By Dana Ferrante ’17
There’s nothing like going from HUDS café to HUDS café and realizing that each one, as you feared, is serving the same assortment of lackluster pastries. With the integration of Hi-Rise Bread Company items on its menu, the reopening of the Barker Café seemed promising, yet the jury is still out on whether or not the Barker Café is really worth one’s precious Board Plus.
For these, and many more reasons, I am excited to announce: there’s a new pastry on campus. Better yet, pastries.
It’s called Feel Good Cake, and it comes in two equally tempting flavors: Chocolate and Orange Chia. Not your average cupcakes, these creations are completely guilt-free, meaning no matter if you’re gluten free, paleo, vegan, or just generally concerned about what you put into your body, you can enjoy the cupcakes without a second thought. Despite the common misconception that healthy versions of desserts never live up to original recipes, these muffins are rich, moist, and full of real flavor. Best of all, they are convenient, and will soon be available in Lamont Café, Cabot Café and Sebastian’s Café at the School of Public Health.
The masterminds behind these muffins are none other than two Harvard students. A little over a year ago, juniors Alice Han and Nina Hooper launched their company, The Holistic, in Harvard’s Innovation Lab, and have been perfecting their recipes ever since. Substituting avocado and ground chickpeas for the traditional butter and flour, Han and Hooper are committed to using organic, nutrient-dense ingredients in all of their products. Instead of sugar, the muffins are sweetened with agave nectar, meaning they are free from refined sugars, and have a lower glycemic index than normal cupcakes. In this way, Han explains, The Holistic products are also a good transition food for those with diabetes as they try to cut out foods that will raise their blood sugar too quickly. And the icing on the cake? A creamy chocolate ganache made from avocado, agave and cocoa.
Aside from being super-foodies, the duo has traveled around the world, most recently with a portable oven and suitcases packed with more ingredients than clothes, sharing their creations with people all over. Han explains, “we wanted to see how people reacted to our product,” while also trying to figure out “what makes people feel good about the food they eat.” Whether it was Dubai or Finland, Australia or Japan, Han says they spent a lot of time learning how other cultures eat healthfully and alternatively to the stereotypical American diet, with the hope of incorporating this knowledge into their future recipes.
Last year, The Holistic competed in the Harvard Undergraduate Women in Business Innovation Competition, making it to the second to last round with their guilt-less treats. They were also recently featured in Boston Magazine and hope to present their product to the regional division of Whole Foods later on in the semester. In the meantime, The Holistic continues to offer catering for on campus events.
As previously mentioned, The Holistic recently approached HUDS about stocking their products, and the muffins will soon be sold in Lamont Café as part of a trial run. Based on their reception, HUDS could begin offering them at more locations on campus — now that would be a sweet deal.
After my mom and I finished baking pumpkin and apple pies, a flourlesschocolate cake, and a pumpkin roll, my six-year-old brother decided he wanted to chip in to our Thanksgiving dessert collection too! With a little bit of help on the frosting end, he decorated his own turkey chocolate cupcakes for all the kids (with blue eyes for the boys and pink eyes for the girls of course). One of my mom’s signature dishes, and a family favorite, is her sweet potato casserole which is pictured here as well.
Even on arguably the most American holiday, the Ferrantes can’t abandon their beloved pasta. No need to be alarmed, we still have turkey and all the fixings, we just save all of that for last. Every year, I look forward to the warm broth of our first course, pastina and spinach soup. This tradition has been around longer than I have, and I could not imagine our feast without it. Homemade cinnamon rolls are another favorite and staple of our Thanksgiving meal; since my mom started making them a couple years ago, the rolls have more or less become the second course of our Thanksgiving meal. They always seem to come out of the oven while my aunt is carving the turkey, so we usually devour them as we anxiously await the main course.
In the evening, we headed to the Dudley Co-op, which was unusually sparsely populated this Thanksgiving (only two co-opers remained on campus). We raided the leftovers fridge, rationalizing that the food would go bad anyway, and ate our fill of roasted beets, tomato-pepper hummus, sourdough bread, and homemade deep dish pizza. Later, we celebrated the end of the day with cheap champagne and roasted marshmallows and chocolate in Christine’s room in Dewolfe.
s been open in the North End (basically Boston’s Little Italy) for almost 62 years now. The new satellite shop in Harvard Square will receive deliveries of all sorts of pastries (lobster tails, tiramisu, and empty cannoli shells that will be filled to order) from the main bakery in the North End each morning. To finish off the exciting Italian-American immigration to Harvard Square, the new shop will also offer coffee drinks, including espresso and cappuccino.
crimsoncrave.com 
