Sweet as sugar: cuisine Q&A with Jenny Ha of Laced With Sugar

Sweet versus savoury have been waging a delicious battle against each other for the longest time, recruiting devotees along the way. One of the most dedicated advocates of sugar, spice and all things nice, is Jenny Ha of Laced With Sugar.

The sweet toothed cuisine Queen talks to Metropol about her recipe for living a sugar-coated life – the best kind.

You are refreshingly flipping the clean eating obsession on its head, why?

Baking for me will always be about good old sugar, just the way my parents have always baked. There is just no substitute that tastes as good to me. I love food and I’ll give anything a go but this is home for me.
I’ll admit, it’s not friendly on the waistline and I wish I had the willpower to eat healthy all the time, but I just love sugar and carbs too much.

Have you always had a sweet tooth and what are some of your favourite concoctions?

I grew up in my parents’ bakery, so I basically inherited a sweet tooth. My childhood was filled with sweet treats, but I ate way too much of it early on. I got tired of cake (yes, it’s possible) and given the choice, I’d always choose savoury over sweet. It wasn’t until I was 18 when I started baking for myself that I got my sweet tooth back.
My favourite concoction is my chocolate and raspberry brownie. It’s so simple but seriously so good. I can’t tell you how much I’ve eaten (too much) but I’m still not sick of them yet, so that’s a good sign.

You are very generous with your recipes – do you come up with these from scratch or look to innovate existing ones?

I always bake from a recipe. I research a tonne of recipes before I get into the kitchen and have had such good luck finding ones that I love. I make tweaks here and there, but I don’t have the talent to come up with recipes from scratch. I bow down to everyone that can – it’s hard work!
I’d say I’m more of a recipe curator than maker. I’d also happily put my hand up to be a recipe tester if anyone’s looking!

What’s on the horizon for Laced with Sugar?

Nothing as of yet, unfortunately! I’ve still got so much left to learn so that will be me for the next wee while. You never know though, a little Laced With Sugar shop might just be around the next corner!