I love this time of year. When fall rolls around I get even more excited about baking than I do any other time of the year. Summer ends and the real baking begins. The last months of the year are full of special reasons to spend time with family, share smiles, and bake sweet memories.
One of my favorite baking memories is making pecan pies with my uncle. We make them every year around Christmas but I thought I’d share the recipe with you again a little early this year. It’s too good to wait until December.
My grandmother used to make these pecan pies. Her recipe made three perfect pies at a time. She made them every year for family and friends. She loved it. And when she became less able to keep up with the same quantity of pies she liked to make, my uncle Ronnie became the official pie maker. He doesn’t bake and he’s not really a dessert guy but he makes a mean pecan pie. He’s been making them now for well over a decade since my grandmother passed away. He’s continued making them every year for friends and family to carry on his Mama’s tradition. And now I bake with him every year I can and if not I make sure to bake them in my own kitchen. It’s our family’s way of keeping her with us during the holidays.
And the pies are delicious too, so that’s awesome.
Of course, I had to put my touch on them and make them mini. Major cute. But I still wrap them just like she did. Simple and sweet. I love these refrigerated and I eat them like a giant pecan pie cookie.
Here’s the recipe how my grandmother made it and here’s a link to the original post with step-by-step photos demonstrated by my uncle and a little more about my grandmother.
And keep scrolling for a fun giveaway below…
Mama's Pecan Pies
Ingredients
Instructions
In a separate bowl, crack open six eggs. Remove the “roosters” and loosely beat the eggs with your spoon.
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And now, I’d love for you to share your favorite baking memory.
Holiday or any day.
You could be the lucky baker to win a KitchenAid Stand Mixer and a Williams-Sonoma Gift Card.
- Prize includes a KitchenAid Stand Mixer (valued at approximately $650) and a $200 Williams-Sonoma gift card. Approximate Retail Value: $850. Tasty!
- Giveaway runs from September 24, 2012 at 12:00 am ET through October 8, 2012 at 11:59 pm ET. Sorry, Time’s Up! Winner will be announced this week.
- One entry per person. You must live in the U.S. for this one (I’m sorry my international friends) and be 18 or over, too to be eligible to win.
- To enter for a chance to win the mixer and gift card, just leave a comment on the website and share your favorite baking memory. And if you don’t have one yet, the giveaway lasts long enough for you to bake one. : )
- One winner will be chosen at random and announced during the week of October 8th in a follow up post here on the site.
- Note that it may take a few minutes for your comment to display.
Good luck guys and I can’t wait to read your baking memories.
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This post is sponsored by Nestlé® Toll House® Morsels, the perfect special ingredient for all of your family’s favorite treats!
My favorite baking memories is my Mom at Christmas time. We didn’t have much money but with three sisters we were good help! Mom would make out a list of all the people that had helped us, been nice to my family, or just needed a friend and we made up boxes of baked goodies to deliver. We covered the shoe-boot-grocery boxes in Christmas paper and filled with homemade cookies, candies, breads, or jam made ealier. Mom’s sinature treat was a White English Walnut Nut bread!! We also made Anise candy with red coloring to “brighten up the tray”. What fun to make and even more fun to deliver!!!
The women in my family get together every Christmas eve to bake cookies all day! We started this tradition when I was very young, and it’s still my favorite. We make neopolitan cookies, chocolate crinkles, cookie press cookies, mocha nut balls, and many more. It’s always a blast, and we make new memories every year!
I love baking brownies with my daughter during the holidays. She would always share with her dog and friends!!!
My favorite memory is of my mom baking brownies for me to share with the kids in the new neighborhood when we first moved in. They were a big hit and I remember moms were coming over for the recipe. I think we both made a lot of friends!
My sweet baking memory is baking with my daughter. She asked me if we could bake cakepops so i said yes. We went to michaels and got all of the suplies( including your book). The turn out was amazing and delicious. I am so proud of her. She still bakes out of your book, and if she isn’t baking she is looking through it admiring it.
One of my favorite memories was going to the apple orchard and picking out all our apples for the pies that we would be baking the next day. Yumm, yumm with fresh whipped cream!!
coca cola chocolate cake is the best
When I was a Kid my mom used to work making delicious cakes and cookies for a dinner, it was fabulous to wake up at 6 in the morning with the yummy smell here in the house.
My favorite memory is something simple… baking pies with my family for Thanksgiving. Apple pies, pecan pies, cherry pies… Delicious!
My baking memory is when my mother went out of town for the weekend and it was my father, brother and I left to cook for ourselves. My father ended up cooking the most interesting form of eggplant parmesian, but it still tasted half way decent.
When I was engaged, a dear older friend of mine taught me how to make pie crust and all kinds of pies! I had never learned growing up, and my future husband was and still is, a huge pie lover! Those were special afternoons spent in her kitchen.
I made memories with my mother sitting on the counter as she made morning biscuits. Watching her make and roll the biscuits out. Her stopping to give my instructions, and to dap flour on my nose. But My fondest memory is more recent. I have to little Nieces who are my heart and soul. And ever Christmas since they were old enough to understand baking they have been helping me decorate ginger bread men, cupcakes, sugar cookies, cake pops. Gahh anything. I love to watch their little eyes light up when I walk in with my shopping bag. They know its a squeal “ANNIE MAC ITS TIME TO GET ON OUR APRONS!” And I mean they scream running through the house searching for their aprons. I love my nieces. Since I’m getting married in five days, it’s time that I include my soldier in on the memories, one day with our own kids. ( and my nieces too). Who else is going to show my kids how to have a good time besides their cousins. file:///C:/Users/Kenzie/Pictures/aprons2.jpg file:///C:/Users/Kenzie/Pictures/aprons.jpg My girls so excited to get started!
My favorite baking memory doesnt even involve actually baking. Looking for something to bake for the holidays, I found my grandma’s old recipe tin. She passed away when I was 2 so finding her recipes, in handwriting so similar to my own, made me feel closer to her somehow. (I ended up making her creme de menthe bars. delicious)
I used to bake chocolate chip cookies with my mom.
My best memory is when my mother-in-law and sister-in-law and family came for Thanksgiving and we made it a long weekend of Christmas baking. We took time out to shop on Friday, but spent the rest of the time making goodies. We had the best time!
Making carrot cake cupcakes for my research mentor’s baby shower with my then-roomie and her boyfriend. Grating endless amounts of carrots together gave rise to a lot of bugs bunny-on-speed jokes. Have never had that much fun making carrot cake since!
Baking Christmas cookies with my favorite person. My Mom!
My best memory is the year that my Mom and sister came to my house for a week of baking Christmas cookies. The both live out of town and it is not easy to get us all together. We each came with 7 of our favorite recipes, my husband kept our six kids busy and we baked and laughed and baked. It was fabulous!
My mom and I would make Christmas cookies every year when I was little. Now that I have children of my own, we spend two weekends in November making cookies. It is so wonderful being able to make memories with my mom and children. I hope they remember these cookie days like I remember them from when I was a little girl.
I liked making sugar cookies with my sister. There is a 12 year age difference between us so I was older trying to help her out with the cookie cutters and the rolling pin! Thanks for the chance at the giveaway.
One of my favorite baking memories is when my roommates and friends decided to do a cookie exchange. There were 4 of us that lived in a house and we all baked different cookies. The baking lasted the entire day and the house smelled absolutely delicious. The exchange was fantastic–so many cookies! This will definitely be an annual event! =)
i like it
I was the baker in oir family. I learned to decorate cakes at the YWCA and just had fun. One thing the did not work? I added green food color to my Angel Food cake and my vanilla pudding for St Patrick’s Day. The results were a sickening color green. They still tasted the same but no one would eat them.
Baking with my mother at Christmas
My mother was a great baker. Amoung things I remember is around the holidays she would make apple, cheese and even poppyseed strudel. The dough, the streching of it over the entire dining room table like a table cloth! And the art of filling it with the fillings and then the task of rolling it. And I always remember the same white pan with red trim that it went into. For some reason I liked the end pieces:) Just one of many baking memories!
On trips to my grandparents Iowa farm where my grandma kept 3 boys and my grandpa well fed, I remember standing on a stool and “helping” make pies. It didn’t matter what kind, pumpkin, apple, or whatever fruit was ripe at the time. I had my own 4 inch pie pan that I would fill with cinnamon sugar sprinkled pie dough and bake for a treat of my very own! After my grandparents passing, I had my Dad specifically look for “my” pie pan with the criss-cross bottom. It is proudly displayed and used in my kitchen now!
My favorite baking memories were baking for scouts bake sales.
We loved making a recipe my mom created called… Monster cookies. Mmmmm talking about it makes me want to go bake some now.
We loved making a recipe my mom created called… Monster cookies. Mmmmm talking about it makes me want to go bake some now.
Every year on January 6 my mother would bake a cake with three pennies in it for the Feast of the Three Kings. Whoever got a pennie in their cake got to be a king.
My mom and I would bake cookies, brownies, pound cake, and more for our family and friends every Christmas until she passed away last year… Gonna give it my best shot to try to do some baking this holiday season (but it definitely won’t be the same without her!) <3
I love Bakerella And cake pops! Thanks so much for your inspirations! My favorite baking memory is going to be making cake pops with my little sister. I’m 22 and she is 7! Its a great way to involve her in helping bake yummy treats and a time I always love to spend with her.
The first time my mom allowed me to make cookies on my own, I felt like such a grown up. Unfortunately, at age 11, I didn’t know that olive oil was not a suitable substitute for vegetable oil. Worst cookies I’ve ever tasted, but we still laugh about it today.
My mom used to make cream puffs and watching her add ingredients and mixing was my favorite thing to do. I couldn’t wait till I was old enough to help her make them :)
My favorite baking memory is of baking goodies with my kids on the holidays.. :)
my most memorable baking memory has got to be during thanksgiving me and my mom bake a pumpkin pie cake semi homemade with toasted walnuts its absolutely delicious : )
every chance i get to bake creates a new wonderful favorite baking memory for me!! definitely one of them is when i baked a layered lime cake for my grandmother’s birthday and i had to ice and decorate it at the party. all my cousin’s were there watching me and complimenting me on the job well done, but they wanted to help too! some cut fruit, some helped pipe on the lettering, others helped arrange the cake nicely on a platter. it was a combined effort by my grandmother’s grandchildren to help make her a beautiful cake on her birthday :)
When I was 5 years old my Mom won a contest (a blender, which I still have at age 65) by stating that jello was so easy to make that her 5 year old daughter could make it standing on a chair beside her :-)
My mom and I love to bake for Christmas time. Pecan pies are our favorites, too. We make at least four or five cakes and three or four pies for Christmas dinner and they are loved by everyone. There is always lots of desserts left over to take home.
sweet smell of cookies
My favorite memory of baking is the sweet smell in the kitchen and licking the bowl and how sweet it taste
Baking chocolate chip cookies for my brothers. I used to hide half of the cookies so there would be some left by the time my parents got home from work!
My baking memory is being with my grandmother making Italian holiday treats. She always made tons to give away to friends and family, so of course they always had to be perfect, but she always would put some of the dough aside for me so that I could make my own and learn the traditions. Then the two of us would eat my creations after we were done baking. And during the Christmas season the house always smelled like anise, because we put anise in everything!
My favorite baking memories are around Christmas time. My older sister and I would spend hours and hours in the kitchen baking cupcakes and cookies for our family and friends. After baking we then would have a decorating contest to see who could make the cutest cupcake. It was so much fun!
I love the holidays and being in the kitchen with my Mother. She always bakes from scratch and I am her helper. Licking the bowl after the batter is poured into the cake pan is still a treat aft many, many years. I do the same with my daughters now!
Baking apple pie with my grandmother at Thanksgiving. Still continue to use her recipes. Such wonderful memories!
When I was about 5, I got my super long hair just a little too close to the cake batter. And the mixer. It was not fun.
More recently, I made a batch of owl-shaped cookies for my two year old niece and I to decorate. After flooding the cookies and leaving the house for a few hours, I came back to faces finger-drawn on the owls. She just couldn’t wait for me!
When I was in middle school and high school, my aunt and I would bake pumpkin rolls every Thanksgiving for our entire family. It always took almost a whole day, and we’d end up with powdered sugar everywhere! The memories and the delicious pumpkin rolls were worth it though!
I can still smell the aroma of fresh baked bread coming from my grandma’s kitchen. She would keep a little bit of dough out so that we could fry it in a pan and slather it with homemade butter and strawberry jelly. She lived to be a 102. I still miss her.
My favorite baking memory is with my Grandmother. During the summers, i would stay at her house and she and I would bake chocolate chip cookies. She always made the best cookies. We would talk about fun things and she would teach me how to cook and bake. I wish I could go back even for just a moment…:)
I grew up in a large family of 7 children, the entire month of December was spent watching the classic christmas cartoons & baking christmas cookies with my mom & siblings. We baked up large amounts to give away to friends & neighbors at the end of each baking session there were large amounts of flour, sugar & colored sprinkles to be swept up. My siblings & I are all grown up & have children & grand children of our own but the tradition of baking lots & lots of christmas cookies continues. I can still see my mother rolling out the sugar cookies for us to decorate. I’ll always remember mom that way.
My favorite baking memory is when I would help my Mom make all the different holiday cookies. And taste testing them as we went!
Having my grand daughter help me and getting her hands all
messy with dough
My favorite baking memory was last year when I was baking in the borrowed kitchen of my college friend with her and about 5 others. We made pumpkin cheesecake and creme caramel, and then spent the night playing board games and chowing down on desserts (we never seem to have ‘real’ food at these get-togethers for some reasons). The weather was chilly. The kitchen was tiny. We were standing pretty much back to back, and shoulder to shoulder, trying to whip up these concoctions, then later on all sprawled on the floor playing games and laughing until the walls shook (not literally, of course). Good times!
Baking with my grandmother. She made these amazing chocolate pudding brownies that are still a tradition in our family.
My most memorable memory in baking is seeing the smiles of the people who eat the treats i make them. my heart is holding the many pictures of smiles my eyes have caught. :)
I love baking and my favorite time of the year is Christmas. I start mixing and shaping Christmas cookies in Oct. I place them in freezer bags and tuck them in the freezer. By November my freezer is full of 20 different kinds of cookies. I start baking them the first of December. I love giving my friends and family plates of the cookies. Last year I included kitchen towels I had embrodiered with the saying ” Christmas cookies
Happy Hearts This is how the Holiday Starts”. Everyone enjoys the homebaked goodies.
Baking polish treats with my mom before Christmas always stands out to me as my favorite baking memories!
My Grandma – cooking reminds me of her!
Baking and decorating Christmas cookies with my mom, using a bunch of my grandma’s recipes.
As a kid my Mom and Grandmother would always spend a week baking for Christmas. The house was filled with the best smells ever and the variety of pastries available were endless. When my sister moved back we took up that same tradition and spent weekends baking the same holiday favorites passed down to our generation and now to the next generation. We have added a few favorites to the list of Cookies , Krinkel, Candies and Pies but it’s the stories that we would tell that keep the memories alive and those who have passed close to our hearts
I have so many good memories, but one of my earlier memories was using an empty pop can to make silver dollar pancakes. My dad helped me to cut slits all around the pop can, and we “squished” it down a little to open up the spaces. We then used a tealight candle to heat it and once it got hot enough we made perfect little round pancakes on the bottom. It was so much fun :)
When I was young my family would always make chocolate chip cookies when we, or any of our close friends went on trips. We called them traveling cookies and my dad would always sing “lord I was born a traveling cookie” to the tune of “Ramblin’ Man” by the Allman Brothers Band. I still make traveling cookies and the memory always makes me smile.
My favorite baking memory was my Grandma teaching me how to make bread. The yeast just fascinated me. I still get excited whenever I open one of those little yeast packets. It took a good part of the day. I was surprised it took so long to make a loaf of bread. We baked or cooked together many times. She wasn’t the easiest person to get along with.
Thank you for reminding me of one of the better times I had with her. I can’t wait to bake with my grand kids.
My favorite baking memory would have to be trying to recover my friends’ attempt at making my family Tiramisu. The gesture was obviously very kind, but my friends quickly learned that Nilla wafers just don’t work :)
My favorite baking memory so far is inventing gingerbread bread pudding at my grandparent’s house. My grandfather was sick and had very specific things he wanted to eat. One of those was gingerbread. We had all the ingredients to make white chocolate cranberry cookies so we quickly adapted and came up with gingerbread bread pudding using the ingredients we had and adding a few more. Being surrounded with family I don’t get to see that much of and having fun inventing new things is a warm memory I will have for a long time.
Baking and decorating cookies every Christmas with friends!!
O do I have a story. I just moved from NAU family housing, and into a very nice area. I joined the Continental Country Club, and low and behold there was a $100.00 pie contest, and well I entered, and it was the Fourth of July, and wow, summer, and the colors, and I live in Flagstaff, Az., at 7,000ft., and our fruits are not so fresh, but this time they won us the contest.
I used Philadelphia Cream Cheese, in the tub, and layered fruit throughout the pie. I started with a White Chocolate, praline pecan bottom, and then layered fresh strawberry preserves, blueberry, and yes cherry from the can. The blueberry was fresh.
The greatest part of this contest was my 16 yr. old daughter helping and actually designing the pie.
First time ever that she wanted in on the cooking. I love to cook, and so this was a bonding, and we won.
I never tasted the pie until it won, and I got a sliver, but wow was it tremendous. So this is my story, and I love you website. Kathy Erbe
My favorite memory is of baking pumpkin mini muffins with luscious cream cheese frosting for family gatherings at Thanksgiving. One year, we noticed that my teenage nephew had a growing pile of muffin wrappers near his plate and when asked about how many muffins he had eaten, he smiled and replied, “I don’t know……they’re just sooooooo good!” Now that’s a compliment!
My favorite baking memory is when I worked in a Cookie Store and I baked cookies for 15 years; I really loved my job. Every year for the Christmas season all of the employees would work from the Saturday after Thanksgiving until Christmas Eve. We worked 16 hour days, 7 days a week and only had two small ovens, however, we managed to sell many thousands of dozens of cookies. I had a fun time working with friends.
My grandaughter and I baked brownies .
Every Christmas Eve my mother and I stay up all night baking red velvet cakes and pecan pies for the dessert after Christmas dinner.
I remember making carmel popcorn balls and leaving the kitchen a MESS!!!!!!!!! My poor mother cleaned up after us and she never complained.
When I was eight, my grandma pulled me into her kitchen and taught me how to make bread. She worked at a bakery and I just loved imitating everything she did. We spent many Christmas’s in the kitchen baking every sweet thing we could think of. We enjoyed the time together and it turned into a love for baking as an adult. Something my husband and I do all the time for fun!
My favorite ‘baking’ memories revolve around my Darlin’ Mom (now 93!) who would ‘bake’ my sister & I graham cracker ‘cookies’ with homemade fillings – frosting, some with peanut butter, some with chocolate. We didn’t have much $$ then, but we never knew that ’cause Mom always baked those special cookies for us, and they were there when we came home from school each day . . .
My favorite baking memory is how my kids make Christmas breakfast. Every year since the eldest was old enough to run the stove by himself, they have gotten up early enough to make coffee cake and coffee. I have to wait in bed until they come to get me, which is hard because I LOVE Christmas morning.
My favorite memory of baking is with my mom and sister during christmas time. We bake nut roll and cookies and its just a day for us. Last year we let my daughter join the fun! Can’t wait for this year!
When I was about eight, my brother (twelve), sister (eleven), and I decided that we were going to make my mom’s birthday cake even though my dad usually did it. We were making a chocolate cake that called for a cup of boiling water. When we were making it, my brother asked us, in a moment of confusion, where to get boiling water. Of course, we looked at him, dumbfounded and make fun of him about it to this day, ten years later. He will probably never live it down :D.
Just spending time in the kitchen with my mom is special, but having goodies to eat makes it that much better. While we were growing up, my mom always asked if there was any special dessert we would like during the holidays. My brother asked for sweet potato pie every year. To this day whenever the holidays come around, we eagerly expect to see sweet potato pie. I look forward to creating memories like this with my kids.
My favorite baking memories are learning to roll out sugar cookies with my mother. They had to be just perfect. Not too thick, but not too thin so that they would tear. I’m now trying to pass on the tradition to my son, niece and nephew. If only I could teach them that each cookie doesn’t need an entire container of sugar per cookie!
My favorite was baking all day doing Christmas cookies with my aunt. I was the designated sprinkle girl <3
As a little girl I loved going up north at Thanksgiving time. My aunt and uncle would bake what seemed like 100 different types of cookies and we always got to come in the kitchen and be a part of the action. My favorite still are the Pfefferkuchen cookies. Mmm…I can almost taste them right now.
my favorite memories are of my sisters and i …helping my mom …to bake…
One of my favorite holiday memories is baking with my daughters. We would make a few batches of sugar cookies and using miniature cookie cutters end up with hundred of cookies for various holiday parties. Together we would delicately paint icing on the baked cookies. As the girls got older they became quite proficient with their painting and guests would hate to even eat their baked artwork!
My favorite memory is making christmas cookies with my sister. We set up camp at her house and crank out enough cookies to feed an army!
I love baking when fall gets here! The cooler weather, the smell of the crisp leaves falling and something baking in the oven brings back memories of when my children were little helping me bake holiday goodies!!
Making chocolate chip cookies with my mom and her letting me mix in the chocolate chips with my hands then letting me eat my ‘cookie gloves’ off of my hands.
I don’t bake. I do all the tasting of the holiday goodies. It’s a tough job but someone has to do it.
It was always great when Mom made fudge.
Each year, the night before Thanksgiving I gather all 7 of my grandchildren (ages 4-12) around the kitchen table and we make pies. Each of them has their own pie plate. I give them the list of flavor options and they choose which one they want to make. I roll out the dough for them and help them place it in the plate. We mix the fillings together and they use the scrap dough to decorate their pie. After the pies have baked and cooled we line them up and take with picture with thier pies.
We started this tradition when our oldest granchild was 3. What a wonderful time we have! The hardest part is keeping thier parents out of the kitchen so they don’t worry about the mess. It is worth the mess to have this sweet memory with my grandchildren.
My favorite baking memory has to be baking hundreds of christmas goodies with my grandma and my little sister. We would make gingerbread houses every year at Christmas and my sister’s favorite part was making the “reindeer pee” on the roof of her house with yellow food coloring!
My sister is the whole reason behind my love of baking, and she is the reason why I started to build on my passion and open my website, littlebearbakery.org!
My mom always made a homemade birthday for my sisters and I for as long as I can remember. This was back in the sixties when we first came to this country and money was tight. Buying a birthday cake was a luxury. I have since continued my mom’s tradition and bake the birthday cakes for our family. Each person of course has their favorite from a basic yellow cake to chocolate and peanut butter. My girls always say these are the best cakes!
My favorite memory is baking anything with my Dad.
He was a single parent, raising 4 children all on his own back in the 60’s (unheard of then). Needless to say, he was a great cook, but didn’t have much practice in the baking department. I was lucky, I was the oldest and Daddy’s little girl.
Dad and I experimented with just about everything: cookies, bread, cakes, pies, pastries. At some point, I can’t remember when, I surpassed Dad in baking…he wasn’t too unhappy about it either. As I got older, Dad became my cheering team and taste tester. What I wouldn’t give to have him here now…after all the Holidays were his favorite time of year. Such yummy goodness.
Thanks Dad!
Anytime someone I’ve baked my chocolate chip cookies or chocolate cake for in the past tells me again how much they enjoyed them/it.
I will never forget this baking experience:
The first cake I ever made was when my parents went out for the night on their anniversary! I wanted to suprise them with the cake. It stuck to the pan, and I poured whipping cream over a huge pile of broken up cake. The pile of cake was warm, so the whipping cream melted all over the pile. It was a huge mess that my parents made a huge deal about. “Oh, how wonderful!”, they said.
When I think back on this, my parents probably thought, “thank God the house is not burned to the ground!”.
Baking with my mom, and baking with my daughter.
I didn’t bake much with my mom, but now that I’m a mom, I love the memories I’m making with my children! Since we’ve discovered your website a few years ago, every birthday at school includes cupcake bites and now we’re diving into the world of pops (a bit harder) but the children love it so much more! Thank you!
There are many, but one of my favorite baking memories was getting to make cupcakes with my grandma when I little. It was on one of our summer vacation trips to visit her and my grandpa. When she asked if I wanted to make them I was so excited and I was looking forward to it until the time came to start [which seemed like forever :) ]. It was a fun and special time with just her and me.
Making Halloween cookies with my mom when I was little. My birthday is at the end of October and we would always make them for me to take to school for my friends and I. :)
Baking with my little boy. He loves to watch food network on the ipad and learn how to make the best chocolate chip cookies. Then we bake our own. Oh, so fun!
I reallly don’t have many young memories. I’m making memories with my Grandson. We bake cookies, cakes and gingerbread houses. The time in spend in the kitchen with him is priceless.
2 years ago, for a psych assignment I made a brain cake! I carved it so that it was shaped like the brain, and then used fondant on top of it to make the squiggly appearance, and dyed the colors to indicate different lobes of the brain. It was my first time working with fondant, so I was super nervous, but I think it actually turned out pretty good! It’s not as sentimental as my memories with family, but I was so proud to see people impressed. :)
My favorite baking memory was making Apple Pies as a child. My grandfather would take the left over pie crust, sprinkle it with cinammon and sugar and bake it in the toaster oven. To this day, I still like the crust better than the pie!
When I was little, my mom went away during the holidays to visit her brother with my brother. that left me and my dad alone at home. He’d leave early for work and come back late. I was getting depressed -thinking of all the fun my brother was having and also because I was all alone. So – to cheer me up, my dad decided to bake a cake. All the recipes required us to separate the eggs, beat all the ingredients separately etc. Not knowing how to and having no patience he dumped ALL the ingredients into one big bowl, whisked it a bit and baked a cake. It came out fabulous. The original ‘dump’ cake.
I have lots of memories of baking next to my mom when I was a kid. We had the “Kids Cook Cookbook,” which came with its own awesome set of brightly colored measuring spoons, and I would work at the countertop with her. Over the years, she and my sister and I have made tons of chocolate chip cookies, birthday cakes, Christmas cookies, and other confections. It’s always so therapeutic to work in the kitchen together.
My favorite would be making Sugar Cookies with my Mom at Christmas. Decorating them and getting sprinkles and glitter all over the floor. Great memories………………….
i have no memorys of baking
When I was about 10, I attempted my first apple pie. After a long day, I finished. I was very proud until my mom took the first bite and asked if I had peeled the apples. I hadn’t, so I was super embarrassed. Seems very trivial now but was tragic at the time.
When I was little my grandma used to make angel food cake for my birthday. Her decorations were fun and exciting. One year was a little pixie doll with a bracelet for a halo. :-)
My favorite baking memories always involve my Grandma. She taught me to cook and bake from an early age.
I cannot narrow down just one great memory because every time was great baking with her! Even now I find myself in the kitchen baking, thinking of her although she passed 8 years ago, I know she is right there with me telling me I need to pay attention and stop spilling flour on the floor and wasting it.
I remember baking with my mother and grandmother. We made cupcakes, and forgot liquid (I don’t know how!). We ended up with hard, cookie-like lumps that still tasted pretty good!
My favorite baking memory would be when I made Christmas candies and cookies while in Nursing school. I was sooo stressed out from studying and working in the hospital, but I was determined to bake my grandmothers traditional candies. I put music on and rocked out until about 2am. It was great because I had a few hours that I didn’t think about school once!
My grandmother was a fantastic cook and she taught me how to make orange rolls from scratch. I still make them every year for New Year’s Eve. And even though sometimes I have to take a few shortcuts…I still think of my grandma every time I make orange rolls!
Making muffins for the first time (completely on my own) as a kid, as part of a cooking 4H project, and realizing that baking is simultaneously creative, scientific (with the chemical reactions allowing batter to rise, etc.) and just plain delicious! The thought continues to inspire me to cook and bake nearly every day.
My grandmother was a great baker and I think of her as I make her recipes with my own children
My favorite baking memory is baking with my mom and sisters every holiday, especially making platters of cookies for Christmas!
When I was very small, I helped my mother make Jiffy blueberry muffins almost every Saturday. I remember standing on a step-stool in our golden-yellow kitchen, stirring the mix in a big liquid measuring cup. Mom was so patient with me, even when the batter blorped all over the muffin tin and the muffins came out in six different sizes. But we kept at it, and eventually, when I was ten or so – younger, even? – Jiffy blueberry muffins were the first baked good I got to make all by myself. I was so proud of those six muffins with their artificial blueberry bits.
Even now, after years of perfecting my own banana bread recipe and learning to make birthday cakes from scratch, I still crave those goofy muffins once in awhile.
We used to make sweet rolls for all our friends and family every Thanksgiving. One year, one of the radio stations was changing owners. Since they needed a few days for this change to take place they decided to play Louie, Louie for 2 or 3 days straight. (I never knew there were so many versions of that song out there.) This just happened to coincide with our baking day. We spent the entire day listening to Louie, Louie while we made dozens of giant sweet rolls. It was so much fun! To this day, whenever anyone talks about making sweet rolls someone always starts singing “Louie, Louie”.
My cousin and I went over to my Grandma’s house and my Grandma taught us both how to make pies from scratch. We loved spending time with my Grandma and learning a family recipe!
My favorite baking memory was when I attempted to bake macarons with my mom but we accidentally left it in the oven for too long, so we ended up with slightly burnt treats. However, they still tasted pretty good!
One of my fondest baking memories is when I was a child and my mom would use the Cooky Book to bake holiday cookies for her friends. She would bake about 10 different kinds and freeze them to keep them fresh. For trays, she would recycle the styrofoam from ground meat, cover them with paper doilies…add cookie assortment and seran wrap and a bow.
Baking Christmas cookies every year with my mom, aunt, cousins, sisters, and of course my beloved grandma! The tradition continues now, as one of my sisters has taken over hosting, and while my grandma has passed away, our kids have joined the group. So sweet to share the tradition with a new generation!
My favorite baking moment would have to be making biscuits with my grandmother. She would make them from scratch and then cut out the biscuits using a drinking glass. To this day I still can’t make biscuits as good as she did!
My baking memories are with my Mom who cooks, bakes, creates, and anything else in the kitchen! My favorite is when she makes bread and would give me a piece of dough to play with and shape.
My best baking memories include the ones with my grandma…she is such a wonderful cook and I love to spend time with her in the kitchen!
My favorite baking memory was teaching my cousins how to bake when they were small the faces that they made when they ate their first homemade cookies was priceless.
I was in highschool and decided to surprise my parents by baking a cake with my little brother. Unfortunately we added green food coloring thinking the cake will come out that deep green color. It was a faded vomit green, hard, crumbly and tasted very dull. We ended up throwing it away since no one ate it, but it was very fun and a baking memory I will cherish forever.
My favorite memory is sharing my annual Christmas Cookie decorating with my 12 year old daughter. Last year she decided helping me decorate cut-outs was as much fun as eating them. I’m so proud to pass on the “art” to the next generation!!!
My Favorite memory by far has to be rolling Struffulli with my mom. She wasn’t much of a baker but what a phenomenal chef. But making Strufulli at the holidays was a tradition at our house. Boy do I miss my Mom :(
Baking lots of pies with my mom. All of them from the Jell-o pudding box.
I made cutout cookies for a benefit for a friend’s baby that had serious heart surgery. I had Wally World print her picture on edible paper and frosted the cookies and sprinkled with sparkles. They were darling!
My mom always loved to bake on a whim, so my most exciting baking memories are of my mom popping into my bedroom when I was young to announce we were making cookies. I’d “help” as much as possible while sneaking dough. It wasn’t until I learned how to bake correctly that I learned that eating parts of the dough (like butter and sugar whipped together) before it was all combined totally threw off the recipe!
My favorite baking memories are from childhood sleepovers with my best friend. We always loved to bake together–whether it was rice crispy bars, cookies, pies, or one of our own random (and usually disgusting) concoctions. We loved cookie dough, so we played around with baking cookies filled with chocolate chips and caramels. This was even well before Nestle created the break and bake cookies with chocolate/caramel centers! You can only imagine how excited we were when we saw this on the market years later. :) Delicious!
It has to be cooking with my boys……When each one was about 3 years old they would start helping me in the kitchen. I loved to see their face when what started out as a mess came out of the oven looking (and tasting) perfect!! :) And they were so proud of what they had done.
My favorite baking memory is of the first time I ever made a two-layer cake. My dad was always the baker in my family, something he learned from his father before he died in Vietnam. My dad always made birthday cakes for me and my brothers growing up, and one year, when I was about eight years old, I wanted to make a cake for him. He wanted to start me off easy, as he is known for his shaped cakes and an amazing scratch red velvet cake, so we went with boxed chocolate cake mix. I worked so hard to make this cake perfect, only I didn’t let it cool before I frosted it, nor did I level the layers before stacking them. So we ended up with a deliciously lopsided chocolate cake!
At my house during the holidays the grandchildren and I bake cookies and cakes together.
My favorite memory of baking as a child was being in the kitchen with my mother and cooking and baking delicous creations around thanksgiving/Christmas.
My favorite baking memory was going to my grandma’s house for Christmas. We would bake tasty treats for Christmas! But my favorite was making homemade sugar cookies on Christmas Eve for Santa Claus.
My fondest baking moment is of baking simple yellow cakes with my mom as a childhood activity, measuring ingredients and stirring the delicious batter!
My favorite baking memory is making Christmas cookies with my mom every year :)
I grew up mixing cookies in my mom and grandma’s kitchen and I still do. My favorite memory is when I got tremendously frustrated baking Mexican wedding cakes and I thought they hadn’t worked out, so I threw them in the sink and when my mom and I tasted the cookies in the sink we realized they were delicious! So we scavenged them and ever since call them sink cookies.
I love to make pies and now I am inspired again.
Most of my baking occurs at Thanksgiving, and I’ve made the same dessert every year since my husband and I started dating–11 years now. It’s a pumpkin cheesecake mousse pie. I found it in a magazine once. It’s like the best of all desserts in one, better than even pumpkin hceesecake. The best part is that it makes enough to create two full-size pies along with about four mini-pies, my favorite way to enjoy it!
My favorite baking memory is one of my first baking memories. My sister and I were in grade school and decided to bake chocolate chip cookies without adult supervision. (gasp) Things seemed to be going along swimmingly, everything mixed together beautiful and cooked up golden brown. By this time Mom was home and came into the kitchen to find out what ‘we were up to’. We proudly offered her our fresh out of the oven cookies, greedily grabbed ones for ourselves and all took a bite. BLECH. Someone (and this will be up for debate in family lore for eons to come) read it as 1 T of baking soda not 1 tsp of baking soda. To this day I double and triple check my measurements while baking.
My favorite baking memory is baking Christmas cookies with my mom and sister<3. Best time of the year!
Lots of baking memories, but the best one is when I doubled my mom’s recipe for cookies because I didn’t realize the recipe was already doubled on the recipe card itself. We were making cookies for a very long time.
Mom would whip up all the different cookie doughs at one time, then she would bake them. I loved raw cookie dough. Once, they were sitting on the counter and I asked,” what kind is this?”and”what kind is this?” She kept saying, “Oh, those have nuts in them.” Or “those have raisins and that one has coconut”. It took me a few minutes to realize she was trying to keep me from eating all her dough, since I didn’t like those ingredients! Now, I’ll ask, “what kind is that?”, and she’ll say, “Oh, you wouldn’t like those. They have raisins in them”, and we both grin while I take a bite, knowing she made all my favorite flavors.
I have two really great memories from trying to bake by myself when I was younger.
Once, I was babysitting my two younger brothers. I decided to make them pancakes, and they were so excited. However, I unfortunately mixed up baking powder and baking soda…resulting in a terrible tasting pancake. I’ll never forget the look on my brother’s face after his first bite – he wasted no time in telling me how awful it was.
The second memory was from around the same time – I decided to make my mom’s birthday cake. (I think I was 10 or 11.) But the curse of mixing up ingredients again hit me, and I couldn’t find powdered sugar for the frosting. I finally found an unmarked package of something that looked just like it, and used that. Turns out it was potato flour. Whoops!
Fortunately I have semi-mastered my ingredients now, and seldom have such a mishap anymore. :)
I planned to have, for my 18th birthday, a “dessert for supper” themed party. The morning of the event, however, I had to go for a 45 Km bike ride for gym – I am not a person who bikes! So by the time that I had to come home and bake 50 cupcakes, I was physically exhausted, and of course, fell asleep. I finally got up about an hour and a half before the party was supposed to begin, showered quickly, and started racing around trying to put together these cupcakes. However, we had just finished re-doing our kitchen, and so I kept having to run up and down the stairs, bringing stuff from our old kitchen to our new one – legs aching all the way. When my friends showed up to find me in a baking frenzy, everybody pitched in, and that was how we initiated my new kitchen – all baking hectically and washing dishes, and chattering – a group of about 10 of us. It was the most frantic, but enjoyable, baking experience I’ve ever had. It didn’t even matter that the cupcakes weren’t perfect! :)
favorite memory is baking cookies when my children were small
My best baking memory was every Christmas. We would always make Christmas cookies. The best part was decorating the sugar cookies with my mom and sister
My favorite memory is making buttery spritz cookies growing up… I always loved using the cookie press thing to push out the different shapes, racing to have them all come out great while the dough stayed cold! We always tried to mix different colors doughs too to make the cookies more unique!
I enjoyed baking with my grandmother and now I enjoy baking with my nieces and my own kids. It is really fun! I bake all year but the Holidays are the best time!
Last Valentine’s Day, I made chocolate cake pops for all my friends. I was so excited to show them! And little did I know that they would love them so much. Now, every holiday my friends request cake pops, and I am glad to make them just knowing that they will have big smiles on their faces. And next, Halloween! I might just make the ghost cake pops you posted – they are so cute! :) Thanks for the giveaway!
It was a Halloween 5 years ago. My nephew was 3 and sick so there was no trick or treating for him. To cheer him up I decided to have him help me whip up some sugar cookies and Rice Krispies in the shape of pumpkins and ghosts. Getting his hands covered in sugar, marshmallows, and candies made him forget about the fact he was inside. Every year since then we continued to bake cookies just because he would always tell me, “hey remember the time I was sick and we made cookies? That was fun”
I loved it when my mom would make popcorn balls for christmas.
I love anytime I spend baking with my mom and sister. We love trying out new things! Last night, we made an apple frangipane tart for the first time and it was DELICIOUS! Our baking adventures don’t always go as planned, but they’re always a whole lot of fun :)
For Valentine’s Day last year, I made chocolate cake pops for my friends. I was so excited to show them! And little did I know that my friends would love them! Now, my friends request cake pops for every holiday, and I’m glad to do so. Next up, Halloween. I might just make the ghost cake pops you posted – they are so cute! :) Thanks for the giveaway!
Baking and decorating what seemed like hundreds of Christmas cookies one holiday, at a friend’s house when I was maybe 10. It was so engrossing that all time was lost, and in the end was one of those fully satisfying moments of epiphany – the place inside one’s mind where children love to go when doing something incredibly enjoyable.
My love for baking started very young from my grandfather. He worked for a bakery and owned one when he was younger. My favorite memory is between watching him prepare his daily baked goods and when he finally taught me how to bake his favorite cookies with his own recipe.
For Thanksgiving, baking the apple pies has become my responsibility. I learned in high school how to make the simple mixture of tart Northern Spy and Baldwin apples, brown sugar, vanilla and spices. Every year after that I would come home from college or grad school, set down my suitcase, get out the little wooden-handled paring knife perfect for peeling apples, and get to work. Now that I have my own kitchen I could do it here – but it always has to wait till I arrive at my parents’ house!
I love making cookies with my mom and sister. We bake them every year and it is my favorite memory of Christmas.
I loved my grandma’s tart cherry pies. She always made the best crust, so flaky. She used Birds Eye frozen cherries. Yummy!
My favorite baking memory was piping swedish cookies out of the aluminum press with my grandma. Her hands were a little shaky, but it seemed whenever she used the press, they became still and accurate. My job was to sprinkle the rainbow sprinkles on and put the cold tray in the oven. Grandma always pulled the hot trays out. My 2nd job was eating too many cookies.
Just this year, when I bought my own house with a working oven (finally), I found the exact cookie press she used to use online and bought it. My husband and I made the cookies together and my hands shook the whole time. Maybe some day I’ll be more zen about it. :)
I love baking pies with my mom and sister the night before Thanksgiving, sometimes a holiday movie on in the background. The line up of pies on Thanksgiving Day is quite impressive!
My Mom is not the best baker, but at Christmas it was cookie time and out would come the cutters, cookie dough and sprinkles….and for a little while we were pastry chefs….eat half of everything and then hide from Mom during clean up…..Good times!!!
I love to cook with my grandaughters. They love to bake when they come over.
Baking from Betty Crocker’s “Cooky Book” with my Mom. I recently ordered one for myself so my daughter and I can continue the tradition!
One of my favorite baking memories was making raspberry linzer cookies for the first time, and enjoying how they turned out almost as pretty as Ina Garten’s in her cookbook! :)
One night, 2 friends and I baked chocolate chip cookies for friends of our as a good-luck gift. we made a quadruple recipe (or maybe more – the memories are a bit vague now, 10 years later) and, hundreds of cookies later, we were finally ready to leave the kitchen. They were delicious :) and much appreciated. Funnily enough, I often bake for events now, and chocolate chip cookies are a huge hit. I do big batches, but somehow, alone in the kitchen at 1 AM doesn’t make the same memories.
My favorite baking memories are the ones I’m creating now in the first apartment where I’ve lived alone. It get to look out the window at beautiful trees while kneading dough. The smell permeates my colorful and warm apartment. I am one lucky girl! :)
My Baking memory was when i made my daughters 1st birthday cake balls for the first time they came out great everybody thought I had gotten them at a bakery!!
Baking sugar cookies with my Mom and my kids!
My favorite memory is making sugar cookies with lemon powdered sugar icing with my mother. She used to use the silver ball-like shiny sprinkles to decorate christmas tree shaped cookies! And she made (makes still) the best Linzer cookies…
Always loved baking with my Gram…she made huge trays of angenettes and those fried cookies that you dip in batter and sprinkle with powdered sugar….love them!!!
My favorite baking memories are when I would make treats for intermission at my son’s high school plays. I would make them fit with the show and my favorite was Sweeney Todd. I made little hand pies in peach and cherry!
When I was a kid, my neighbor would always make angle food cake, with a sweet glaze. She taught me how to separate an egg before there were fancy gadgets !!! Kristi, you were the best !!
I’m not much of a baker, but my sister is, and she makes really delicious stuff. She never asks for help, but again I’m not much of a help in the kitchen anyway. However, one time I helped A LOT – she was making our brother’s wedding cake – this HUGE 5 tier fondant cake (with chocolate buttercream and almond praline) and she had been working around the clock for two days and she was almost at her breaking point, so I offered to help. To my surprise she actually wanted my help and was very happy I had offer, so she explained how to do somethings and I followed it to the tee. Since everyone always complains that I never help around the kitchen I demanded that my help that day would be documented. My sister took lots of pictures and we had a great time laughing. I did not do much, but at the end all her hard work paid off because the cake was GORGEOUS and better so, it was DELICIOUS!
I hope I win this for my sister :)
my mom and I loved to bake cookies when I was a kid. One of my favorites that we made alot is the Chocolate No Bake cookies with oats and peanut butter. I dont make those alot now since my son is allergic to peanuts. But I sure do make a lot of cupcakes that my kids love. My two boys now like to help me make cupcakes and decorate them with homemade frosting and sprinkles.
Being the eldest of five children I would always have the privilege of helping my mom baking/cooking for the holidays. For the past several years my parents have lived oversees teaching and I took on the job as “chef/baker” for the holiday gatherings. Last year they were able to be home during the holidays, and it was such a complete joy to be by my mother’s side again preparing food together like when I was younger.
My mom wasn’t much of a baker, but once it got close to Christmas she changed her tune. We’d always end up in the kitchen all together a few weeks before Christmas baking up a storm to make goody plates full of all sorts of treats for all the neighbors. Now I’m learning to bake with a little one in the kitchen of my own!
My favorite baking memory is the day my mother showed me how to make her infamous cheesecake brownies. I haven’t been able to find anything quite like them!
My Mom and I bake together every year. It doesn’t feel like a true holiday unless we are eating her cranberry nut bread on both Thanksgiving and Christmas mornings. For the 2 Thanksgivings when I lived far from home and couldn’t celebrate Thanksgiving with my family, my Mom shipped me cranberry nut bread as a special treat so I could celebrate properly.
I was diagnosed with thyroid disease when I was 22 and it caused me to have really bad anxiety. I would wake up in the middle of the night with panic attacks and not be able to go back to sleep. I was living at my dad’s house at the time and my dad would get up in the middle of the night with me and we would bake an apple pie. I made the crust from scratch and he did the filling. It was a really helpful way to combat my panic attacks in the middle of the night and I would get a sweet treat in the end (apple pie and time with my dad). I have since recovered and my thyroid disease and anxiety are under control. I will never forget those times though and am very thankful to have a dad who cares so much and loves to bake just as much as I do.
My favorite baking memory is when my sister comes in town for Christmas and we spend all weekend baking for family and freinds. My sister is the queen of baking!
I loved, and still do, baking Christmas cookies with my mom. Spritz cookies were extra special because it was the one time of year I baked with dad.
My favorite baking moment… When my boy was barely 2 and will sit on the counter while we bake cookies… from frozen dough! He will tell everyone who will listen that his mom is the best baker ever. He knows the difference now that he is 8 but his little sister is now my helper as I move into making cakepops. Will still do frozen doughs and they still think I am the best in the kitchen.
Hands down, my favorite memory is making gingerbread houses with my mom. I was always in awe of how she made them and never dreamed I’d be good enough to bake the gingerbread, construct the houses, or pipe on those icicles as the last step. Now that I have 3 kids of my own, I’ve learned how to do each of those things and I still love going to Mom’s and decorating with her!
My favorite baking memories are making Christmas Carol Rolls with all my siblings, and now making them with my kids and keeping the tradition alive in my family.
My favorite memory was making whoopie pies with my mom.
My favorite memory is my mom trying to make divinity. This was probably 45 years ago and mom didn’t have a stand mixer. When she poured the hot mixture into the bowl, the bowl cracked and she threw the whole mess out the back door! The best part is, she doesn’t remember it!
Every christmas my family makes sugar cookies and sit around decorating them while listening to old christmas music recordings. Seems cliche, but I love it.
My favorite baking memories are of my Grandma (aka Lola in Filipino) making chocolate chip cookies. I think she made the recipe up in her head. The cookies always ended up being hard as rocks & burnt, but they were made with love. She would also break them up into a bowl & pour some milk (her version of cookies & milk!) To this day, this is how I’ll also eat my homemade chocolate chip cookies.
my mother baked fruitcakes for the mailman, feed grinder, hired men, etc. and they were wonderful
My favorite baking memory is from college. My roommate and I each had something large due in our classes the following day, so we stayed up super late and worked on our papers/projects together. Throughout the evening, we distracted ourselves with multiple things, one of which was baking (and eating) brownies :)
I never thought I could bake well. So when I friend asked me to bake a cake for a baby shower of a mutual friend, I was a bit worried. Wanting to cover all my bases, I chose and baked three different cakes. These included, a strawberry cake with white chocolate cream frosting, an apple cake with caramel glaze, and a chocolate mint cake. Much to my surprise, all three turned out amazingly well. I got rave reviews during the shower, and my family requests that I make the strawberry dream cake for all big occasions now!
One of my favorite baking memories is probably making mincemeat pie with my grandmother. She made them for every Thanksgiving and Christmas, but I was always so excited when I got to help her. I still use her lattice top crust design when I make double crust pies!
My mom always made the most delicious mini pecan pies, in mini cupcake sizes. They were amazing and perfect. She would start her baking early in the season and freeze them in large containers in the spare freezer in the basement. At lest 8 different kinds of cookies but these were my all time favorite.
My favorite baking memory is hovering around mum when she baked pies because she would give me and my siblings the leftover pie dough. We would shake cinnamon sugar over the dough and roll it up into ill formed crescents (they always looked perfect at the time!) to be put in the oven. The resulting treats were always amazing! I grew up as one of 12 children and mum always took the time to let us “help” her in the kitchen. She has been gone for 5 years now but I have her rolling pin that I use exclusively for rolling out pie dough…
My favorite memory was watching my mom bake. She made wedding cakes and all sorts of other cakes for family. One day she let me squeeze little stars on my Smurf birthday cake. I was hooked on baking ever since.