Dear Bakers and Friends,

Welcome to the September 2025 issue of Betterbaking.com!

I’m late to publish because it’s Labor Day and the last day of summer (in mood) is calling me away as it is you. But I’m also late because I got waylaid trying to perfect a Downtown Abbey Victoria Sponge Cake for this month’s issue instead of focussing, as I should be on Jewish New Year’s recipes, spice and apples and such. At this point, I have both too many personal favorite recipes to dig out on this site, my Word recipe files, my cookbooks and I’m always creating yet more new recipes. In culinary terms, I have the opposite problem of ‘I have nothing to wear’; I have too much! Having too much is a largesse that can leave you seized up with choices. As I also suffer from a generosity compulsion (I want to send you all home after reading my newsletter with bags of baked goods) I struggle with the feeling that I am not alerting you to enough recipes and have to choose just a few.

As I’ve often mentioned, when you publish only once a month, especially when a BB issue lands before or after a holiday (in any given month) you run the risk of talking about honey cake when people are already thinking Canadian Thanksgiving or bake-sale treats or some other seasonal thing. In editorial terms, I have to set the table that can carry Betterbaking for a good month and still be timely.

It has been a lovely summer in its way although there have been stresses and distractions. Tango has been ever constant but there have been some ups and downs. Happily I found extra support in an unexpected source: Downton Abbey.

Years ago I watched the first two seasons of Downton Abbey only to quit abruptly the minute they did away with two main characters (Matthew and Sybil – why oh why?). I felt so disenchanted I immediately left the Crawleys high and dry. But at the beginning of August just past, I gave Downton Abbey another look and fell in love all over again. Knowing and accepting there would be losses, I still threw in my lot with Cora and Robert et al. Now, as I reluctantly come to the end of season six I am happy/placated that there are three full length Downtown feature films to enjoy.

In the last few weeks, my inner life calmed down as the Crawleys and their downstairs help and other regulars (neighbours, villagers, beaux, Cousin Isabelle and the good Dr. Clark) became an extra family and ad hoc friend circle for me. I also brushed up on world history with the series. But what I enjoyed most was the return to manners and civility that the Downton world affords. If you can overlook the class differences and inequities you might feel at home as I did, with the subtle exchanges and adhesion to starchy niceties. I’m unashamed to admit that I’ve always been one to prefer phony manners over sincere rudeness. So much in Downton Abbey is solved with walking away from discord, a simple shrug, or raised eyebrow or an inevitable cup of tea. And then life goes on (or the scene cuts to another drama). You could argue that such repression of emotions resulted in Robert Crawley’s ulcer but for my money, that world, at least streamed as entertainment (and if I tune out the class difference thing) was a tonic. The continuity of family along with the characters’ ability to morph and grow did me good. I found my tribe.

In honor of Downton’s Mrs. Patmore and the series as a whole, I played around with the unlisted cast member, the Victoria Sponge Cake. That cake, still a British classic, stole many a scene. It’s a two-layered jam, berries and whipped cream cake that was the high point of tea-time in so many scenes in the series. The recipes online for Victoria Sponge Cake are all the same and almost call for self-rising flour which 90% of us don’t have on hand. The cakes are also incredibly dry – totally inacceptable. So I swapped in the right amount of regular flour, with salt and baking powder and reworked the iconic recipe to create a moist, golden and high cake that is perfect as a week-day cake or for your next high tea.

And if you’re not a Downton Abbey fan girl, this issue also has some beautiful Rosh Hashanah baking and a nod to fall in the Pumpkin Latte Loaf (why should Starbucks steal the show?) and there’s also the Pumpkin Tollhouse Cookies (https://betterbaking.com/free-recipe-2025-pumpkin-pie-tollhouse-cookies-from-betterbaking-com/. This is just a fall sampler. The BB Recipe Archives are replete with tons of apple and honey recipes, as well as cinnamon and other spices. And for added inspiration don’t forget my two Jewish cookbooks, A Treasury of Jewish Holiday Baking, and the Newish Jewish Cookbook, both available pretty well everywhere in print and e-books.

I also remind you that the BB two-for-one special is on until the end of September and then that bargain gets tucked away until next year. If you have a few months on your account, I am happy to attach it to a new subscription. If you’re Canadian and wish to purchase via e-transfer, contact me for details.

With warm wishes, happy fall everyone, and of course, Shanah Tovah. Can you believe it’s already 5786? Time passes fast!

Marcy Goldman
Master Baker, Author, Tango Dance
www.Betterbaking.com
Est. 1997
Montreal, Canada

Recipes for September 2025

Twisted Honey Cake
https://betterbaking.com/recipe-items/twisted-honey-cake/

New Year’s’ Round Sweet Challah
https://betterbaking.com/recipe-items/new-years-round-sweet-challah-2/

Pumpkin Latte Cake
https://betterbaking.com/recipe-items/pumpkin-latte-cake/

 Downtown Abbey Victoria Sponge Cake
https://betterbaking.com/recipe-items/downton-abbey-victorian-sandwich-cake/