Morning Mug Series: Kady Lone
Baking is such a huge part of the holiday season, with family traditions and tins of cookies to gift for neighbors, friends, and co-workers—sweet treats are on the mind!
We talked to a friend of Cameron’s, Kady Lone to find out a little bit more about her baking routine. Kady bakes her infamous cookies, cakes, and treats all year long, but especially during the holiday time. If you don’t know Kady, she is the Co-owner of @cats_of_instagram + @cutepetclub and Mother of @pudgethecat. She is a Mpls lady currently baking cookies in LA → @pudgecookie and content creator at @youthtothepeople.
When did you start baking and did you have someone who taught you?
I’ve always been that friend in the group that likes to show up with baked goods at whatever gathering was going on. I really got into baking on my own in my early 20’s after graduating college. However, growing up, my mom would spend weeks baking multiple different kinds of christmas cookies to assemble your classic tray of christmas cookies and give them away as gifts for coworkers and friends. My sister and I would help by unwrapping Hershey’s kiss chocolates or rolling out cookie dough balls. So baking has been something I’ve been around since I was very young.
We are curious about why you started baking. How did it all start?
I think I got into baking mainly cookies because cookie dough is quite easy compared to other things like cakes or pastries, as well as is easy to transport them over to gatherings with friends. I started off by finding recipes online and then learning ways to tweak recipes to make the cookie my ideal kind of cookie – big, soft & chewy.
Then, when the pandemic hit, I had a few friends contact me asking if they could buy my cookies. So that’s when I began baking & selling cookies.
What do you enjoy most about baking?
First and foremost, I have a major sweet tooth, so being able to enjoy the treats I bake is definitely top of the list. But I also just really enjoy being able to create something from ingredients to finished products with my hands and having my mental focus only be on what’s in front of me as I’m baking. I enjoy the entire learning process — a lot of people will say, “baking is so precise, I can’t do that” But I don’t agree. Baking is far more about feeling & having an eye for when something is properly baked just as much as cooking a steak is. I think you can play around with baking just as much as you can with your cooking, and that’s really what you’re doing when you’re working on recipes.
Do you have family cookie recipes that have been passed down from anyone in your family, if so tell us about them?!
My mother has your classic recipe box full of handwritten recipe cards and recipes cut out of the back of 70’s packages. They aren’t recipes passed down from generation to generation. My mom loves to say “it’s just the recipe from the back of the chocolate chip bag”. Her christmas fudge recipe literally is from the marshmallow fluff jar.
What is your absolute favorite recipe to make?
My most requested, most popular cookie is my brown butter salted chocolate chunk cookie. I can put together that dough from memory, but I’m not sure if I would call it a personal favorite of mine. But if we’re talking about my personal favorite flavor…. it would probably be my iced oatmeal cookie – cinnamon & nutmeg spiced chewy oatmeal cookie with vanilla icing on top.
Does your famous cat Pudge ever get curious about your baking and does she ever get to try a taste? 🙂
Haha, thankfully Pudge has never had a taste for human food of any kind. She just loves her cat food. Which I actually do make myself… from scratch… by grinding up chicken bones. And she does know what the sound of the meat grinder means now. So she’ll patiently wait for a fresh plate of food when it’s finished.
What about baking tools? What is the item that you could not live without in your kitchen?
My kitchen scale! I bake by weight, as does the rest of the world outside of the US. Makes for easier measuring, less cleanup, easier recipe conversions, equally sized portions, and consistent results every time.
You recently just moved from Minneapolis to LA – congrats! Do you have your kitchen all set up?
Absolutely not! I was subleasing for a few months in a kitchen that was fully set up which was great, but just last month I officially moved into my own place. I’m currently squeezing my baking onto the limited countertop space I have and am hoping to get a larger kitchen worktable soon.
Did you base your apartment selection around the baking potential of the kitchen?
I definitely take a big look at the kitchen when searching for a new apartment, but ultimately I landed where I am because it’s in the same building I had been subleasing from. This means I get to continue to bake in my apartment kitchen and easily walk my cookies downstairs to the coffee shop below my building where they’re sold every day! I also have a handful of friends in this building and nearby so I went for the community over the massive kitchen. But anything was going to be an upgrade from my very small, but adorable Minneapolis brownstone pocket kitchen.
What else do you do with your time besides baking? Give us a day in the life of Kady Lone!
Most every day I bake and deliver cookies to the coffee shop below my building. Weightlifting is an important hobby for my mental health, so every other day I make it to the gym – usually, before the coffee shop opens up. My days consists of anything from working on brand deals for Pudge to prepping more cookie dough to heading out on hikes with friends.
What are the specifics of your morning routine?
Pudge gets up at the crack of dawn and expects a little breakfast. I get up and feed her and usually go back to bed since it’s about 5 am. Some mornings I’ll pop cookie dough in the oven at this time, other days I’ll bake cookies the night before.
Pudge also goes back to bed. I’ll officially get up around 6:30 am, feed Pudge her second breakfast, have a little tea, and get to the gym or go on a walk if I’m not working out that day. I’m home before 8 am – when the coffee shop opens. I’ll package up cookies and take them down to the coffee shop. I head back upstairs, get some breakfast made, and get on to the rest of my day.
