With a recipe for glam wedding cookies

The cover of Esteban Castillo’s second cookbook Chicano Bakes is like a panaderia dessert case set up in Studio 54. A flan that shines like Donna Summer’s lip gloss, a square of pink-frosted cortadillo cake is cut sharp as Bianca Jagger’s suit. It’s a departure from the signature style of sunny lighting, bright backgrounds, and sharp shadows that defined Chicano Eats: Recipes from my Mexican-American kitchen, both the blog and book (“Playing with Tradition,” June 11, 2022). But it’s a natural continuation of his mission of sharing the foods he grew up loving, the ones he first learned to make for himself as a Humboldt State University student. There are recipes for rolls and yeast breads, savory and sweet tamales, cookies and pies, cakes, pies, punches and hot drinks. Narrowing down the recipes for the “Pan Dulce Mexicano” chapter was a daunting task, and Castillo anticipates some readers will be disappointed to see a favorite missing, but a little perspective: Mexico’s Cámara Nacional de la Industria Panificadora recognizes some 750 varieties of sweet bread. Among the desserts, some hew to tradition, others blend and remix, like the horchata tiramisu and red velvet chocoflan. Among Castillo’s personal favorites are fresas con crema, the red strawberry and gelatin dressed up in a coupe glass. “It’s one of the things I had for every single birthday,” he says, recalling his childhood in Southern California. “It was that or flan.” A laugh bubbles up as he adds, “I don’t wanna toot my own horn but I make a really good flan.” Castillo had to push to feature those favorites on the cover instead of the cupcakes his publisher thought might have broader appeal. “I got that dreaded question: ‘Is it going to be too niche?'” But as a self-identified queer Chicano who’s influenced by both Mexico and the U.S., it was important that the look of the book as a whole spoke to who he is and his aesthetics. “Someone has to be first, someone has to open the door,” he says. The same goes for the mirrors, rainbow colors, shine and prismatic backgrounds in his photographs — all of which he shot — instead of more conventional staging for Mexican cuisine. “I want people to revisit the way they think about things,” he says. Well, that and the disco he was listening to while working on the book — songs like Sylvester’s “You…