Cherry Cobbler
Something incredible happened this month. The Instagram page hit 50k followers! Now, 50k in today’s day and age makes me a mere “Micro influencer”, but this is a considerable feat to the 2017 Archit, who started with 2k followers. I remember dreaming of having just ten thousand followers in 2017. I thought I’d be sorted if I got that many followers. I would get that swipe up story feature, and I could send more people to the blog. More importantly, I felt that ten thousand adds that sense of validity: “ Hey, this person knows something.” Five years down the line and even fifty thousand seems meagre.
So many things have changed since I started my blog. Most “bloggers” today don’t have a blog or website (or goals for their content creation journey). There is also an unneeded explosion of creators with many followers. This can be attributed to the boom of reels that shares your content with everyone but the people you have spent five years cultivating into a community. This also dilutes the quality and intent of the people who follow you. I miss the time when gaining followers was a fun way to meet and talk to new people. Now, I feel like I am just looking at the number, not the person. Finally, I do feel a little cheated by the platform. There are accolades for growth and scale but none for tenure. I think somewhere, if you quietly do your own thing, people will know you and remember you but may not advocate for you. It might be something that I would have to do as I move along.
What I have loved in the last five years is the immense growth I have seen in the content creation industry as a whole. Five years ago, my parents were thoroughly confused about what I was doing but today, when I tell my dad the commercials I charge for 60 seconds worth of content, I see that glimmer of pride in him—somehow, getting that validation has been one of the best achievements of this journey. The second has been just the vanity I get of walking in crowded places and being recognised by people. It’s so interesting. Natasha and I always find someone looking at us from a distance and recognising us. They may never come over to say hi but just seeing their reactions are always hilarious. It’s a little selfish, too, but to be honest, I do enjoy it.
Finally, what this 50k means to me is just proof of the fact that I have some creative skills. As a child, I did everything — piano lessons, drums classes, horse riding, I even played basketball (I won medals for it, but I never felt that I was excellent at it), but none of those things survived for longer than a couple of years. I have now been cooking since the summer of 2014. Eight years. I have days where I’m not too fond of it. I have days where I love it. But I have yet to have a day where I felt like I could live without it.
This Cherry cobbler is a rehash of another cobbler I made in 2017— the year I started my blog. A cobbler is nothing but a rough pie dessert that comes from the American south. It’s the easiest way to celebrate tropical fruits with lots of sugar. They are super easy to make, and I hope you relive an Archit classic recipe as I have here! Happy cooking 💫
Glimpses from the week
Recipe
Ingredients
500 grams of pitted cherries
1cup plus 2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour
170 grams butter
1 ½cups granulated sugar
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
¾ teaspoon table salt
½ cup milk
Method
Heat oven to 180 C. Pit the cherries. Melt 4 tablespoons of butter in a medium saucepan. Add the cherries and 1/2 cup sugar. Stir in 2 tablespoons of flour and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes, until soft and syrupy.
Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, combine the remaining 1 cup sugar with the remaining 1 cup flour, baking powder and salt. Stir in the milk until combined.
Add 4 tablespoons of butter to a 9X9-inch baking pan and place it in the oven. When the butter is melted, reserve 1/3 cup of the batter and set aside. Add the rest of the batter to the pan, using a spatula to spread it out as much as you can. It will not fully cover the bottom of the pan. This is totally fine!
Spoon the cherry mixture evenly over the top of the batter. Using a clean spoon, dollop small bits of the reserved batter over the cherries, and spread around a bit with the back of the spoon. (It will not fully cover the peaches)
Bake for about 1 hour, or until the top is golden brown. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.
