I will always associate holidays with baking. After spending years in a kitchen preparing for the next holiday, I experience the calendar as hearts/chocolate in February. Shamrocks & Irish soda bread in March. Coconut macaroons, flourless cakes, Easter egg cakes & key lime pies as we roll toward Spring. More hearts and perhaps something lemony for Mother’s Day. 

Father’s Day, however, is always a hard stop at chocolate, because that is my father’s favorite when it comes to desserts. 

I remember my father describing a chocolate and almond swirl pound cake he used to have as a child growing up in New York City. ‘The almond flavor was subtle, and what made the cake really good was the fact that the chocolate part really tasted like chocolate.’ For years, I’ve hunted for a recipe that would reunite his memory with his taste buds. The search continues.

There are more items on that list. Peanut butter chocolate chunk cookies ‘like the ones you used to sell’. Chocolate chunk cookies with extra chocolate chunks. And then there was the request that actually made me smile. Lemon meringue pie. 

Just when you think you know someone.

I am looking forward to baking today, despite the fact I am mixer-less at the moment which hurts my heart. I plan on trying this recipe from King Arthur and hopefully my mother’s old school mixer.

Please share if you have plans on making anything today for someone special. Let’s get baking!

Hoping all fathers, here and gone, feel loved and celebrated today. 

xo

Karen