Dessert Can Save The World
Plus s'mores chocolate pie, blueberry lemon pudding cake, & raspberry hibiscus sorbet
Dessert can save the world.
Bold statement. Unrealistic? That depends. Overly optimistic. Perhaps. If you’re asking me, I’m sticking to a whole body yes answer. Stubbornly so. I’m a Capricorn and we goats are have it in excess. So yeah, it’s in my DNA.
I would also add that cooking and anything that involves sharing food has the power to change worlds but that’s just me.
Now I can’t take credit for the dessert can save the world statement, but I can give you my unsolicited opinion and why I believe it in my bones. First let me explain where it came from. It’s started with extremely appropriately titled book by the charming, energizer bunny ball of positivity and joy that is Christina Tosi. And let me tell you there’s so many things about this book that got me but it definitely started with the title but even more so its tagline - Dessert Can Save The World: stories, secrets and recipes for a stubbornly joyful experience. That’s life in a nutshell. It’s not always rainbows and fairytales but there’s always an opportunity to choose joy. Even if it’s stubbornly.
If you don’t know Christina, she’s the founder of Milk Bar, a dessert empire she’s created doing things her own unique way; with sprinkles, cereal milk, converse and colourful headscarves. If you have a minute, watch her ted talk and you’ll instantly get why I love her.
What she’s really in is the business of is dispensing joy. And she’s done it in the best way possible; by breaking the rules .
I can see where Christina gets it after diving into her book. It’s her mom Greta. She recounts so many stories of her mom always being the one to share food with others whether it was bringing her accounting clients a piece of whatever she’d made that day or a care package for her dental receptionists’ son. Why? This quote sums it up and brought me to tears when I read it:
‘She lives to help people remind them of their hearts. Paving joy trails and that they always pay it forward. Her entire life’s work has been about paving joy trails for people to follow in their own lives, always with a pay it-forward mentality.’
Joy trails. That’s just it, isn’t it? Every time you make and/or share food it has the possibility to leave a trail. To make the ordinary more magical and meaningful. Connecting us deeper. And when we reach for that, when we start from there, the world is instantly a better place.
Desserts are usually connected with celebrations, right? What if we just celebrate life more? Find the joy in every moment we can, even (maybe even especially) the small ones. Make excuses to do it - even go a little overboard and make your family blowtorch the s’mores cake for their birthday because it’s more fun and you can bet they’ll remember it years from now. Celebrate the really good moments. Even the crappy ones. Because nothing has more potential to shift your day than a home cooked meal or freshly baked cookies. Just do it and see what happens. Share food with someone. Cook yourself a meal and say good job. Celebrate the success of making something new or even just getting through the day. It all matters.