The Bakes I’m Bringing Into Year Two

The kitchen has never just been about food. It’s where I keep finding pieces of myself.

A New Year in the Kitchen

As I step into Year Two, there are a few recipes I know will be coming with me, not just because they taste good, but because they represent who I’m becoming.

Every bake this past year carried its own lesson worth keeping. Patience with myself and with processes that can’t be rushed. Confidence that grew quietly through repetition. Creativity that started with a single question, what if? And the resilience to keep going when things burned, fell apart, or just didn’t come together the way I pictured.

These bakes didn’t just teach me how to make my favorite things. They taught me more about who I am.

The Bake That Built My Confidence

Banana Bread + Black Cake

Confidence grows through repetition.

Banana bread was the first bake that got me to fully embrace being in the kitchen. It taught me what starting simple looked like, and what it meant to master something before moving on. My family requesting it, making sure I don’t show up empty handed, friends becoming taste testers and telling me to keep going — those moments built something in me that I didn’t have before.

Then came my first black cake. That bake taught me how to respect a tradition while weaving in my own touch. And being paid for it — not once, but twice — told me two things at once: that I was trusted with something sacred, and that what I create has value. It was one of the first moments I stopped seeing baking as “just a hobby” and started seeing it as a skill worth investing in.

The Bake That Reconnected Me to Home

Cheesepaste Sandwiches, Coconut Drops, Groundnut Sugar Cakes, Coconut Tarts

Home isn’t always a place. Sometimes it’s a recipe.

These bakes carried home every time I made them. Cheesepaste sandwiches take me straight back to my grandmother — one of my favorite persons in the world. Coconut drops are what I reach for when I miss Grenada and want to shorten the distance. There’s something about making them that feels like the island is wrapping her arms around me in the warmest hug.

Groundnut sugar cakes let me indulge in something light and familiar without needing a reason. And coconut tarts — as much as I try, they still don’t come out quite like my aunt’s. They bring me back to the countless calls trying to get the recipe just right.

These bakes remind me that baking is also about returning. To memory. To feeling. To the people and places that made you.

The Bake That Taught Me Patience

Bread + Coconut Turnovers

Some recipes teach patience more than technique.

My first bread taught me what trusting the process actually looks like in practice. Why do I need to wait 45 minutes for the dough to rise? Don’t I want bread right now? Learning to trust the kneading, understanding when I’d done enough, waiting anyway — those moments gave me proof that I was on to something.

My coconut turnovers pushed it further. I burned the coconut filling about four times before I finally got it right. That recipe taught me how to give myself grace without giving up. To try again. To be okay with failing. To understand that some things just need more time — and that’s not a flaw in you, it’s part of the process.

The Bake That Sparked Creativity

The Grenadian Flavors Donut Series

Creativity starts with curiosity. The curiosity to step just outside the rules and see what happens.

That’s the story of the Grenadian Flavors series. I knew I wanted to experiment with the flavors of Grenada but wasn’t sure how — and then came donuts. They felt like the perfect canvas. Something modern enough to carry tradition without losing it. Toasted coconut flake donuts — chef’s kiss. Those genuinely blew me away. The sorrel glazed donuts already have me thinking about how to use actual sorrel next time.

This series feels like it holds the soul of Grenada — taking what’s always been there and finding new ways to let it shine. It’s the bake that made me realize I don’t just want to recreate traditional recipes. I want to have a conversation with them.

The Bake That Surprised Me

Coconut Banana Bread + Blueberry Coconut Scones

There are times when others will see your growth before you ever do.

I was genuinely skeptical about my coconut banana bread. It felt like a stretch. But I mentioned it to a friend, she asked to try it, and her reaction surprised me completely. She loved it. I had to bring her the next half.

Then there are my Blueberry Coconut Scones — a recipe born out of the history of Grenada, paired with a nutmeg jam I couldn’t put down. They were absolutely delicious. And now I’m determined to perfect that nutmeg jam because I think it might just blow my own mind.

These bakes reminded me that I’m onto something with the way I create recipes. And every time someone tells me they’ve made one of my bakes twice, or a family member calls to place an order — it genuinely warms my heart. I don’t take a single compliment for granted.

What I’m Looking Forward To

Year Two is about more. More Caribbean-inspired recipes that celebrate the flavors we grew up with. More traditional techniques worth learning and preserving. More stories told through food. More fun — in the baking, the writing, the content, the documenting.

Less perfectionism. More joy. More showing up fully for every single moment of it.

The Recipes Come With Me

The recipes are coming with me — but so are the lessons. Every loaf, every failed dough, every donut glaze and every slice of black cake helped shape the baker I am today.

These may be my most loved bakes, but each one changed me in some way I didn’t see coming.

Year Two feels less like starting over and more like continuing a story that’s only just beginning to be written.