Christmas is my favorite time of the year. Everything feels so joyful, so warm, so bright. I love the gifting, the wrapping paper, the lights, the snowflakes, watching my favorite Christmas movies and decorating the tree. But my most beloved Christmas tradition: baking. This is the time of year where I spent the most time in the kitchen with my mom; our favorite Nat King Cole tunes filling up the room, helping her bake cookies and treats to serve or candies that she would place around the house. Feeling inspired by the holidays (and the bit of snow we got this past weekend), I turned on my very favorite- The Christmas Song-  and made this little cake. It is a rich spice cake layered with a smokey orange spice buttercream. It is the perfect balance of savory and sweet, and would be kindly complimented by a bright citrus salad of grapefruit and orange. It's perfect for serving after dinner Christmas Eve, shared by family and friends. 

I am also very excited to share that I have started my first little job post-grad, working for the incredibly talented Jenny Wheat from Wheat Photography, who took the incredible pictures below. I am so thankful to the girls at Wheat Photo for taking a chance on me and welcoming me to Kansas City. I am so happy to join the Wheat Photo team and to keep creating more moments like this one! I will continue blogging here and will surely keep everyone posted, but feel free to join my personal social media accounts- Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest- in the meantime! 

Credits: Styling/Cake: Jennifer Berke. Photos by Jenny Wheat