Morgan Knight Transcript
Jessie Sheehan:
Hi, peeps. You're listening to She's My Apple Pie, a new miniseries on She's My Cherry Pie, the baking podcast from The Cherry Bombe Podcast Network. I'm your host, Jessie Sheehan. I'm a baker, recipe developer, and author of four baking books, including “Snackable Bakes.” In this miniseries, I hang out with the sweetest bakers around and take a deep dive into their signature bakes and get the scoop on all things fall baking and apples.
My guest is Morgan Knight, the owner and head baker of Saint Street Cakes, a whimsical bakery in Brooklyn that offers custom cakes, cookies, and brownies. Morgan's cakes are known for their colorful, vintage-style piping and flavorful layers. But the kitchen hasn't always been Morgan's office. She studied political science at Northeastern and worked as a paralegal for the civil division of the U.S. Attorney's office for the Southern District of New York. During the pandemic, she baked a strawberry cake for her roommate's birthday, and it accidentally changed her life. After that cake and a few viral Instagram posts, Saint Street Cakes was born. Since then, Morgan has turned her side hustle into a full-fledged business and opened her first storefront in Brooklyn earlier this year. As a way to continue her political passions, each month, the bakery donates a portion of its proceeds to different nonprofits such as The Trevor Project and Send Chinatown Love. Morgan joins me today to talk about her journey into becoming a full-time baker, the inspiration for her vibrant designs, and what it's like to make the leap from political science to layer cakes. Then she walks me through the recipe for her apple cider donut cake. It's an apple cake on steroids with the addition of both apple cider and apple sauce. Plus there's a special cider soak post-bake and some graham cracker crumbs in between the layers, which really gives it all the apple cider donut vibes you could ask for. I loved getting to know Morgan and hearing about her bakery, so stay tuned for our chat.
Today's episode is presented by Yes! Apples, a brand redefining how we experience one of nature's most iconic fruits. It's a collective of more than 50 New York family farms with roots in the industry dating back to 1919, all united by a passion for growing apples with bold flavor, irresistible crunch, and a deep commitment to sustainable farming. What makes them stand out even more is that they're a women-founded and women-owned company, which means a lot to us here at Cherry Bombe. Their mission is to bring New York's finest apples to tables nationwide and to remind you just how extraordinary an apple can be. In this episode, we're talking about Saint Street Cakes' apple cider donut cake made with Yes! Apples EverCrisp. It's a cozy cinnamon sugar delight that tastes like fall in every bite. Yes! Apples teamed up with Saint Street Cakes to create this special recipe featuring their fan-favorite EverCrisp apples. These apples are a cross between Honeycrisp and Fuji, known for their satisfying crunch, natural sweetness, and ability to hold their texture beautifully in baked goods. Whether you are baking this apple cider donut cake or preparing all your Thanksgiving fixings from pies to sauces and everything in between, EverCrisp apples are perfect because they stay firm, juicy, and flavorful long after harvest. Their crisp texture and honeyed sweetness shine in every recipe, making them the ultimate apple for fall baking and snacking. You can find Yes! Apples EverCrisp at yesapples.com, where you can order them straight to your door. And for the first time ever, you can also find Yes! Apples on walmart.com this season. Prefer to shop in person? Visit yesapples.com for a full list of retailers near you.
Peeps, did you hear the news? Jubilee, New York 2026 is happening on Saturday, April 25th at the Glasshouse in Manhattan, and early bird tickets are on sale now. Jubilee is Cherry Bombe's annual conference celebrating women and creatives in the world of food and drink. It'll be a beautiful day of connection and community, plus delicious bites and sips. You'll meet other thoughtful food folks and be inspired by the featured speakers, panelists, and more. I had such a great time at this past year's event, and I know next year's will somehow be bigger and better. Early bird tickets are on sale now through December 31st. If you're an official Bombesquad member or a paid Substack subscriber, be sure to use your discount code at checkout. You can find it in your inbox or on our Substack website. Head to cherrybombe.com for all the details. I hope to see you there.
Let's chat with today's guest. Morgan, so excited to have you on She's My Cherry Pie and to talk about apple cider donut cake with you and so much more.
Morgan Knight:
Yeah, so excited to be here.
Jessie Sheehan:
So even as a three-year-old, you were curious about what was happening in the kitchen, and you wanted to help your mom bake. Do you even have memories of that, or were you told that sort of by your mom what was going on?
Morgan Knight:
Yeah, I've seen a lot of photos of myself on a step stool next to the counter. My grandmother was a big baker, and so I think I was just fascinated by seeing her do it, seeing it in cartoons. It was just something I've always gravitated towards.
Jessie Sheehan:
I love that. I love that. And is there a specific baking memory you have of something that you made or something that you ate when you were really little, or that you would call your earliest memory?
Morgan Knight:
Yeah, I will say really specific memory. My dad had back surgery when I was four or five years old, and we made brownies together to bring to his bedside. And I so clearly remember each step of that, and licking the whisk. I think at that point I was just obsessed with chocolate. And I was like, oh, well, baking means I get to eat chocolate. So I think that's probably what led me there. But yeah, one of my first memories is that.
Jessie Sheehan:
I love that. In this kitchen of your mom's, she had all these cool '60s and '70s vintage cookbooks that had all these really cool-looking cakes from the 1960s and '70s, which I think later on 100% have sort of influenced where you are today.
Morgan Knight:
Totally.
Jessie Sheehan:
Can you tell us about that visual? Because it sounds like those are really early memories too, of what the space looked like.
Morgan Knight:
Yeah, definitely. My mom's an interior designer and set decorator, so she's a big collector. So we have a lot of stuff from my grandmas on both sides, and those were their cookbooks, and I was always just fascinated by the colors. They looked like the cakes that were in cartoons. So I was obsessed with those. And every Thanksgiving, I'd get a chance to look through them, look at the old pie recipes. Or they had these little clown cakes, just bring some of the weirder stuff to life, and I really enjoyed doing that from early on.
Jessie Sheehan:
You mentioned what your mom does. You grew up in this really creative household in L.A., which I love. Parents were both in the film industry, set designer, set contractor. And they really encouraged you and your sister to be artistic. I love this, just that there were always art supplies out. And were they also, did I read that they were both bakers, not just your mom, that your dad baked too, or did I make that up?
Morgan Knight:
So, funny enough, neither of my parents were huge bakers. My dad really liked barbecuing and really liked cooking. And my mom would cook sometimes, but getting towards baking was kind of, I was always the baker in the family.
Jessie Sheehan:
Interesting.
Morgan Knight:
So my grandmother on my dad's side, every time we'd visit her, baking was a big part of it. And then otherwise, it was learning some things from my mom as any mom bakes, but also just I think I got the creativity from them. So yeah.
Jessie Sheehan:
Because I think that you have memories of baking with your grandmother as early as six years old. Do you remember what you were baking with her?
Morgan Knight:
Yes. She used to make these things called pie cookies, which is basically just rolled out pie dough, lots of lard, lots of flour, lots of sugar, and then rolled out as thin as possible, like paper-thin, put onto a baking sheet, baked, and then topped with cinnamon sugar. And they were then sliced super thin, and they were just delicious. We would eat them like chips.
Jessie Sheehan:
When you were nine, you took a weekly cake decorating class with your best friend. How did that come to be? Was it your idea? Was it your mom's idea? How did you end up in cake decorating class?
Morgan Knight:
Yeah. There was a cake decorating studio in the valley, deep in the valley. It no longer exists. It was called Catherine's Cakes. And my friend and I were really into baking, but we didn't really know what we were doing. And so for the holidays, our moms were like, well, we should just get them the little course. And so it was six classes. We were nine years old, and it was bizarre how talented we were. Not by virtue of much natural talent, I think. I honestly think she just taught us the basics in this really great and clear way. So it's taught me a lot about how to teach. But it was so much fun. I don't really fully know how it even came about, apart from we were obsessed with cake.
Jessie Sheehan:
Was it about all the different tips? Was it about how to fill your pastry bag, and what it's going to look like, and then how to make flowers? Was it kind of old school in that way?
Morgan Knight:
It was. I remember the first cake that we started, the first day we would come in with the cakes already baked, and she gave us instructions on how to make the butter cream at home. So we came in and we just tested out a bunch of different piping tips, I think, so she could get an idea of where we were at. So we split the cake into a bunch of different parts and then just piped on it with each tip. And so from there we did fondant, we did buttercream transfers, we did flowers, we did a woven basket cake full of roses. Really intricate stuff that was weird for a nine-year-old, but genuinely taught me all that I know today. I always joke that that's all of my formal training.
Jessie Sheehan:
Oh my gosh, I love that. Were you two the only students?
Morgan Knight:
We were, yeah.
Jessie Sheehan:
It was like a private class that the moms bought.
Morgan Knight:
Yeah, it was great.
Jessie Sheehan:
Oh my gosh. I love that. Tell me again the name of the place.
Morgan Knight:
It was called Catherine's Cakes. I haven't been able to find Catherine, so if anyone knows Catherine, let me know.
Jessie Sheehan:
Catherine, if you're listening, you're probably a fan of the show. Morgan credits you a lot with her training. We'll be right back.
Cake lovers, you are going to love the next issue of Cherry Bombe magazine. I'm so excited to announce that the upcoming holiday issue of Cherry Bombe is all about cake. It's going to be packed with sweet stories, beautiful recipes, and heartfelt essays dedicated to our favorite dessert. Stay tuned for the cover reveal. I know it's going to be extra delicious. The issue will be out in early December, so head to cherrybombe.com to subscribe now and ensure it lands in your mailbox just in time for the holidays.
Kerry Diamond:
Hi everybody, it's Kerry Diamond. I'm the founder of Cherry Bombe and the host of Radio Cherry Bombe. In case you hadn't heard, Cherry Bombe is on Substack. If you're a Substack lover like me, be sure to check it out and subscribe. You can subscribe for free or become a monthly or annual paid subscriber. Each Saturday, we post a recap of She's My Cherry Pie, plus all the fun baking news of the week. We also have recipes, the Cherry Bombe Friday newsletter, and special features from Cherry Bombe's print magazine, like the Missy Robbins cover story from our Italy issue. If you're new to Substack, think about it as the home of modern blogs. If you love reading, writing recipes, it's the place for you. Visit cherrybombe.substack.com.
Jessie Sheehan:
Now, back to our guest. You referred to this earlier, and in researching, I read this a lot, that you say that your baking style came from watching cartoons. But as a mom, I was struck with this idea that your artistic cool parents with their art supplies were not putting bans on television for you guys.
Morgan Knight:
I'm trying to think. The creativity of it came from so many different places. So I think we were directly watching a lot of Disney movies, specifically like “Little Mermaid II” is the cake that I gravitate towards. But I think it just from I mean color was everywhere in our home. It was like our living room was green, the family room was red, my room was pink. It was genuinely from all perspectives; it was just a very creative house. So there's a lot that it was coming from.
Jessie Sheehan:
And so you say that you were sort of drawn to hand-drawn cartoonish food in these movies. And that then you'd be sort of upset that in real life, why doesn't anything look like this? Tell us about that infamous “Little Mermaid II,” right? Because it's not “Little Mermaid I,” listeners. Tell us about that cake that sort of stands out for you as being so inspirational.
Morgan Knight:
Yeah. So when my sister and I were kids, I don't think I actually saw “The Little Mermaid” until I was older because I think I was scared of it. But there's a second “Little Mermaid.” It's about Ariel's daughter, and I think they're celebrating her 13th birthday or something. And the chef builds this cake that's floor to ceiling. It's huge, and it looks a lot like the cakes I make now. It's like the traditional Lambeth style. It's beautiful. And he's on this ladder of putting the final details on the top, and then there's the scene where it topples over and the crab is in there and he's running around. And we used to watch it constantly, and I always just remember how beautiful that cake was.
Jessie Sheehan:
And was your sister feeling the same way or she was into it for a different reason?
Morgan Knight:
Not at all. She just really liked the princess movies. She's also very visual. She's a photographer. So if part of it also comes from, I would watch “Ace of Cakes,” anything that was on in our home, a lot of it was colorful or something creative was going on. So I think watching people create cakes came before I was creating them. So I had a huge sweet tooth growing up. But I think the biggest part of it was like, wait, I'm eating a brownie, but why doesn't it look like that beautiful thing on screen? So I did absolutely, the sweets definitely motivated me part of the way there. But yeah, “Sleeping Beauty” has an iconic cake. I just remember these clear cakes from when I was a kid.
Jessie Sheehan:
I love that. You have to write an article about that.
Morgan Knight:
I do.
Jessie Sheehan:
I do think it's really interesting, going through all of the cakes of your child.
Morgan Knight:
Yeah, genuinely. There's so many.
Jessie Sheehan:
And how they inspired you. What about cookbooks? I know you've said that if you could bake for somebody you'd want to bake for Ina, were you reading her books? Were those around the house?
Morgan Knight:
Yeah. So I remember when I would look up recipes, because I have a lot of cookbooks, I would look through… Martha Stewart had a cupcake cookbook, I think is what it was. It had a chocolate cupcake on the front. I loved that cookbook. But a lot of what I was doing was finding recipes online. I'm not really sure why I gravitated towards that way when we had a lot of cookbooks.
I know one of the vintage ones I would use for pies was McCall's. The McCall's pecan pie is a favorite that I make every Thanksgiving with some tweaks. But it's a classic. I would go online and would just look up best lemon bar recipe. And I remember finding a video of Ina making her lemon bars. And so I was following along with kind of a complicated custard-based recipe when I was probably nine or 10 years old, and just really liked how laid back and easy she was about baking. I think the dialogue around baking, even since I was a kid, was, oh, this is so hard. How did you do that? And I took the class. And for me, it's always been kind of easy. So I really liked seeing someone that was like, anyone can do this.
Jessie Sheehan:
Yeah. Oh my gosh, I love Ina inspiring you as a nine-year-old. I also read that your mom had wedding magazines around that were also kind of inspiring to you.
Morgan Knight:
Very much so.
Jessie Sheehan:
Tell me about those. Why did she have those?
Morgan Knight:
Yeah. My mom was a set designer, and then moved into interior design when my sister and I were kids because she was on set all the time. She's like, well, this isn't doable. I'll just transfer my skills elsewhere. And a lot of friends and family friends were getting married at the time or needed someone to plan a wedding. So she was in wedding planning for a while too. Collected all these magazines. And my friends and I used to sit on the ground, we'd spread out all the magazines that she wasn't using, and we'd cut out our dream wedding dresses, dream wedding cakes, and we still have these binders of some of the ugliest cakes and dresses I've ever seen in my life. But at the time, loved them so much.
Jessie Sheehan:
And what about Food TV? I mean, I know there was cartoons. What shows did you love?
Morgan Knight:
I loved “Ace of Cakes” so much. I know a lot of people gravitate towards “Cake Boss.” I also really enjoyed “Cake Boss,” but “Ace of Cakes” for some reason was my thing. And I really liked “Bake Off” as a kid too. And today, I'm still addicted to “Bake Off.”
Jessie Sheehan:
Baking was your first hobby, definitely. But when you went to middle school, you started to discover new ones, and by high school, you thought maybe you wanted to be a lawyer, a civil rights lawyer, do some kind of progressive law. You went to Northeastern to study poli sci. And just like so many people during COVID, started making cakes again. Tell us about the sweet cream and strawberry birthday cake that you made, I think with heart-shaped macarons on it. I mean, what the... That you made for a friend in 2021?
Morgan Knight:
Yeah. So throughout college and high school, I loved school and was really good at it, so I think I just kind of gravitated down that path. Got into debate and poli sci. Wanted to be a senator or a lawyer. And so I would make cakes and bake for friends, but I wasn't doing anything spectacular like I was doing when I was a kid. And it was COVID, my best friend was turning 21. We couldn't do anything, so we threw her a little party at home with just our roommates. She's a redhead, so we all got these silly redhead wigs, and everything was red and pink themed.
I remember just thinking like, oh, well, I'll pull out some of the baking skills. I haven't done this in a while. And I just created this little 21st birthday cake. We posted it online, an Instagram story of it. And immediately, so many people were like, wait, where'd you get that? That's so cute. And so my roommates, it was pretty much their idea. I do credit Sarah, Juliette, and Perry for coming up with this business that's now my whole life. They're like, "You should just sell these." Because at the time, I was like, maybe I'll get a job at a bakery. It could be a fun way to make cash. I don't really want to expose myself to COVID. So it was kind of a random way that it happened. It was pretty unplanned. And then I was just looking in my calendar. Ii was like, two weeks after that, I had started selling cakes to friends.
Jessie Sheehan:
Wow. You just whipped up some heart-shaped macarons.
Morgan Knight:
That was crazy. She loved the ones from Trader Joe's. So, Trader Joe's, every Valentine's Day, makes adorable heart-shaped macarons. I don't know if they were out of stock or if I wasn't going to Trader Joe's, but I was like, well, we'll just make them. Macarons were the first complicated thing I tried as a kid. I recently found a YouTube video that will never see the light of day again.
Jessie Sheehan:
Which is you making them?
Morgan Knight:
Which is me making them as a kid. I filmed it on a GoPro. It's shaky the entire time.
Jessie Sheehan:
Oh my God.
Morgan Knight:
I had reapplied lip gloss probably between every shot. And it was just, I really liked making macarons-
Jessie Sheehan:
Oh, you have to. That will go viral.
Morgan Knight:
It might. I was just old enough for it to be genuinely embarrassing. I think I was 12 or 13.
Jessie Sheehan:
Yeah. Oh my God, that's amazing. And tell us, sweet cream and strawberries, so, freeze-dried strawberries or where are you-
Morgan Knight:
Fresh strawberries.
Jessie Sheehan:
Fresh strawberries that you pureed and put into the cake batter, or they're more in the frosting. How's it working?
Morgan Knight:
Yeah. So the cake, it kind of was inspired by strawberry shortcake. The cake was just really good fluffy vanilla cake, a recipe I'd been using forever. I don't think it was my own by this point. And then I did our buttercream, but used for the center, just like a stabilized whipped cream with fresh strawberries. So just like a true sweetened strawberry cream, delicious simple cake.
Jessie Sheehan:
Oh my gosh. I love that. As you said, people started DM-ing you and placing orders, and the thing kind of blew up within two weeks. But over time, I loved that you named it Saint Street after St. Botolph Street, since I have a personal connection to St. Botolph Street. I love that. And that's where you lived with your friends and that's where you started making cakes. Tell us about, I think one of your friends was interviewed for some article about you and they mentioned the bowl of cake scraps. That was a perk of being Morgan's roommate.
Morgan Knight:
Absolutely. Yeah. So once COVID was kind of a little bit more by the wayside, we're all vaccinated, everyone would come to our apartment. We were like the hosts. We had two floors of a brownstone because it was COVID. We somehow got a crazy deal. Upstairs, we'd host dinners, downstairs, we'd host movie nights. It was awesome.
And so I was asked by my roommates to, when I would level the cakes, just put all of those into a little bowl for them. And so every single time we sat down for anything or hosted a dinner party, part of the dessert was just bowl of cake scraps. All different flavors, but just it's kind of like a muffin top, the top of the cake that you're cutting off to level. It's so good. Yeah.
Jessie Sheehan:
Love that. Cake scrap bowl. So you moved to New York City after college, not really with an intention of making cakes. You worked as a paralegal in the U.S. Attorney's office, and were deciding whether to go to law school or not. Again, we're not thinking cakes. But to make a long story short, you did start to make some cakes for some people, but it was really hard to be baking cakes as a side hustle and also working as a paralegal.
Morgan Knight:
It was quite wild. By the time I graduated and moved to New York, I knew I would continue making cakes on the side. I had already worked with brands quite a bit. I'd built up a pretty big social media presence within the first, I think, it was two years when I graduated, Saint Street was two years old. So I was like, okay, this is weird. I guess I can't just quit this. So I'd make four to eight cakes a week in my tiny Manhattan apartment. I had a roommate who was very kind about it all. And yeah, I knew that I wanted to continue cakes in some capacity, and figured it could help me save for law school. But it really did kind of spiral out of control. I don't want to say on its own. I'm trying to give myself credit for a lot of the work that I did. But in many ways, it just became this huge thing that I never expected it to.
Jessie Sheehan:
So you eventually did leave the U.S. Attorney's office, and it was your desire for community and interfacing with the people that were buying your cakes that was part of the inspiration. Because up until this point, you'd be sort of making them and delivering them and then moving on. It wasn't like you were interfacing with these peeps. And also to be more egalitarian about it all. It was like you didn't want people to have to pay over $100 to taste something that you made. You wanted to be able to make things that your budget didn't have to be quite so impressive in order to be able to taste a Saint Street Cake. And that drove you to open up a brick-and-mortar in just June of this last year, or June of 2025. Tell us about that.
Morgan Knight:
In the summer of 2023, I believe this was, started thinking, okay, either I am fully sending and taking the LSAT or I'm opening a bakery, or that will be the end goal. And I had talked to a lot of friends about it. I really consulted a lot of my professors from undergrad that I still talk to. And a lot of them said, "Listen, Morgan, you love school so much. I don't think you'd being a lawyer." I think a lot about actually being an attorney would frustrate me a lot. I think I'm a very issues-based person. And I have trouble with a Constitution I'd be defending. It became this really heady, interesting thing where I figured that I could create more of a community and possibly more change doing something creative.
And so I knew that I'd miss the kind of intelligence aspect of law and really getting involved in that way. But I also knew the type of change I wanted to create was not going to be through law. I think I realized. So I really did enjoy my time there. It was so interesting. It gave me a lot of background in being able to read contracts and sign a lease. But at the same time, I realized I think I want a life that's creative, that's not in a cubicle or alone in an office in a job that satisfies so many people. But at the same time, every attorney I worked with was like, "You should do the cake thing." If there's anything that you want to do before law school, do it. Go to law school when you're 30, make cakes for five years. If you still want to be a lawyer, you can do that. You can't become a lawyer and then be like I want to open a bakery too.
So I got a lot of advice from a lot of people, and ended up just realizing I wanted a creative life. So yeah, I quit the U.S. Attorney's office. Most people in that program stay for about two years. I quit a little over a year and a half in. Everyone was so supportive. They got me an apron that said SDNY on it. It was very sweet. And I had written down, there was a full moon right after I quit, and my roommate and I did little manifestations. And I wrote down in three years, I want a bakery. I want to have a brick-and-mortar. And so from quitting to the bakery opening was just over a year and a half. And I spent that first year just baking out of my apartment. So seeing… is this something I actually want to do? Is this something that I could see myself doing for the rest of my life, developing a menu, and doing things like that. And by December of '24, after that full year of just baking, I was like, okay, I'm going to get serious about this and just start looking.
Jessie Sheehan:
So I wanted you to tell us a little bit about the vibe of Saint Street Bakery, because since you were basically a kid, you've been picturing what the bakery was going to look like.
Morgan Knight:
Yeah. Yeah. So that was something really wild to bring to life. I actually have a jar in the bakery that is the coin jar of my little savings from, when I was nine, I made a little jar for the savings for opening the bakery one day.
Jessie Sheehan:
Oh my God. I love that.
Morgan Knight:
So that's in the bakery now. So it's truly, I've been thinking about it forever. I ended up finding what was previously my favorite restaurant. They moved to a bigger space. It was Dinner Party. And when they moved, I kind of was like, oh, no way I can afford that space. I looked everywhere else and found that everything was more expensive than I thought it would be. So I came back there.
But I knew that I wanted it to be very homey. I wanted it to feel super welcoming, super warm. I wanted people to feel comfortable spending a lot of time there. That was the biggest thing. Baking out of my apartment was like, I really love baking for people, it's a lonely experience, and that's not what food is. Food's meant to be shared. It's meant to be communal. So I knew that I wanted space for people to be able to hang out, even though it's a small space, space nonetheless, and for it to just feel like you have a good time when you walk in. It's a warm experience.
Jessie Sheehan:
Tell us about the menu. What's on the menu?
Morgan Knight:
Yeah. So it's a rotating menu, which is a lot of fun. First, I'll go over kind of the things that are always around. It's our salted chocolate chip cookie. That's our bestseller. People love it. I've been developing that recipe since I was like 12. So happy that everyone loves that one. With a miso peanut butter cookie, super chewy, a little salty. We have a lavender lemonade loaf, which is just a really kind of tart lemon loaf with a lavender lemon frosting. It's delicious. We have a girlfriend brownie, which is just a fun way of a gluten-free brownie, that The Infatuation described it perfectly, which is a mix of a flourless cake and a box brownie. And I was like, oh, thank God. It did it right.
We have cake martinis, which is a really fun way, it uses the tops of those cakes that we level. We're really trying to minimize food waste. So that, and then our cherubs as well. Those are just little cake balls. So it's like the inside of a cake pop. It's cake scraps mixed with buttercream. They're delicious, and so soft and good. And then we have three rotating cake slices. Our fall flavors right now we have the apple cider donut cake that we'll talk about. We have one that's kind of inspired by Halloween. It's a chocolate cake with salted peanut butter buttercream filled with dulce de leche, so kind of like a candy bar. And then the other, our vegan slice is a pumpkin with cinnamon buttercream. So just classic fall flavor. We also have a rotating vegan cookie. So right now it's our apple crumble cookie.
Jessie Sheehan:
Tell us about kind of grassroots fundraising that you're always doing in the bakery and thinking about, and you're somebody who really wants to give back at all times through your business.
Morgan Knight:
Yeah, definitely. So even as soon as I started Saint Street Cakes, I was in a big position of privilege in college. I was making pocket cash, making something that I thought would eventually go to law school, but suddenly I had a lot of money, because cakes were expensive, from selling cakes. And so I figured in ways that I wasn't able to give back at the time, let's fundraise for things.
So I started out by fundraising for food banks. We fundraised for Send Chinatown Love, a New York-based fundraiser. And yeah, because I think a lot of what brought me to law was civil rights and was causes I care about, every month we've chosen a different thing to donate to. A lot of it is timely, so depends on what's going on right now. We donated to a food bank this month because of the removal of SNAP benefits, et cetera.
But I think that is something I really, in the next few years, want to expand more so. It's just being able to be in a privileged position of running a restaurant's hard and it's expensive, and I know that part of running this restaurant for me, non-negotiable, is putting some of that aside, even a small amount, to donate to causes we care about, my team of chefs, our front of house, people that come in that we talk to. So that's been something I care about a lot.
Jessie Sheehan:
So we're going to jump into the recipe in a minute. A big, big piece of all of this is how social media played a role in your growth. I mean, the brands like Tory Burch, and I mean Olivia Rodrigo on “Saturday Night Live,” and Billy Joel's 75th birthday, and MAC Cosmetics. Explain to us, how did this happen?
Morgan Knight:
That is part of the most confusing part for me a little bit. But I always try to think back to what made me start videotaping. And again, it was my roommates being like, you need to, come on, film the back of this, film the behind of it, the behind the scenes, people want to see it. And it was before cake talk, which is now a term, a phrase, really existed. So I was pretty early on in the cake trend situation. And I think I just made videos that were kind of authentic of, I'm a college student baking out of my apartment. This is what my life looks like.
And also, I think by virtue of just being really into pop culture and on the internet, I knew what trends to play into. So bizarrely, the first video that went viral, and I don't know what viral meant to me then, I know it got 1,000 likes, and we were freaking out, was a vegan cake that I made with two little frogs on the top, and they're sitting under mushroom umbrellas for my friend Natasha's birthday. We put it to a sound that I think was trending at the time, and it was like American Boy, but a Fortnite cover. I don't know what Fortnite really is. But it was a trending sound on TikTok. So I just put it on there, and it went crazy. So I think just knowing what to put where and making content that felt authentic and making things that were pretty was kind of just part of it and it grew from there.
Jessie Sheehan:
Incredible. And then would just, somebody would slide into your DM, and they'd be like, "Hey, Olivia Rodrigo's going to be on “SNL.” Can you make some cakes for her?"
Morgan Knight:
Yeah. People would just kind of email me. I had my email in my bio. And every single thing that happened was someone just shooting me an email. The Olivia Rodrigo thing, I was home for Thanksgiving and got an email that was like, "Hey, I have a secret project that I think you'd find really cool, has to do vaguely with Olivia Rodrigo. I can tell you more details once we confirm. In three days, are you able to make us like 20 cakes?"
Jessie Sheehan:
Holy-
Morgan Knight:
So I flew back to New York early to make this happen. But a lot of it is just people, creative directors that identify with my work, or people in social media that are like, oh, this girl kind of knows trendy stuff. Finding my social media and just being interested in that.
Jessie Sheehan:
Incredible. All right. So tell us about the cake decorating classes you've been doing, and I think eventually they'll be in the bakery.
Morgan Knight:
Yes. Yeah. So there's two very different styles of cake decorating classes that will exist with Saint Street Cakes. But for the past, I believe it's two or three years now, as long as I've been in New York, pretty much, I've taught classes with RecCreate Collective, which is a craft collective in Brooklyn. It's spectacular. They host a bunch of different events. But we host 36 people at a time to learn the basics of cake decorating. And we just decorate everything from filling it, stacking it, doing the crumb coat, kind of everything that I learned at the very beginning when I was nine years old, I'm hoping people walk away with those skills. So I've been teaching them with RecCreate Collective and will continue to do so every few months. They have a very booked schedule. But we'll also be teaching classes to 10 to 12 people at a time in the bakery pretty soon.
Jessie Sheehan:
Tell us about what Lambeth's style is, that Victorian “Little Mermaid”-inspired style that you love on your cakes?
Morgan Knight:
Definitely, yeah. I forgot to mention the mini cakes. That's a pivotal part of our menu, but all of those, and most of our custom cakes are decorated with the Lambeth style. Traditionally, we do a little funky spin on it, but some of the touch points of the Lambeth style are a lot of ruffles. It's a lot of drop lines, which are just those perfect little lines. It's a lot of lattice going on. So it's just a pretty intricate cake. A lot of people will walk in and see our case of mini cakes and say like, "Oh, it looks like Bridgerton." And kind of historically a little bit. Wedding cakes started, I think, looking like that in the 19th century.
And so the original, I'm not sure where the word Lambeth comes from, I'm forgetting that, but that's kind of where that style was developed. And then went on from there. Came in and out of style. Very much came back in the '70s and '80s and '90s, looking at all those huge tiered wedding cakes and puffy sleeved wedding dresses, we very much came back. And then, yeah, in the 2020s, it's totally come back.
Jessie Sheehan:
All right. Now we're going to talk about your apple cider donut cake. And what is cool about this cake, besides how delicious it sounds, is it's also taking advantage of Yes! Apples apples, which I love. They're going to be sort of part of the soak of this cake. So we're going to heat the oven to 350 degrees?
Morgan Knight:
Yeah. 350 in a classic oven.
Jessie Sheehan:
And we're going to grease and paper like three eight-inch cake pans.
Morgan Knight:
Exactly.
Jessie Sheehan:
Okay. You're in a bakery, so I'm assuming it's a spray. You're not buttering all-
Morgan Knight:
No, we use sprays. I've honestly, the Pam spray with flour is what I used growing up, and that is totally efficient if you like something like that. Some people prefer butter and flour, but the sprays are totally good if you want some-
Jessie Sheehan:
When you're in the bakery, does your product have flour in it, or is it-
Morgan Knight:
It does not.
Jessie Sheehan:
Yeah, it's just the grease and then you paper the bottom.
Morgan Knight:
Exactly.
Jessie Sheehan:
First things first, we're going to sift together some all-purpose flour. Is there a brand of all-purpose or is it sort of a restaurant supply? How does the flour in the bakery work?
Morgan Knight:
Yeah. Honestly, depends on our restaurant supplier. We mostly use Gold Medal. When I'm baking at home, I'll rotate between Gold Medal and King Arthur, but all-purpose flour, anything will do.
Jessie Sheehan:
Yep. Sift together some all-purpose flour, some brown sugar. Light or dark. Does it matter?
Morgan Knight:
Always dark.
Jessie Sheehan:
Always dark.
Morgan Knight:
Even if a recipe says light, I'll do dark.
Jessie Sheehan:
Yep. And you're literally sifting the dark brown sugar through the sift.
Morgan Knight:
We have a pretty heavy sieve that lets things come through, so it's only taking out those clumps. In the restaurant, in the bakery, a lot of times, brown sugar comes in a giant bag with a lot of clumps. So part of that is to mix everything together. Part of it's to get out some pretty big clumps.
Jessie Sheehan:
Because I was going to ask, I thought it was unusual that we're sifting. I feel like generally we're whisking. Is the sifting a leftover from being in the bakery and needing to get rid of the clumps, or is that just the way you roll? You're a sifter.
Morgan Knight:
I would usually whisk it at home. Yeah.
Jessie Sheehan:
Okay. So we'll sift together some all-purpose flour, some dark brown sugar, some granulated sugar, some cinnamon, and nutmeg. Are there brands of spices that you love?
Morgan Knight:
I really like, oh, what is their name, Burlap & Barrel.
Jessie Sheehan:
Yeah, Burlap & Barrel.
Morgan Knight:
I love Burlap & Barrel cinnamon and nutmeg is really great.
Jessie Sheehan:
That's so good. The royal-
Morgan Knight:
Yeah, the royal cinnamon is so good.
Jessie Sheehan:
So delicious. I can smell it right now. We're going to add some baking powder and some baking soda and some salt. Do you use kosher? Do you use fine sea salt?
Morgan Knight:
We use Diamond Kosher. Yeah.
Jessie Sheehan:
Kosher salt. We're going to sift into this large, I'm assuming restaurant supply, like a large metal bowl.
Morgan Knight:
Big bowl. Yeah, just a giant steel bowl.
Jessie Sheehan:
When you're at home baking, do you like glass? Do you like metal?
Morgan Knight:
I love using metal. I do love the look of a beautiful ceramic bowl. I think they're so fun. But when it comes to pouring things out, I just love-
Jessie Sheehan:
The metal's nice.
Morgan Knight:
... a stack of steel, the nesting steel bowls are the best.
Jessie Sheehan:
Yeah. They're the best. I agree. Now in a separate bowl, we're going to whisk together some apple cider. Is there a brand of apple cider that you like?
Morgan Knight:
We order through our food supplier just local apple cider. All the fruit things come from within, I think, it's 50 miles of New York City. So a little exciting.
Jessie Sheehan:
And then there's going to be some apple sauce, which is, I think you said like an unsweetened, organic brand of apple sauce.
Morgan Knight:
Always unsweetened.
Jessie Sheehan:
Then we're going to add some vegetable oil, some eggs, and some vanilla, and we're going to whisk all that together. We're putting the dry into the wet, and then folding that together in a bowl until there's just a streak of flour left or so, or do you like to go all the way?
Morgan Knight:
We do until about a streak of flour left, and then right before we're pouring it all into the pans, at that point we kind of just do one more little fold, but definitely avoiding over mixing.
Jessie Sheehan:
And are we picturing a batter at this point that's still a little bit clumpy, or is it very smooth?
Morgan Knight:
It's a little bit clumpy.
Jessie Sheehan:
Okay. And then we're going to portion the cake batter into our three pans. Bake for about 20 minutes. Are you guys using convection actually?
Morgan Knight:
We are.
Jessie Sheehan:
So you're probably-
Morgan Knight:
Super different in there, but developed in my home kitchen.
Jessie Sheehan:
Is that how you usually do it? You develop at home?
Morgan Knight:
I try to. Especially because I like to teach people how to bake and develop recipes that way. A lot of my recipe developing happens at home, unless it's something more specific like a cookie. Those take so long to figure out how to bake in a convection giant professional oven.
Jessie Sheehan:
That you'd rather just do it there and save yourself the time. I get it. I get it. And baking for about 20 minutes, maybe a little less. Although in a-
Morgan Knight:
Usually 25 is usually-
Jessie Sheehan:
I bet in convection, you're baking at 325.
Morgan Knight:
Yeah.
Jessie Sheehan:
You're dropping it and maybe it's even baking faster.
Morgan Knight:
Yeah. So we do 325 for about 30 minutes. We love a tall cake, so it fills them pretty high.
Jessie Sheehan:
I got you. It's like eight by two inch, but it's almost all the way up.
Morgan Knight:
Exactly.
Jessie Sheehan:
Yeah. Yeah. The cakes come out of the oven and while they're still warm, you're going to kind of give them this apple cider soak. Now this cider soak is made with some Yes! Apples EverCrisp in there. Can you tell us about the soak and the role that the apples play?
Morgan Knight:
I think it's super fun to bake with. It's also just my favorite apple. And so what we do is we use our local apple cider. And then to kind of make it a bit more potent, we kind of create what I like to call an edible potpourri. It smells amazing is one of the things everyone says when they walk into the bakery. So just overheat in a pot. We just do apple cider as well as some cloves, orange peel, and apple slices.
Jessie Sheehan:
Are you peeling the apples?
Morgan Knight:
We are not peeling the apples.
Jessie Sheehan:
And do you even need to core them because you're going to drain it so you can just-
Morgan Knight:
We'll drain it.
Jessie Sheehan:
You can just slice up-
Morgan Knight:
Just core them.
Jessie Sheehan:
... the apples and put them in. Oh, I love that. That must be so delicious.
Morgan Knight:
It's great.
Jessie Sheehan:
And when the cakes are still warm, I think you put the cider soak into a squeeze bottle.
Morgan Knight:
Yes.
Jessie Sheehan:
And then you squeeze that over the cakes. Love. Then once they're cool, you'll level them. I got sad about that because it was like that, leveling must have so much soak in it. I want to eat it. But you can put that in a bowl and give it to all your friends. You will make a cake scrap bowl at the bakery. And then you will chill the cakes overnight. Do you do that with all your cakes, or is that just this recipe? Everything goes in the refrigerator.
Morgan Knight:
Everything goes, yeah.
Jessie Sheehan:
And is it typical of a Saint Street Cake to have a soak?
Morgan Knight:
No, actually. I would say our lemon cake and apple cake are the only ones that get a soak.
Jessie Sheehan:
But you're refrigerating them anyway. You wouldn't leave cake layers out. Why?
Morgan Knight:
I think it makes them easier to frost. It's just one of the things for ease of frosting, getting buttercream on there. And I do think it traps in moisture. Tossing them in some foil and then putting them in the fridge lets that moisture really, really stay in-
Jessie Sheehan:
You toss them in-
Morgan Knight:
and have them accumulate on the inside.
Jessie Sheehan:
... when they're still warm?
Morgan Knight:
A little bit warm. Ideally. Yeah.
Jessie Sheehan:
That's interesting.
Morgan Knight:
It's very convenient because when so many cakes are coming out of the oven, the moment they're kind of touchable, that's when we're tossing them in the foil.
Jessie Sheehan:
Wow. So as soon as you can release the cake from the pan, it's going into the refrigerator.
Morgan Knight:
Ideally.
Jessie Sheehan:
Okay. So we soak when it's still warm, but in the pan.
Morgan Knight:
Yes.
Jessie Sheehan:
And then once we can get it out of that pan, is it plastic wrap and then foil, or just foil?
Morgan Knight:
Just foil.
Jessie Sheehan:
We're foiling that up when it's still warm. So interesting. Then when it comes out, it gets one more soak with that delicious apple cider Yes! Apples soak with the EverCrisp. Yum. And then we're going to frost the layers and assemble the cake. So to make the cream cheese frosting for this, it's basically your American buttercream base. Is American buttercream kind of your go-to in the bakery?
Morgan Knight:
In the bakery, absolutely. I would say a lot of people describe it as less sweet-tasting than a standard American buttercream. It's a lot more whipped, so it's a little bit lighter. I lean towards liking things that are slightly less sweet. Still sweet. I love a sweet treat. I find oftentimes with American buttercream, we'll use shortening, or we'll use the clear vanilla extract, it just leans really, really sweet.
Jessie Sheehan:
Well, it's funny. American buttercream is 100% my favorite. And my trick sounds like it's your trick too, which is to over-whip it, to beat it much, much longer than you think.
Morgan Knight:
Absolutely.
Jessie Sheehan:
It can sometimes get air bubbles, which can be complicated. So I'm going to ask you how I should deal with that. But I also think it really changes the consistency-
Morgan Knight:
It totally does.
Jessie Sheehan:
... of the frosting. I also add a little bit of apple cider vinegar.
Morgan Knight:
I've heard this, and I haven't done it yet-
Jessie Sheehan:
Yes, you have to try it.
Morgan Knight:
... but I will try.
Jessie Sheehan:
Honey, you have to try it. It just cuts it, and probably a little more salt than people are used to.
Morgan Knight:
I do a lot of salt.
Jessie Sheehan:
And all of that cuts the sweetness. How do you deal with the air bubbles when it's really whipped? Do you find that to be a thing?
Morgan Knight:
I do. Yeah. We kind of hope to stop right before/during the point of air bubbles. So one thing that you can do is a lot of times we're coloring it anyways. So we take some in a smaller bowl and just kind of fold it until some of those air bubbles are out. But also, once you frost a cake, if you have a bunch of air bubbles on the outside, you can heat your tools underwater. So that's why I always use metal spatulas. Heat them underwater, dry them off with a towel, and then use them. It melts everything together. Gets rid of those bubbles.
Jessie Sheehan:
Love, love, love, love, love. Okay. So for this American buttercream-based cream cheese frosting, we're going to cream some butter. Do you have a favorite brand?
Morgan Knight:
We use, I love Cabot. I really, it's a great one.
Jessie Sheehan:
We're going to cream some Cabot butter in, I assume unsalted.
Morgan Knight:
Yes, unsalted.
Jessie Sheehan:
And it's softened. It's like room temp. Cream some unsalted Cabot butter in a stand mixer. I mean, you're probably using a huge Hobart.
Morgan Knight:
Yeah, we use like a 30-quart.
Jessie Sheehan:
I'll ask you the speed, but is it a low speed, or are you going immediately to medium?
Morgan Knight:
When we're creaming the butter at the very beginning, we'll do medium.
Jessie Sheehan:
Okay. Then we're going to add some powdered sugar. Do you add it all at once? Do you add it in-
Morgan Knight:
We do half the amount of powdered sugar. And something really convenient that I ended up figuring out in college was I created my American buttercream recipe to match the 32 ounces that comes in a standard bag of powdered sugar.
Jessie Sheehan:
Fantastic. Yes.
Morgan Knight:
Easy peasy. Oftentimes, it'll just say like five or six cups, but ours is just 32 ounces.
Jessie Sheehan:
Brilliant.
Morgan Knight:
So super convenient that way.
Jessie Sheehan:
Brilliant. So you do half of it, mix until combined, then you add the cream or then you add the extra, the other half?
Morgan Knight:
We'll do the cream, vanilla, and salt at that point, right in the middle. We'll mix that in just for a little bit. And then we will add the rest of that sugar. And we will whip it for a little bit longer. We'll feel the texture. Oftentimes, it's temperature-dependent. So now that it's getting a little bit colder, I find we're using a lot more cream in that buttercream. Tastes about the same, but it's just the texture of it's so specific when you're doing so much piping.
Jessie Sheehan:
That's another good tip that I use in my American buttercream and so do you, which is to use heavy cream because you're already adding the neutrality kind of, I mean it's very dairy forward, but the neutrality of that heavy cream whips up, but doesn't taste like... Cuts the sweetness of the sugar. I love that. And then at the end, you'll add some softened cream cheese.
Morgan Knight:
Yeah. So at the very end we'll add some softened cream cheese. We love a tart cream cheese frosting. So even though we're starting with an American buttercream base, love to be able to taste that cream cheese. It's definitely one you can taste. But at the same time, need it to be a pretty stable one. So that's why we start with the American buttercream base. And so I think it's a one-to-five ratio of cream cheese to American buttercream. We just go through a lot of cream cheese, but yeah.
Jessie Sheehan:
Yeah. And Philadelphia, or is it a-
Morgan Knight:
We use Philadelphia.
Jessie Sheehan:
Yeah. So we're going to grab one of our layers that are cold at this point. So we soaked them again with that delicious Yes! Apples EverCrisp cider soak. Then we will cover the top of the layer with the frosting. And I love this for a, as you call it, a fun textural element. We're going to add a dusting of graham crackers. Are you guys grinding up your graham crackers or are you getting ground graham cracker crumb?
Morgan Knight:
We're getting them ground. We were doing it ourselves. And then I realized this feels unnecessary. There's a few things, like Ina, store-bought's fine.
Jessie Sheehan:
Yep. That's adding texture. Is it also contributing at all to... When I read that, I was like, oh yeah, apple cider donut vibe.
Morgan Knight:
Yeah. I don't know what it is about graham crackers. There's something autumnal. I don't think it has much to do with the apple cider donut itself, but I think we're expecting that cinnamon sugar dusting, and that's something that I was really like, how are we going to get that on a cake? I was originally thinking about doing it unfrosted, just with kind of a cinnamon sugar just for that textural, something delicious. I was like, okay, everyone loves cream cheese frosting. So instead I wanted something that was kind of that granulated texture a little bit. So I was like, graham crackers are fine. Not adding any sweetness because I didn't want to put sugar on a cake. And at the same time, adds a little bit of that kind of familiar texture of a donut.
Jessie Sheehan:
Love. You do that over that first layer, put the other one on, more soak, frosting, crumbs, and then the final layer. And then do you stick it in the fridge? Then do you do a crumb coat?
Morgan Knight:
So we don't crumb coat the house cakes, funny enough. Usually we find that, one, we are making so many cakes a day that it's simply the timing of it. But at the same time, our cream cheese frosting is pretty smooth by this point. So it goes on really nice. And we use a decent amount of frosting to start. So I find just with more, this is something I kind of verbalized this week, teaching a lot of students that I hadn't thought about before, putting a lot of frosting on your knife is kind of a good way to get out of a crumb coat in a pinch. When you only have a little bit of frosting on your knife, you'll be scraping more. You have a lot more pressure directly knife to cake. Whereas starting with just a lot of frosting on that knife, and then we can trim it down because I do like our cake slices not to be drowned in frosting. We just go straight for it.
Jessie Sheehan:
And is the cake right now for sale in the bakery?
Morgan Knight:
It is, and it will be until the beginning of December.
Jessie Sheehan:
Oh, amazing. Amazing. So for the whole rest of the month. And I mean you have a couple of great fall cakes. Will those sort of stay on through the holidays, or are you bringing out new flavors at Christmas?
Morgan Knight:
Yeah. So new flavors at Christmas, it's three new flavors every season. So at first we were thinking monthly. And then the moment that I tried to get rid of one of our first flavors for the next month, started telling people about it, they're like, "It hasn't been enough time. What? No." Which was very exciting and encouraging. But yeah, we do it seasonally.
Jessie Sheehan:
Yeah. Well, thank you so much for chatting with me today, Morgan. And I just want to say that you are my cherry pie and my apple pie.
Morgan Knight:
Oh, thank you. And you are mine.
Jessie Sheehan:
That's it for today's show. Thank you to Yes! Apples for supporting our miniseries. You can find today's recipe at cherrybombe.substack.com. Don't forget to follow She's My Cherry Pie on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. And tell your pals about us. She's My Cherry Pie is a production of The Cherry Bombe Podcast Network. Our producers are Kerry Diamond, Catherine Baker, and Jenna Sadhu. Thank you so much for listening to She's My Cherry Pie, and happy baking.