In early December, I start cataloguing all the gorgeous things I will bake—our annual Yule Log and epic gingerbread projects, three-tiered Christmas cakes with wrinkly chocolate bark up the sides—bookmarking recipes and instagram posts in files labeled CHRISTMAS BAKES that dates back a decade deep.
My sister and I send these things back and forth to each other with notes like “this one?” or “sooo pretty—let’s try this!” And then, as the days get closer simply “if we had to choose just one thing, would this one be it?”
By the time we actually all arrive home, just days before Christmas, the agenda is big and the days short, not to mention that there are presents to wrap, plus 18 mouths to feed three times a day. In short, sometimes ambitious baking projects don’t make the cut. But this cake? This always makes the cut.
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