TikTok star and bestselling author B. Dylan Hollis (Baking Yesteryear) sets out on a culinary road trip across America in his new cookbook, Baking Across America (DK, May). To mark the impending publication of the book, his editor, Alexander Rigby, talked with Hollis about his love of retro desserts, how a pork cake recipe changed his life, and why America is such a fertile land for anyone with a sweet tooth.

Alexander Rigby: Before we get to the cookbook, how did you get into vintage recipes?

B. Dylan Hollis: It really started during the pandemic. It was a terrible time, but it offered a rebirth for a lot of people who suddenly had all of this time on their hands. I had always been a lover of things from yesteryear. I collect old records. I drive a 1963 Cadillac. And I found this old cookbook, a 1950s Five Roses Flour cookbook; Five Roses is a Canadian flour company. Anyway, I was looking for video ideas to post on TikTok, which was a newer platform back then, and I stumbled on a recipe for pork cake. I decided to bake it on camera. I recorded that as a TikTok in August 2020. And that’s how it all started.

AR: That pork cake video has more than 300,000 views on YouTube alone.

BDH: Yes. Before long, fans were sending in old cookbooks to my post office box and I was baking recipes from them, recording videos, uploading them, and it was just a storm.

AR: So how did you come up with the premise of your new cookbook, in which you crisscross the country in search of beloved regional desserts?

BDH: I would get lots of comments on my cooking videos from people saying things like, “My mom used to make this. My grandma used to make that.” But every now and then, I would hit a recipe that was the favorite of a given state or city. Take, for example, the gooey butter cake of St. Louis, Miss. Then, people would get really fired up. They talked about the dessert like it was a hero of their state. There was all of this local pride associated with it. I felt like there was a book in someone coming in to judge a state’s desserts. It was an idea that I loved: traveling about, seeing what every state has to offer.

AR: Aside from introducing people to some great recipes—and some lesser-known desserts like Strawberry Pretzel Salad and Joe Froggers—what do you hope people take away from the book?

BDH: I think it parallels what makes America really fun, which is the ability to pick any direction, travel through, stop for a little bit, learn something, try a baked good, and then be on your merry way to wherever it is you may be going. That’s unique. And I had a great deal of fun tasting and seeing America through the lens of sugar and flour and eggies.

Want more classic baking recipes from across the country? For a limited time, you can enter to win a copy of Baking Across America!