February Sucks, Desserts Can Help
Friends can help, too.
In the irony of ironies, I am unfortunately here to report that the seasonal depression has, in fact, caught up to me.
Reading back my last post, I have to laugh. I was so young then, so hopeful [insert wistful sigh]. Silly me, thinking I could beat the winter blues. But alas, February has been a little more grueling than my poor Californian heart can take. With windchill temperatures of -20 degrees during the second week of February and now a state of emergency as NYC gets rocked by its first blizzard since 2017, I have to say the promise of spring is starting to feel like an ever-receding mirage.
Suffice it to say I have some words for Punxsutawney Phil if I ever see that groundhog on the streets.
To soothe the despair, I have, as per usual, turned to my kitchen. I find baking for friends the perfect excuse to try new recipes and challenge myself in what I make which, as it turns out, doubles as a great distraction from being stuck inside due to inclement weather. Although February has been my least favorite month, it did provide me with several occasions for what might be my favorite bakes as of late.
The first of these was a cake I made for my friend Pearl’s 26th birthday. Having tried my rendition of Guinness cake at New Year’s, her roommate Mia recruited me to make another one for Pearl (a die hard Guinness lover) as a surprise for her birthday party the weekend of Feb. 7th. Although after our secret arrangements had been made, Pearl also asked me to make a cake for her birthday, so the cake was not a total surprise. But I think it was a hit all the same.
For the cake I followed the same Nigella Lawson recipe as I used for NYE, but this time I made a Guinness simple syrup soak to make the cake even more moist and doubled the amount of cream cheese frosting so I could make it a taller two-layer cake. With whimsy and childhood games being the inspiration for the house party, I decided to adorn the cake with pink bubble writing and tall gold candles to give it a fun, nostalgic look. The night of the party was probably the coldest I have ever been, this being the day of the aforementioned -20 degree windchill. Carrying the cake from lower Manhattan to Astoria—where the party was being hosted—in 20 MPH winds felt akin to an Odyssean journey, but the joy on Pearl’s face when I opened the cake box made it infinitely worth it.
Another fun bake I did this month was making soft pretzels for Super Bowl Sunday. More as an excuse to eat Super Bowl food and watch Bad Bunny perform than to watch the game, my friends and I had an all-girls watch party (the best Super Bowl experience I can imagine) where we all made a different kind of dip. I had recently become obsessed with the heart-shaped Valentine’s Day pretzels being offered by Elbow Bread, a bakery I love on Ludlow St., and so I used this as my chance to try my hand at recreating them. The vision was soft pretzels dipped in pink sugar, served with strawberry cream cheese frosting to dip them in (that counts as a dip, right?). At the recommendation of one of my coworkers, I used Sally’s Baking Addiction for the pretzel recipe, which came together super quickly, and I made a standard cream cheese frosting with the addition of diced strawberries to make the dip. They came out so cute and were a fun, sweet addition to the sea of Super Bowl snacks.
Turns out that a little bit of sugar and an excuse to gather with friends can be a lovely remedy to the winter blues. So, until the sun comes out you can probably find me baking more whimsical desserts to pass the time.
Note to self: Next year, start taking Vitamin D and buy a SAD lamp.