So who are these ladies and why do they bake naked!
As intriguing as it sounds we actually do not bake naked. At least not in the literal sense. To us the Naked Baking Ladies means really good fresh food. Food as it always should be… pure and simple without pretense and made with a lot of passion!
Although the naked part may not be real, the ladies are and there is a great story behind us that tells how the Naked Baking Ladies came to be. It begins on the island of Martha’s Vineyard in the summer of 2000. As founder of Time For Life, a non profit organization assisting children with cancer and their family members, I spent that entire summer on the island operating the first residential summer program for this very special group. It was a rousing success, but not without the help of a multitude of amazing island volunteers. These perfectly wonderful people worked endlessly all summer long, preparing meals for the welcoming barbecues, watching the children so the parents could enjoy a parent night out, hosting fishing excursions and of course baking the most delicious treats for the children and their families.
On the first day of each session these amazing ladies (and one man) would arrive with arms full of cookies, cakes, pies, brownies, muffins, sweet breads and numerous other combinations of sugar, flour, lots of butter, and even more chocolate. I fell in love with all them that summer and when the summer ended I really wanted to find a special way to express my deepest appreciation. As fate would have it one day on the beach it came to me. One of the ladies (we think of her as the original Naked Baking Lady although her identity is protected for obvious reasons) had a burn mark on her side. We discovered with the help of her husband, that she burnt herself while baking for the children….. and this is where the naked part comes in…SHE REALLY WAS NAKED….I immediately coined the phrase The Naked Baking Ladies and all of us have been Baking Naked ever since!
