Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone had a great holiday!

The baking bonanza is officially over for the holiday season.  Everything went by in such a blur that I didn't even take pictures of everything I baked - something I should have done for posterity's sake.  That's okay - most will be revisited very soon, and I'll make up for it on Valentines.  Here are a few of the unique ingredients that made their way into some of my baking this season ... and will probably show up again in a few different variations!

:: (left) Handmade artisan Baileys Irish Cream truffles pressed into the centre of shortbread cookies to bake ::
:: (right) Cap'n Choco Crunch was the cereal of choice for another variation of the Fudge Krispy Truffles ::

:: (left) Making flavoured shortbread cookie by using Jell-O powder in the batter ::
:: (right) Griotte sour cherry chocolate truffles pressed into shortbread cookies to bake ::

:: Fluffernutter (left) and dark chocolate spread (right) were great compliments for shortbread cookie sandwiches ::

This only puts a dent in things, but they're definitely my favourite.  Have you had any interesting concoctions in your baking this year?

Building Our Dream (Gingerbread) Houses

I have a friend, Jenna, who knows how to throw a house party - a gingerbread house party!  It's a tradition every year that she invites her nearest and dearest to bring candy to add to the pile and decorate our very own gingerbread dreamhouses. 

If I were to live in a gingerbread house, this would be it.

Front (left) and back of the gingerbread house.

That's red licorice Nibs as roof shingles, mini M&Ms along the edge of the roof as Christmas lights, pretzels to outline windows and doors, and you'll see marshmallows on top of the chimney for smoke.  All sorts of other delicious goodies - Hershey's Hugs, Mike & Ikes, Swedish Berries, and a bunch of Christmas candies that made the whole thing festive.

 

Jenna, bless her, had invited a couple of neighbourhood kids to partake in the fun.  Since there was a whopping nine of us this year, she bought premade gingerbread house kits instead of making them from scratch.  She had plenty of wine for the grownups and soda for the kids!

The problem with drinking wine and having a menagerie of candy in front of you - you're eating while decorating.  Or throwing it at your friends.  That's me in the elf hat.  Sitting across from me is my best friend and Jenna's sister, Graham.  He keeps throwing Nibs and marshmallows at me. 

And for the finished houses ... have you ever seen a more delicious neighbourhood?

L-R: Lisa, Jenna, Phyllis, Derron, me and Graham.  I think we were trying to recreate da Vinci's 'The Last Supper', if you note Phyllis and Graham's postures.

Jenna says I won 'first prize' in the adult house decorating category, but it was all for the fun of it!  Besides, we all took home the same prize!

Thank you again, Jenna! 

Cheating the Recipe ... and Winning!

I'm very lucky that I've 'bastardized' these recipes and had some reasonable success.  It's all about trial and error sometimes.  It's more fun that way.  Come check out the latest concoctions!

I had originally found this recipe on the back of the of a bulk box of Sour Patch Zombies when I bought them for Halloween.  The recipe is incredibly simple, but patience is needed when you're moulding your little dumplings ... or whatever you'd like to do.  I've scanned the clipping for the original recipe, called 'Monster Toes'.

:: click to enlarge ::

Late Night Shortbread

So, I couldn't sleep last night with all the excitement and nerves of my BMT Youth Troupe classes performing after ten weeks.  The Theatre Tech class is having a bake sale to support the upcoming youth troupe production of Disney's Camp Rock: The Musical, and just so happens my work friend LA had let me borrow all sorts of fun baking stuff - including a guitar-shaped cookie cutter.

So, what's a girl to do when she can't sleep?  Fish out the secret family shortbread recipe and try it out for the first time.  I'd like to tell everyone at this point it was about three in the morning when I decided this.

Again, forgive the picture, it's from my iTouch.

No, I'm not giving you the recipe.  It's a family secret.  What you do see sprinkled on top are crushed rainbow candy canes, because who doesn't like candy with their shortbread?

The performances went very well, and the cookies sold out rather quickly.  Not bad for the first batch ever.  In life.  Mum, aren't you proud of me?

I'm going to bed now.

Originally posted on Design by Cassandra.

The Quickest Way To Santa's Heart - Christmas Baking!

I loved giving and receiving baked goods for the holidays.  Knowing the person took time to make it with love, and you're anything like me, you want to get every detail right in presentation.  Experimentation is always fun, too, adding different ingredients and having a little fun with different recipes.

I've been posting photos on Facebook of the stuff right out of the oven with my iTouch, with some fantastic feedback and demands for recipes.  So, I relent.  Here they are - and the best part is that you can probably mess with 'em a little yourself!

:: Banana Apple Cinnamon Tannenbaum Cakes ::