August Baking Challenge + Giveaway!

Thank you so much for entering this giveaway and supporting Sally’s Baking Addiction. Winner is: Sheila who loves vanilla/butter cake 🙂 and she has been notified via email.

Where did July go? No seriously. WHERE?

Back to school commercials and sales are flooding our lives every direction we turn. We can’t escape it: Fall is right around the corner. Normally I’d be super resistant, but let’s face it… this September will be pretty rad for TWO reasons. And that doesn’t even include Fall baking, which I *always* look forward to!

Anyway, let’s focus on our one last hurrah! The month of August is summer at its finest. The heat index sky-rockets (are my eyebrows sweating? yes.) and summer’s finest fruits are at their peak. Peach cornmeal cake! Peach cornmeal cake! We have one last full month of summer to really soak it all up! To celebrate, let’s make a seriously magical cake. I love the aqua color!

First, let’s recap what the baking challenge is.

What is the Baking Challenge?

• On the 1st of every month, I post a new recipe complete with a quick how-to video, plenty of tips, tricks, and photos.
• I want you to bake the recipe yourself during that month! Come back and tell me how it went.
• If you’d like, share your photos throughout the month using #sallysbakingchallenge on Instagram or email me, tweet me, or upload a photo of your recipe to my Facebook page. I want you all involved!
• If you don’t like a particular flavor in that month’s recipe, there is an alternate Monthly Baking Challenge recipe.

Let’s Recap July

Recipe: Homemade Cherry Pie

July was all about PIE. Completely from-scratch and homemade cherry pie. Taking zero shortcuts because that’s how pie is meant to taste. Real ingredients and fresh fruits that you can taste and appreciate. I made it for you on Facebook LIVE so you could really feel inspired (and confident!) to make it at home. And I am absolutely delighted to see that SO MANY OF YOU participated in July. Conquering your fears of from-scratch pie crust, ditching that canned cherry filling… and having fun in the process. That’s what baking is all about.

This month had the most participants. It honestly warms my heart because you know how much I love pie. It’s like you invite me into your kitchen (um, in a totally NOT CREEPY WAY). You’re all simply incredible. And very very talented! Check out all the photos using #sallysbakingchallenge hashtag on Instagram. And here’s a bunch that are either there, sent to me, posted on my Facebook page, or in my new Facebook group! (join us there! so much fun!)

One reader even said the pie crust rivals her tried and true family recipe!

I absolutely love all your creative lattice work and crust detail. I hope you all feel a little less intimidated by pie moving forward. Have you tried the deep dish apple pie yet?

August Baking Challenge

We’re making a big ol’ vanilla cake. Lots of color, lots of frosting, lots of fun. The real trick is in the assembly so that checkerboard design shows, but trust me– it’s a pretty easy task. I’ll publish the recipe on my blog tomorrow where I’ll walk you through the process with plenty of step-by-step pictures and a new video so you feel confident making it in your own kitchen. ALSO!!! I’ll be making it on Facebook and Instagram LIVE Wednesday at 1pm ET. I’m a super visual learner and video tutorials always help me out! Make sure to tune in.

GIVEAWAY!

Thank you all so much for participating in my monthly baking challenges. Last month, you all seemed super excited about the giveaway for the cherry pie tools, so I figure we’ll do it all over again! Today I’m giving away all of the tools you’ll need to make August’s checkerboard cake recipe. There’s not many, but you may not have them all. These are the exact baking tools I use in my own kitchen and I swear by them.

• 4 9-inch cake pans (USA pans are my new favorite!)
• 3-inch round cookie cutter
• 6-inch round cookie cutter
• my favorite hand mixer (your choice color!)

How to enter:

Simply leave a comment on this blog post telling me your favorite kind of cake. Here’s some inspiration if you need help! This giveaway is open to the whole world. Giveaway ends Monday, August 7th at 12am EST. A winner will be selected at random and notified via email.

Check back tomorrow for the checkerboard cake recipe, step-by-step pics, video, and the alternate August recipe. See you soon!