I grew up baking with my mom and siblings. I love food. All food in general but I really like desserts! I have quite the sweet tooth.

My mom enjoys baking so we were in the kitchen with her from a young age. I loved doing different baking projects. I grew more experienced and as my brother and sister were in the kitchen too I started helped with them as well.

However early on I started being too much of a controller when it came to baking and also baking with my siblings. So I wish that wasn’t and isn’t still the case. But I enjoy baking and cooking with them and also on my own.

I eventually went on to doing baking projects on my own!

In this post I’d like to share some of our home baking projects over the years. Some of which blend in the background of my childhood years and some stand out as some pretty cool projects. I hope you enjoy!

Ugly Cookies

Ugly cookies are a thing my parents talk about doing, they got the idea from a family who starting trying to make cookies as ugly as possible… there’s a whole story. Anyway, I actually kind of remember making these first ugly cookies when I was little. They turned out pretty fun! We must have made ugly cookies more recently too, as you can see from the last picture. I don’t remember it too much but I think it was when we were making other cut outs.

Early On

I started helping in the kitchen probably when I was around 5. I’m sure a lot of it was my mom doing it but she would let us help and teach us different skills and we’d gradually get more and more experienced and skilled. She’d teach us how to level off dry ingredients, how to crack an egg- and eventually how to separate an egg- and how to use a metal stick or tooth pick to see if our baked goody should come out of the oven. And there were lots of beaters, spoons, spatulas and bowls licked which was probably one of my favorite parts.

She’d live by the philosophy that messes = memories. The kitchen would often be a disaster when we were doing baking projects. But I’m so thankful she didn’t let that keep us from helping.

We’d make all sorts of things, especially desserts for our grandparent’s birthdays. Pineapple upside-down cake, we made a cheesecake once, we’ve made several German chocolate cakes for our grandma over the years and more!

Here’s pictures from some early on baking projects.

Gingerbread Houses

These had been a tradition in our house that we got away from the last few years. But around Christmas time we’d use good ol’ graham crackers and some buttercream frosting and most of the time my mom would assemble each of our houses, then we’d raid a bunch of candy we had or bought- M&M’s, Hershey kisses, gummies, pretzels, marshmallows, Hershey bars, ice cream cones, Smarties, gum drops and more. A lot of which was leftover from Halloween. ?

Pancakes

Pancakes were a big part of our childhood and still are! There were many mornings that we spontaneously decided to make pancakes- we’d usually use the box mix, always coloring the batter and griddled them up. I loved when I started doing the griddle. I thought that was fun and I think I liked that responsibility and that only I could do it. I liked doing different shapes and stuff. Eventually I did a pancake stand at the end of our driveway, which I hope to include in another post about some of my business projects over the years.

Christmas Cookies

These have to be one of our most classic traditions. It’s usually devided into 3 parts, making the dough, cutting out the dough/baking the cookies and decorating the cookies. It’s always such a fun time. Usually each kid cuts out our own batches and I like to keep them separated so we can decorate our own. We’ve been having a ton of undecorated cookies at the end and a bunch more cookies than we need but the ones we do turn out great! A couple years ago we did royal icing which was fun, but usually we do buttercream frosting in different colors and decorate with sprinkles and M&M’s.

Pies

The bottom picture was on a different day I think. But we made the other two pies with our mom, I think when our grandparents were coming over. We did a banana cream pie and an Oreo chocolate cream pie!

Strawberry Recipes

For a few summers we picked fresh strawberries. One year we made a fresh strawberry pie! Another time we made homemade strawberry ice cream! Before that though we made cherry garcia ice cream, maybe some other kinds too.

First Chocolate Cake

I think this was the first chocolate cake I made, at least with our good recipe we have now. It’s from Joy of Baking! I probably helped make other cakes early on. Mom probably helped with this. I cannot remember if the frosting was the stuff in the store bought container or if it was the homemade version that went with that recipe.

Mom’s 40th B-day Cake

I was in charge of mom’s b-day cake for her birthday! I can’t remember if I picked the flavor or if she did but I made the same rich chocolate cake with our family buttercream recipe. That was one of my first cakes on my own! She might have helped a bit, I’m not sure how much!

Ocean Cake

We were a part of some cooking classes with a friend but we didn’t end up going to many. I think there were two classes on cake decorating and if I’m remembering correctly we couldn’t go but decided to make a decorate cakes with my friend at our house anyway.

My friend and I made the cakes and buttercream together I think, my siblings may have helped, and we decorated the cakes together! I went for an ocean theme! It was fun, I enjoyed it! I think my friend had to finish hers at home and she added some Schleich toys to the top.

Purple Cake

This situation was kind of funny with how it ended up. ? It was apart of a class through the Joann stores. At this time we had done at least one class before with my friend. I have done a handful total though. This one was on cake decorating, I think I was supposed to do it with my friend again but she could not come? Then I feel like the class wasn’t actually happening or something like that? We had driven to the store near my grandparents, about 45 minutes away because that’s where we thought the class would be and that way my siblings could hangout with them for the day.

Basically, I was the only kid there and I don’t think there was a teacher but they let us use the back room because we were planning on it. I got to go through the store and pick out all this fun stuff to use for the cake!

It turned out unexpected but it was fun. I like how the cake turned out, it was fun to use new stuff like the cake rounds and that purple spray stuff and those little flowers.

Cupcakes

I’m including some pictures of a few different cupcakes batches I’ve done, a lot of which were from our rich chocolate cupcake recipe we were enjoying that was my go-to, also from Joy of Baking.

Mom and Dad’s 20th Anniversary Cake

This was a project that our parents gave us! We were assigned with making the cake for their 20th Anniversary. We had to work together and I think a part of the assignment was we had to make it represent both mom and dad. One of my dad’s favorite flavors is cherry and my mom loves chocolate… so we made a cherry chocolate cake! We drew up some sketches of what we thought it should look like. If I’m remembering correctly we had some disagreements on this, mainly me wanting to do my idea and not other people’s. I think we mainly ended up doing my idea. I had some trouble on this cake with sharing it with Ben and Ro and being finicky about how it was done and me being in charge and not letting them do certain parts. I wish I would have been better with that.

But the cake turned out great! It was a big project, I figured out the recipes and ingredients ahead of time, we made chocolate cake and chocolate frosting, cherry cake and cherry frosting and a chocolate ganache. I think it turned out cute, I just wish I would have been better working with Ben and Ro.

Caramel Heath Poke Cake

This I made for my Grandpa’s birthday, it was my first time making a poke cake! It turned out good, that chocolate cake mixed with that caramel sauce- super moist and liquidy, so yummy! I think it was a chocolate frosting too which was awesome! I also made some mini cupcakes.

Ben’s 1st. Communion Party Cookie Cake

I used the good regular chocolate chip cookie recipe we have to make a giant cookie cake for my brother’s 1st. Communion party! It turned out pretty well!

Baby Yoda Cookies

These we made one time with my godmom, our good family friend. We used angel cookie cutters! I think we might have had to cut off a part, I can’t remember where. We made up some royal icing, so cute!!

Dog Biscuits

As a new business venture, inspired by a homemade dog biscuits cookbook I got for Christmas, I started making some homemade dog treats! It was fun! It was going to be another branch of my dog walking business. The treats were a different style and vibe than anything I had made before. I made some with bacon and cheese in it! I may have tried another flavor eventually too, I can’t remember. I didn’t end up doing a whole lot of selling them but it was fun when I was working toward it! I had a logo for my dog business and made different sizes of treats and packaged some of them up. I gave some as samples to different friends and clients and I think I did sell some!

Star Stable Cake

Fast forward to our new house! The game Star Stable Online was having a contest for their birthday, having people make cakes in real life! I decided to do one and I love how this cake turned out! It was a strawberry cake with buttercream frosting. I like the colors, I like how the sprinkles on the side ended up and I love how the sprinkle logo turned out! I did not end up winning anything but I enjoyed making it and I love how it turned out. I filmed and photographed the process and I actually posted a video on my Star Stable YouTube channel about it!

Speaker’s Party

We were hosting a bunch of speakers at our house for one of my parent’s friends who was doing a show in town. I made Oreo brownies, mini cheesecakes and pineapple upside-down cupcakes. These were such fun projects! The brownies were amazing and my favorite I’d say. But the mini cheesecakes were super good, the recipe is from my aunt and they’re made with Nilla Wafers as the crust in the cupcake holders. The pineapple upside-down cakes were a first and I liked how they turned out! They were very yummy!

Ro’s 1st. Communion Party Cookie Cake and Mini Lemon Cupcakes

I ended up doing the desserts for my sister’s 1st Communion party as well! I made a big cookie cake, this time from an actually cookie cake recipe and my sister loves lemon so I made mini lemon cupcakes. I used different tips for the lemon frosting and I liked how that turned out! I’m disappointed in the cookie cake, I overbooked it and it ended up being super crunchy. But it was pretty! Ro, Ben and Mom- I did some too I think, dipped pretzel rods in different chocolates and toppings.

Blue Piped Cupcakes

These were based on some ideas I have seen but I like how they ended up! I like the different colors and how the different piping tips turned out.

Halloween Cupcakes

I forget what exactly I made these for but I made both mini spider cupcakes and mini cupcakes with an orange and purple buttercream frosting swirl. Ro made some more Halloween themed cupcakes I think.

Mini Chocolate Chip Sandwiches

I made these for our drama cast party! I used the chocolate chip recipe I have and stuffed them with our classic buttercream recipe.

Baking Favorites

In addition to the projects above, we have some classic recipes that we love making in our house. The gingerbread houses and Christmas or even just cutout cookies when we make them for other occasions, were/are big traditions for us. Some of our other favorites are homemade hot fudge sauce which goes amazing over vanilla ice cream, we’ve made a LOT of box mix brownies over the years, pumpkin chocolate chip muffins in the fall, my brother Ben especially makes great banana bread, and one of our other favorites is Strawberry Pretzel Salad that we make for special occasions. It’s a layer of buttery crushed pretzels, a layer of a cream cheese mixture and then strawberry jello filled with frozen sliced strawberries, topped with cool whip and crushed pretzels. It’s a good one in our house!

Phew! Well, I hope you enjoyed hearing about some of our projects and seeing pictures!

What’s something you liked about it (and why)? I like the variety of things we made and when our mom would make something we’ve never done with us before, like the cheesecake and stuff. I like the memories with mom in the kitchen, especially early on.

What’s something you disliked about it (and why)? Although I like the memories with mom in the kitchen, I may have been too stuck on wanting control over her. I get like that with my siblings too.

I don’t like how a lot of times in the kitchen through my childhood I’d be too attached to control, how things were done, me doing it and not others, being rude to my siblings and probably my parents, things like that. I can still be like that so that’s something that needs improvement.

What was your biggest takeaway or lesson? I love how mom let us join in the kitchen from a very early age. I really appreciate that and I have a lot of fond memories in the kitchen and eating what we made! I also like how she looked at messes- her not letting them keep us from making memories. That’s a good lesson to remember.

What is something you’re curious to learn more about as a result of this experience? I want to do more baking! I’d like to learn different recipes, types of dessert, techniques, do more baking projects, I’m also hoping to start making yeast bread which we haven’t done much of yet. And I’d also like to get better at sharing the kitchen.

Thank you so much!

Lucy