Hello, and welcome! I am Irina, author of Baking Like a Chef, started in 2018 to share my baking recipes, helpful tips, and tricks. My recipes have been featured in Parade and French Chef Simon and Le Journal des Femmes.
In addition to being a food blogger with over five years of experience, I am a wife, mother of two wonderful sons, photographer, recipe developer, and writer. I have over 30 years of experience in home cooking and baking.
My story
Baking became an essential part of my weekend routine when I was nine. Early in the morning on weekends, I tried my baking following the recipes collected from old magazines.
When my dough was not turning out how I wanted, I often threw away my failed experiments and started all over.
I searched for recipes in paper magazines and newspapers, joined baking communities, attended baking classes, experimented myself, and learned a lot.
Over time, through practice and persistence in the face of sometimes frustration, I improved my skills.
The hobby became a fun and essential part of my life. Eventually, I grew up to become an experienced full-time blogger, recipe developer, and food photographer.
Baking Like a Chef story
I created BakingLikeaChef.com back in 2018 when I finally decided to share my recipes, baking knowledge, and skills with others.
Here at Baking Like a Chef, you will find hundreds of foolproof dessert recipes that have been tested and fine-tuned numerous times in my own kitchen.
And I want you to feel reassured and confident that any recipe you choose on the blog will turn right in your kitchen, too.
What you'll find on my blog
Ready to get started? Check out my Start Here page to navigate the website, or read below to learn more.
I am a lover of all things dessert. On the blog, you will find:
- Over 300 sweet recipes inspired or adapted by the world's most famous chefs, as well as classics that have been given a twist for good measure. You will find everything from classic cakes and cookies to your favorite fruit flavors.
- Baking essentials for beginners and experienced bakers.
- Baking basics that include basic recipes, baking measurement conversions, ingredients and substitutions, storage suggestions, and FAQ.
- Tons of baking techniques with step-by-step photos helping you with how's and why's of baking throughout my blog posts.
- Free kitchen printables and cheat sheets, from the baking pan conversion chart to weight and liquid conversion tables and oven temperature conversion chart.
- A rare finding - a cake pan converter - that allows you to recalculate the recipe ingredients for baking pan sizes you have on hand.
Recipes on the blog
You can find recipes by category in the recipe index, the top menu, or the sidebar search bar.
All the recipes contain step-by-step, photographed explanations to ensure you can succeed in your home kitchen.
Each recipe card can be modified to serving size to reduce or increase the amounts of the ingredients.
So, each dessert is explicitly tailored towards whatever size gathering - from tiny small eats to infinity.
All the blog recipes are primarily developed using gram measurements for high precision and then converted to US volume and weight measurements.
The best way to get the perfect recipe is by using a kitchen scale that provides more accurate results in baking. So why not bake in metric? It is even easier!
Have you ever thought that converting flour from grams to cups might vary since it depends on room temperature, the quality of the ingredient, its brand, etc.?
Still, no worries if you are used to measuring ingredients with measuring cups and spoons.
Please enjoy the recipes in your favorite way. I converted all the recipes to the US measurement system, too.
Fun facts about me
I will just bet that is a lot of skills everyone has. So, what are fun facts to learn about me?
- I learned piano for seven years and graduated from a conservatory as an "A" student. But unfortunately, since then, I have only played it once or twice.
- My doctoral degree is in biomedical science, which helps me better understand food interactions and limitations.
- I speak English and French, and I have previous experience studying Portuguese for eight months. I have also picked up some Italian while working with Italian-speaking colleagues in Montreal, Canada.
- I am a fashionable woman with a great sense of style, along with all these other languages.
- What's not so fun? Not being able to ride a bike, but being able to drive a car, but luckily I am alright with this.
Select Features
As a recipe developer and freelance food writer, I have been featured in various publications, including Parade, Chef Simon, Le Journal des Femmes, Foodgawker, Yummly, and Bloglovin.
In 2021, with Pavlova aux prunes, I won the monthly Le Journal des Femmes Cuisine competition.
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Stay connected
You can follow me on Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook to see what I am getting up to.
Join a dessert lovers community to enjoy baking to the fullest. Let's learn through baking; let's inspire others to bake!
Contact me
I'd love to hear from you! If you'd like to say "hi" or ask any questions, please visit my contact page or email me at hello@bakinglikeachef.com.
FAQ
For me, food is a way to bring people together. Along with my family members, I try hard to make our meals healthy, but there is always room for dessert.
My family always samples the recipes I make. We also give away to our friends and neighbors, who have become my great dessert testers over time. The Meringue roulade or Merveilleux cake usually happens when someone gets lucky enough for a birthday.
The easiest way to get my recipes and updates is to deliver them to your inbox. So please subscribe to my emails now.
Many factors go into successful baking, from choosing the right ingredients, their measurements, altitude, and humidity to oven temperature and more. If you have an issue with your bake, I suggest rereading the recipe and the comments to see if other readers have had the same problem. If you still can't figure it out, please comment on the recipe or email me at hello@bakinglikeachef.com so I can help you.
Check out baking essentials for my favorite products – from a hand whisk and kitchen scale to cake pans and pie plates.
Please contact me at hello@bakinglikeachef.com for permission to post a photo with the link back to my site.