I was privileged enough to be selected to receive an advanced copy of Weeknight Bakingby Michelle Lopez from the blog Hummingbird High. Just as the title suggests, this book is filled with bakes you can do on weeknights. Some bakes you can do all in one go and some are broken down into steps across a few nights; but all the parts take only about half an hour. We’re all busy people working, parenting, hustling etc and this book is here for us!
I love baking. You know that, but sometimes the time involved in baking is daunting because I only have three hours max to bake once Albie’s asleep at night. Sometimes I try to bake while he’s awake. Usually it either looks bad or comes out of the oven and you realize something went terribly wrong between your kid helping you bake and when he decided he was done helping and started throwing spoons at you. Weeknight Baking solves both problems.
Problem #1: Not enough time to bake.
Solution #1: Like I mentioned before, most of these recipes can either come together in half an hour or have half hour steps stretched throughout a few days. You want to make a peanut butter cake with amazing frosting? GREAT! Day one, make the cakes. Day two, make the frosting. Day three, put the whole thing together. It all seems so manageable when you don’t need to commit hours to the cake right? PS: Michelle’s Peanut Butter Brown Sugar Cake from the book can be found here!
Problem #2: Cooking with a tiny human is hard.
Solution #2: YES. It’s hard. BUT angel Michelle Lopez has made it way easier! I’ve flipped through the recipes in Weeknight Baking, and lots of them are toddler-helper friendly. As long as your kid knows basics like not sticking their hand in beaters while they’re spinning, how to dump out a measuring cup or how to stir with a spoon, you’re probably good to bake with them using this book.
Now the goods! Albie (my almost three-year-old) and I made Choose-Your-Own Pumpkin Spice Bread from Weeknight Bakingand it was delicious! I’d definitely say it is the best pumpkin bread I’ve had. Michelle gives you some pumpkin spice options at the end of the recipe and we (I) chose the Chai Pumpkin Spice containing cardamom, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger and cloves.
The bread is not too sweet, ours was so nicely spiced and aromatic because of the chai blend. I loved the top of the bread. I’ll be honest at first, I was nervous I had done something wrong because the top looked a bit strange coming out of the oven. It has a crackly crunchy top from granulated sugar sprinkled over the batter and if you make this bread don’t panic! That’s how it’s supposed to look! It adds such a nice texture to the bread.
The bread batter came together so quickly! Albie hadn’t gotten bored of it yet before the loaf went in the oven, which means it really was as quick as Michelle says. If you do it on your own it’ll be even faster!
I think this pumpkin bread is going to be a staple in our house in the autumn and it’s the perfect gift to bring to a party or to your neighbors! To preorder the book Weeknight Baking(and be able to make this amazing bread) click here! The book comes out October 29th!
We’ll be talking about Weeknight Bakingmore in the next few weeks!