baking with love

My name is Megan and I grew up and still live in Ballard. Growing up my mom would hide desserts because we would eat them up too fast. She would then forget where she hid them and by the time we found them, they would be dried out bricks of desserts! My dad still loves all the desserts I can sneak to him and my mom still makes German Chocolate Cake for my birthday, which is one of my favorites. 

I would stay at my Grandma’s house behind Patrick’s Fly Shop on Eastlake and would eat all the cookies in her bright turquoise kitchen. She would call me husky and we would have debates on who’s bum was bigger. Don’t worry, I also made jewelry with fly fishing materials and learned to play poker from Grandma!

The love of eating treats runs deep, but the love of baking didn’t start until 2014. 

With an art background (painting, graphic design, picture framing) and being in the wine/spirits industry…I started throwing alcohol into bakes. From special requests to my own experiments on what would turn out delicious, Barrel and Whisk was born in 2020. 

Some of my top sellers are Limoncello Lemon Bars with shortbread cookie crust (shout out to Vincenzi Limoncello!) to Bourbon Baklava and Bourbon Pecan Pie (shout out to Woodinville Whiskey Bourbon!) as well as Red Wine Ganache topped Brownies or Red Wine Truffles. 

I also do some Gluten Avoidant and Gluten Free Baking as well (so many family and friends are GF).

Shout out to my main man Chef Billy for always testing the bakes and putting up with the kitchen takeover and mess, Andy at Bighorn Creative for my web and graphic design things, Parents for bringing me into this world (last out of 5) and my ladies Jess who helped with my logo, CakeMan Dave at Home Cake Decorating for always having supplies and a smile, Molly at Seattle Custom Framing, SISTER Kelly, Christy for being one bad ass girlfriend, Kim at Lobo Hills Winery keeping me in the wine game, and SIL Kristie who requested bakes weekly and challenged me with doing something different. 

Keeping this short and sweet…I like to bake treats and eat them too!

Cheers and Happy Baking