FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM AUGUST 31, 2017 • BUZZ • THE QUEENS COURIER 81
Astoria baker makes vegan treats that you’d never even know were vegan
BY ESTELLE PYPER
Kim Corbett rushed into our designated
meeting spot – a Gregory’s Coff ee
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 coff ee 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-about-your-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.”
Th e name is only about six months old,
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
oft en doubts her own abilities. “And he’d
say, ‘Kim, it’s hot sugar; it’s fi ne. 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! Th at’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 good food
that happens to be vegan,” she said. Her
secret? A ratio of apple cider vinegar and
baking soda.
“Her cupcakes don’t taste like stereotypical
vegan cupcakes,” said Andrew Boza,
who teaches cooking classes at Fresh Made
NYC with Corbett. “She proves that you
don’t need eggs and dairy to make decedent
desserts.”
Last April, a friend asked Corbett to
make a cake for her vegan roommate. “I
hadn’t even put it out there that I was going
to take orders,” she remembered thinking,
but agreed on a whim.
She taught herself how to bake the strawberry
cake – a fl avor she had never touched
– later announcing on Instagram, “I guess
I’m taking orders now!”
Corbett has since fulfi lled countless cupcake
and cake orders and experimented
with scores of fl avors; she’s
made batches of expertly
decorated sugar cookies
for friends to send as opening
night gift s for Broadway
shows such as “Anastasia”
and “Hello Dolly”; and few
weekends ago, she fi nished
her fi rst vegan wedding
cake.
“Her cupcakes are unbelievable,”
said performer
and friend Erika Creelman.
“Th ey taste like you should feel guilty. She’s
so driven.”
Corbett calls Hot Sugar Baker her “second
life” – second to acting and performing.
“When you’re doing the acting thing, you
have to fi nd something else that brings you
joy,” she explained. “It’s almost been hard
switching into people ordering stuff instead
of me just bringing it, because I just want to
give it to people.”
Th at’s been the challenge: asking friends
for money and networking.
“I’ve had to gut up and be like, ‘Th is is
how much it is,’” she said. “It’s also hard
being young in the professional world –
just getting the confi dence to say, I have the
credit, I can do this.”
And although Hot Sugar Baker is an
established name, Corbett still hesitates to
call it a “business,” using air-quotes every
time she mentions the word. “I don’t like
to call myself a ‘business.’ I’m not trying to
skip steps here; I’m trying to go at the pace
that’s right for me.”
As a boutique operation, Corbett asks for
more than grocery store prices, but along
with the price tag comes a product catered
to your taste.
“You can call me and tell me what fl avor
you want,” she said, “and that’s the difference:
you’re talking to me. My stuff is
better than what you can get in the grocery
store. And it’s going to be exactly what
you want.”
Business is conducted online and
through friends, but the treats are mainly
produced in her little Astoria kitchen,
where she’s lived for three years.
“I love Queens,” the baker said. “For
me, it’s really important to say I’m from
Queens. It’s important on my Instagram to
say, ‘Astoria, Queens.’”
She fi nds this distinction crucial, pointing
out the severe lack of vegan options
in Queens as compared to Manhattan or
Brooklyn.
“Sometimes you just want to go out to
eat and there are like two restaurants. It’s
so frustrating to have this underrepresented
community, because we have the market
for it,” lamented Corbett, who’s on a mission
to change that narrative. “I hope that
this will inspire people in Queens to take
a look at one or two things on their menu,
and just switch it up.”
As for the future of Hot Sugar Baker?
“I would love for it to be this thriving
business. Right now, it’s growing, but once
it picks up, Queens all the way,” she said
with a smile.
Buddy’s KOSHER DELI
RESTAURANT & CATERERS
Wishing All Our Customers
& Friends A Happy Healthy
NewYear!
HOLIDAY MENU
Let Us Dazzle Your Taste Buds
During the Holidays!
ROSH HASHANAH MENU
PACKAGE FOR 6
APPETIZERS (Choice of one)
• 6 Pieces of Gefilte Fish
• 6 Pieces of Stuffed Cabbage
• 11/2 lbs. Chopped Liver
MAIN DISHES (Choice of one)
• 10-12 lb. Roasted Turkey
• 3 Roasted Chickens
• 2 lbs. Sliced Brisket of Beef
• 1 lb. Brisket of Beef & 11/2 Roasted Chickens
SIDE DISHES (Choice of two, 2 lbs. each)
• Egg Barley & Mushrooms
• Kasha Varnishkas
• Noodle Pudding
• String Beans Almondine
• Roasted Potatoes
• Sweet Potato Pie
• Vegetable Medley
PACKAGE INCLUDES
• 2 qts. Chicken Soup w/ 6 Matzoh Balls
• 1 pt. Cole Slaw
• 1 pt. Cranberry-Pineapple Compote
• 1 pt. Gravy
• Challah Bread
PACKAGE FOR 12
APPETIZERS (Choice of one)
• 12 Pieces of Gefilte Fish
• 12 Pieces of Stuffed Cabbage
• 3 lbs. Chopped Liver
MAIN DISHES (Choice of one)
• 15 lb. Roasted Turkey
• 6 Roasted Chickens
• 4 lbs. Sliced Brisket of Beef
• 2 lb. Brisket of Beef & 3 Roasted Chickens
SIDE DISHES (Choice of two, 4 lbs. each)
• Egg Barley & Mushrooms
• Kasha Varnishkas
• Noodle Pudding
• String Beans Almondine
• Roasted Potatoes
• Sweet Potato Pie
• Vegetable Medley
PACKAGE INCLUDES
• 4 qts. Chicken Soup w/ 12 Matzoh Balls
• 1 qt. Cole Slaw
• 1 qt. Cranberry-Pineapple Compote
• 1 qt. Gravy
• Challah Bread
PLEASE NOTE: We will be closed at 4pm on Sunday, Sept 20th to celebrate the
Jewish New Year. We will reopen Wednesday Sept 23rd at 11AM.
UNDER RABBINICAL SUPERVISION
$30995
Package for 12
215-01 73rd Avenue • BAYSIDE
Tel: 718.631.2110 • Fax: 718.631.2956
Package
For 6
$16995
Package for 9
Also Available
$25995
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
L’SHANAH TOVAH
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PLEASE VISIT OUR TAKE-OUT COUNTER FOR HOT SOUPS,
APPETIZERS, BRISKET, CHICKENS AND MUCH MORE
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