We don't have an overt theme to our new group of stories, but I will say that with the Golden Scoops in the background, our minds were very focused on what is going on in the baking and pastry world as a whole. Also, spending time at the Fancy Food Show, it was interesting to see what trends emerged. (Read more here.) In comparing notes with one of our writers, the two of us kept drifting to our list of things we thought should be trends that aren't. On her list: after trying a refreshing truffle, pears should have a comeback. On mine: even more herbs and spices. If you aren't immersed in the details of food all time, it is easy to think that food is more constant than it actually is—most of us stick to the same basic foods we like to eat in the day to day. But just by frequenting restaurants, you can easily see that what we eat is subject to the same flights of fancy, jags of creativity, and rampant ideological conglomerating that shape what we wear, drive, and how we fashion our home and lifestyle. Many years ago, I came across a salted butterscotch recipe by Melissa Murphy of Sweet Melissa Pâtisserie in Brooklyn. It's become one of those tried-and-true staples in my kitchen, as I am particularly fond of the stuff. Now salted caramel is everywhere—it's in our chocolates, our ice creams, we add it to a multitude of desserts—and we are currently riding an even larger wave of playing with salty and savory and sweet altogether on the palate, further experimenting and blurring the lines between these applications and where they belong in the meal.
 
A college professor of mine made an obvious (yet profound in its implications) comment that has stuck with me: Creativity is nothing more than boundary pushing. The interesting part is that the boundaries we are pushing are usually ones we (as a culture or society, or even ourselves) have created, often from previous boundary pushing. And because we seem to always be looking for something fresh (not necessarily new), the inevitable pendulum swing is created. Whether fueled by capitalism, boredom, or simple curiosity, we are constantly being presented with reformulated and retooled material with a new angle, and if we as a group like it, we eagerly clamor for more—just think about molten chocolate cake. So, in this spirit, we bring you not only our own voice on what is going on in pastry right now through our Golden Scoop Awards, but we follow a few of the trends that are pulling us forward into the inevitable "newly refreshed and sometimes new" territory our explorative natures demand. We hope you enjoy!