SWEET TREATS
It 's All
Hot Sugar
By ESTELLE PYPER
@ESTIE_PYPER
@ESTIEPYPER
Kim Corbett rushed into our designated meeting spot –
a Gregory’s Coffee near Bond Street – with a plastic tray
of a dozen mini cupcakes in tow.
“I never go anywhere without a cupcake,”
she said with a smirk, only half-kidding. Corbett,
25, is a petite woman with a permanent
smile and an energy that commands your attention
– no coffee needed. She is a baker – a
vegan baker, although she won’t tell you that
right away – distancing herself from the stereotype
of the self-righteous, in-your-face-aboutyour
diet vegan, just as her vegan treats are far
from bland.
Corbett fell into her brand, Hot Sugar Baker,
somewhat by accident. At Penn State, where
she studied musical theater, Corbett started a
vegan blog and Instagram account for vegan
recipes. She slowly found herself drawn more
and more to vegan baking.
“I was spending hours watching cake
decorating videos just like consumed
by this obsession,” Corbett recalled. “I
changed my name to Hot Sugar Baker,
and I just started baking all the time.”
The name is only about six months old,
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and Corbett credits her boyfriend, also a
vegan, for the inspiration.
“Every time I would have him try something,
I’d be like, ‘Do you think this is
good?’” said the baker, who admitted she
often doubts her own abilities. “And he’d
say, ‘Kim, it’s hot sugar; it’s fine. People
are going to eat it. It’s hot sugar.’ And
then…” She threw her hands in the air to
reenact the epiphany. “Hot Sugar! That’s
my name.”
Corbett steers clear of the label “vegan
baker.”
“I love being a vegan baker,” she emphasized,
“but with that, they think it’s
going to taste like crap and dirt and… no
way. I use sugar.”
To her, nothing’s more rewarding than
watching a vegan realize they can eat her
food.
“I want them to have this excited moment
of, ‘I can eat this!’ I want to make