You’ll often hear people prattle on about how baking is a science and cooking is an art. While, yes, at its core this sentiment is true: baked goods that lack artistry will always be sadly, well, lacking. My favorite author once penned the phrase, “People who sacrifice beauty for efficiency get what they deserve.” Tom Robbins definitely wasn’t talking about food, but as far as I’m concerned, he might as well have been. We eat with our eyes first. Beauty and food are so tightly and irreversibly entwined that there’s no separating the two. Let’s take cake as an example. Sure, when I’m eating cake I most definitely want it to be scrumptious–but would I prefer that it be beautiful or efficient? The most purely efficient cake would probably be a single layer cake, served in the same pan that it was cooked in, with frosting haphazardly dashed across the top. It gets the job done: nobody can argue its efficiency. But a beautiful cake is another story entirely. Can you envision a tall and stunning cake with several layers, or some bedazzling of sprinkles, or with carefully piped ribbons of frosting in the most lovely variety of hues? That cake isn’t just a treat to stave off hunger: it’s art. Maybe I’m vain, but I’d choose a beautiful cake over an efficient one most days of the week. Leah of Leah’s Little Blue Kitchen doesn’t make you choose between beauty and efficiency. Both artist and baker, Leah’s baked goods marry the worlds of science and art in delicious union and result in sweet treats that will have you in awe of her artisanship.
I only met Leah in person for the first time a few days ago. Because I am a constant ball of anxiety, I arrived early to our meeting place–a bustling downtown coffee shop. I ordered the thing I craved most but needed least in that exact moment: caffeine. Amongst the chaos of early Saturday afternoon farmers market fiends and post-brunch babes, all inhaling caffeine and exhaling exhausting exuberance, I waited. Quietly. At a table that was, by some miracle, vacant at the exact moment that I needed it to be. I sat wondering if I’d recognize Leah when she entered the frenzied throng. As soon as she entered the room it became evident to me: Leah is unmistakable in any room. Perhaps the giant boxes of cake and cookies that she carried gave her away, but the sentimentalist in me believes that I would have recognized her even without her tell-tale baked goods. Sometimes we say that somebody is like a ‘ray of sunshine’ in the way that they light up a room when they walk in. Leah isn’t that–and thank god, because how boring would that be! All sunshine all the time? No storms? No snow? No night? No thanks. Leah is more like the first cool, crisp morning of autumn–a welcome gasp of cold air as reprieve from the undaunting summer sunshine that nearly melted us alive. Her presence is felt and makes all the difference.
If you don’t know Leah yet, you will soon. I predict she’ll be blowing up the Fort Wayne food scene any day now. You’ve probably seen her baked goods online or around town; you just don’t realize it. Her hand painted sugar cookies have been previously featured in Fort Wayne Food Slut’s Instagram stories–which, as we all know, is a huge honor. Then recently, her “Cookie Therapy” cookies were available at The Cauldron’s grand re-opening event. These cookies are iconic. She makes them big and it’s a whole mood. While she’s super capable of making her own delicious spins on classics (like The Girl Next Door which is basically just the sexiest version of a salted chocolate chip cookie that exists) it’s her slightly more adventurous creations where her creativity and craftsmanship really shine. Like, how did she know that I would want to eat a cookie called When Life Gives You Lemons: a lemony cookie with white chocolate chips that gets stuffed with a blueberry pie filling. Now, read that sentence again to make sure you comprehend everything because, yes–this girl is stuffing many of her colossal cookies with jammy, fudgey, and gooey interiors.
Recently, I had the absolute honor of having Leah craft the official Plonk & Pleasure cookie. This intensely chocolatey cookie is soft and just slightly chewy. The interior is packed full of a red wine ganache made utilizing dark chocolate from Debrand’s and Two EE’s Plonqe. This sweet red wine ganache plays beautifully against the bitterness of the chocolate, highlighting the natural fruity undertones. It is decadent; an absolute indulgence. My brain says I want to eat ten of them, but I’m pretty sure my body can only handle one cookie at a time–these things really are hefty!
While I could rave on endlessly about Leah’s brilliant and beautiful cookies, I’d be remiss not to mention that she bakes other treats, too. She’s been baking for her entire life. Literally, she’s been doing it for so long that she can’t even remember when or how she started: her baking is so entirely enmeshed with her personhood that it’s become a vital part of her. So, it’s no surprise that her cakes are just as ridiculously indulgent as her cookies. I got to try her cakes recently when I was surprised with the gift of several beautifully decorated cupcakes and a small layer cake–because you can’t be sad if you’re eating delicious cake! The cake was beyond moist–sorry if you’re triggered by me using that word, but I think moist things are some of the best things in life. The cake utilized a very dark cocoa; I surmise it may have been heavily alkalized black cocoa. It lacked much of the typical bitterness of very dark chocolate and, instead, provided a really smooth and robust flavor. I love chocolate as much as the next chocoholic, but I’m not one to typically just take a plain chocolate cake with vanilla frosting to the face. It’s the kind of flavor combo where ‘one and done’ more than satisfies my craving. When I tell you that this cake has me in a vice grip, I am not even remotely over-exaggerating. I have had this cake for breakfast, lunch, and a bedtime snack. I even took a cupcake into the shower with me: because I needed to shower, but I also needed a little treat. Don’t judge, you’d do it too.
Before you go, I feel I should leave you with a warning; a disclaimer of sorts. If you’re anything like me, once you’ve indulged in sweets from Leah’s Little Blue Kitchen, you might find your mind wandering back to them anytime or anywhere. I saw a chocolate cake on television and had the sudden realization that Leah’s chocolate cake is the only one that I really care about anymore. I looked up at the moon and for some reason all I could think of was Leah’s cookies. I find myself daydreaming about what kind of future orders I’d like to request from Leah’s Little Blue Kitchen. She’s a cottage crafter, so you can simply DM her for orders. My bestie asked if Leah could make a chocolate cake with cookies and cream frosting. I can’t wait to get my hands on Leah’s hand-painted sugar cookies–they look almost too pretty to eat. Leah’s talent knows no bounds.
Plonk & Pleasure 
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