Bake in Community

Palisades Baking Group Enjoys Sweets, Treats and Camaraderie

By LILY TINOCO | Reporter

El Medio Bluffs resident Bianca Gomez has found a creative—and often sweet—new way to connect community members: baked goods.

Gomez launched the Palisades Baking Group on Nextdoor in December 2020 because of her own love for baking. Since then, 100 community members have joined the online group, sharing recipes, tips and tricks with one another.

“We share recipes, we share baking tips … in general, we say hello to each other and post photos of the things we bake,” Gomez said to the Palisadian-Post. “You should see some of the things people post on Nextdoor, these people really like to bake.

“A lot of people think when you bake, that means cupcakes and cakes. No, people bake all sorts of things like ciabatta, Italian pizzas, it’s all baking.”

Following the launch of the group in late 2020, Gomez invited the community to attend the group’s inaugural event at Palisades Recreation Center on Saturday, August 21.

Gomez said about 20 people showed up to the first gathering, which was a potluck picnic, and surprised her with their intricate homemade baked goods.

“I brought some sandwiches, just to make sure everyone had a lunch,” Gomez explained. “I went ahead and brought general things, and allowed other people to use their creativity and imagination for their baked goods. Somebody made a rosette pastry with apricots and apples in the shape of a rose, which was very beautiful and delicious.”

Gomez shared that one of the desserts she found to be more the most special was a homemade baklava, which she said is a very complex and difficult dessert to make.

“It’s layers and layers of a very thin pastry,” she added. “It’s very hard to make.”

Overall, Gomez said the event went “really, really well,” and people brought homemade goods that were both beautiful and delicious.

Fellow Palisadian Danielle Bujnak, who lives in the Via Mesa neighborhood, described the event as “fabulous … with so much delicious food.”

“I so appreciated Bianca’s work in organizing and hosting us all at the park,” Bujnak shared with the Post. “I’m brand new in the neighborhood … and I felt excited to meet some of my new neighbors. It turns out that several of us speak French, and we enjoyed connecting en français as well and exchanged contact info to get together again. We are all already looking forward to the next Palisades Baking Group potluck event.”

Gomez said the group plans to reconnect in the upcoming months, closer to the holidays. She said the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas is customary for bakers to get together.

Currently in the works for the group is a “Cookie Swap” where each member will bring a dozen of their choice of cookies with its corresponding recipe to exchange with one another.

Gomez said she is grateful for the connections she has made through the group so far.

“It’s really good to connect with other people because you speak the same language and you understand what you’re talking about because you bake, and there are things that you as an insider, things you’ve learned from the mistakes you’ve made,” she said. “It’s nice to talk to other people who understand that language and how difficult it can be to create some of these masterpieces. It’s not that easy to bake, it’s a skill and it takes time to develop.

“It was really nice to meet other people in the community that share that same interest with me.”

Gomez invited individuals, families and children to join Palisades Baking Group by finding them on Nextdoor.