About

Hi and welcome to Sugar Coated Kitchen!
First of all, I would like to thank you for your interest and for visiting my kitchen. I hope that you take your time while searching around my website and that you feel free to contact me with any questions or comments.

About Me

- Who am I?
My name is Alexa Harrison and I live in San Francisco. I grew up and used to live in South Korea until I met and married my husband. I moved to the States with my husband in September of 2003. Before I married, I was someone who literally had no intentions of cooking or baking (and I really mean that). However, once I moved to America I had to start cooking because I couldn’t go out to eat every night. With no idea of what I was doing, I started following some simple recipes here and there. Surprisingly enough, most of my “experiments” came out pretty good which made me even more interested in food. Over the years, I became more knowledgeable and very passionate about the culinary arts, especially baking.

-Things that make me happy
72% Dark Chocolate, Berries, and Fresh Herbs

-My other interests
Photography, Cooking, Food Styling, Travel, and Music

Baking

-Why do I bake?
In 2004 I started my first attempt at baking with a cake mix and some store-bought-icing. Before that, I never baked and never thought that I would be so into it. I probably spent more time in the kitchen baking my first cake than I had throughout my whole childhood. 99% of the reason that I make sweets is for others to enjoy. Of course I love having sweets for myself, but the best part of making sweets is to see others enjoying them. Hearing, “It was delicious!” doesn’t hurt either. =) That is why I bake and I truly believe that this is what other home bakers love about the craft as well.

- How do I bake?
There are some rules that I set up for myself when I bake or make sweets.
To be honest with you, I can’t obey these rules and my preferences all of the time, but for the most part, I try to keep my ways.

* Best Quality Ingredients: I always try to get the highest quality ingredients for my sweets, that are within a price range I can afford. For example, I would never replace a good quality dark chocolate and a real vanilla extract for anything.

* Natural Flavor & Natural Color: I love the natural color of fruits and vegetables, and I don’t like to use food coloring or imitation flavors. I like flavoring my whipped cream with real strawberry puree and coloring a cake batter with green tea powder.

* Bake with Fresh Ingredients: There are some sweets that can be frozen for a couple of weeks, such as cookie dough, tart dough, or a baked cake. Although it is sometimes convenient, the sweets might pick up the odor or tase of other items in the freezer. This is why I usually prefer to prepare my dough and bake it on the same day.

*  Make from Scratch: When I first started, I mostly used cake mixes and other pre-made crusts, icings, etc. Although they tasted good, I grew tired of being limited in choices of mixes and icing. Once I began making sweets from scratch I realized that I could create a wider variety of great goodies. I also enjoy being able to substitute ingredients and control the level of sweetness in my desserts.

Sugar Coated Kitchen

- Photos in Sugar Coated Kitchen
All the photos on my website are taken by me. I use a Canon 20D with a 28-135mm or 50mm lens and I love using natual sunlight.

Comments & Emails

I love doing what I am passionate about – discovering new recipes, baking, taking pictures of the process, and sharing with others. I am continuously teaching myself from my own mistakes, with various books, by following others, and developing my own creations by testing other recipes. This website is more about learning and sharing together rather than just teaching you how to bake or make sweets. I would love for you to share your opinions in regards to baking and desserts.

If you have any questions regarding recipes, baking, photography, etc emails are always welcome and I will do my best to get back to you shortly.