Sweet Relief: Desserts to Eat When You're Sick

Being sick, to coin a phrase from the cinematic classic known as Wayne's World, blows goats. It's boring, you feel terrible, and you can't do the stuff you love. But being sick does not mean that you cannot eat dessert.

While I was sick recently, I was able to assemble some sweet findings on the most appropriate sweets to eat to ensure that you stay on the road to recovery in the most delicious way possible. What follows is a highly scientific report*.

* Not Really, Dopey! CakeSpy is not a doctor. If you are very sick, you may need more than just dessert to heal you. Go to the doctor!

Sore Throat / Coughing: Stick with soft stuff. While dairy may irritate some, others find the "coating" effect on the throat soothing. If you're one of the ones that is not irritated by dairy, then lucky you: it's milkshake and popsicle season. The coldness will numb and soothe; the sweetness will be delicious. Personally, I enjoy an Egg Cream when I have a sore throat; the bubbles somehow feel like they're "breaking up" whatever ails me, and, well, I really enjoy Egg Creams, too. Interestingly, salt can help kill bacteria, so if you want candy, a salted caramel or two might actually help. Also highly appropriate: gelato, pudding, panna cotta, sorbet, any soft dessert with lemon (such as pudding or custard or lemon curd). Drizzling honey on top of your treat is highly suggested, too.

Cold / Flu: People are always eating chicken soup when they have colds. But personally, I advocate doughnut soup. It's warm and soothing, and much more satisfying than that savory stuff. Green tea is also proven to up your antioxidants, which help soothe a cold--so why not get yourself some green tea ice cream or shortbread (or both)? Since the high vitamin count in fruits such as strawberries are also good for colds, I would also highly advocate strawberry shortcake. Honey and nuts, both key ingredients in Baklava, can also lessen congestion. 

Muscle Cramps: When it comes to tight, achy muscle pains, the key ingredients to relief are Potassium (including bananas, beets, and oranges!), Salt (speaks for itself), and Magnesium (including foods like dark chocolate, almonds, and oats). In DessertSpeak, that means "thou must eat Banana Cream Pie, topped with Salted Caramel and dark chocolate" (it exists!). Of course, you could also make banana pudding and use oatmeal cookies instead of nilla wafers, eat some chocolate-beet cake, enjoy an orange chocolate tart with a little salt added to the crust, or--my favorite potassium-salt-magnesium powerhouse: enjoy a banana split with crushed-up pretzels on top.

Headaches: Hey, I don't care why your head is in pain. If your head is hurting, some get relief from nutmeg, sesame seeds, almonds, and yogurt. Your dessert translation? Spice cake; a yogurt parfait with almonds, broken-up sesame seed candy and some honey (for yumminess); this nutmeg-maple cream pie also strikes me as highly restorative.

Stomach trouble: Ugh, something's rumbly in your tumbly and it's not pleasurable. How do you still get your sweet fix while helping to cure yourself? Ginger is very soothing on an upset stomach--in my opinion, make it candied, because a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down. In general though, you want to keep it simple. Many advocate the BRAT (Bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast) diet; in that spirit of keeping it simple, I suggest banana jumbos, rice pudding, apple pudding, and cinnamon sugar toast.

CakeSpy Mischief: A Gentle Art Installation in Sweet Cookbooks

What can I say? Even the sweetest of spies have sour days sometimes.

But recently when I found myself feeling not-so-swell, I decided to steer my destiny in a sweet direction and brighten my own day by adding a little magic to other people's lives.

How did I do it? It was very simple.

I grabbed a little stack of index cards, and wrote little notes on them--just little sweet reminders such as "you're sweet", "you are loved", and "you deserve something sweet!". 

And then I walked over to the book store, where I put the notes inside of some of my favorite books. The idea? People who pick up books I like will find a special surprise in the pages. Obviously if they've chosen the magical books I favor, they will appreciate having a little extra sweet something hidden within the pages. And the cards are slim; there was not going to be any damage to the books. It's all good stuff, people.

I did several of these notes, but here are some highlights:

Walking to the bookstore in my cute boots

Naturally, Bakerella's book had to be involved!

And of course, Krystina Castella's, too!

And (duh) mine too!

If you found one, I hope it made your day a little sweeter! I know that doing this made mine much nicer. Well, that and the ice cream sundae I ate after doing this (after all, being a do-gooder requires a lot of energy!).

If you liked this project, you may also get some joy from this faux cupcake installation I did a while back, too!