I always think of THE HOLIDAYS (Thanksgiving and Christmas) as that dreaded time of year when I, the embodiment of anxiety, constantly worry that we’re going to forget something, get something wrong, or otherwise disappoint someone during an important holiday meant for wonderful family memories. Most of the time we’re successful at making sure everything goes smoothly and tastes and looks good. Occasionally we aren’t and then I’m devastated and spend a lot of time worrying about why this happened and how to fix it. It just seems like there’s so much more at stake during the holidays!

Once we hit January, although I’m still worried about making sure customers are happy with what they order and purchase from us, I notice that I start to relax just a touch and that tightness in my chest eases up a bit. With this incredibly sophisticated psychological insight in hand, I’ve decided that, even though I usually think of January as the most “blah” and depressing month of the year, THIS year I’m going to think of it as a bit more care-free, easy-going, playful and maybe even creative, especially in contrast to November and December. It’s worth at least TRYING to change my outlook, right?

This month we say goodbye until next year to: pecan snowballs, jam thumbprints, frosted sugar cookie bars, gingerbread people, buche de noel, frosted pumpkin rolls and shortbread.

BUT, we say hello to my Aunt Val’s coffee cake, mint brownies, triple threat chocolate cookies, snickerdoodles and Boston cream cakes and cupcakes.

Then in February, we’ll bring back tiramisu (for 1 or FOR 2 because, you know, Valentine’s Day), mini dark chocolate pies (again Valentine’s Day idea), lots of frosted heart cookies and sweetheart cakes (4″ cakes with Valentine’s Day designs on them).

I know I say this every January, but THIS JANUARY I really am going to experiment with recipes for gluten-free cookies and vegan cookies. I know many of you with restricted diets are getting tired of just the cupcakes/cakes we offer, so I’ll work hard to expand our offerings. If you happen to have a recipe for either kind of cookie that you LOVE and are willing to share it with me, please feel free to email it to me at jenny@jennycakesbakery.net.

We continue to offer the HadiCakes, both at the bakery and online for special orders. If you haven’t heard of this effort before, the HadiCake is in memory of Hadi, an incredible kid who we were lucky to get to know through his amazing family and especially the posts of his mom Saira Sufi. Among many other things, he loved blueberries, rainbow sprinkles and Star Wars. So these are blueberry cupcakes with buttercream sprinkled with blue rainbow nonpareils with a silver star added on top. In celebration of Hadi, $1 from each cupcake will go to bethematch.org.

Also, stay tuned for a new round of Meet the Staff with some updates on current staff members and some new staff member entries. ?

Have a fun January and February!

Jenny