how to think creatively about flavor
For all you "I could never think of that flavor combination" girlies. SPOILER: YOU CAN!
Hi hi hello!
Since kicking off bake club last month, I’ve received a few messages all kinda saying the same thing: “I’d love to participate, but I don’t think I have creative enough flavor ideas”. Wrong. For a few reasons, you can participate in bake club and literally make the most vanilla, vanilla version of the prompt. I could take my own advice here: not everything you bake has to be some creative flavor think piece. You can, just bake for the sake of baking, for the sake of comfort. But, more importantly, I can guarantee you have creative flavors inside of you. You just have to work to pull them out.
In the same vein as these messages, I’m always getting comments “I wish I could come up with flavors like yours”, once again, you can. While creativity can be perceived as some sort of natural talent reserved only for those of us right-brained folks, that’s not inherently true. Creativity, is a skill and a muscle, and you can get better at being creative if you just, practice. In the same way you have to practice to get better at decorating a cake, you have to practice being creative to get better at it. While, at this point my creative brain is always flowing, there are some exercises I run through every once in a while, when the river of creativity encounters a log… idk some metaphor for a creative block in relation to flowing rivers.
So, I’m gonna give a little ✨homework✨ to help get your creative flavor juices flowing. Or maybe something to refer back to when the ideas aren’t freely pouring from ya! This is one of my favorite exercises to get out of a creative rut, and the best part is, you don’t even have to turn on the oven. You really only need your brain… being alone with your thoughts- it’s scary, I know. You could also, brain dump all of this out on to paper too if you’re more of a visual learner!
Step 1:
Think of a classic flavor combination you love or maybe one of your favorite desserts. Tiramisu, carrot cake, chocolate chip cookies, salted caramel lattes, seasonally appropriate pumpkin spice lattes? Don’t think too hard about it, just choose something.
For the sake of example, I’m going to go with caramel corn (because this is kinda my default when I’m creatively stuck and need something ✨fun✨ on a menu)
Step 2:
Choose a baked good/dessert that thing is not. Which sounds a little off but, if you chose a type of cake you’ll now choose something like ice cream. If you chose caramel corn (we did, we chose caramel corn) then for step 2 you’ll choose cake (or you know, whatever).
Step 3:
Now, just rework dessert/flavor A into dessert B. Just start dumping, think of all the ways each flavor could fit into different components. Since you’re not actually making this, it doesn’t necessarily have to make sense at this point. Just flow.
With the example of caramel corn and cake:
Layers of brown butter chiffon filled with popcorn infused pastry cream and salted caramel Italian buttercream
Layers of polenta chiffon filled with salted caramel bavarian cream finished with brown butter Swiss buttercream
Layers of caramelized sugar buttermilk cake filled with sweet corn curd finished with salty vanilla Swiss buttercream
caramelized sugar buttermilk cake, because sometimes your crazy thoughts actully become a crazy cake. Layers of vanilla chiffon filled with popcorn infused caramel pastry cream finished with parmesan cheese German buttercream (idk man, get freaky with it)
Layers of corn olive oil cake filled, brown buttercream cheese mousse & spiced caramel Swiss buttercream
I could keep going, but, what’s the fun if I do all the work for ya (-;
Step 4:
Rinse and repeat steps 2-4 until creatively satiated.
Or deviate from step 2 a bit and just riff. No second “dessert” just whatever comes out.
Ex: Other ways to remix caramel corn:
Caramel corn flan: we’ve got the caramel layer from the flan as is, infused the milk with buttered popcorn and boom, caramel corn flan
Now as ice cream: infuse the anglaise with popcorn. Churn it with honey comb pieces. Or stick with a caramel ribbon. Maybe, it’s a swirl of popcorn ice cream and salted caramel ice cream?
Donut? Yeah okay, brown butter brioche. Popcorn pastry cream from the cakes above and yeah, ovaltine caramel too.
Eclair? Same sh*t as the donut but now put it in an eclair
Got stuck? I mean this is all to get you unstuck, so if you hit a wall- start over with something new. Maybe just move on completely. But, also turn to something else for inspiration. The internet, or flip through books (whip out the handy dandy Flavor Bible) looking for new ingredients and flavors to pair with the above. Find new types of desserts to riff upon.
Don’t let your mind fixate too hard on one thing either, if the creativity pushes you away from the “caramel popcorn” route follow it. Flavors all about weaving a web, so follow it and see where it goes. Just have fun with it.
Overtime you won’t need to think about being creative. It’ll just happen, you’ll start to look at the world through a different lens.
Hope this has been helpful to kick starting (or rebooting) your creative journey ♡
Till next time! XOXO, Kassie ♡
This is so helpful, thankyou! I've been baking for a while but am always wandering how to come up with interesting flavours and how to just think outside the box with no pressure.
I had to go buy The Flavor Bible on your recommendation.