The night before Halloween, I baked a pumpkin cheesecake to serve to my childhood friends who were coming over for a board game night. Halfway through the timer, my husband commented on how amazing our apartment smelled. As we both took big whiffs of the warm, sweet aroma, I truly considered baking a second dessert just before my friends arrived to fill my home with that seasonal scent. Since I didn’t have a candle on hand, I decided to research some ways to mimic this without having to actually bake. It turns out, the old-fashioned trick I stumbled upon only required a couple of ingredients that were already in my kitchen — in girl math, that’s $0!
This trick simply involved heating some vanilla extract in the oven, which was inspired by a tried-and-true Realtor trick. I followed the instructions with slight precision (there are no exact measurements after all), adding a splash of vanilla extract, lemon zest, and water into a ceramic ramekin. I set my oven to 300°F and left the ramekin on the bottom rack for half an hour.
After almost 20 minutes, the scent was quite faint and I was worried my home would not smell like a freshly opened bakery by the time my friends arrived, like I had imagined. As I looked around my kitchen to see how I could adjust this trick, I remembered my cheesecake waiting in the fridge. In that light bulb moment, I grabbed my trusty bottle of pumpkin spice (cinnamon would work, too) and added a couple of sprinkles to the vanilla-lemon mixture.
I put it back in the oven for another 20 minutes and voilà! My kitchen and living room smelled almost exactly like the evening before. I also cracked the oven door for a couple of minutes to help the fragrance waft out and really fill the space, which also prevented us from turning on the heater during that chilly evening — a nice bonus.
This is definitely a trick I’d recommend for smaller living spaces, as the aroma needs to start from your oven and spread throughout your space to really have the intended effect, unless you’re gathering in your kitchen. But it’s also a great hack to keep up your sleeve when you’re looking for a nonwasteful way to use up the last drops of a less expensive vanilla extract or even an imitation vanilla flavoring.
And it’s certainly worth a try especially during the holiday season. With cold winter nights knocking at the door, this trick (with my pumpkin spice addition) is an easy way to get cozy at home without the mess, time, and effort most baking requires.
