Of course, as soon as I relaunched Friday Bites, I got sick. Again. So yes, this is a Friday Bites, Monday Edition.
Some context: in my household of three, we’ve been passing this absolutely miserable upper respiratory cold thing back and forth to each other for the past month or so. We don’t know who patient zero is, we don’t know where it came from, but it’s been laying M and I out every other week (we’ve been alternating weeks, at least, so the household is half-functional most of the time). The baby gets a runny nose that we wipe down with Boogie Wipes but she’s otherwise fine, thank god. When M and I get it? Stuffy noses that are also runny. Dry sinuses that are also snotty? Being very cold all the time no matter what (I think that one’s just me). Fatigue. A kind of scratchy throat that goes away after the first day. We’ve gone through at least three boxes of Kleenex in two weeks. When I caught it again this past week, I had the runniest nose and the leakiest eyes. It was pure misery, especially when you add a breastfeeding, contact-napping baby to the mix.
Anyway, I finally feel like a human again and not a leaking skin sack of organs and bones, which is nice. I obviously did not get to bake anything this week, so instead I’m here with my top 5 favorite bakes of the past 18 months.
Why 18 months? Because as of May 5, my kid is 18 months old, which means I have 18 months of bakes with her strapped into the baby carrier on my chest or sitting in the knock-off Tush Baby on my hip. Some of you may also know that getting anything done in the kitchen with an infant/baby/toddler within a 5-foot-radius is a difficult thing to do sometimes (and sometimes it is impossible). Every bake I’m able to pull off these days feels like a huge accomplishment.
So I present to you my top 5 bakes since having a kid.
#5 A First Birthday Cake
I’ll start by saying I’m not a visual artist. I cannot draw for shit (we’ve recently discovered in my house that when I draw hearts, they actually look more like mittens). My presentation of baked goods and cooked food is better because I don’t have to make them look like anything but tasty and themselves.
But when O’s first birthday appeared on the horizon, it felt like the only way she would know it was a special day was if her cake was super awesome (plus there would need to be balloons).
So I made her a cake that looked like one of her favorite animals: a cat. Did I sweat the baking of the cakes? No. When it came time to assemble the cakes, was I nervous? No, I was excited! Piping the fur? Very fun and I felt like I was on GBBO. When I got out my marzipan and food coloring to start making the face? Sweaty palms, racing heart. What if this thing didn’t look like a cat? Would it scare the daylights out of my kid? Would she look at me blankly and be like, “Umm…what’s that???”
Luckily, it looked like a cat, and my kid was tickled.
#4 Wedding Cake Cupcakes
Since we got married, it’s been an annual wedding anniversary tradition of mine to recreate our Milk Bar wedding cake: chocolate chip cake with a passionfruit soak and a passon fruit curd, coffee buttercream and chocolate crumb.
In 2022, I decided to do a remix of our cake and make it into cupcakes instead. Chocolate chip vanilla cupcakes with a passionfruit curd filling, and coffee buttercream. Instead of a chocolate crumble, I went for sprinkles because who doesn’t like sprinkles?
#3 Buttered Rum Cookies
I baked some stuff over the holidays. I made a double crusted chicken pot pie, I made some baby-led weaning cookies that were basically cardboard (O took one bite of one cookie, put it down and never looked at it again — she didn’t even bother throwing it on the floor, that’s how much these cookies stunk), and I made these buttered rum shortbread cookies that were so delicious that we (M and I, yes, just the two of us) ate them ALL in a matter of days.
#2 Matcha and Black Sesame Swirl Milk Bread
Sometime in the past few months, I’ve decided to make our bread rather than buying it. The pros: I get to practice making bread, which I have not been good at, and we get to spend less money on store-bought stuff that I could make at home for much cheaper (inflation is a real asshole). I’ve made all kinds of bread, but this one — the matcha and black sesame swirl milk bread — was pillowy perfection. Not only did it taste so different and amazing, but it was so satisfying to make at every step of the process. It was the first time in a very long time where I took pictures at multiple stages in the process.
And not only that, O loved it and asked for more, even when it wasn’t mealtime.
#1 Peanut Butter Stuffed Chocolate Cookies
This is the very first thing I baked with O. It wasn’t intentional — this was actually the first thing I wanted to bake postpartum, and M had taken over baby duty so I could make these. About halfway through the process, O got real fussy and the only thing that chilled her out was sitting in her bouncer next to me while I rushed to finish these cookies and pop them in the oven. Because I hadn’t figured out how to babywear yet (and every time I tried, O screamed like she was being torn limb from limb), I had to keep pausing to show her what I was doing and let her touch the cookie dough, etc.
The peanut butter filling ended up oozing out of the cookies, but I kind of liked it that way in the end. They were extremely rich, tasty, and an indulgent snack for me whenever I got nap trapped (which was often in those days). The process of making them is also now a very fond memory for me.
Runners up: Lemon blueberry scones and Stuffed cinnamon streusel muffins
I would be remiss if I left these bakes out. They’re not anything special but they need to be included here because they were baked at ungodly hours of the morning, when the baby woke up and started shrieking because staying in her bassinet was booorrrring. The only thing that stopped me crying hysterically from pure exhaustion was firing up the French press, putting the baby in the baby wrap and baking.
So there you have it — my top 5 bakes of the past 18 months. It’s been a good run, and I’m proud of what I’ve been able to do with a baby attached to my body in some way, shape or form. Now that she’s got a little kitchen helper stool, it’s a whole new world, and I’m betting I’ll have a whole new top 5 bakes list in another 18 months.
Recipes sourced and adapted from:
First Birthday Cake from Coco Cake Land by Lyndsay Sung
Wedding Cake Cupcakes from Momofuku Milk Bar and All About Cake by Christina Tosi
Buttered Rum Cookies from Sister Pie by Lisa Ludwinski
Matcha and Black Sesame Marbled Milk Bread from Mooncakes and Milk Bread by Kristina Cho
Peanut Butter Stuffed Chocolate Cookies from Cook’s Country
Lemon Blueberry Scones from King Arthur Baking
Stuffed Cinnamon Streusel Muffins from King Arthur Baking