23 Baking Projects To Chase Away the Winter Blues

Dark winter days can bring you down, but they are also the best days to take on a baking project. I actually look forward to a bad-weather day to bake something I don’t always give myself the time for. In fact, I can be at my happiest on gloomy days when there's no pressure to go out, and I can stay in to work on a cozy all-day or all-weekend recipe. 

Not only does a baking project give me something to do at home, but when I’m done, I have a comforting, heartwarming treat that I can share with others or keep all to myself. It’s an excuse to stay inside by the warm oven. Plus, I just love the cozy smell of cinnamon or bread baking on a cold day.

7UP Cake

Recipe Developer Melissa Gray says, "Room-temperature ingredients are the secrets to a great pound cake. This helps the ingredients to be incorporated more easily, achieving a smoother batter and a more even bake."

Homemade Crescent Rolls

If you've dreamed of making croissants but  haven’t felt ready for the process, try these buttery and flaky homemade crescent rolls. It’s a lamination project that’s easy enough for a first try and worth every ounce of effort.

Chocolate Babka

This chocolate babka is made with a rich brioche filled with swirls of decadent chocolate. It’s everything that a winter baking project should be: fluffy, sticky, messy, and fitting for breakfast, coffee, or dessert.

Millionaire Bars

Contributor Stephanie A. Ganz says, "Allow each layer to cool fully before adding the next layer, and allow the bars to cool completely before slicing."

Rosemary Focaccia

We can’t leave out savory bakes. This rosemary-scented focaccia makes an excellent side for hearty soups and stews. Oh, and the hands-off rising time happens to be just long enough for your favorite movie.

Bienenstich

Bienenstich, or bee sting cake, is a German yeasted cake filled with vanilla cream and covered with a sweet and crunchy honey almond topping. This baking project involves three separate elements, but you can take it one component at a time for a rustic, yet impressive dessert.

Oatmeal Bread

This hearty and flavorful oatmeal loaf is the ideal Sunday recipe. It makes two loaves, freezes well, and because it stays moist for so long, you reap the rewards with sandwiches and toast all week long.

Sock It To Me Cake

Recipe Tester Marianne Williams says, "For a citrusy twist, try adding a little freshly grated orange zest to the pecan mixture."

Povitica

Povitica is a beautiful bread swirled with a walnut and cinnamon filling. It’s comforting enough to warm your spirits on even the coldest days, and once you try the first bite, it's sure to become your go-to cold-weather treat.

Poppy Seed Kolache

If you’re not familiar with these sweet pastry pockets, kolaches are traditional Czech pastries that are also popular in Texas and parts of the Midwest. The classic poppy seed filling is fruity and nutty and absolutely irresistible.

Baklava

There's something so comforting about the mix of honey, lemon, and cinnamon. Add to that the infinitely flaky phyllo pastry and a mix of chopped nuts, and it's just over the top. Phyllo pastry has a reputation for being difficult to work with, but a bit of patience and some confidence will more than pay off.

Chocolate Bundt Cake

This chocolate cake is complex in flavor, but not complex to make. Smoky bourbon and strong coffee complement the dark chocolate. Baking the cake low and slow creates a fine texture, and keeps the kitchen warm too.

Chocolate Tres Leches Cake

Chocolate tres leches cake is the ultimate comfort food with three types of milk, and chocolate in every component. It’s a great cake for baking ahead on Saturday and sharing the fruits of your labor with friends and family on Sunday.

Perfect Cheesecake

Speaking of cheesecake, no winter baking list would be complete without the classic. If you try this once, I guarantee you’ll find yourself “practicing” this recipe over and over again. Rich, dense but light, sweet but tangy, and enough to share, this needs to be your go-to cheesecake recipe.

Banoffee Cheesecake

If you've mastered making New York Cheesecake, now it's time to try new flavors. Banoffee pie is a popular British dessert named for the combination of banana and toffee. If banoffee can comfort Brits in their notoriously gray and rainy weather, it can only do good for our winter blues, especially as a cheesecake.

Oreo Cheesecake

This Oreo cheesecake is incredibly indulgent. It’s baked in an Oreo crust, topped with a white chocolate ganache and rosettes of whipped cream, and garnished with, you guessed it, even more Oreos. Got too excited and made too much cheesecake? You can freeze it.

Whoopie Pies

A whoopie pie is like a cake sandwich: it’s made with two chocolate cake rounds and filled with marshmallow creme frosting. It’s a smaller baking project that can be whipped up in an afternoon, but a fun project nonetheless between baking the cakes, making the filling, and assembling.

Cinnamon Swirl Raisin Bread

Contributor Sally Vargas says, "A sponge (aka pre-fermentation) is a very wet mixture of water, yeast, and flour that is left to rise, after which the rest of the dough ingredients are added. It gives the dough a boost that results in a more complex flavor with faint sourdough overtones and a light and airy texture."

Homemade Challah

Another baking project that will test your dough braiding skills is homemade challah. This bread is soft, lightly sweet, and has a beautiful, glistening crust. Be sure to save a few slices for French toast the next day.

Rye Bread

Learning how to bake homemade bread is such a rewarding experience and rye bread is a wonderful recipe to have in your repertoire. It has an earthy flavor that pairs magnificently with the heavier foods we crave in winter. Use it for homemade reubens or liverwurst sandwiches, or a side for thick stews like goulash.

Irish Brown Bread (With Yeast)

Hearty Irish brown bread is made with 100% whole wheat flour with some extra wheat bran added. The result is a nutty, dense yet well-risen loaf with a thick crust. It’s perfect with a slathering of Irish butter, a slice of cheddar cheese, or some homemade jam.

Homemade Cinnamon Rolls

Contributor Cindy Rahe says, "If you forget or don't have time to let the butter soften, slice it into tablespoons and knead each piece between your fingers before adding it to the dough."

Chocolate Swiss Roll Cake

Contributor Marta Rivera says, "Don’t grease the sides of the pan. Ungreased sides allow the cake to cling to pan and facilitate its rising during baking. Since this recipe has no chemical leavening agents, we need all the help we can get to get it to rise."