Meet the Baker Creating Bookish-themed Macarons for Some of Our Favorite Stories
Sara in her kitchen with fresh batter
Pictures courtesy of Sara Cochran
When you stumble across a Booktoker who reads some of your favorite books, and then creates your favorite finicky French cookies custom-themed around them…you know she’s someone worth getting to know.
“I work in budgeting for a living…my day job is lots of Excel spreadsheets and formulas,” says Sara Cochran, the Booktoker and hobbyist baker who works for an international nonprofit by day. Naturally, she wanted a creative outlet.
“I think I actually got drawn to making macarons because I love the challenge of it,” shares Sara. “I absolutely love macarons…my dad would send them to me for my birthday…so that's why I decided…I wanted to try to make them.”
Taking on baking challenges seems to be a pattern. She tells me the first thing she ever baked on her own was a pumpkin pie from an actual pumpkin while in college.
“I grew up in suburban Florida, and it was very densely populated, no farms, and then I went to school in rural Massachusetts. And I just thought it was such a novelty to see pumpkin patches everywhere,” she says with a laugh.
“I wouldn't let it go...so my partner…drove me to like a pumpkin patch. We picked out a sugar pumpkin and I brought it back to my dorm and I made it in my dorm kitchen…and all of my friends loved it…it was such a good feeling…I was like, ‘Oh, I'm gonna keep doing this.’”
So how did books enter the picture? “I've always been…really into like, fantasy and fairytales,” she says.
As a kid, Sara loved the idea of escaping into a magical world, and her “cool aunt” in California helped open that door. Starting around age eight, she’d send Sara a new book every year for her birthday.
“She was the one who got me on to like The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. A Wrinkle in Time. I absolutely loved those books as a kid,” she reminisces.
But grad school definitely put a damper on her “reading for fun” time. So it wasn’t until a friend recommended a well known fantasy series, Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Mass, that she got back into reading again.
“I'm actually doing a reread right now,” she mentions, and of course, I have to ask what her favorite book in the series is: “Probably Heir of Fire if I had to pick one,” she reluctantly says.
I totally understand–it feels a bit like picking a favorite child.
“I think…one of the scenes that stands out the most…is in Heir of Fire. And that's why [it’s] probably my favorite,” Sara explains. “It's the, ‘Who did this to you?’ scene…it gives me chills. I…would go back…when I was waiting for the next books [to be released] and just reread that chapter.”
Sara didn’t join TikTok until late Spring 2020, and the algorithm quickly picked up on her favorite things: “It was like, ‘Oh, she's a nerd. Here's some Booktok videos,” and…’Oh, she really likes baking, here's cottage core baking videos.’
“My early videos weren't book related. They were cottage core…I liked that idea of romanticizing your life, and I was looking for more ways to…really find joy in…the small little things.”
She was living in D.C. at the time in a one bedroom apartment. “I didn't have access to…the fun things of living in a city because…you know, everything was shut down,” she remembers. “So it was just fun to go on the app and…kind of pretend that I was like either in a Jane Austen novel or something or out in the English countryside.”
TikTok also quickly figured out she liked Sarah J. Maas.
“I think I…was doing a reread actually of A Court of Thorns and Roses…so I searched on the app…I [didn’t] know how big of a fan base it has,” she says. “Meanwhile, it's like one of the most popular books…like you either love it or you hate it…everybody has an opinion about it. I had no idea. I was just like, ‘I wonder if other people like these books too?’ And that's how I then found…quite a few of my Booktok friends.”
In fact, she even started a virtual book club with a couple of those friends in January 2021, and they’re still going strong.
“My book club was such a lifeline during the pandemic because we were really consistent,” she shares. “I really know these people…It's not just…leaving comments on each other's videos…And so I'm very thankful [for this] community.”
She also credits her book club for not only getting her to read a lot more, but also encouraging her to read outside her preferred genres. They nominate and vote on a new book to read each month.
“We all have different tastes…originally [it] was just three of us. Cindy really likes historical fiction and my friend Flora reads horror and thriller, which I don’t,” she explains. “We do rank choice voting…it's all in Discord…I have no idea like what's gonna get picked, which has been fun because…it's definitely expanded my range.”
Last year, they read The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix, and it wasn’t what she expected.
“Based on the title, I was thinking, like, True Blood meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer…but it delves into a lot more serious issues…it's a lot more deep, honestly than I expected,” Sara says of the book she never would have picked up normally.
They’re currently reading Sense & Sensibility and she’s absolutely loving it (Side Note: this is one of my favorite editions because it has inserts + gorgeous illustrations!). Sara’s an Austen novel newbie, but is a huge fan of the films, so she’s excited to finally read more Jane Austen, which is part of her 2022 reading goals.
“I've actually only read Emma…and I know I'm gonna love Pride and Prejudice, but I'm kind of saving that one for the end. I love her sense of humor…I'm…frustrated that it took me so long in life to read Jane Austen.”
So what other stories does she love reading? “I think I'm a very easy reader to please because I love most tropes. And honestly, the cheesier the better,” she says. “Like I am a sucker for the one bed trope. Love good enemies-to-lovers romance…Oh, forced proximity. Love me a good forced proximity where they don't like each other…And then they fall in love. Like…I fall for that every single time.”
But her favorite read so far this year is Circe by Madeline Miller, and she even created macarons to match the cover.
“One of my favorite lines of…all time now is…from that book,” she says as she pulls up the full quote to read it to me: “I shortened it…on the cookie I just wrote, ‘such a constellation was he to me.”
The full quote is, “But in a solitary life, there are rare moments when another soul dips near yours as stars once a year brush the Earth. Such a constellation was he to me.”
“I get like chills…reading that. It's so beautiful,” she says.
Same. If you love lyrical writing and Greek mythology retellings, I definitely recommend picking this one up.
As you’ve probably surmised, Sara loves coming up with fun designs for her macarons. And if you’ve ever tried baking them, you know how hard they can be to perfect. Somehow Sara makes it look effortless.
Her first macaron video to really take off was her incredible Night Court macarons. In fact, I’m pretty sure that’s how I found her initially. She says the idea came from telling her Booktok friends about a galaxy swirl macaron she wanted to try. She thought they’d be perfect to represent the Night Court from SJM’s A Court of Mist and Fury. Others thought so too.
“I was blown away by the response,” Sara shares. “That was my first macaron video…merging that cottage core baking and my love of Booktok into one.”
And now she gets messages daily from people asking for macarons or giving her ideas for the next ones to make. One of the coolest moments for her so far, was when author, V.E. Schwab liked her Addie LaRue themed macarons: “I remember I checked my Instagram feed and I had…all these notifications. And then I saw V.E. Schwab liked it I was just like, ‘No way…this is a fan account’…I clicked…and sure enough, it was…the verified V.E. Schwab account. It makes me so happy she saw them, and liked them…That made my day.”
So I know you’re probably thinking…when is her shop opening? She doesn’t have current plans to sell them, which is heartbreaking for all us Francophile nerds on Booktok.
“I actually…used to sell them when I lived in D.C. I had a lot of friends in the area…and…people could just hop on the metro or like, take an Uber to my apartment and get them,” Sara shares.
She’s since moved to Massachusetts to be nearer to her partner’s family, and pursue her cottage core dream while working remotely full time, “I'm like, ‘Let's make this a reality,” she says, “But…living in rural Western Massachusetts there's not as much of a market for macarons.”
If you want to have some of your own, Sara suggests sourcing them locally and decorating them at home yourself. Or, if you want to bake them from scratch, here are some tips Sara recommends:
If you’re looking for the powder food coloring, here’s the brand she recommends.
Throughout the past couple of years, Sara’s been continually grateful for the bookish community, and the creativity it’s allowed her to pursue: “TikTok is the only app where like, I open it and I…leave happier, like usually…There's no other form of social media like that.
“I have a job that I love that is…very flexible…When I log off my computer, I can go put on a silly wig and pretend to be a fantasy character and put on some pointy ears and talk to other people…And it's so fun. Like why ever stop playing make believe, you know?” she says, reflecting. “I think you have to kind of go through that stage of seriousness, I guess in your 20s and when you're just starting out to get people to take you seriously. And that's like…I guess a privilege of being where I am now that I can be like, ‘You know what? I'm just gonna have fun on this silly little app and nobody cares.’ It's great.”
What macarons is she making next? I’ve put in a, hopefully, convincing request for some Bridge Kingdom ones, which she says is high on her TBR. Have an idea for macarons you’d like to see? Drop them in the comments below!
Rapid Reveals:
Where to find her:
Book she’s had the most fun reading this year so far?
Crescent City 2: House of Sky and Breath, by Sarah J Maas
Books she’s most looking forward to this year:
These Twisted Bonds by Lexi Ryan
Bloodmarked by Tracey Deonn
What fictional land would she go to first?
Velaris for a weekend trip, but The Shire to put down roots.
Her favorite place to read:
An outdoor swing listening to waves at her dad's cottage in Michigan because it's on Lake Huron.
—
P.S. If you end up getting a copy of any of books through an affiliate link above, you’ll be helping me support this site and newsletter! Thanks in advance for supporting a fellow bookworm! BTW, I will always disclose affiliate links when they’re present! :) Happy reading!