SIFTING THROUGH PROCESS WITH BAKER MORGAN KNIGHT
The baker and culinary artiste dishes on rule-breaking baking and skirting perfectionism ☁️
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Morgan Knight is the founder of Saint Street Cakes, a bakery based out of Brooklyn, NY that focuses on fun flavors and dreamlike designs.
MORGAN’S DIVERGENT CREATIVE STRATEGIES: ACTION/INACTION
We could try… having fun? Tortured artist — tired, boring, been done to death. Grateful professional creative who enjoys their work and doesn’t take it too seriously? Now THAT’S an archetype we can get behind.
Get your vibe right. Morgan confirms that your personal energy has an effect on the outcome of the creative project (in this case, scrumptious cake) in front of you. See what happens if you work yourself into a positive mental state before you sit down to your work.
Push through the yuck to get to the yum. It usually gets worse before it gets better… but have faith! Sure, right now that tangerine orange and cobalt blue frosting combo looks weird NOW. But, with a few flourishes and a couple of well-placed flowers, it transforms into something strangely wonderful. It’s normal to look at your work halfway through the process and abandon all hope that you’ve produced something even moderately good. So keep pushing through to get over the Mindfuck Middle. Nine times out of ten you’ll be pleased with your final results.
What’s your metaphorical Adderall — something that slingshots you into an inspired creative tornado of action?
Before fully diving into my work, I love to cook something fun for breakfast. Usually it’s simple (just to get my day started), but I love to get a smidge of inspiration from a fun meal before diving into sweets for the day. Also, usually a podcast (I humbly recommend Exploration Live, which I listen to religiously).
What idea or concept are you chewing on? Has it shown up in your work yet?
I’ve been exploring recipe development and working with more fresh fruit and flowers in my work — I have already worked a few of my new flavors onto my menu! I think people usually gravitate towards the classic cake flavors when ordering from me, but I really love when a client wants something super different. Some of my new favorite cake flavors I’ve been working on are almond, pistachio, and mocha.
How particular are you about your notebooks? Pens? What do you write in and with?
I am so so particular, but not in a unique way. I MUST write with a Pilot G2 pen in 0.38 in black (why stray from the classics), and usually write everything down in my teeny tiny Muji notebook, which is my personal bible. I need a notebook that isn’t spiral (I’m a lefty) and is small enough to toss into a purse and take on the go.
What was going through your mind when you first decided to share your work?
I think I was just looking to bring people a bit of joy, so it’s insane to think how far that panned out. When I started Saint Street Cakes, it was a side hustle existing alongside a full bill of college classes at Northeastern University — I tossed my creations up on TikTok and Instagram half to tell people I was selling cakes, and half because I thought it was fun to share with my friends, family, and other bakers. At that point, I just loved making a little bit of extra cash and got so much joy from documenting my work!
Since then, I’ve graduated, moved to NYC, had a full-time job as a paralegal, and quit that full-time job to fully take on cakes; I really love that it’s been all about making people happy and sharing love through food from the very beginning.
What’s your media diet, at present?
HELP! I’m in a media desert! Okay, I’m half kidding.
I see a LOT of movies — my recent favorite is Perfect Days. I also am making my way through my own record collection — I’ve been collecting since I was 14, and I am currently making an effort to listen to one each day to kind of take stock of what I already own. I am reading No One is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood, and highly recommend it with the caveat that I am only half-way through right now. [Editor’s Note: We can confidently back up this rec, no caveat needed, it’s a fantastic read.]
The media desert I mentioned is in the TV department. Nothing I have seen recently has fully dragged me in! I find myself rewatching Fleabag season 2 (in a single sitting, like it’s a movie, the way God intended) and old episodes of Modern Family (???). I’m also beginning a rewatch of one of my favorite shows ever, Search Party. I think with TV, I’m finding comfort in the familiar right now.
To be creative and to make things in 2024 is objectively difficult. You have to square off with distractions, global anarchy, and perpetual haunting of the existential question: “why bother?” What keeps you coming back to the ring?
I love feeding people — it’s as simple as that. I’ve also been reminding myself that I should feel like the luckiest person alive to get to have a creative career.
I think I was just looking to bring people a bit of joy, so it’s insane to think how far that panned out
John Cage was inspired to develop his practice of composing via random chance and chaos after reading a book about the Chinese divining practice, The I-Ching. What influences or inspiration from outside of your field or profession have made the biggest impact on your work or process?
The media that I engage with has a huge effect on my work — specifically in the realm of music and poetry. I think that making food for people, especially celebratory food like cakes, necessitates a level of care and love, and a lot of my favorite songs and poetry reflect positive vulnerability in a similar way! There is definitely truth behind that whole “the secret ingredient is a whole-lotta-love” thing.
What do you do “wrong” that makes your work successful?
Baking gets a bad rap for being extremely “by the book” with little wiggle room, but I actually love to explore improvisational baking! My for-sale cakes stick to their set recipes, but in the development stage and in my other bakes, I love to go against the rules a bit; mix weird flavors, add a sprinkle of something random to see what it does. The results are usually so fun and I’ve learned so much from abandoning the rules a bit where I can.
Another “wrong” thing I do is I VERY rarely will make a preview sketch of a cake for a client. So much of my work happens in the moment — I always ask them for extremely detailed inspiration and will send over my thoughts/what I plan to create, but I usually won’t sketch out a replica beforehand. I feel it’s limiting!
I think that making food for people, especially celebratory food like cakes, necessitates a level of care and love, and a lot of my favorite songs and poetry reflect positive vulnerability in a similar way!
You’ve been working on something and it just isn’t coming through the way you’d like — do you kill your darlings and scrap the whole thing? Do you compost the idea? Do you file it away in your cabinet of misfit concepts to review later?
I will say, decorating cakes doesn’t leave much room for mistakes (unintentional rhyme, I swear). If I am making a cake that I just don’t LOVE yet, I will keep tweaking it until it meets the idea of it I had in my mind! I honestly don’t think that method has failed me yet — often times most of what’s needed is a few minor adjustments.
What’s a weird superstition you subscribe to?
I’d say I am pretty superstitious, but more so in the positive sense. I don’t really believe in jinxes or bad luck. A few years ago I was talking about a work thing I wanted to do, and was scared I jinxed something. My friend Claire said, “I don’t believe in jinxes — we should be able to say the things we want out loud.” It totally changed my perspective.
For a few examples of my positive superstitions, I love the number 13 and orange Subarus. If I see either, it’s a sign to me that something will go well!
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