Aperol Spritz Rainbow Cookies

And a big surprise!

“You create such wonderful recipes that I think are fun and approachable for a home cook. But what brought me to the paid subscription was your public support of important causes and not staying silent on political issues, which can be rare in this space. Continue your creativity, talent and being true to yourself.”

“I support your work because you get in the details and never forget to mention anything.”

“Love easygayoven recipes. Love the way you advocate for causes in your community and nationally. Here for cookies and community.”

Any time I let the haters and the phonies get me down, I just take a look at the notes from folks on why they decided to become paid subscribers to EGO. And then I feel better! I already went off on my Instagram Stories about this, but whenever one of my recipes get a lot of attention, folks who don’t follow me get upset about the paywall before most recipes. I get it — especially if you’re not expecting it, the paywall can be a letdown. And I also understand that many people do not have the money for boutique recipe/newsletter subscriptions right now.

As I explained yesterday on IG, there’s two ways the economics of this can work… for me… at this juncture. I can either do a lot more sponsored content with brands I don’t really love or don’t align with (one day I will tell you guys just how much work I turn down) and provide all my tips and recipes and writing for free. That also means I’m more beholden to algorithms and being “brand-friendly”. Or I can build up this community and make more of my income directly from the folks who want to support this operation, while still providing some free work.

Most of you probably understand all this, but I just want to be as transparent as I can with you all since there’s a lot of, let’s say, ~tension~ regarding “creators” right now. Ad fatigue is setting in thanks to the firehose of the holidays, but I hope cookie box fatigue holds off a little while longer because the next post is all about that… so stick around.

EGO Got a Facelift!

Notice anything new around here? Over the last few months, I’ve been working with the lovely folks over at Wonderly to answer the question, What if, after six years, easygayoven finally got a logo? And we didn’t stop there! Christmas came early and now I’m playing with my new toys (several assets in .png files). And I reserve the right to change any of it so don’t get too comfortable! Take a look around and tell me what you think it’s giving in the comments.

Two New Recipes that Aren’t Here

The holidays mean an influx of partner posts. I was glad to be able to work with two brands I use all the time, Kerrygold and Grey Poupon, on two new recipe videos. They may never appear on the Substack, but they are both great holiday appetizer recipes, herby cheesy star bread and mini croque monsiuers with cheese sauce, so you should at least check them out!

Like many of my recipes, I had been sitting on this idea for more than a year! Italian rainbow cookies, tri-color cookies, Venetian cookies, seven-layer cookies— whatever you call them, they were just never my culture growing up. They were never included on the cookie trays of of my no-Italian-American-heritage-having family. But if made well? These are a textural delight: a snappy, creamy chocolate topping, three thin layers of plush almond cake, and a sticky jam keeping everything moist and together.

Here, we’re doing a crossover episode with another Italian specialty: the Aperol Spritz. My dream is to eventually transform rainbow cookies into other cocktail flavors, too: espresso martinis, negronis, etc. Let me tell you what I changed…