Is there anything better during the holiday season than the copious amounts of baked goods floating around? From tins filled with cheesecake brownies shipped across state lines (thanks, Nancy!) to pies of every shape, color, and flavor sending noses scrambling to the kitchen, baking is truly one of the joys of this time of year.
For Loni Love, comedian and co-host of The Real, that's no different, except for the fact that her baking skills could use some work. "I'm a decent cook, but the worst baker," Love told Travel + Leisure in a recent phone interview. And that's why she's teamed up Baileys - maker of the much-loved Baileys Irish Cream Liqueur - to help everyone step up their baking game with the help of some experts.
As part of the Baileys Holiday Baking Club, Love joined Katherine Berman, celebrity baker and co-founder of Georgetown Cupcakes, in a video to help folks learn how to recreate the bakery's most popular cupcake flavor, red velvet. But Loni's version has a twist: Baileys Red Velvet Liqueur.
"They said do you want to make red velvet cupcakes," the comedian said about being approached by Baileys, "and I was like, uhhhhhhh, I don't know if you want me to make them." For Loni, the experience was a way to learn something herself, but also share a virtual experience that families and friends can do together at home. "It's something that the viewers can learn, but also laugh [at]."
It's also a way to give back. "I wanted to sign up because [Baileys] is actually donating money to different organizations to help the community," Love told T+L. As part of the series, Baileys will be donating $75,000 to charities important to the participating celebrities, which include Real Housewife Gizelle Bryant and Olympian Adam Rippon. $25,000 will be donated to the Restaurant Workers' Community Foundation on behalf of Georgetown Cupcakes for this particular video.
Love is quick to note that while baking is always a holiday tradition, many other traditions look different this year. "Even though this is a really hard time with this pandemic and we have to stay at home more... we have technology. Thank goodness we have Zoom." Baking, Love can say from experience, is a great way to connect with people using that technology. "Katherine and I never saw each other," she said, adding, "She's on the East coast, I'm on the West coast, but we had a virtual cooking class."
And now Love and Berman want to help one lucky baker and their squad learn even more than the video series has to offer. The baking duo will give one lucky winner and up to five friends over the age of 21 a live virtual baking class on Zoom. "We need to connect more with people," Love said. "We need to be reminded of traditions - just because things are changed, it doesn't mean that we can't still be connected."
Learn more about Baileys Holiday Baking Club on its official website and find the full recipe here.
Tanner Saunders is the Associate Digital Editor of Travel + Leisure. He likes all cupcakes.