Being in the kitchen with my mom growing up holds some of the greatest cherished memories. It’s where my love of cooking and baking began. As time went by, I leaned more towards baking because there was a natural ease to it—a measured, reliable alchemy where the result is always comforting.
Being able to share that perfectly finished cake or batch of cookies with the ones you love makes the entire process all that much more worthwhile. Baking is, ultimately, an act of sharing and love.
Recipes as Love Letters: Insights from Joanne Harris
From the article, "Just like Maman used to make," the author, Joanne Harris, perfectly captures this unique connection, seeing recipes not just as instructions, but as powerful storytellers and links to home.
She beautifully describes how her mother, a French immigrant, used a small box of handwritten family recipes as a direct link to her lost home and past. The kitchen became a "shrine" where every dish had a rich, inherited narrative.
This feeling underscores that baking is an active process of preserving memory, heritage, and the love poured into the food. The ingredients and the familiar process allow us to return to a cherished time, creating a tangible legacy of warmth and belonging that we can pass on to others.
Discover the Full Story Here
A Cherished Recipe: Bakery-Style Muffins
One of my many favorite recipes from Sally's Baking Addiction, these truly are the ultimate Bakery-Style Chocolate Chip Muffins. They are deliciously soft and moist with a perfectly crackly, cinnamon-spiced top and are bursting with chocolate. Large in size and flavor, this recipe is guaranteed to give you that authentic sugar crunch and high dome that rivals any bakery!