17 Classic Recipes From Baking Legend Cheryl Day

Something I’ve noticed about Cheryl Day’s baking recipes is that her textures are always spot-on. Whether it’s the soft, cottony crumb of her Cold Oven Pound Cake, or the towering, flaky layers of her biscuits, each bite—tender and luscious, or crunching and then giving way—transports me back to my childhood. “I think about what people are craving every day, and make things that are very textural in quality,” she tells me over Zoom. “I like to think of myself as a very intuitive baker.”

Day, who originally hails from Los Angeles, sees common ground between California-style baking and her signature Southern style of seasonal baking. “I like to play around with different spices and botanicals. Things a lot of bakers wouldn’t normally turn to, like coriander.” I mentioned to Day that one of my very first Epi assignments focused on using biochemistry to improve your baking, and that the combination of coriander and blueberry featured heavily in the piece. “See?!” she says, laughing. “That's an intuition I didn’t even know I had.”

Day’s interest in baking began at home, in her mother’s and grandmother’s kitchens. “I learned from an early age that I could spend quality time with her if we did something together that she loved, and that was baking. Same with my grandmother.” Both her mother and grandmother loved baking pies and cakes, passing on a wealth of knowledge that became Day’s foundation. “I lost my mom when I was 22, and I’m just so grateful for all that time we spent together in the kitchen. It’s something special that we shared, and that I’ll always carry with me.”

Day gets inspiration every day from the young bakers and chefs in her community. “One of my missions in life, with Treasury of Southern Baking, is to tell stories of my Black heritage, whether my personal stories, or things from history that people would normally know nothing about,” she says. As an extension of that mission, Day currently uses her platform to spotlight people in her community through a program called Lift Every Voice. “I named it after a Black anthem, ‘Lift Every Voice and Sing,’ that I learned from my mom and used to sing as a kid.”

The program shines a spotlight on up-and-coming local chefs in a series of pop-ups at Day’s bakery and studio. “I handle the baking, and they do all the cooking, and we just try to get more eyes on what these young, rising stars are doing,” she explains. “In the world we live in, people of color, we’re never just handed anything. You can’t get a seat at the table, because you don’t even know where the table is.” And so Day helps young chefs carve out their own spaces and encourages them to find their voices.

Day also extends a helping hand to Black-owned restaurants both new and established through Southern Restaurants for Racial Justice (SRRJ), which she cofounded with Lisa Donovan, Sarah O’Brien, and Anne Quatrano in 2020. Initially started as a pandemic relief fund for Black-owned restaurants, SRRJ has grown exponentially over the past three years, with grants to around 150 restaurants. SRRJ, Day says, began as a response to the inequality Black-owned businesses face every day. “Things weren’t handed to me and, dare I say, probably not you either,” she explains, pointing out our shared status as non-white chefs and writers. “My husband is white, so I know firsthand that if he walks into a bank for a loan and I walk into a bank for a loan, we’re getting different results.”