Students How Sweet It Is: Sophomore Hotelie Bakes Her Way to Internet Acclaim Stories You May Like Cheesecake Mogul Alan Rosen ’91 Oversees a Comfort-Food Empire Hotelie Aims to Bring Brown Butter to a Dairy Case Near You Alum’s Bakery with a Hollywood Following Hits a Sweet Spot She boasts 145,000 Instagram followers—and we have the Big Red ‘dot cake’ recipe she made just for her fellow Cornellians! By Beth Saulnier Ivy Woolenberg ’29 was eight years old when she asked her grandmother to teach her how to bake French macarons. Not chocolate chip cookies or brownies—though Woolenberg casts no shade on them—but a highly technical, multi-step dessert that can stymie even the most seasoned home bakers. A decade later, the sophomore Hotelie is still making tempting treats—now for her 145,000 followers on Instagram (plus nearly 30,000 more on TikTok). Under the brand Baked with Love by Ivy, Woolenberg creates a variety of delectable concoctions, from matcha latte tiramisù to M&M cookie ice cream sandwiches to a moist loaf that evokes the best part of a blueberry muffin (the top, of course). Woolenberg creates mouth-watering desserts for her social followers. “I feel like we’re in such a digital world, and there aren’t so many things you can just get your hands into—touch the flour and the butter and rub them between your fingers, or pipe a cake,” Woolenberg says. “To me, having something that’s really physical is very relaxing. But it also exercises my creative side, which I enjoy.” Woolenberg is perhaps best known for her upside-down cakes, in which she arranges a layer of fruit—rhubarb stalks, say, or lemon slices—followed by batter, forming desserts that, when flipped, display a pleasing decorative pattern. I feel like we’re in such a digital world, and there aren’t so many things you can just get your hands into—touch the flour and the butter and rub them between your fingers, or pipe a cake. “The first one I almost didn’t post, because when I slid the cake toward the camera, it split down the middle,” she recalls of a peach creation. “It was basically a fail, but I thought I’d post it anyway—and it got over 40 million views. So I have a special relationship with upside-down cakes, because of how that failure led to a great success.” An L.A. native, Woolenberg kept baking after that first session with her grandma—a pastry chef who spent part of her childhood in France—and at age 11 the future Hotelie launched her own business. Some of her youthful baking exploits. “I decided I’d sell mini cupcakes and mini cookies to my friends at school; it quickly spread by word of mouth, and I began doing birthday cakes and custom orders for my community,” she recalls. “When COVID hit I had a lot more time on my hands and all the bakeries were closed, so I was doing a lot of orders.” Woolenberg also documented those bakes on social media—and after returning to school following the pandemic, she shifted from filling orders to producing content. In 2021, she even appeared on a kids’ TV baking competition, winning an episode of the “Disney Magic Bake Off” with a teammate for a whimsical, multi-tiered, pink-and-green cake themed to the iconic Mad Tea Party ride. Strawberry matcha cookies, inspired by an offering from Crumbl. Now, Woolenberg balances her career as a content creator with her studies in the Nolan School—baking out of friends’ off-campus kitchens, with the “rent” paid in desserts. She has had partnerships with major food brands including Nutella, Eagle condensed milk, and Lindt chocolate, as well as cosmetics companies like Sephora. Woolenberg has had partnerships with major food brands including Nutella, Eagle condensed milk, and Lindt chocolate, as well as cosmetics companies like Sephora. “I think we’re at a time where people of my generation are more excited about cooking and baking than ever,” Woolenberg observes, citing among the motivators the current crop of “trad wife” influencers: “They go viral for dressing up and making homemaking look almost effortless, so a lot of people are inspired to get into the kitchen and try these things themselves.” As students were returning to campus in fall 2026, Woolenberg collaborated with the Johnson College on a Cornell-themed version of the viral “dot cake,” a treat—pioneered several years ago by a Long Island bakery—that had become all the rage in the NYC area and on social media the previous summer. It’s essentially a single-serving cake in a cup, with a flat top coated in icing and dipped in tiny, spherical sprinkles, forming a dense shell that fans can spoon into with a satisfying crunch. Woolenberg’s Big Red version has a red velvet base that’s not baked in the cup, but rather cut into circles and alternated with cream cheese frosting in a glass jar, creating an attractive, layered presentation akin to a trifle. In the family kitchen back home. “From a baking perspective, I feel like it’s really accessible for my audience, because if you’re not comfortable with piping or frosting a stand-up cake, it’s really easy to dip a cake into sprinkles,” says Woolenberg. “You could even do it with a boxed cake mix and a can of frosting.” Stories You May Like Cheesecake Mogul Alan Rosen ’91 Oversees a Comfort-Food Empire Hotelie Aims to Bring Brown Butter to a Dairy Case Near You Cornell Dot Cakes Adapted from a recipe by Ivy Woolenberg ’29 (Makes four 7–8 oz. jars) For the cake: 1 stick (½ c.) unsalted butter, softened 1 c. white granulated sugar 2 eggs 1 tsp. vanilla extract or paste 1 tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder 1 ¼ c. all-purpose flour 1 ¾ tsp. baking powder ½ tsp. salt ⅓ c. milk ¼ c. Greek yogurt or sour cream 1 tsp. white vinegar Red gel food coloring (~1 tsp. depending on strength) For the frosting: 1 stick (½ c.) unsalted butter, softened 4 oz. cream cheese 1 tsp. vanilla extract or paste ¼ tsp. salt 3 c. powdered sugar 1 tbsp. milk (as needed to reach a smooth consistency) ½ c. red and white nonpareil sprinkles Directions: Preheat oven to 350 °F. For the cake: Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time and mix until smooth. In a separate bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, and salt. In a separate container, whisk milk, yogurt, vinegar, vanilla, and gel color. Add half of dry mixture to butter mixture and mix to combine. Add milk mixture and mix to combine. Finish on rest of dry mixture. Grease a quarter-sheet pan and line it with parchment paper. Transfer batter to pan and smooth into an even layer. Bake for 18–22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out with only a few moist crumbs. For the frosting: Whip together butter, cream cheese, salt, and vanilla. Add powdered sugar, one cup at a time, adding milk as needed to help frosting reach a smooth consistency. Transfer half of frosting to a piping bag (if you choose to use one). Assembly: Once cake is fully cooled, cut into circles that are the same circumference as your serving jars. Insert a cake circle into each jar, pipe or spoon in a layer of frosting, and top with another cake circle. Top with a scoop of frosting, smooth it into an even layer with an offset spatula, and dip into sprinkles. Enjoy! Top: Woolenberg in a Nolan School teaching kitchen (Sreang Hok / Cornell University). Published September 8, 2026 View this post on Instagram Leave a Comment Cancel replyOnce your comment is approved, your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *Comment * Name * Class Year Email * Save my name, email, and class year in this browser for the next time I comment. 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