Yuletide Greetings!

Christmas - the one day of the year I never plan to have an actual blog post. If there is any single day of the year that is meant to be spent with loved ones, it is Christmas, as least in my family. Christmas is a time to celebrate, be thankful, reminisce, catch up on memories, and simply enjoy some good company. And let's not forget to enjoy some great food as well - whether it be the traditional turkey dinner with all the fixings, a myriad of family favorite potluck dishes, a more contemporary holiday feast, or simply a pile of decadent sweets!!!

PHOTO CREDIT:"download"  http://thanksgiving-day-2015.com/merry-christmas-food.html. All Things Christmas, n.d. Thursday, December 24, 2015.

Single Serving Sticky Toffee Pudding

Today was the first snow day and I am really beginning to get into the festive spirit. I even received a Christmas card in the mail today. As I usually do when I have some free time, I headed to the kitchen to experiment and create a yummy snack for myself. This winning, Christmas dessert recipe is vegan, 100% whole grain, and contains no refined sugars!

Single Serving Sticky Toffee Pudding
STICKY TOFFEE SAUCE
1 Tablespoon smooth nut butter (I highly recommend a really smooth one for this so the sauce doesn't end up gritty - peanut and cashew are good choices. Even smooth almond butter is a bit grainy)
2 Tablespoons blackstrap molasses (can substitute 1 Tablespoon maple syrup and 1 Tablespoon molasses for a slight mapley and sweeter taste. Molasses is essential to gingerbread recipes but can leave a very robust taste)
1 Tablespoon coconut oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
PUDDING
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
pinch salt
1 flax egg (1 Tablespoon ground flaxseed stirred into 3 Tablespoons water. Let stand in refrigerator for at least 15 minutes)
2 Tablespoons raisins 
2/3 of sticky toffee sauce from above

SAUCE: In a small bowl or mug, place the nut butter, molasses, oil, and vanilla. Microwave in HIGH (100% power) for 30 seconds until bubbling and melted together stir. Set aside.
PUDDING: In a small bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, cocoa, ginger, cinnamon, and salt. Stir in the egg, raisins, and approximately 2/3 of the sauce from above.
Place the remaining sauce in a large, wide microwave-safe mug (you can make the sauce right in the mug initially to save on cleanup and ensure you get every drop of the sauce). Spoon the pudding batter over top. Microwave in HIGH (100% power) for one minute until risen and firm. Allow to cool a minute, run a knife around the sides of the pudding, invert onto a plate, ensuring all the sauce is drizzled on top, and dig in!

I live alone, so I am used to making individual servings on things. I am sure the recipe could be scaled up, and baked in a pan in the oven successfully as well. I like the robust molasses taste (not to mention blackstrap molasses is quite nutritious), but feel free to add in other sweeteners if you wish. You may also alter the spice amount and type (cloves and nutmeg would be nice too). You won't taste the nut butter in it, nor notice it is whole wheat.

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! Today was the first Thanksgiving I have ever spent away from home, without my family. I did not have a big turkey dinner, but there is a potluck turkey dinner scheduled at my school for Wednesday, which I will definitely go to. Despite being alone this Thanksgiving, I still have a great deal to be thankful for. 

I am thankful for family, friends, food, my great school, the amazing internship I had this summer, a place to call home, my possessions, my cat, my health, the beautiful city I currently live in as well as the town I call home, my freedom, and so much more. 

PHOTO CREDIT:"happy-thanksgiving" http://crooksandliars.com/2014/11/happy-thanksgiving-crooks-and-liars.Crooks and Liars, n.d. Monday, October 12, 2015. 

St. Patrick's Poke Cake

Happy Saint Patrick's Day! Tomorrow, I will feature a full Saint Patrick's Day feast. But for today, here is a simple cake I made in honor of the occasion. It is another one of those moist poke cakes - where you bake a cake, then pierce holes in it all over and pour dissolved gelatin powder (of the desired color/flavor) over the cake, allowing it to soak in the flavor and moisture. This idea works well for all holidays, as you simply need to choose a color to match the occasion (orange for Halloween, red and green for Christmas, raspberry, cherry, or strawberry for Valentine's Day, etc.)
The process is very easy:

1. Prepare one white cake (it needs to be white otherwise the color will not show). It can be baked in any size or shape pan and it need not be cooled. Pierce the cake all over with a fork.
2. Dissolve one package of the desired gelatin powder in one cup of boiling water.
3. Stir in 1/2 cup cold water.
4. Pour the gelatin over the cake, allowing it to soak into the cake.
5. Decorate the cake as desired.

I have made a few cakes like this before, my {Orange Poke Cake} and my {Christmas Layer Cake}. The Christmas cake was nice because layering it allows you to use two different colors. I decided to leave this cake plain, but poke cakes may also be frosted, garnished with whipped cream, or drizzled with a glaze, and adorned with sprinkles, chopped nuts, or fruit. 

Seasons Greetings!

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Seasons Greetings! This is the one day of the year where I really take a break from food blogging, set an automatic update, and just post a quick little message to wish everyone a great day! Enjoy time spent with loved ones, and some great feasts. Whether you opt for the traditional turkey dinner with all the trimmings, or a different family tradition, something unconventional, or even a really good pizza - enjoy it along with some great desserts and great memories made with loved ones. 

PHOTO CREDIT:"images" http://www.mudgeefinefoods.com.au/category/newsletter/. Mudgee Fine Foods, n.d. Wednesdayday, December 24, 2014.

Easter Cupcakes

Happy Easter Everyone!
In lieu of an elaborate Easter cake, which is what I normally make every year, I decided to go with some simple Easter cupcakes this year. I have already done bunny cakes, a chick cake, and a basket cake, but I have never done them as cupcakes, and I had a few more ideas up my sleeve as well. I made some red velvet cupcakes, as I have already made several carrot cakes and chocolate cakes, and red velvet is I flavor I have never made before; for which I will definitely be sharing the recipe soon. Then I made some cream cheese icing, which is a classic pairing for red velvet cake. Cream cheese frosting is a bit softer and more difficult to pipe with, but it is a good flavor for spring, and a good choice if you don't need to pipe borders or anything. Next I went to town on the decorations. 
Clockwise, starting from "12 o'clock":

• Bunny Butt cupcake with green icing in a grass tip and white icing in a star tip. If you don't get it, just search bunny butt cupcakes or cakes and you'll see many similar, but more elaborate, creations.
• Bunny cupcake using white frosting, candy coated chocolates, and frosting coated thin cookies as ears.
• Bird's Nest cupcake with chocolate cream cheese frosting in a grass tip, yellow piped chicks, and candy coated chocolate eggs.
• Chick cupcake with yellow frosting in a swirl tip and candy coated chocolate eye and beak.
• Egg Nest with green grass tip piping and candy-coated chocolate eggs.
• Lamb cupcake (not Santa) with white frosting in an open round tip and candy eyes and nose.
• Easter Basket cupcake with chocolate cream cheese frosting piped in a basket weave design and chocolate eggs. If you have a piece of licorice on hand, use it for the basket handle (I didn't have any).
• Easter Egg with white frosting and candy and sprinkle decorations.
• Happy Easter cupcake in the center with green icing base and yellow piping.

I made two of each cupcake, but only one Happy Easter cupcake. Pictured here are all of the "better halves". I also have individual pictures of each, so if you want to see a close-up, let me know.

Valentine's Day Parfaits

Well, I'm not sure these exactly fit the definition of a parfait, but the name did rhyme off the tongue nicely, and it also happens to be the French word for perfect, which I thought fit nicely. Anyways, I strongly believe there is not better way to celebrate Valentine's Day than with chocolate (and a loved one of course) so I always make Valentine's desserts that are heavy on the chocolate. I created this dessert collection from an idea I saw in several different places - basically a type of chocolate parfait, that contains chocolate as well as other flavors such as fruit, nuts, coffee, vanilla, and more in an edible dish that is essentially a bowl or cup made out of chocolate. Each parfait has a unique, special title or flavor profile, and the general structure of the parfait consists of a base ingredients, add-ons, a filling of some sort, and garnish. The base ingredients could include pieces of cake, cookie, or nuts; the add-ons could be fruit, nuts, or chocolate pieces; the filling could be a mousse, yogurt, ganache, or whipped cream; garnishes could be chocolate shapes, caramel shapes, mint leaves, or more; and flavor options include vanilla, mocha, fruit, and chocolate. Here are the creations I came up with:

Chocolate Champion: chocolate brownie pieces, chocolate ganache, chocolate flakes, chocolate filigree.




Fruit Fiesta: oranges, strawberries, blueberries, cherries yogurt, honey. 

Nice 'n Nutty: whole almonds, ground walnuts, pecan pieces, shredded coconut, peanut butter chocolate ganache, hazelnuts.

Strawberry Shortcake: shortbread cookie pieces, strawberries, yogurt, cinnamon, honey.

These are all served in edible white and dark chocolate lace cups, which I featured yesterday! Happy Valentine's Day everyone, and enjoy some chocolate! < 3 

Happy 2014!

Another year has come and gone - 2013 is over already and 2014 has begun! In 2013, I yet again published a post everyday, so I have 365 posts that year. Of those, 34 posts are written in French, marking the first year I have posts published in a language other than English. This brings me to a grand total of 893 posts! Hopefully I will continue publishing a post every day in 2014 as well. Though I always foresee some roadblocks, I am sure I can work past them. Unless I happen to loose internet for several weeks (knock on wood). I am also looking forward to printing off another year's worth of my blog posts into a book format. I am a year behind, since I wanted to make sure the year was finished before printing, and also because I only discovered this idea last year. So I have my book of posts from 2011 already (which wasn't a full year of blogging) and I am going to work on getting my book from 2012 soon. I'll likely end up with the 2013 book next year. 

I just wanted to take this time to say Happy New Year to everyone. Here's to new beginnings and a fresh start. Cherish the past, live in the present, and dream for the future. I may be giving this blog a fresh new look in the near future, maybe changing the format, layout, or colors of the page. If I can figure out the technical aspects of it and make it work. Anyways, I hope everyone had a great year in 2013, and all the best in the coming year! 

PHOTO CREDIT:"2014" http://www.dietsinreview.com/diet_column/12/our-top-food-trend-predictions-for-2014/. Diets In Review, n.d. Tuesday, December 31, 2013.

Dutch Doughnuts

Here are the Dutch Ollie Bollen our Dutch family traditionally makes every New Year's Eve. We have been making them for the past four years - ever since we got a deep-fryer. A better explanation of Ollie Bollen can be found in my past two posts: {2011} and {2012}.
We have tried plain Ollie Bollen, apple, raisin, raisin and apple, candied fruit, and chocolate chip. The conclusion? Plain are a bit too plain, apple adds a little moistness and flavor but still lacks a little, raisin are good, apple and raisin are better, candied fruit are good but very sticky, and chocolate chip are delicious but not ideal for doing large batches, as it is also messy. How do you like your Ollie Bollen?

Ollie Bollen 
1/4 cup warm water
1 1/2 Tablespoons granulated (white) sugar
1 package yeast
1 large egg, beaten
3/4 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups all-purpose (plain) flour
raisins and/or diced, peeled apple (1-2 cups total) 
oil for deep-frying
icing sugar for dusting 

In a large bowl, stir together the water and sugar. Sprinkle yeast over top, let stand for ten minutes until frothy. Stir to dissolve. 
Beat in next seven ingredients. Allow dough to rise for an hour and a half until doubled in bulk. 
Heat oil to 375◦F. Drop dough by tablespoon into the oil. Cook until crispy, a few minutes per side. Drain on paper towels then coat in icing sugar. 

Best of 2013

It is the end of another year, which is a time when I like to reflect upon all of my accomplishments of the year. Below I have provided a list of my top five posts from each month. These are posts I feel were either the tastiest, the most difficult yet successful, the most popular, or the most presentable. It is no coincidence that yet again, many of them are cakes and cupcakes, which are my most impressive showpieces. Also the majority of them are desserts, mostly chocolate. I guess that is what I like to make the most!

January 2013: Chocolate Éclairs, Chocolate Cheese Coconut Pie, Link Cake, Chocolate Coffee Squares, Mini Multigrain Pitas.
February 2013: Striped Nutella Cheesecake Squares, Tomato Heart Appetizers, Big Bang Birthday Cake, Heart Shaped Auction Cake, Hot Chocolate Brownies. 
March 2013: Nutella Kissed Brownies, Chocolate Caramel Miniature Pies, Truck Flower & Heart Cupcakes, Catan Cupcakes, Easter Celebration Cake. 
April 2013: Another Big Bang Cake, Applesauce Cereal Chip Muffins, Mini Broccoli &Mushroom Quiches, Cinnamon Roll Swirl Cake, S'more Bars with Caramel Drizzle.
May 2013: Christopher's Graduation Cake, Brownie Graduation Hats, Crustless Mixed Vegetable Quiche, Zebra Cake, Blueberry Pie Bars.
June 2013: Cake #3 - Made By Me, Multigrain Crêpes with Yogurt & Fruit, Lovely Lemon Bar Cookies, Mock Apple Pie, Oreo Peanut Butter Brownie Cups.
July 2013: I was away for the entire month of July. Therefore, all my my posts are not aboutmy baking, but about food, and they are all in French. (Touts mes message sont en français!) 
August 2013: Chocolate Revel Bars, Purple Wedding Congratulations Cake, Mocha Choco Oat No-Bake Cookies, Mom's Tulip Cake, Awards 2012.
September 2013: Mini Doughnut Cupcakes, One Hour Cinnamon Rolls, Original Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte, Chocolate Carrot Mini Cupcakes, Blueberry Pancakes For One.
October 2013: Education Cake, Mini Black Forest Cake - German, Mini Black Forest Cake - American, Caramel Apple Coffee Bars, Heavenly Hash Brownies, Cranberry Ribbon Loaf.
November 2013: Prinzregenten Torte, Marshmallow Reese Blondies, Falafel, Nerd Cupcakes, High Protein Bar Cookies.
December 2013: Deceptive Deep Dish Cookie Pie, Espresso Mocha Swirl Loaf, Triple Chocolate Protein Bars, Kite Cake, Plum Pudding.

My most popular posts of the year were: Big Bang Birthday Cake {February 21st}, Brownie Graduation Hats {May 7th}, Purple Wedding Congratulations Cake {August 12th}, Zebra Cake {May 19th}, and Awards 2013 {August 29th}. 
To follow these links click on the date listed after each!

Gingerbread Family

Every year when my mother makes up her gingerbread cookie dough for Christmas, she makes some trees and stars and bells, but she also makes some people. Each member of the family gets a person to decorate themselves - loading it up as much or as little as pleases them! This year my brothers were not around at the time to decorate their cookies, so I dd for them, trying to match their cookie-decorating habits. Since they weren't around, they both got extra big gingerbread men. The top left and middle are my brothers' cookies - one decorated more than the other (with chocolate), the one next to it is my father's, the bottom left is my mother's, the bottom middle is mine (all chocolate) and the bottom right is an extra, yet to be decorated. We usually use candy-coated chocolates, chocolate pieces, and sprinkles to decorate our gingerbread and decorate them before baking. This is just another little example of Christmas tradition and baking. How do you like your gingerbread? 

Happy Holidays

I just wanted to take this time to say Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and a Happy New Year to everyone. Looking back, Christmas seems to be the only day of the year where I do not publish an actual blog post. I figure it's Christmas - a time to celebrate and a time better spent with family and friends. It's a day where everyone deserves a break. So I hope everyone has a relaxing, enjoyable day spent with loved ones. And while you're at it, be sure to enjoy some holiday treats and great food (especially if it's grandma's). Turkey dinner with all the trimmings, eggnog, fruitcake, pudding, cookies, drinks, bread, hors d'ouevres, just to name a few. I'm sure you have been enjoying my Christmas recipes and food posts, whether they are from this year, last year or two years ago.

Happy Holidays to all!!!

PHOTO CREDIT:"images" http://www.thefoodmentalist.com/2011/12/christmas-vanilla-bean-shortbread.html. 123RF, n.d. Monday, December 23, 2013.

Plum Pudding

The past two years I have made a Christmas pudding recipe around Christmastime. Keeping with tradition, I decided to do this again, and this year I chose plum pudding. Traditionally, plum pudding does not actually contain any plums at all - in the seventeenth century, plums referred to raisins or dates or other dried fruits, or the definition of a plum was that of any dried fruit. However, nowadays I have seen two different types of plum pudding recipes - the traditional with dried fruit, or the modern with real canned plums and white bread. Both seem to have in common spices, fruit, molasses, and a warm sauce to serve.

As I often do, I decided to take the best of both worlds. I took a traditional plum pudding recipe, but I wanted to add plums to it. This proved to be a difficult task, as plums are not easy to find this year. I didn't find the canned I was looking for, nor fresh or frozen. The solution I came up with - dried plums. Which, yes, are actually prunes. Therefore, they are more like dates, keeping with the traditional recipe. I also decided to bake the pudding, instead of the traditional method of steaming. 

Plum Pudding
1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted
2 large eggs, beaten
3/4 cup molasses
1/4 cup orange juice
1/4 cup granulated (white) sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups all-purpose (plain) flour
1 1/2 cups raisins
1 1/2 cups chopped prunes
1 1/3 cups cut mixed peel

Preheat oven 350◦F. Grease an 8x8 inch square pan (an 8 inch round pan would also work).
In a large bowl, beat together the butter, eggs, molasses, and juice. Beat in the sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, and salt. Stir in all but 1/4 cup of the flour.
Toss the fruit with the remaining 1/4 cup flour to prevent it from sticking. Mix it in.
Spread batter evenly in prepared pan. Bake for 40-45 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Best served warm with a warm sauce. Can be reheated.

Tomorrow I will feature the sauce recipe I served with my plum pudding. 

Gingerbread Snowman

Here is another Christmas gingerbread creation that was inspired by a lack of resources, a lack of time, and a lack of patience. You see, we were supposed to be creating full, free-standing gingerbread houses. The gingerbread dough was already done, but needed to be cut and baked. Then quickly cooled, assembled, and decorated with icing that was yet to be made. All of this was to be completed within a period of about an hour and a half. That would be no easy feat. We could not decide what type of house to make, or how to cut the dough, or what template to use, but knew it had to be quickly baked so it could be quickly cooled. So we rolled the dough out to fit a cookie sheet and baked it that way. Because we had a lot of dough, but not enough to make a big house, and the dough was still fairly warm, we weren't confident in assembling a house. We also wanted to try something a little different than the typical gingerbread house; in stores these days you'll see trains, carousals, and more. So the idea to cut the gingerbread rectangle into a snowman was formed, giving us the leftover corners to munch on. A gingerbread snowman was much quicker and easier to decorate, and there were no worries of stability issues.
As you can see, this is not a very elaborately decorated gingersnowman, but it could be. It could be completely frosted to make it white if desired. Candies, chocolates, jelly beans, sprinkles, coconut, and more could be used for decoration. Licorice makes great arms. 

Christmas Iced Sugar Cookies

These are some Christmas sugar cookies a friend of mine made to share with her friends. They are in some cute Christmas shapes and intricately decorated - that would have taken some time and effort, especially considering the number of colors she used. You can see a teddy bear, some hearts, a reindeer, and a tree here. The teddy bear was made especially for me apparently - white icing and chocolate chips because my friend knows I prefer to avoid artificial coloring whenever possible. When we asked her what kind of cookies they were, she wasn't really sure. She had just searched for a Christmas cookie recipe. They are likely a simple sugar cookie recipe, but we concluded we would call them "Jocelyn" cookies, after her, since she put her own little spin on them and decorated them so beautifully. Did I mention they were very tasty? 

Another Gingerbread House

Here is another quick little gingerbread house I made with a few others. This gingerbread dough is actually from scratch and cut-out by hand. To do this, we whipped up a batch if gingerbread cookie dough, then rolled it out to fit on a cookie sheet. We decided it would be easier to cut out the shapes after baking rather than before. This proved to be true, the only problem with this is there may be more waste or not enough dough for all the pieces, as scraps cannot be re-rolled. Oh well, that just means more little pieces to eat and taste! This house is pretty simplistic, and just uses a can of frosting and some bagged candy. So the walls are just long pentagon shapes, decorated with licorice trip, jelly beans, colored sprinkles, and chocolate squares for doors and windows. We kept it pretty simple since it was demolished and eaten pretty quickly, but I though I would share since Christmas is fast approaching. Every gingerbread house is different!

Choco Marshmallow Cereal Trees

This chocolate marshmallow treat could not be simpler and faster to make! Only four ingredients that all get mixed together and formed. No baking or pans required. It is not exactly a Christmas recipe, but was turned into one sort of by mistake. As with many icebox cookie doughs as well, which are chilled in a log then sliced to bake, when you roll it into a log, it doesn't always stay perfectly round, especially while resting on a refrigerator shelf. Sometimes this can be overcome by placing the dough in a paper tube, such as an empty paper towel roll, but some doughs are thicker than that. So in this case, when my mother took the log out of the fridge after chilling, it was not a perfectly round log. It was a bit trickier to form this into a round log since it is cereal treats and not a dough, so it turned out to be sort of triangular shaped. No problem here, now the slices simply look like Christmas trees! Especially since the marshmallows seem to end up one the inside of the log, so they look like little ornaments. See, sometimes mistakes are awesome! 

Choco Marshmallow Cereal Trees
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, melted
1/2 cup milk chocolate chips, melted
2 cups miniature marshmallows
2 cups crisp rice cereal

Mix all ingredients together. Turn mixture onto waxed paper and shape into a log, approximately eighteen inches long. Wrap tightly and chill for at least one hour, until firm, before slicing. 

The types of chocolate may be varied, additional chocolate chips or chopped nuts may be mixed in with the cereal, and the form may be varied - try putting it in a pan like squares, rolling into balls, eating as is, or making trees!

Cozy Christmas Cookies

Here is an array of lovely Christmas cookies given to me by my boyfriend's mother. There are four different types and she baked them all. The snowman on the right and the bell in the middle are almond cookies, the circular ones on the left and right are thumbprint cookies with jam in the middle, the sandwich cookies with the heart and star filled with jam in the middle are linzer cookies, or at least something similar, and the squares are chocolate two-layer squares with jam in the middle and a simple icing. I believe at least one of these cookies is a German type of cookie, and all of these cookies are definitely delicious. Coincidentally (or not) the ornament pictured with the plate of cookies was a gift from Germany. 
Anyway, plates of sweets, especially decorative cookies, around this time of year seem to be popular gifts, and one I certainly appreciate. Especially when the sweets are as tasty as these! :)

Gingerbread Train

Every year, our family decorates a gingerbread house. We buy a simple, inexpensive kit from the grocery store, divide up the decorating equally, then put it together. We have tried to get a slightly different kit each year, but it is difficult to find many more different variations on the standard house. So this year we did something a little different and decided to go with a gingerbread train that we found with the houses. They are beginning to put some new, different kits out there, not simply houses and people, but also trains, carousals, sleighs, and trees. I think the carousal is pretty cute, almost like a Christmas merry-go-round, so maybe we'll try that one next year. 

As I have said in previous years, we never eat any of the gingerbread house, we simply decorate it and put it on display for Christmas, and well, sometimes it doesn't come down until nearly Easter time. It doesn't go bad since it is all sugar and preservatives, and that is another reason we do not eat it. My mother makes her own gingerbread cookies that we usually munch on while decorating. I have considered making the gingerbread dough for the kit myself, but it would be a lot of effort and ingredients wasted since we don't eat it anyway, plus we would need to purchase candies and make royal icing as well. 

The train seemed a bit more tedious to put together than a house, and initially had some stability issues as usual. The plastic tray provided to use as the base wasn't ideal, since it didn't really allow room for the wheels, so instead we just used a white piece of cardboard. The train stays up now, and looks quite nice on its platform.
I decorated the roof and the sides of the main train. I decorated the gingerbread man, which was not included in the kit but it was my idea to use one of my mother's gingerbread cookies. I wanted to prop him up a bit in the coal car, and thought it might be cool to add some coal. Chocolate chips were ideal, but that's a waste of good chocolate chips, so my father came up with the idea of using crumpled up balls of black construction paper. It's always funny how the kit contains candies of a variety of different colors, but always seems to be short on red and green candies. 

If you would like to check out the houses from the past two years, just follow these links:  2011 and 2012.

Christmas Baking Begins

It is now December, which means my mother began her Christmas baking the other day. She always begins way before me, and we enjoy some cookies hot from the oven, then she packages and freezes the rest. We use them to send to neighbors, to serve to company, and to enjoy the leftovers ourselves into the new year. I do most of my baking closer to Christmas and tend to serve the baked goods fresh. This is because my mother makes mostly different types of Christmas cookies, and of course I cannot forget her delicious chocolate fruitcake. I tend to make other items such as Panettone, my Christmas fruit bread, and pudding - figgy, sticky toffee, etc., and sometimes a Christmas cake. 

My mother has her classic, tried-and-true recipes she stands by and makes each yea. She also likes to try one or two new recipes each year, which sometimes become new family favorites and replace old ones. I have provided the links to the different goodies below, some have a recipe included, but some are family stand-bys and do not. Sorry!

Each year we have:  Gingerbread People, Gingerbread Cookies, Kiss Cookies, Button Cookies, Shortbread Cookies, Chocolate Shortbread Cookies, Sugar Cookies (though these aren't the Christmas version here, they are pictured below and are the same recipe) Chocolate Fruitcake, Shreddies Mix.

Other Christmas cookies I have made throughout the years include:  Iced Ginger Cookies, Chrismtas Checkerboard Cookies, Ginger Crinkles, and Candy Cane Biscotti.

Other Christmas treats that have been made by me or others include:  Eggnog Muffins, Hot Cocoa, Fruitcake Cookies, Sticky Toffee Pudding, Panettone Gifts, Panettone, Brownie Gifts, Merrfy Fruit Squares, Figgy Pudding, and Candy Cane Brownies.

This picture was taken a few days ago, so the count down until Christmas now reads 24 days!