My name is Steph, and I'm the author, creator, photographer, and coder behind StephSunshine.com. I decided to go vegetarian when I was ten years old, and I went vegan (a little) more recently than that.
I've always wanted to be in the kitchen since I was a kid, but I had limited opportunities while I was young. So when I finally got an apartment with a kitchen towards the end of my college years, I began teaching myself how to make everything from enchiladas to cheesecakes. I was cooking and baking constantly, so much that I brought a dessert along any time I was invited anywhere. In my 20s, I had a cupcake business selling cupcakes at farmer's markets on the weekends. People who met me during that time still call me "the cupcake lady."
When I went vegan, I found myself having to re-learn how to cook and bake. The rules of vegan cooking and baking might be a little different, but I realized that it can be done without sacrificing flavor.
My goal with StephSunshine.com is to create a place on the internet where you can get vegan recipes that always work and are always delicious. Before I make any recipe of my own, I always try at least 4 different recipes that are already out there. If any of those recipes are so good that they can't be improved upon, I'd rather refer you to their recipe than to make an inferior or duplicate version.
After I test other recipes, my own recipes go through multiple rounds of testing and modifications. I know there are recipe developers out there who create their recipes in a single day or in hours. But I won't publish a recipe unless I know it's the best version of that recipe that I can make, and that just can't be done in a few hours.
Sometimes during testing, I find that certain recipes are particularly tricky, or have inconsistent results. Since I'm a self-taught home cook, I know that if I am having problems with a recipe, most of my readers will probably have similar problems. I would prefer to scrap a recipe than to publish a recipe that has a high chance of failure (even if I've spent weeks on it already).
I hope that by consistently creating easy-to-follow, delicious recipes, my food will be invited back to your family's table over and over again!