Stella Sarkozy ’22 is a senior at Bronx Science who has had a passion for baking since she was 4 years old. She grew up watching her grandmother cook in the kitchen, whose techniques she adopted, as well as her love for baking. Her grandmother’s love for baking was infectious and sparked a lifelong passion for Stella. 

Sarkozy’s grandmother conveyed her love for Stella through baking, and now Stella does the same, spreading joy and love to friends and family through an assortment of baked goods. Although baking is just a hobby, the process is very calming and serves as an artistic and emotional outlet for Stella. 

Customers mostly reach out to Stella to commission cakes for special occasions, and she always comes up with creative ways to make their favorite flavors come to life. 

Stella prides herself on utilizing all-natural ingredients for her cakes, often incorporating her love for foraging and plant-based eating into her baking.  For one Christmas-themed request, Stella baked a gingerbread cake and added mushrooms and pines as decorations to truly capture the flavors and aesthetics of Christmas.

“I like decorations that are edible and truly reflect the beauty of nature — no fake plastic decorations or unnatural frostings and colorings,” said Stella Sarkozy ’22

Utilizing the freshest ingredients and sweetest fruits are also key aspects of what makes her products so amazing. Her lime zest cake, filled with a passion fruit curd and topped with cream cheese cardamom frosting, is the perfect balance between sweet and sour. The natural sourness from the passion fruit complements the lime zest in the cake, but the sweetness from the passion fruit curd still stands out. The cream cheese frosting adds some acidity as well to compliment the other flavors but still has enough richness to balance out the flavors and make for a light cake that isn’t too indulgent. 

“By focusing on only using the freshest ingredients in my baking, the flavor and look of my goods are amazing on their own and I don’t need to rely on any unnatural ingredients or additives to make my baking stand out,” said Stella Sarkozy ’22.

All of the support that Stella receives from friends and family motivates her to continue creating her delicious baked goods. She is also inspired by the work of other bakers, such as plant-based baker and chef Aimee France (@yungkombucha420). Stella is a vegetarian herself, and while most of her baked goods are not vegan, she loves the idea of plant-based desserts and hopes to make some of her own.

“I bake at the very least once a week. Some baking projects take more than 24 hours. For example, a lot of bread is a two-day process,” Sarkozy said. “But for the most part, I bake whenever it’s therapeutic to me and whenever requested by people otherwise.” 

Her personal favorite item to bake is bread. While time-consuming, the process of making it is very hands-off, and Stella always finds the result to be worth it in the end. Brioche is one of her favorite breads to bake and is consistently a crowd favorite.  

The ingredients to her brioche recipe are listed in a gallery slideshow at the end of the article.

Stella is currently taking commissions for cakes, and if you want to try some of her baked goods, the best way to contact her would be through Instagram direct messages on her baking account, @Stellasbaked.

Gallery • 4 Photos