Megan Learns to Bake

Megan Learns to Bake A window into my kitchen as I learn to bake, create, and share.

Bread Week Bake Along: a bread basket with sweet and savory rolls. What a project! The basket is caramelized onion chal...
06/03/2026

Bread Week Bake Along: a bread basket with sweet and savory rolls. What a project! The basket is caramelized onion challah. The savory buns were green chile and feta. The sweet rolls were a hearty apricot and pecan. This one was a stretch (ha) for me. I made up flavors that sounded good and forced them into recipes where they didn't originate- a great creative exercise that I don't do enough. I knew the basket itself would be the hard part so I wimped out on choosing complicated shaping/filling for my rolls.

💡Lesson Learned: This week was mostly about learning ways not to make a bread basket. 😬 I've never made one and didn't find any recipes or tutorials, so I just made a guess and went for it. I wove challah over a metal bowl and my center strands were way too thick. The bottom inside of the bowl was super pale from the insulation of the metal bowl's air gap. The weaving pattern I used was totally the wrong strategy for this application and the braid around the edge ought to have been baked separately and mounted on the bowl because it lost all definition. Not the prettiest project, but definitely one where I learned more than most others. Also, that block of rolls beside the bowl is structural at this point- move it and the whole thing lists to the left 🤣

More Lemon-Ginger Macarons! These teddy bears with domed tummies were the same fillings as the lemon crates (ginger Fren...
05/28/2026

More Lemon-Ginger Macarons!

These teddy bears with domed tummies were the same fillings as the lemon crates (ginger French buttercream and lemon curd), but I wanted to try a shape that would be simpler to pipe. The challenge in was only two hours for shaped macarons and these were much more realistic in that timeline. I freehanded the bottom and they came out decently uniform anyway. But the domed tummies were way harder. In the end, the domed held too little filling and so the final cookies were cute, but not tremendously flavorful.

💡Lesson Learned: I piped the tummies onto inverted silicon hemisphere molds to get the dome. Unfortunately, it was really hard to get a consistent spread and some were way too huge while some were barely big enough to curve at all. I tried lots of different ways to pipe them and even got some feet on a couple of them! But also underbaked a lot of them so they tore when I attempted to unmold them. 😬

Chili Crisp Cheese CoinsI served these salty, spicy bites next to a table of sweets and they were a perfect contrast. Th...
05/27/2026

Chili Crisp Cheese Coins

I served these salty, spicy bites next to a table of sweets and they were a perfect contrast. The crumbly dough is packed with fresh Parmesan, butter, and several healthy spoonfuls of chili crisp. It's shaped into a log before being rolled in sesame seeds and sliced into rounds. The final product was savory, spicy, cheesy, and buttery.

💡Lesson Learned: I struggled most with slicing even circles without crumbling the bottom edge. Maybe it needed more chilling time, or maybe just a little more butter or oil from the jar.

Lemon-Ginger MacaronsContinuing with , this week was Cookie Week! The signature was "a macaron not shaped like a tradit...
05/26/2026

Lemon-Ginger Macarons
Continuing with , this week was Cookie Week! The signature was "a macaron not shaped like a traditional macaron." For whatever reason, I decided that meant we needed crates of lemons 😆 Ginger macarons shells, ginger French buttercream, and lemon curd.

💡 Lesson learned: This particular design would NOT fit in the two hour challenge time. The piping took FOREVER. The texture comes from piping a small part, waiting for it to dry, then piping the next layer. Over and over. Failing to do this means the sections merge together instead of giving the signature defined bumps that I was trying to achieve.

Lemon Bar Cake- Lemon cake layers baked on shortbread crusts with lemon curd and lemon buttercream and stained glass flo...
05/22/2026

Lemon Bar Cake- Lemon cake layers baked on shortbread crusts with lemon curd and lemon buttercream and stained glass flowers

It's been a good week for pretty cake! This one was for a birthday and she asked for "pretty and fun" and let me have my own creative vision for it. I've seen stained glass cakes before in a variety of styles and wanted to give it a try myself. It took a LOT longer than I expected, but I was thrilled with the final result (check out the full spin!).

💡Lesson Learned: The stained glass flowers were brand new to me. I used floral wire to bend the petal shapes and then dipped them in a thick colored gelatin mixture. Once dried, they were remarkably sturdy and easy to twist into groups and reshape for the topper.

Stained Glass Flower pattern from .fivetwo

Coconut vertical cake with rum soak and coconut-marshmallow fillingWe celebrated Cake Week with the Great American Bakin...
05/20/2026

Coconut vertical cake with rum soak and coconut-marshmallow filling

We celebrated Cake Week with the Great American Baking Show last night and I did a mashup of the signature challenge (vertical cake- where the layers of filling run up and down) and the showstopper theme (nature inspired). I've never made a vertical cake before, but it's essentially a jelly roll turned on its side. Stability was a huge gamble when I got it coiled up, but a layer of white chocolate ganache gave some firm stability to the structure before I decorated with shortbread crumbs and buttercream waves.

💡Lesson Learned: The rice paper sails! I LOVED making these waves. They are made of Vietnamese rice paper which you soak in water and then paint with food coloring. Then you let them dry draped over something like crinkled parchment paper and they harden into that shape. For the foamy effect on the edges, I fried the tips in oil to get the white bubbles. They add so much drama to the cake for relatively little work!

Episode 1- Cake Week watch party was a blast! Special thanks to and for the encouragement. We had so much fun watchi...
05/20/2026

Episode 1- Cake Week watch party was a blast!
Special thanks to and for the encouragement. We had so much fun watching you and make beautiful and delicious treats!!

Emma Kate Sanders Jackie Dyas Thara Reinitz Molly McFerrin Jacobs Katy McAlpine Samara Parker

Tarte TropezienneHave you ever thought, "This cake would be so much more delicious if it were yeasted!"? Enter: the Tart...
05/19/2026

Tarte Tropezienne

Have you ever thought, "This cake would be so much more delicious if it were yeasted!"?

Enter: the Tarte Tropezienne. A brioche baked like a cake, split, topped with sugar crunch, and filled with creme diplomat. Absurd. And so so tasty. Creamy, sweet, chewy, crunchy, simply delicious.

💡 Lesson learned: Creme Diplomat was new to me, but it's simply whipped cream folded into pastry cream to lighten it up. The only trouble was it kept squishing out the sides.

Recipe from

Fruit PizzaIt doesn't have to be complicated to feel fancy! Sugar cookie base, cream cheese frosting, and fresh fruit! T...
05/18/2026

Fruit Pizza

It doesn't have to be complicated to feel fancy! Sugar cookie base, cream cheese frosting, and fresh fruit! There were no complaints 😆 There's no mirror, just a lovely pair!

💡Lesson learned: I do wish I'd had time to glaze the fruit and leave it looking a little more polished, but "neutral glaze" is still on my list! I'd also use a larger pan to make the same amount of crust and frosting sit a little thinner.

Fruit Pizza recipe from

Happy FIFTH birthday, Audra!This is her birthday cake- a banana sponge with layers of caramel sauce and peanut butter fr...
03/02/2026

Happy FIFTH birthday, Audra!
This is her birthday cake- a banana sponge with layers of caramel sauce and peanut butter frosting. The peanut butter flavor was a little dominant, but each of the elements were really great on their own.
💡Lesson Learned: I've never tried the Lambeth style of decorating, but really enjoyed it. Feels very vintage, but Audra was ecstatic about how it turned out. The hardest part was that the peanut butter left my frosting a little too soft to hold some of the designs, so I had to keep adding powdered sugar to get it to firm up.

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