loftiness, achieved through a combination of chemical leaveners and a meringue-fortified batter that expands dramatically when baked. The cakes are traditionally made in ungreased aluminum tube pans, which allow the batter to cling and climb. 'It's big and billowy, so there's something very celebratory about it,' says Helen Goh, a London-based recipe developer and food writer who grew up eating pandan chiffon cake, a popular confection in her native Malaysia. This past winter, she made a lychee-flavored version for Lunar New Year. 'It's so tender that you can squish it, but it bounces back,' she adds. 'There's a certain magical quality to it.' Peter Hunter Meckel, 36, a Brooklyn-based baker inspired by the grandeur of Victorian-era sweets, uses chiffon in his outsize sculptural cakes adorned with edible strings of pearls and portraits of imaginary duchesses. Creating his signature sweets — which he's made for weddings and fashion world parties — required a fair amount of trial and error. Whipping egg whites to just the right frothiness for maximum height takes practice, he says, and, because chiffon is prone to collapsing under weight, layered cakes can require meticulous engineering, including reinforcement with dowels and cardboard. Still, Meckel is drawn to chiffon's airy delicacy and notes that its sugar-to-flour ratio is lower than that of traditional butter cakes. 'A lot of desserts are just so sweet you can't eat very much of them,' he says. 'This is a nice change of pace.' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
BBC News
04-04-2025
- BBC News
Knife crime fears in Wales see 'Temu stab vest purchases'
Teenagers are buying stab vests online and wearing them to school, an anti-knife campaigner has Cunliffe, from Newport, turned his life around after being attacked while involved in drug believes the fear of knife crime in Wales has reached a point where young people in his area were purchasing items to protect themselves and it comes after the UK government announced new measures to make buying weapons online more Police said it was not aware of stab vests being worn or stashed but would welcome hearing more about young people's experiences, while the Welsh government said it took school safety "extremely seriously". Mr Cunliffe, 34, referred to the many high-profile knife crime cases in Wales, including the murder of 17-year-old Harry Baker as well as the attempted murder of two teachers and a pupil by a 14-year-old girl."A lot of young people I know are wearing stab vests because they're thinking someone could attack at any given time," Mr Cunliffe told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast."When you see things like Temu come up on your apps, it actually comes up with stab vests. And then they stash them locally around the communities and estates in Newport."In the UK, there are currently no legal restrictions on the purchase and ownership of stab protection products. Mr Cunliffe has been an anti-knife campaigner and youth mentor for about eight years and said he had spoken to more than 300 young people about knife crime."Young people are telling me they're carrying knives through fear. If there's a bit of conflict between two teenage individuals, for example, then both teenagers will end up picking up a weapon just as protection."Everywhere you look on social media, you see young people, balaclavas on, attacking each other with machetes, knives, hammers, screwdrivers. The violence is absolutely unreal."He said he went into schools and colleges in Newport, Cardiff, Swansea and across the UK, as well as working with South Wales Police on its Not The One knife Cunliffe was attacked while involved in drug dealing when he was 16."Fortunately, I lived, however there are a lot of young people who unfortunately haven't," he added he does not tell young people what to do but showed them his scars and felt he could "understand how they view the world".The number of serious offences involving a knife or sharp object recorded in the year ending March 2024 in Wales and England was 54% higher than in 2016, according to ONS figures and knife crime reached an all-time high in new measures announced by the UK government - known as Ronan's Law, after 16-year-old Ronan Kanda who was murdered three years ago - involve rules for selling knives online and tougher penalties for those who break Cunliffe said it was a start but not "the full solution", with "a whole community approach" needed. Self-defence instructor James Bourne runs a nightclub security firm in Cardiff and said he had worked with many young people who feared being often wears stab protection clothing and said he knew of young people buying it online, including "slash-proof hoodies" but warned there was no guarantee it would protect them, and wearing these items did not justify carrying a Bourne, 51, spent five years offering self-defence classes to children and young people for free, and continued to coach some clients on a private basis. He has been the victim of knife attacks, "because of repercussions of my job", including being stabbed five times while working in also said one of his staff had to deal with the aftermath of a stabbing while on their way to work recently when "two young boys" had been stabbed in the head and father-of-five added knife crime would not be eradicated "as long as humans walk this planet", but he hoped to "inspire self-confidence" through self-defence. Earlier this year, actor and anti-knife campaigner Idris Elba spoke to young people as part of the Premier League Kicks programme, which works with 90 football clubs including in Swansea and Cardiff, and offers free football and workshop sessions where participants "can discuss issues that are impacting their everyday lives, such as knife crime".Some of the teenagers at a session in east London said they tried to keep themselves safe by wearing stab vests or multiple layers of clothing, the Mirror newspaper released a BBC documentary in January, which followed him as he mounted a campaign to try to stop knife crime in the City AFC Foundation, which runs sessions with young people in Wales under the scheme, said it had "noticed that some young people express concerns about safety and have mentioned initiatives like purchasing stab vests"."It reflects a troubling reality that many young individuals feel increasingly vulnerable. To address this fear, we believe it's crucial to focus on community engagement, education, and positive activities that promote conflict resolution and self-worth, rather than self-defence equipment," it said. Gwent Police's Ch Supt Jason White said officers regularly visited schools "to educate and speak to children directly to highlight the potential risks of carrying a knife".Ch Supt Esyr Jones of South Wales Police said the area was "no different to anywhere else" in seeing rising knife added: "Please think about how your future could be ruined if you are caught carrying or using a knife."Please also speak to us if you think someone is carrying a knife - it can be difficult, but it will help ensure that that weapon can't be used to cause serious injury, or worse."The Welsh government said it supported the new UK government proposals to tackle knife crime.
