Hello! I’m Stephanie Gonzalez.
I’m so glad you stopped by because it probably means that you like delicious sweets, too, which means I like you already.
I took over the Pretty. Simple. Sweet. blog in 2023 to continue bringing you quality, delicious content and to selfishly stay home with my baby full time. But I’ve always had a passion for cooking, baking, and being creative.
This blog was originally started in Israel and has amazing authentic Jewish recipes in addition to all the classic sweet treats.
As you might guess I have a slight obsession with food, especially if it has sugar and butter in it. Carrot cake counts as breakfast, right?!
I could live on chocolate chip cookies or anything with cream cheese, which is kind of what I do already.
It is my goal for you to get in the kitchen more often by learning how to make your favorite homemade goodies and maybe even try something new?!
If you’ve always wanted to be a better baker but weren’t sure where to start, I’m excited to offer you the “Mastering Baking Basics” online course carefully crafted for home bakers.
I filled this course with all the insights I wish someone had shared with me when I first started baking.
From understanding why recipes work (or don’t), to choosing the right ingredients, and even learning about what happens in the oven— this course has it all.
When did my love of food begin?
Okay, that’s a loaded question. I’m sure like most of us, I started to love food before I could talk.
But my love of making food started with my mom.
She helped me learn to bake and experiment in the kitchen starting at a very early age.
Once I was old enough to work, I became a barista at our locally-owned coffee shop & restaurant that specialized in fine dining and catering. This job got me through college.
Many of my tips, tricks, and favorite recipes were born out of this experience. It was invigorating being around chefs and foodies that were just as passionate about making food as I am!
Fast forward more than ten years later and here I am! Making a living from recipe development, baking, writing, and photography. My dreams came true.
When I’m not in the kitchen, I hang out with my sweet little one-year old boy at home and make my husband, Esteban, handle all of the self-employment tasks like bookkeeping, technical stuff, shipping, and a million other boring things.
Don’t worry, he still gets to enjoy all the great perks of the food blog (taste testing, washing dishes ha!) and creates recipes with me too!
How do I decide what to make?
The recipes you’ll find in this blog are the result of my cravings.
I bake what I feel like eating, which is usually something that has to do with chocolate, caramel, cream cheese, or cinnamon.
It is also highly dependent on the weather. Living in Minnesota, it is cold here for more than half the year.
I’m also pretty lazy sometimes, so most of my recipes are simple.
I enjoy putting a new spin on classic desserts by messing around with the ingredients, so hopefully you love trying new things with me too.
Now let me get mushy for just a second here.
This blog wouldn’t mean much to me if you weren’t a part of it.
Thank you for your continued love, support, kindness, and sweet words that I’m lucky to be reading from my desk every morning. It’s such a nice start to the day!
Now let’s bake some cakes together, ok?