vbbg snacks and swirlz

Hello friends,

It’s Elyse with some updates!

The song of today is Picture Perfect by a picture of her–a buzzy, vivid math rock song

Extra Slice

You may have already seen my announcements on social media. I’ve just started a program I’m calling Extra Slice.

It’s basically a subscription to a monthly treat (or treats on my more productive months) for local pick-up, a catalog of more advanced recipes, and thorough write-ups of the monthly treat for those who are interested in recreating them at home. It’s my version of a Patreon Sticker Club. Right now, it’s $5 CAD monthly, and I appreciate everyone who has bought a subscription. That means so much to me, and I feel grateful in knowing that people find value in my work. I’ll work hard to grow and keep it up!
You can read more about Extra Slice, and get a free 3-month trial in the substack article.

I think I started right mid-June. Since I started, I’ve had this Brown Butter Banana cake available for pick up. I’ve released a recipe for Roasted Strawberry tartlets. I’m currently working on the write-up to the Banana cake! I was working hard to get a second treat out for pick up, but the end of June is right around the corner, so I think it’ll have to be a July treat.

Substack

For the last year, I’ve been writing on Substack (Extra Slice is hosted on Substack). For those not in the know, Substack is an online publishing platform, similar to blogspot and medium, but it encourages the social media aspect of it as well, incorporating similar features to Twitter. I’ve found that I really enjoy it, and it aligns with what I believe in social media (as a form of expression rather than consumption).

Many of us have grown so used to talk of hellsites and doomscrolling—while wondering if social media is driving us mad—that we have forgotten that the internet can be good

-Best, McKenzie, Sethi (this article)

Instagram just rolled out forced ad breaks, and they seem to implement more and more user-unfriendly features every month. Subscriptions and downloading new apps that only stay for a season maybe doesn’t seem like a good answer to a lot of people, but I don’t think accepting Instagram and the current social media landscape is right either. While Substack as a platform has much room for growth, I do think it reminds us that there are different ways to engage with social media, the internet, and content-creators. Our self-awareness and the actions we take with that awareness are steps in the right direction, and my step just happens to include Substack.

I know it’s hard for people to open up to a new app, and that makes me more grateful towards the people who have signed up for Extra Slice. You don’t need to sign up to view my free articles, and I’ll continue to write free content on Substack. My free content includes beginner-friendly recipes, educational tidbits, my virtual pastry crawl, random crap and other things of that nature.

The VBBG blog and website

As Extra Slice has given me a place to put all my baking explorations, I’ve realized the differences between it and Very Baked. VBBG has always been about edibles, psychedelic expression and introspection, and just like silly quirky weird things… So, I’m going to work on separating them. The VBBG blog will contain VBBG stuff (that makes sense right): cannabis-related education, edibles updates, VBBG products, that kind of stuff. So no more baking recipes on the blog (they will be on free Extra Slice).