Blog Post List

This blog post list contains the most recent blog posts from The Messy Baker in reverse chronological order. You can also browse by recipe category or use the search function.

When I was very little, I thought my mother knew everything. Absolutely everything. If I had a question, she had an answer. If I had a problem, she had a solution. She cured my near-fatal bout of the mumps with teeny-tiny vanilla cupcakes. She could...

Seasons jumble in my head. Apricots and black currants are oh-so summer, except when the apricots are peaches and the currants are jam. Then it’s late fall -- Thanksgiving to be specific. Confused? So am I. I started out with two tasks on my agenda 1) make...

Recently I talked about the angst of  publishing a book. But that’s only part of the story. Anxiety has loosened its grip and every time I think it’s just a dream, I walk into my front foyer and look at the big box of books sitting...

Writing a book is a lot like working in theatre. “Hurry up and wait!” is the mantra. You learn your lines (or write them in this case), hit your marks (deadlines) and then wait. For months. You watch the clock, the calendar and your nails...

I’m not one for culinary deception. I have never understood why anyone would slip perfectly good spinach into brownie batter or sneak astringent cauliflower into banana muffins. Not only do the flavours conflict, such subterfuge gives respectable vegetables an inferiority complex. So, let me be perfectly clear. When I...

Slice-and-bake shortbreads can be perfectly uniform and not put me off. I’ve no issue when one gingersnap looks exactly like the next. But I don’t trust chocolate chip cookies unless they resemble a culinary version of the Rorschach test. Although roughly the same size, each should bake...

The lavender is blooming, the mint is growing like Audrey the Venus flytrap and summer is racing down the street like its sandals are on fire. Recipes can wait. The garden? It’s more time sensitive and never rests. After the rain today, I went outside to pick lavender...

Remember the colour wheel from Grade 6 art class where you learned that blue and orange were complementary colours and if you mixed them together you got icky khaki brown? Eventually, you or the evil genius in the next row figured out all the complementary...

Everything’s behind schedule. The spring bulbs, the roses, the fruit. And me. Especially me. While I chastise myself for tardiness, I’m actually pleased that Mother Nature is dragging her earth-encrusted feet. Here it is, almost July, and I’m harvesting armloads of rhubarb with leaves as...

Ask and you shall receive. A couple of weeks ago, I posted to Instagram a shot of my recently purchased, tiny chocolate mint plant. I asked if I should make ice cream or tea. The resounding answer was ice cream. If you insist. This was a total experiment....