As the calendar turns to November and we barrel towards the holiday season, I find myself dreaming of all the things I should (and will) bake these last months of the year. My family bakes A LOT during the holiday season. Our holiday gatherings always include a wide assortment of different cookies, cakes, and pies. Growing up my grandpa’s “reading room” turned into the “dessert room” most holidays. With a whole room dedicated to desserts, how could I not lean into my baker genes?

My love of baking was definitely passed down from my grandma to my mom to me. For as long as I can remember, I love trying to recreate family bakes, especially the ones my grandma used to make. For many years now, I have made sugar cookies at Christmas, one of her signature bakes. Sugar cookies could be found on her kitchen table year-round! 

Another bake of hers I started making in November for Thanksgiving is spice cake with penuche icing. This is one of my favorite desserts. My grandma would make me spice cake or cupcakes often when I came to visit. Any time she made something specifically for you, she would greet you at the door with the bake in hand! I was often handed spice cake or fudge, another of my favorites. 

The one bake of my grandma’s that I really want to try but haven’t yet is her pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving. I do not remember ever making a pie before in my life. ::sweats:: My grandma made so many pies- pumpkin, rhubarb, strawberry, lemon meringue (oh my!). Every November I get an inkling of “maybe this year…” but then as we get closer to Thanksgiving week, I chicken out and decide store bought is FINE.

Last Christmas I leaned into nostalgia and made a few different cookies I loved as a kid. Overall, I made four different cookies- my grandma’s sugar cookies and “melt in your mouth” chocolate cookies along with snickerdoodles and peanut butter Snickers cookies (which I called snickerdoodles and got schooled that these are indeed two different types of cookies, oops). While I may have overcommitted a bit, it was a lot of fun to bake and try my hand at these recipes! Some for the very first time, some for the first time in a long time.

For the last couple of Octobers, I made desserts from my own baking past. As a high schooler and young adult, I had a subscription to a cookie company that would send recipes, cookie cutters, and sprinkles every month. These were themed based on holidays, seasons, and life events. I still have the tin full of the recipes! To celebrate my favorite month (October) and holiday (Halloween), I have made a few bakes of new and old. I have by no means perfected these, but it has been a lot of fun to start baking earlier in the final few months of the year. 

My urge to bake come autumn also coincides with a new season of the “Great British Bake Off” or GBBO, which for those of us in the States is found on Netflix (as the “Great British Baking Show”) with a new weekly episode on Fridays, September through November. I was introduced to GBBO during my first visit to London in October 2014. I had horrible jet lag and found myself wide awake at night. I ended up catching reruns of GBBO, and the final episode of the season aired while I was there.

It took a few years to get GBBO stateside regularly, but I have been an avid watcher since it joined Netflix! It is definitely one of my favorite comfort shows. I love all of the different bakers that are showcased each season! Their talent and creativity are amazing (and inspiring) to watch. I also absolutely adore the current hosts, Noel and Alison. And I love all of the judges through the years. Yes, even scary Paul Hollywood. Plus, while it is a competition, there is no American slimy competitiveness that ruins most other baking competitions for me. I tried an American Halloween baking competition show last year and quickly dipped out. 

While baking is a lot of work (with so many dishes to wash!) it is one of my favorite things to do during these last months of the year. I love trying my hand at new and old recipes to make something that is delicious to share with the people in my life. It is a mixture of childhood nostalgia, in memory of my grandma, and a competition with myself to get better at it. I may not be at a Hollywood Handshake level (iykyk) but that does not take the joy away from that first yummy bite into a freshly made cookie! 

I’ll be sharing my holiday baking journey on socials this year, please follow along on Instagram or my Facebook writing page. (Will I finally make a pie this Thanksgiving? We’ll find out together!)

Do you have a favorite bake? Or a favorite dessert that is made for you? Let me know below!

I wrote about my grandma in my April 2025 musing. If you want to learn more about her, have a read!