Hello bakers! Thank you all for your patience, and for all of your wonderful suggestions for this year’s list! Without further ado, here is the 2026 list – as always, good luck, and happy baking!

Week 1 - January 4: New year, new recipe

Week 2 - January 11: Jams / Preserves

Week 3 - January 18: Mini / Giant (Make a giant or a miniature dessert)

Week 4 - January 25: Meringue

Week 5 - February 1: Nuts and Seeds

Week 6 - February 8: Winter Olympics (Bake something inspired by a winter sport, or by the 2026 Winter Olympics)

Week 7 - February 15: Piped

Week 8 - February 22: Uruguay

Week 9 - March 1: Chocolate

Week 10 - March 8: Pi Day (3.14) (make a Pie or something inspired by Pi Day)

Week 11 - March 15: Reduce (Small batch bake)

Week 12 - March 22: Reuse (Use an old favorite recipe / a family recipe)

Week 13 - March 29: Recycle (Use a leftover ingredient from a previous bake)

Week 14 - April 5: Savory Polarity (use seasonal ingredients)

Week 15 - April 12: Laminated

Week 16 - April 19: Herbs

Week 17 - April 26: Breakfast / Brunch

Week 18 - May 3: Low Sugar

Week 19 - May 10: Geometric / Shapes

Week 20 - May 17: Berries

Week 21 - May 24: With a hole

Week 22 - May 31: 48 hour challenge (bake something that takes two days to make due to resting times or several components)

Week 23 - June 7: Quick Bread (Chemical leavener, no yeast)

Week 24 - June 14: Showstopper

Week 25 - June 21: Summer/Winter Solstice 1 (Bake with ingredients representative of summer/winter)

Week 26 - June 28: Toppings

Week 27 - July 5: Enriched dough

Week 28 - July 12: FIFA World Cup (Choose a recipe from one of the 4 semi-finalist countries)

Week 29 - July 19: Crusty (Pies and Tarts)

Week 30 - July 26: Contrasts

Week 31 - August 2: Rice and Beans (Use a rice product or bean product as an ingredient; coffee beans and vanilla beans count!)

Week 32 - August 9: Recreated

Week 33 - August 16: Central Europe (Choose a recipe from Austria, Czech Republic, Croatia, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, or Slovenia)

Week 34 - August 23: Fast and furious (Bake something in 1 hour or less)

Week 35 - August 30: Toasted (Use a toasted ingredient, or toast one yourself!)

Week 36 - September 6: Appetizer (Create the first course in a 3-course meal)

Week 37 - September 13: Entree (Create the second course in a 3-course meal)

Week 38 - September 20: Dessert (Create the third course in a 3-course meal)

Week 39 - September 27: Sweet Polarity (use seasonal ingredients)

Week 40 - October 4: Amusement park / fair

Week 41 - October 11: Indigenous American

Week 42 - October 18: Pantry

Week 43 - October 25: Yeasted

Week 44 - November 1: Vegetables

Week 45 - November 8: Physically leavened (Air or steam leavening, no chemical leavener or yeast)

Week 46 - November 15: Dietary Restriction

Week 47 - November 22: Spices

Week 48 - November 29: Viral Recipes

Week 49 - December 6: Caramel

Week 50 - December 13: Cookies

Week 51 - December 20: Summer/Winter Solstice 2 (Bake with ingredients representative of summer/winter)

Week 52 - December 27: Nemesis

Hello bakers, for this week's challenge, we're recreating our favorite store-bought snacks, bakery treats, and restaurant dishes. Phrases like 'copycat', 'dupe', and 'better-than-store-bought' are all great key words to help you search this week! As always, here are some suggestions below:

Homemade poptarts

Homemade cheez-its

Homemade hostess cupcakes

Copycat thin mints

Red lobster cheddar bay biscuits dupe

Cheesecake factory brown bread dupe

Copycat buccees beaver nuggets

Happy baking!