Legendary Cakes Interview with Kerisa Greene + GIVEAWAY!

SARA: In honor of 2025, how about a book celebrating a new year’s tradition? In Legendary Cakes, written and illustrated by Kerisa Greene, a pair of siblings spend Tết, the Vietnamese New Year, with their grandparents. The evening before, they prepare bánh chưng, a dish of leaf-wrapped mung beans, rice, and pork, and learn the origins of these legendary cakes. After spending the night at their grandparents’ home, the children awake to celebrate Tết, the first day of the Lunar New Year. The text conveys both the warmth of a familiar tradition and the excitement of a treasured celebration. The cartoon-like digital illustrations are infused with inviting color and texture.

Today we are lucky to have author-illustrator, Kerisa Greene, here to tell us more!

SARA: Welcome to Picture Book Builders, Kerisa! 

This is the first picture book I recall ever reading about Tết. What inspired you to center a picture book around this celebration?

KERISA: Thank you so much for having me! I also haven’t seen a picture book highlighting Tết, Vietnamese New Year, and I really wanted to celebrate one of my favorite holidays growing up. I was actually researching for a different book idea and kept coming across these beautiful Vietnamese fables that I just fell in love with. I’m biracial so diving deeper into my Vietnamese culture has been really fulfilling and I just couldn’t get the idea out of my head that it’s such a shame that we weren’t told these stories growing up. Thus prompting me to write a story around how food, stories, and holidays keep cultures alive for future generations. My hope is to inspire anyone of any culture to share or learn about their special recipes, stories, and traditions so that they aren’t lost over time. 

SARA: Legendary Cakes conveys that idea in such a lovely way. I was particularly struck by the phrase “tight like a great big hug,” which is repeatedly used to describe how the cakes are wrapped. Can you talk about how you came up with this analogy?

KERISA: I wanted some way to illustrate how the act of cooking together is one way to express love. When making bánh chưng I found that the actual wrapping of the cake was a bit tricky so I thought it was the perfect part of the recipe to tie in that feeling of love and affection in a sweet way. 

SARA: I love that! And I also love a book with a recipe in the back matter! Often in picture books, recipes are presented primarily with text. The recipe for bánh chưng in your book is especially wonderful as each step is illustrated. Can you talk about the decision to illustrate each step and where the recipe originated?

KERISA: I do too! As the author and illustrator I originally mocked up the recipe with just the text but there are so many steps that it felt too boring and like too many words to intrigue anyone to actually attempt the recipe. So I started playing around with other options and really loved the idea of illustrating as much as I could to make the recipe more visually appealing.

The recipe is an adaptation of my family’s version of bánh chưng. I found when recording the steps that my family doesn’t really measure anything so I had to cross reference their directions with a few I found online to make sure everything was as accurate as possible. 

SARA: Using illustration to make the recipe more accessible is such a smart and inclusive approach. What else can you share about your illustration process for this book?

KERISA: When creating the illustrations for the book I wanted some way to incorporate some traditional Vietnamese elements so I ended up creating textures out of things like rice paper, rice noodles, bamboo leaves, and nón lá. Those textures were then applied throughout the illustrations! 

SARA: These details will be so fun for readers to discover and I am looking forward to incorporating this into library storytime! With the Lunar New Year fast-approaching, what are your favorite Tết traditions (besides bánh chưng of course!)?

KERISA: Growing up I absolutely loved the tradition of receiving red envelopes filled with cash from my elders. Traditionally brand new two dollar bills are especially lucky, so it was always exciting to open up the envelopes and see what was inside. Now that I’m older and don’t get envelopes anymore I’m more excited for the plethora of food! My grandma, Bà, would cook all of my favorites like egg rolls, sticky rice, and pork buns. Oh and of course having the whole family together is always so much fun, it’s truly such a special holiday. 

SARA: Such special memories and traditions! What’s next for you as a book creator?

KERISA: Hopefully more books! I’m currently out on submission with a picture book so here’s to hoping an editor connects with it and that it’ll get published one day! 

SARA: Fingers crossed for your submissions, Kerisa, and thank you for being here! 

Kerisa is generously offering a signed copy of Legendary Cakes to one lucky Picture Book Builders reader located in the continental US. Please comment on this post by February 28 to enter.