The phenomenal global virtual bake-offs of Subtle Asian Baking
When Kat Lieu founded Subtle Asian Baking (SAB) (a private baking group on Facebook) in May 2020, she did not expect her group to snowball in popularity, attracting thousands of members within weeks of inception. Today, SAB is the leading community and source for sweet and savory baking recipes online. SAB showcases and shares the best crowdsourced Asian baking and bakery recipes and celebrates Asian culture and heritage through baking and culinary innovation. Dalgona candy cakes? Crinkle cookies stuffed with mochi? Salted egg yolk melon pan? You name the recipe, and it’s most likely in SAB!
SAB also gives back and uplights AAPI communities. Since 2020, SAB has raised over $36,000 for multiple fundraisers and hosted multiple global virtual bake-offs, inviting bakers of all levels of expertise to compete in friendly ways. There’s one consistent rule: you don’t have to be Asian but your entry or dessert must be Asian-inspired. Bake-off themes have included Lunar New Year (and here), Mid-Autumn Festival, Holidays, Halloween Bake-Off, and the Annual Summer Fruit Tart challenge that started it all in 2020. SAB members posted their Asian-inspired fruit tart creations. Dozens of SAB members entered and there were multiple winners.
The grand-prize winner was Chantel Vo of @myloveatfirstbite. Chantel entered an amazing fruit tart shaped like an Asian dragon, and it captivated the SAB community. In a year’s time, Chantel’s growth has been phenomenal in the baking world. She has a popular TikTok account and bakes out of a commissary kitchen.
Chantel Vo in a cap with her winning entry, a raspberry tart in the shape of an Asian dragon.
The First Live Asian Bake-Off
On June 3rd, 2022, SAB hosted its first live bake-off, where three podcaster teams competed live and one team (Proudly Asian Podcast) won a coveted SAB trophy.
Junior Subtle Asian Baking Bake-Off
SAB also hosted its first junior bake-off for children baker ages 4 to 15.
SAB Prizes
While SAB has partnered with different brands like Suncore Foods, Senbird Tea, and Rawnice to bring prize packages to bake-off winners, all monetary prizes are sponsored by Kat herself. Empowering bakers in the SAB community drives Kat and brings her a lot of joy.
"I don't use a lot of disposable products, so whatever money I save from my paycheck, I put it back into the SAB Community. I have an electric car, so I save on gas. I haven't bought sanitary napkins since 2017, and I have fewer clothes than my husband!"- Kat Lieu
In a recent bake-off co-hosted by Rawnice, over 300 bakers joined in on the fun, posting photos of their mooncakes and recipes, using the hashtag #SABxRawniceMooncakechallnge. During this year’s SAB Halloween bake-off, SAB received almost 100 entries. For each entry, Kat donated $2.00 to help #stopasianhate, rounding up the donation to $208 for the Support AAPI Community Fund at https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-aapi-community-fund.
SAB often invites guest judges from around the world to judge the bake-offs. Guest judges have included comedienne Evelyn Mok, and celebrity bakers Catherine Zhang and Fred Chang.
During this summer’s fruit tart challenge, Kat gave every participant an e-book, having purchased 50 copies of “Culture through Food.” All proceeds of the purchased copies went to charity (The Heart of Dinner and The Okra Project).
While the bake-off’s monetary prizes are sweet, there’s one elusive prize that almost every SAB baker wants, the SAB apron. Kat has vowed to never put the apron up for sale. It can only be won or gifted. Kat estimates she has spent at least $2000 to date, purchasing and gifting swag to SAB members.
The SAB Apron worn and modeled by the talented baker Emi of @bearsandbutter (image copyright 2021 Emi of @bearsandbutter)
The winners of this year’s SAB Halloween bake-off will be announced after Halloween 2021. The winner will be gifted a monetary prize, as well as $60 to donate to a charity of their choice, a SAB apron (which is like the trophy of the SAB Bake-Offs) and a copy of Modern Asian Baking at Home.
SAB also hosts baking collaborations. From March to April 2021, SAB hosted the #BakeInSolidarity collaboration and bakers from around the world ran bake sales and donated proceeds to help #stopAsianhate. In that month, SAB bakers raised over $15,000 and donated to Welcome to Chinatown’s Longevitiy and sik faan funds.
So what’s in store for the future of SAB bake-offs and baking collaborations? Kat anticipates there will be many more, and hopes more brands will join in on the fun and sponsor prize packages for the winners. Kat dreams big and hopes to see Asian-themed bake-offs or SAB bake-offs on network television.
“People love our food. They love boba. But we still get a lot of people yucking our yum. Or mistaking Korean food for Japanese food. The Japanese Week fiasco on the Great British Baking Show left me with a bitter taste in my mouth. I think only one baker got it right with the Japanese cheesecake. So it’s really our time to shine. Imagine, a whole baking show featuring Asian baking and Asian bakers! What a dream!”-Kat Lieu
