Welcome to the Dear Brittany Show. This is a podcast where you'll hear everything I always want to say and everything we're all thinking. I know it's you too, so get ready for a raw slice of reality. 

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I'm your host, Brittany Krystantos, and I am an author, speaker, mental health advocate, and host of a mental health series. I am very proud to say I have made an impact on the mental health of others for a decade now. Ask me, talk to me, tell me what we need to figure out for you.

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Michael C. Platt, a 19-year-old baker, author, and social entrepreneur from Bowie, Maryland. Michael is not only passionate about the art of baking, but he's also on a mission to address food insecurity and hunger in his community. His journey began at nine years old when he first fell in love with baking, but his passion goes far beyond just making delicious treats.

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At the age of six, Michael became deeply aware of racial inequality and social justice, sparked by learning about the March on Washington. These early experiences have shaped his desire to combine his love for baking with his commitment to social change. Who are you? Tell us about yourself. 

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Um, yeah, so pretty much everything you said is accurate. I was my grandmother mostly. Um, my mom was a home economics teacher. 

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So once I kind of got interested in baking, she kind of taught me how to like do the like actual science and like get better at it. Um, but yeah, I've been baking since I was around nine. Um, started my business when I was 11 and have been just kind of doing that ever since. 

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Yeah. Wonderful. And you're, let's just make this clear, you're only 19 years old. 

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Everyone listening, he's 19 years old. He has books. He is an entrepreneur. 

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He's making change in the world. 19. If someone at 19 can do that, anyone can do that. 

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It's so impressive. It really is. I'm blown away. 

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Before we started, I told Michael, I said, I got to tell you, I, I'm reading all about you and seeing everything you've accomplished. And it's incredible. Thank you. 

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So Michael, what are we doing today? Tell everyone, what are we baking? So we're going to be making gingerbread. It's kind of like a loaf, um, like a kind of like banana bread. Um, but it's a gingerbread, like a holiday loaf. 

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Um, it's something that my great grandmother would make around the holidays. So my mother's grandmother, um, and it's pretty much like just a simple holiday. Wonderful. 

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I'm looking forward to this. We have everything set up. So how do you want us to start? Should we get a bowl and, uh, our dry ingredients? How are we doing? Wet ingredients. 

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Okay. And for anyone listening to this, this is obviously a podcast. You can't always see us. 

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We are now getting a bowl. Nikki has a dry bowl in her hand. Dry bowl. 

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Um, and I'm going to be, uh, helping. You're going to be helping. I'm the lazy girl in the kitchen, but I'm going to be helping. 

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Okay. What should we start off with? What should we put in the bowl? Okay. So, um, if we're going to dry first, we can start with flour. 

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Okay. Let's put the flour, Brittany. That's the first. 

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Yep. I'm all organized. We are organized. 

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And, um, you're from Bowie, Maryland, and your mission combines your passion with baking with a desire to address food insecurity. Can you tell us more about how you became passionate about baking and social justice together? Cause that's really interesting. And while you tell us that I'm putting flour in the bowl. 

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Yeah. So, um, I guess my first idea for my, um, when I got a pair of tall shoes for Christmas, um, for Christmas, um, and they kind of taught me about what Tom's does. And I guess in my mind, I kind of already had the idea to start a business. 

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Um, and then when they gave me the shoes and I learned about what they do with their company, um, it kind of was like a thing that, um, was like a huge inspiration for how I wanted to run my business. Um, so yeah, I did that. And I think it was just over time working in the food insecurity space, I kind of figured out how I wanted to go about it. 

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Um, I started with going to, um, domestic violence shelters and giving, um, desserts to the kids that were in those, in the shelter. Um, over time started working with an organization called no get hungry. Um, they're basically so close to home. 

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Um, been able to work with them for a long time and it was kind of learn and grow. And I started, um, my nonprofit called plate to kind of just do different things that I wasn't seeing other companies do that. I couldn't volunteer my work and do. 

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So I kind of had to do it myself. Um, so started that and been able to grow that and yeah. Great. 

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And so you told us about your grandmother. You said at a young age, uh, what inspired you to bake a young age with your grandmother? Can you tell us more about her and some of the memories and times you've had baking gingerbreads and the holidays with your grandmother? But before we do that, I just want the next ingredient. So I can just, the next ingredient is going to be baking soda. 

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Okay. I have one and a half teaspoons. Got it. 

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Okay. We're doing a good job here. So tell us in times of what you have with your grandmother baking. 

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I think that's so adorable that you had those memories. Yeah. So, um, one of my first like memories of baking was with her. 

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Um, we would always like bake with the grandchildren. Um, but she, um, there was like a family dinner that we were having. Um, I got to make, I already like help her out in the kitchen. 

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I kind of, that's kind of something that everyone does help their people out in the kitchen in our family. Um, but I was, this is the first time that I kind of got to spearhead a dessert. Then, um, I made it for my family. 

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Everybody enjoyed it. It wasn't, it wasn't super crazy. It's like a chocolate cake.

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Oh my God. I love chocolate cake. I love cheesecake. 

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We have to do that one day. Cheesecake. We're going to make cheesecake too. 

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Strawberry cheesecake one day. I have another question for you. How did the early exposure to social justice influence your current mission because of the March of Washington and everything that, that is just intriguing to me. 

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I really wanted to, I wrote that down as one of my questions. Um, yes. So my grandmother was kind of alive or she was alive during that time. 

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Um, and I feel like my grandmother is a bit older than my, um, my, my peers, grandparents. Um, my grandmother is 84 now. Um, cause she's still alive and she gets to see the way everything turned out for you and what you've been doing.

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She must be blown away. She's very proud of you. Um, but yeah, she was alive during that time.

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So when she would tell stories about the March of Washington civil rights movement, it was very much like a firsthand experience of when she was in her twenties. She already had her family. She already had kids and she was, um, talking about an experience that for me, I was learning about history class. 

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Um, so it was definitely, I think a little bit different than how other people might have learned about that. Um, so to me, I think it just had a different kind of impact on how I viewed the whole, just kind of like that entire point of history. And I think it was a little bit more like, I can do something about this. 

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It's kind of just like how I, how I saw it because my grandmother talked about it. It was something that happened in her life. It wasn't like a past thing that I learned in history, but something that she actually contributed to. 

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And now that the holidays are coming up, are you going to be baking with her? Um, yeah, so we always kind of bake around the holidays. Um, the tradition that we have is when the grandchildren come over to put the Christmas tree up, she'll make that cookie. She has that cookie in the freezer. 

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I love that. That's so sweet. I love that. 

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You're, you know, you're blessed to be able to still have it because it's such a, you know, once they're gone, it's hard. So it's nice to have them.

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What's our next ingredient? Cause I'm waiting for the third one. 

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Yeah. So we're going to do salt. It's just salt, salt, salt, salt, salt, salt, and then what else? Salt. 

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And then we're going to move on to the wet ingredients. So the wet ingredients. Another bowl. 

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Yeah. Another bowl it is. Okay. 

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We have them all here. We're all set. Mama Nikki got it all organized. 

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I cannot, I can tell everyone that I did no help in the organization here. I have to give a little bit of a shout out to the mother of Brittany. She is absolutely our biggest fan and our biggest support. 

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She helped set all this up. She had all the little decorations, candles here, candles and little, you know, little things, you know, give me a kiss. Give me a kiss. 

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Give me a kiss. Come on. Kiss my cheek.

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So anyways, thank you very much. Mama Mandy, you are the best. We love you. 

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And you raised the most wonderful person and incredible host. And I'm proud to be here. And I'm proud to be with Michael. 

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Hold on. Okay. Okay. 

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Dry ingredients is done, right? Okay. And we are moving on to wet ingredients. So I will make some room here, Michael, and work with us here because we're a little nutty. 

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Okay. So we did that. We did the salt. 

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What is the next one for wet? Half a cup of melted butter. Okay. So we're going to melt it and we're going to ask the next question we have written down. 

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That would be, I think, the next one. I know. Can you share a little bit more about the mission you developed with the Buy One, Give One model for Michael's Desserts? Can you explain how it works and how it allows you to support those in need? Yes. 

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So the Buy One, Buy One, Give One is the model that I took straight from Tom's Shoes when I first heard about them. And when I first started out, I did my first like vending thing. I went out and sold Rice Krispie Treats. 

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And the very next day, I just went out to a park in D.C. and handed out free desserts to the people. And then over time, it kind of changed that I went to domestic violence shelters and opened Milk It Hungry, so I give proceeds, give money to other organizations, basically for a dessert that someone buys. We give away a dessert that someone needs, or we give away food, or we give away money to another organization. 

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That's incredible. And it says over the years, you donated thousands of meals and desserts to shelters and food pantries. What inspired you to do that? I mean, I know you want to make a difference, and now you want to help people, but what was the cause? What was the mission there saying, I want to do this, and I want to help people? You know, what was it? I just think I just really like cooking, being able to like feed people. 

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I think I also just grew up in a community where it was kind of like something that we just all do, is kind of give back. Very much, I have a nice relationship with the people at the food pantry there. Just being able to go and kind of know and kind of have a community that supports what I'm doing. 

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For the most part, I think just deep down, I just really like being able to feed people. That's kind of just what I enjoy doing. Whether they can afford it or not, I just love being able to feed people. 

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Okay, that makes a lot of sense. That's incredible. That's incredible that you can just go out there and, you know, make a difference. 

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And we feel so honored to be baking with you right now. For anyone listening to this, we have just melted the butter. Nikki has just mixed it in a bowl, and we are ready for the next ingredient. 

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What's the next ingredient? So we're going to do an egg. So just one egg. So I'm just going to crack it into the bowl. 

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That's what I'm doing. And then I just, you know, whisk it in. Yeah. 

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Okay, perfect. Crack the egg. And so for anyone listening to this, can you just tell, can you tell everyone the recipe, like what we did so far? So we did, can you maybe tell us, we did, I don't know, like how much butter we just did? It was half of something. 

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I am whisking the egg and butter together. We had one egg in here. Yeah, half a cup of butter. 

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Two and a half cups of flour. Half a teaspoon of salt. One and a half teaspoons of baking powder. 

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And then we're going to, or baking soda, not baking powder. Baking soda, everyone. No baking butter. 

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So what is after the egg? After the egg, we're going to do the applesauce. Applesauce. Okay. 

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Half a cup of applesauce. Half a cup. Into here. 

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I'm going to take this into that. And okay. Britt, I'm going to let you do this. 

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I'm going to ask Michael the next question. There you go. You're going to whisk this in, just gently whisk.

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We're not going to kill it. We're just going to fluff it. Okay. 

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So you can use the whisk. All right. So can you walk us through the process of baking gingerbread, which we're doing? What are some of the tips and tricks you share with our listeners to make the perfect dough and create fun, festive designs with the gingerbread? Because I know we're doing a loaf, but do we have an option to do like gingerbread cutouts, like, you know, candy canes or Santas or anything? Is this the kind of recipe that we can do that? Or it would be a completely different recipe? So this is an egg, but I do have a gingerbread cookie recipe.

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Actually last night I was prepping it and I didn't realize that I was making gingerbread cookies. I thought I was making the loaf. So I have just a bunch of gingerbread cookies over to the side. 

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That's a different recipe, right? Yeah. That's a different recipe. Okay. 

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Well, next follow-up we'll do that. Yeah. The next follow-up we'll do it. 

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Exactly. Okay. What's the next wet ingredient? So the next wet ingredient we're going to do is sugar. 

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That is a half cup of sugar. Okay. And I pour it into the wet ingredients? Yes. 

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Okay. Everyone, we're pouring the sugar into the wet ingredients and I am now currently mixing it. I am doing something. 

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This is great. I'm enjoying myself so much. This is so much fun. 

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So much fun. And I love the smell of like the, all the different things you're doing, like the ginger, the cinnamon. It's just so warm, you know? I have a question for you about baking gingerbread and therapeutic baking. 

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Many of our listeners have just kind of questioned what kind of joy and reflection does it bring out in you, especially during the holidays when we're baking? What kind of feelings do you get? Is it, is it, what kind of, I mean, I know what kind of feeling I get. I love just, it's warm. It's homey, right? Are you feeling the same way? Yeah. 

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I think around the holidays, when it comes to just being in a big part of it, it's kind of like two kind of different sides of the same corner. I think being able to be with family, you're in the kitchen, you're hanging out. It's fun. 

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There's like music playing, but also kind of like a reflective, like kind of make your own thing. Kind of everyone in my family has something that they know how to make. So I think there's just going to the kitchen by yourself, making your thing, but also being able to be around family and hang out and share the different things that we've kind of. 

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Yeah. It brings you together when you have your own recipes and the things that you guys look forward to. Yeah. 

You know what, when I was young, if there was a recipe that my grandmother made all the time or my mother made all the time, if she makes it now, if my mother, my grandmother passed, but if my mother makes it now, it reminds me of a very good time in my life and I love it. It's just, it brings me back. So I understand. 

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Yeah. That's great. And then I said it too, when my grandmother comes in town for Christmas, we're going to be making her famous tomato sauce for dinner and we're going to have her potato salad and you already have everyone, like my cousins are all saying, oh, we better make this. 

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You got to make this. And I'm already requesting the potato salad. Is it good? I'm sure I'm coming over. 

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I'm inviting myself. I invite myself to everything. I'm like a little bit adopted here. 

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Okay. Next ingredient. So we're going to do a cup of molasses. 

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Okay. It's this one. Okay. 

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And we are moving right along. So Brittany didn't even know what molasses was. Show it, show everybody what this looks like. 

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It's like a, it looks like, um, it looks like cough syrup. Yeah. That's what it looks like. 

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But it makes it yummy. Like if I'm being honest, this is literally cough syrup. Can I like try it right now? Um, I don't know. 

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It's not the thing. Oh God, that's nasty. But I love that I said, I don't know. 

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And she went, oh, try it anyways. Okay. I gotta get water. 

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Don't try things if you don't know what it is, everyone. Wow. That was really gross. 

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It definitely tastes like cough syrup. Kind of. Okay. 

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Michael, try it. You'll tell me what you think. You probably already know what it tastes like. 

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Like sweet and like a little bit bitter, but it's definitely like a really strong flavor. Yeah. I love how you actually tried it. 

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Oh no, this is sweetie. Okay. I want to know more about Michael. 

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So you're, you're 19. What's your next step? Tell us. Are you, I'm assuming you finished high school, right? Yeah. 

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So, um, right now I'm kind of just figuring it out. Um, I wrote my latest book, um, finished it this past summer. Um, that's it. 

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Yeah. That's unbelievable. That's incredible. 

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Yeah. So for the most part, that's kind of like my main project right now is, um, the book, promoting it, um, getting it out there. Um, so yeah, it's kind of just really my main thing that I'm working on right now is the next one. 

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And that comes out in 2025, right? Yeah. And can I just be clear here? He is 19 with three books, three, three books, two before one coming out now. I mean, if that's not inspiring, I don't know what it is. 

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Accomplishments, you know, real inspire inspiration. What's your goals? Like, would you have any goals? Like, you know, where you're like, okay, like after that, what's your goals for yourself? You just want to continue doing this and continue your mission. What's your five-year plan? Yeah. 

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Yeah. So I'm looking forward to just continue what I'm doing. I want to grow the nonprofit also continue to cook. 

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Um, ideally in the future to have a restaurant or a couple of restaurants. Wow. Wow. 

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We're coming. We're on our way. We want to, we want, you know, family discount family discount, right? And you have to send over a couple of shots. 

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Okay. All right. I do have a question for you. 

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How do you   believe small actions like giving away one dessert can make a big difference in the lives of people experiencing hunger or homelessness homelessness? Yeah. So I think, um, for the most part, a lot of people feel like they can't give or they shouldn't give because they probably don't have a lot to do. Um, but I think one of the main things that kind of keeps a community running is giving what you have, um, given what you can, of course, um, you don't have to, you know, have a nonprofit or start a business or give away thousands of millions of dollars or something like that. 

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Um, but just being able to give something to someone, even if it's just a meal for one day, that's a meal that they're going to probably remember. So a small gesture is always going to be more than nothing. Always doing something. 

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Yeah. I love that. It's true. 

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Very true. What's our next ingredient. So the next ingredient is we're going to add in all of the spices in with the wet ingredients.

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All the spices. Okay. We have them. 

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We are set. Tell everyone what we're doing. So we're going to pour the cinnamon. 

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How much cinnamon is it? Just for anyone who wants to be like, Oh, I want to try a Michael's famous recipe here. I'm pretty sure it is. I'm thinking, I think it's a teaspoon or two teaspoons. 

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I think it's, I think it's one teaspoon. One teaspoon. Yeah. 

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Okay. And if it's not, we'll, we'll add on, um, the description, the recipe. That's okay.

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For everyone. Okay. So we're pouring it in. 

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Okay. All set. Yeah. 

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I'll take it. Okay. Oh, sorry. 

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Crash. We're whisking it in. Oh, my hair almost went in the gingerbread.

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Michael, will we need a loaf pan? Um, yeah, I just have like a square, like a kind of shallow square. Mama Mandy. She has everything in her kitchen.

Yeah. She's the best. All right. 

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I have to say that I was reading all about you and, um, you lived with epilepsy, correct? Yes. Wow. Okay. 

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So what challenge have you faced in your life living with epilepsy and how has your diagnosis shaped the outlook on life and your business for yourself? Because, you know, when you live with any kind of, uh, medical issue that you have to take care of and make sure that you're, you know, really on top of, how does that, how does that affect you on a day-to-day basis with your business and your mission? Yeah. So I feel like just over time, I was diagnosed when I was nine years old. Um, and over time it's kind of just, I've kind of gotten, I'm used to, um, it's kind of like a part of my life now is just, you know, to do what I need to do to make sure that's who you are. 

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Right. So it just integrates into your life and that's it. Yeah. 

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But, um, one of the main things that kind of got me into baking was actually being diagnosed with epilepsy. Um, I had been baking and kind of hanging with my grandmother like I was saying, but I was also doing a bunch of other stuff. I was in gymnastics and I was doing that, um, and then when I was diagnosed with epilepsy, a bunch of other like physical activities had to stop and that opened up a lot more time for me to bake and I kind of leaned into baking. 

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Um, also just like memorize recipes, things like that, I think had an impact on my specific diagnosis. Um, because one of the main things that was wrong with my epilepsy was, um, short term memory, just like really bad memory. So when it came to baking and memorizing desserts, I think that helped a lot. 

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So I just want to say that you've overcome so much adversity and you've overcome so much challenges, but you're accomplishing so much and you're making a difference and that is so important in this world. You, the desserts, the food you're giving to the world, you're giving so much joy. And I think for anyone listening to this, I want you to hear his story and learn that even physical complications should never stop you from being who you are. 

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And also it should never, you know, stop because you could have stopped and say, know what? I can't do this. Like I have this and just sleep all day. But you look, you're standing in the kitchen right now, you're making food, you're giving food to people, you have books, and I, and I'm impressed by you and don't ever give that, that joy away. 

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Like don't ever stop. You have so much joy to give. Thank you. 

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The strength is unbelievable. Yeah. Okay. 

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Let's uh, next ingredient. This has to bake. Yep. 

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Um, so did you guys add all the spices or just the cinnamon? Yeah. All the spices. We added all the spices. 

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Um, we're just going to pour the wet ingredients in with the dry. Okay. Okay. 

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Let me do that. Yeah. Should we, should we mix the dry ingredients? Yeah. 

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Mix it. Yeah. He's the professional. 

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He knows. I'm going to have to have you mix it. Or should we use the mixer? We have a mixer. 

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Where is it though? We have it here. Oh, should we use a mixer? Um, the dry ingredients, you can just use like a whisk, wet and dry. Okay. 

Are you using a mixer for the wet and dry? For the wet and dry. Should we use the mixer for the wet and dry, Michael? Yeah, you can after, after adding in the dry. Okay. 

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So you hold this and I'll pour it. No, no, I'll do it. I just pour it all in, right? Yep. 

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Anyone listening to this right now, we are making gingerbreads with our special guest, Michael. It's going to be incredible. Okay. 

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We're good. We're going to throw this in there. Yep. 

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Okay. And then I'm going to, oh, I googled it. I'm going to do that.

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Unless you want to use the spoon. I think it's good. You use that. 

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Okay. I'll use the thing first and then. So tell us what else you're going to be making this holidays.

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Um, I love making a mousse pie or not. It's not like a pie, but I guess technically it's French. So it's like a chocolate mousse pie. 

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Delicious. I want to make something coconut with you. Yeah. 

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Coconut cream pie. Coconut cake. Oh, I'd love to make some coconut cake.

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Okay. We're going to have to like office this podcast. We're going to have to bake more. 

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We're going to have to like every Friday's baking with Michael or something. Yeah. Our new best friend. 

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So take a spoon and get it all out of the mousse. You have to pull it out. Michael, you're literally our new baking friend. 

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It's time for the holidays for Christmas and I want to bake with my family. I want to call you and say, Michael, what are we doing? Okay. I'm going to take this off camera just for a second and wish with ensure I'm going to let you do it. 

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I'm going to ask Michael a question. Okay. Michael, we are running down our list of questions for you as a young entrepreneur. 

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How do you balance the demands of running your business with your advocacy work and how do you stay motivated through the tough moments of that? Um, I'd say the main thing is probably just like, You know what? I think there's a problem with the sound because we're using the mixer. So I'm that it was a problem because it's just the video. You know how it's, it goes back and forth for sound. 

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So when we did the mixer, you're going to do a little more mix and get the sides, get the sides. Yeah. That's it. 

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Put some muscle in it. You know? Oh my God. She's doing great. 

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She's doing great. She's mixing. We're baking. 

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We're talking. We're having a good time. We're laughing. 

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There's snow on the ground. There's a beautiful tree in front of me. I have sweet little cute things on the table and my wonderful mug of hot chocolate. 

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And we have Michael, our new best friend. And Michael, who has the most gorgeous smile and he's so inspiring. Okay. 

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We're done. Okay. We are done with this.

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So break that off with the spoon. So it's good if it's like thick like a dough. It's thick.