Having trouble with today's NYT Strand puzzle? Today's puzzle, "By the dozen," was not immediately obvious, and I had a very hard time figuring it out myself

Below are the hints and solutions to Strand #101 I will start with the hints and then lead you to the full solution of Strand #101, so please read it if you have any trouble

WARNING: There are spoilers for Strand #101

The official theme for NYT Strands #101 is "By the Dozen"

And here's an unofficial hint from me: "sweet treats"

If you're still in the dark, here are a few useful words that will give you valuable hint tokens:

Still struggling? Spangram gives you a hint on conjunctions Today it starts with "D" and ends with "S"

Scroll down to see what it is

DOUGHNUTS

So what is the answer to today's Strand game #101

Drum roll please

Spangram was DOUGHNUTS

Strands #101

"By the dozen"

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Hello Strands fans! This was tricky for non-Americans! In the UK, Krispy Kreme and other doughnuts are sold by the "dozen", but most stores don't have the same number link

Therefore, it was especially difficult because the first word - JELLY - is also not called that in the UK (it would be "jam doughnut" here) As a result, I reached for the first clue and found "CAKE", and then reached for another clue and found "HOLE" Huh?

Thankfully, at this point I had closed the board enough to get spangrams (DOUGHNUTS) and could muddle the tea I knew there were powder donuts, so I got those along the bottom, and GLAZED to the left of them easily

FROSTED in the top half was another word I had heard in connection with donuts, but there are no CIDER donuts in the UK

If I had been more familiar with American donut terminology, that might have been interesting!

Reading this late in the day? You can read the full article on Strand's solution to yesterday's 100th puzzle here