Welcome to the unofficial start of summer! Memorial Day weekend in Chicago feels… electric and alive. It feels like you’ve made it to life’s weekend. Everyone is itching to get out and do anything, anything at all, and you do. It’s time to watch your uncle throw a little something on the grill in his…
I flipped through an old vintage cookbook to find one of my favorite birthday cake recipes. A light and tender white cake filled with an easy almond-studded butterscotch caramel, topped with smooth mocha buttercream. A cake made for a “Distinguished Guest” as Martha Meade suggests is indeed also perfect for a Distinguished Birthday. Forgotten in…
Hello, friends! Do you have any plans for the summer? I’m one of those folks who always needs something to look forward to and, right now, it’s meeting up with some of my oldest friends to go skinny-dipping in Montana. And the rest of the summer I’ll gladly be settled in a lounge chair at…
Friends hi and welcome to a new series on Joy the Baker called Here’s What I’m Eating. A series in which we cut the recipe and all the formalities and talk about what’s really going down in the kitchen. As a certified Food Person, I think we should talk what we really fill our bowls…
A friend read my birth chart once and told me I’m a triple Taurus, meaning I have three planets in Taurus. My three are Sun, Mercury and Venus. My rising sign is Gemini. I don’t know what any of this means, but I find great enjoyment in proclaiming “Triple Taurus!” for one month every year….
Friends! Hi, hello! Welcome to Sunday. I’ve missed you! This week I’ve been back in New Orleans trying my best to put The Bakehouse back together after completing some construction on my old home and studio. I added a bathroom, a closet, and had the the entirety of the interior space painted. All of this…
Let’s celebrate the delicate flavors of honey and chamomile with a heavenly crepe cake! It’s as stunning as it is delicious. This labor of love is layers of thin chamomile crêpes filled with a rich honey and mascarpone cream, topped with a sprinkle of flowers. Friends, hello! We’ve officially entered May, my birthday month so…
Hello and happy Sunday! Whether you believe in astrology or not, Mercury is in retrograde. If you’re unsure of what that is, it’s like if Alanis Morissette’s “Ironic” was happening every day. Leaving my house is a production lately, complete with missed trains, skipped deodorant, forgetting to take the trash out, and losing hubcaps on…
Every spring I get a little bug in my ear to landscape the front yard, deep clean the fridge, and empty the junk drawer. What shapes up is a spring cleaning list long enough to take me well into the fall months. Life is a lot of little chores over and over again, right? I…
Hello, friends! This month was a doozy. Though my kids don’t go to Covenant, the school is a mile from our house and the shooting affected our entire community. Every night before he tucks in with his Corduroy teddy bear, my 9-year-old asks if I made sure to lock all the doors in case a…
Revel in the tangy-sweet goodness of this simple lemon cake recipe made with lemon curd and streusel crumble. This easy single layer cake is bursting with bright lemon flavor, perfect for any occasion (like the upcoming weekend, babes). There is nothing finer than starting the weekend off with a thick slice of cake for breakfast…
Anyone else having a casual Crisis of Fashion? There’s something about the change in season, my increasing age, and the banishment of skinny jeans that has me simply confused/baffled/bummed about what to wear. It’s not so much about sliding my 40something year old self into the latest trends which… 90’s fashion is trending, friends and…
Hi, internet pals. I don’t know where you live, but I live in Nashville, and let me tell you, I am not live-laugh-loving right now. This is a city in both mourning and cautious celebration. It’s been a lot to take in these past few weeks. I’ve tried to keep it fairly light in the…
Friends, hello and Happy Easter Sunday! I’m celebrating this fine day in two ways. One: I’m not wearing Easter tights, which, if you grew up going to Easter Sunday church service in a new dress but last year’s tights that were invariably too small – you understand the freedom and joy of not wearing tights…
This 6-ingredient angel food cake recipe makes for the most tender, light, and downright bouncy cake. I especially love this cake topped with fresh raspberry swirled, soft whipped cream and a sprinkle of fresh berries. Angel Food is a classic cake but feels extra special for these early spring days around Easter. Let’s bake, babes!…
