Cake Zine is a hedonistic exploration of history, pop culture, literature, and art through dessert. The fourth issue, Tough Cookie, presents a hearty batch of trials and triumphs all in the context of cookies. It's ninety-six pages of recipes, essays, illustrations, poems, fiction, and photographs include:
- A wartime dispatch from the Ukrainian bakery keeping the ovens alight and the frontline fueled by Felicity Spector
- An interview with a Times Square Cookie Monster mascot trading selfies for tips by Katie Way
- Sweet and surreal fiction by Catherine Lacey, Hilary Leichter, and Melissa Lozada-Oliva
- An admiring salute to the cookiecutter shark by Sabrina Imbler
- A feature on the coalition of international workers staffing the Canadian Oreo factory assembly line by Soobin Kim
- Recipes for cookies tough in texture, technique, or tone by Abi Balingit, Briana Holt, Caroline Schiff, Chloe-Rose Crabtree, Paola Velez, and Yesenia Castañon
- A cautionary fable exploring the limitations of leniency from novelist Isle McElroy
- An ode to the psychic pleasures of wearing gourmand perfumes by Tracy Wan
- Plus a dishy reflection on being the head chef at a powerful Wall Street bank in the eighties, a eulogy for the end of the browser cookie, using Lorna Doones as currency in the psych ward, and much more.
Contributors Include: Abi Balingit, Alana Salguero, Ali Domrongchai, Ana Téllez, Benedetta Jasmine Guetta, Briana Holt, Carolina Moscoso, Caroline Schiff, Cassie Tannenberg, Catherine Lacey, Chloe-Rose Crabtree, Collin Hughes, Dahe Kim, Felicity Spector, Gabriella Burnham, Heami Lee, Hilary Leichter, Jac Bernhard, Julia Katz, Julia Rose, Katie Way, Madeline Newel, Melissa Lozada-Oliva, Nicole Cao, Nithya Subramanian, Noreen Wasti, Olivia Charlesworth, Paola Velez, Pearl Jones, Renée Elizabeth Clarke, Roberta Klug, Sabrina Imbler, Samhita Kamisetty, Soobin Kim, Steph von Reiswitz, Sumera Subzwari, Tracy Wan, Viktoriia Kovalenko, VSOON, Yesenia Castañon
Co-Founders and Editors - Tanya Bush and Aliza Abarbanel
Designer and Art Director - Noah Emrich
Contributing Editors - Jesse Sparks, Amanda Shapiro, Nicolaia Rips, Forsyth Harmon, Angeline Rodriguez
Copy Editors - Alexis Nowicki, Adrienne Murr
Social Media Editor - Jamie Rothenberg
Recipe Editor - Sanaë Lemoine
Marketing and Distribution Manager - Amber Lee