Snowman Cake

I made this cute cake for my son's preschool holiday party.  I am honestly so proud of it, it took about 6 hours total and turned out just as I had imagined it.  The top tier of the cake was chocolate, bottom was vanilla.  I made the little snowmen out of modeling chocolate, which is a dream to work with.  The snowflakes were cut out of fondant and dusted with luster dust (also completely awesome).

I usually make my own marshmallow fondant, but I used Satin Ice fondant, which actually tasted pretty good, I would definitely use this over Wilton fondant again.  The fondant did start to crack from the pressure of the top tier since I stacked the cake the night before.  I think next time I would transport and then do finishing touches.

The cake was a hit, I actually got more of a reaction from the parents then the kids.  So many lovely compliments, it really made my day and all the effort totally worthwhile.

Happy holidays!!!

Photo courtesy of Studio Six Photography

Peppermint White Chocolate Meringues

Ah, these are awesome.  They might just be my new favorite Christmas cookie.  Even my husband, who doesn't like meringues, thought these were amazing.  They're a perfect combination of a chewy meringue, white chocolate, and sweet peppermint candy.  We ate the first batch so fast I can't wait to make another. 

I actually don't particularly care for white chocolate these days, but something about the combination of peppermint and white chocolate is delectable.  I dipped these lovely little sweets in a fringe of dark chocolate as well, and let me tell you, they are heaven.  Love love love.

The only thing I did a little differently is I ran the candy canes through my Bullet to make it more of a powder than coarsely crushed.  My teeth don't do well with super crunchy so this was a good solution to make them easier to eat.

White Christmas Dream Drops
from Sunset 
 

2 large egg whites, at room temperature
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup white chocolate chips
1/3 cup plus 1 1/2 tbsp. coarsely crushed peppermint candies (mine were powdery, I ran them through my Bullet)


Preheat oven to 250°. Beat egg whites and cream of tartar in a deep bowl with a mixer, using whisk attachment if you have one, just until soft peaks form. Add vanilla and salt. With motor running and mixer on high speed, pour in 1 tbsp. sugar and beat 10 to 15 seconds, then repeat until all sugar has been added. Scrape inside of bowl and beat another 15 seconds. At this point, meringue should form straight peaks when beaters are lifted. Fold in chocolate chips and 1/3 cup candies with a flexible spatula.

Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper, using a bit of meringue at corners as glue. Using a soup spoon, drop meringue in rounded 1-tbsp. portions slightly apart onto sheets, scraping off with another spoon. Sprinkle with remaining 1 1/2 tbsp. candies.

Bake until meringues feel dry and set when touched but are still pale, 30 to 35 minutes, switching pan positions halfway through. Turn off oven, open door, and let cookies stand about 10 minutes. Let cool on pans.


If you're feeling like an extra hit of chocolate, dip these in good quality melted chocolate and let dry on the parchment.

Make ahead: Up to 2 days, stored airtight.

Christmas Sugar Cookies

I have an insanely long list of Christmas cookies that I plan to make this holiday season.  I doubt I'll get around to even half of them, but I knew I wanted to make my favorite sugar cookies.  I love decorating cookies, and there is so much inspiration on the Internet.  One of my favorite websites is Glorious Treats.  Her cookies are simply gorgeous.  I have honestly been waiting all year to make her pastel snowflake cookies, and once December arrived these are the first cookies I made.

Decorating sugar cookies isn't hard, but holy smokes is it time consuming.  Set aside several hours for decorating, at least.  If you want to do piping on top of the fill color, you ideally need to wait about six to eight hours for the base to dry.  I use royal icing to do the frosting, using meringue powder.  I sort of go by Wilton's recipe but I find I need to at least double the amount of water, maybe it depends on the powder I'm using.  Consistency is key, so if you've never decorated sugar cookies before check out one of the many excellent online tutorials.

 

 Tyler and Laura's Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies

from Cafe Blue Ridge

1 C sugar
1C butter, softened
3 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. almond extract
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 egg yolk

2 C plain flour

In large bowl, use mixer to cream butter with sugar, then cream cheese. Add next 4 ingredients, blending well, then add flour and mix until incorporated. Refrigerate 1 to 2 hours, this makes the dough easy to roll. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

On lightly floured surface, roll out dough, one-third at a time, to desired thickness, and cut into shapes with lightly floured cookie cutters. If you really want the cookies to hold their shape, place cookies on a parchment lined cookie sheet and refrigerate for about 20 minutes, then put directly into pre-heated oven.  Depending on the size of your cookies, this recipe makes 4 dozen or so.

Place 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake 10 minutes or so, until they begin to brown lightly at the edges. Cool a few minutes in the pan, then transfer to rack.

Eggnog Cupcakes

If you adore eggnog as I do, you must must MUST make these!  I got the recipe from Bake and Destroy, and quite simply, they rule.  Bursting with eggnog flavor, I made these for my Iron Cupcake Challenge this month.  The cupcakes are moist and buttery rich, and the frosting is to die for.

Do make sure to use freshly ground nutmeg for these.  I never used to get whole nutmeg, but it's so worth the little bit of extra effort to grate it yourself (I use my microplane).  I have pre-ground nutmeg and it doesn't even smell like nutmeg now that I use the fresh stuff.

I added a snowflake sugar cookie on top to go with the winter/holiday theme, and made some cupcake wrappers to finish them off.   Cute, festive, and oh so yummy!

Eggnog Cupcakes
from Bake and Destroy


1 3/4 cups cake flour, not self-rising
1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch cubes
4 large eggs
1 cup eggnog
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract


Preheat your oven to 325 and line two cupcake pans with paper liners. In a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, mix all the dry ingredients together. Mix butter pieces in until they’re coated with the flour mixture.
Mix eggs, eggnog and vanilla together in a large glass measuring cup. Add to dry ingredients gradually until mixed. Don’t over mix!
Fill cups 2/3 full and bake 17-22 minutes or until golden brown and the tops spring back when lightly touched. Cool in pans about 5 minutes then cool completely on wire rack.

Eggnog frosting:

2 sticks butter, room temperature
4-6 cups confectioners sugar
1/4 cup – 1/2 cup eggnog (I used about 1/3 cup to get it to piping consistency)
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
pinch salt


Mix butter and sugar on medium speed. Add nutmeg and salt. Pour in eggnog gradually until frosting is spreadable. Add eggnog and sugar to taste and to desired consistency. Add less eggnog if you plan on piping the frosting on.

Linked to:
Sweets for a Saturday
Mrs Foxs' Sweet Party 
Seasonal Inspirations 
Strut Your Stuff Saturday

Tartine's Buche De Noel

Merry Christmas everyone!!  We had a great Christmas Eve with loads of gifts for all, and my dear sis is currently working on our Christmas dinner in the kitchen.  After I got the Tartine cookbook a few months ago, I decided I simply  had to make a Buche De Noel for Christmas.  I didn't expect mine to turn out as lovely as Tartine's, but their instructions are very detailed so I figured how hard can it be?

This is probably the longest recipe I have ever attempted, and it take quite a bit of time.  I made the actual log the day before, and the decorations on Christmas Day.  But nothing about it is terribly difficult, although I should mention we skipped the meringe mushrooms since I didn't have the right tip size for piping and obviously nothing is open today.  C'est la vie, I used a cute chocolate Santa as well as some white nonpareils instead.

The log ends up being really long so we made two buche de noels since I didn't have a serving platter that was long enough.  I didn't really understand the whole bough thing, so I just made it into a simple log.  When looking for the recipe online afterwards I found a picture of what it as supposed to look like, and I'm glad I just stuck with the log.

At this point we haven't tried it yet, just the ends that were cut off before decorating.  The cake is light and spongy with a hint of lemony flavour.  The butter cream is oh so good.  Sweet and satiny smooth and probably way more calories than I would like to know about.

Basic Chiffon Cake  for Buche de Noel

Ingredients:

1 C + 2tbsp or 5 1/2 oz All-purpose flour
3/4 C or 5 1/4 oz Sugar
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
1/4 C or 2 oz Vegetable Oil
3 Large Egg Yolks
1/3 C + 1 tbsp Water
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
3/4 tsp Lemon Zest
5 Egg Whites, at room temp
1/4 tsp Cream of Tartar

Directions:Preheat oven to 325, line the bottom of a 12x17 jelly roll pan with parchment paper to fit exactly, do not grease the sides of the pan.  Sift the flour and baking powder together into a large mixing bowl. Whisk in all but 3 tbsp of the sugar and all of the salt into the flour mixture.  In a small bowl whisk the oil, egg yolks, water, vanilla and lemon zest together.


Make a well in the flour mixture and pour the egg mixture into it, whisk quickly for 1 min, set aside
Pour the egg whites into a stand mixer bowl.  Using the whisk attachment beat on med-high speed until frothy. Add the cream of tartar and beat at the same speed until the whites hold soft peaks.  Slowly add the 3 tbsp of sugar and beat at the same speed until whites hold stiff shiny peaks.

Gently fold in about 1/3 of the whites into the yolk mixture to lighten. Then gently fold in the rest of the whites.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth with an offset spatula. Bake 20-30 min or until cake is just set to the touch. Set aside to cool in the pan. Once cool run a small knife along the edge to loosen, then invert the cake onto a cooling rack, peel off the parchment and set aside.
  
Buttercream

Ingredients:
1 1/4 C or 10 oz Unsalted Butter, at room temp
1 C + 2 tbsp or 8 oz Sugar
1/2 C or 4 oz Egg Whites
1/4 tsp Salt
1/4 C or 2 oz Coffee, brewed double strength

Directions:
Cut the butter into tbsp increments.

Fill a sauce pan with about 2 inches of water and bring to a simmer. Combine sugar, egg whites and salt in a stainless steal bowl of a stand mixer. Whisk together to combine. Place the bowl over the simmering water, making sure that the bottom of the bowl does not touch the simmering water. Whisk over the water until the mixture is hot to the touch (120 degrees), about 5 min.

Remove the bowl from the heat and place in the bowl into the stand mixer with the whisk attachment in place. Mix on high speed until the the mixture is thick, glossy and holds very stiff peaks, about 5-7 min.  Mixture should be cool by this point

Reduce the speed to med-high and add the butter to the mixture 1 tbsp at a time, making sure each addition is fully incorporated before adding the next. Mix in the coffee at a low speed, than increase to med to fully incorporate, set aside.  The buttercream was soupy and starting to separate when I added the coffee so I just beat it on high and it re-incorporated itself

Meringue Mushrooms

Ingredients:
1/2C + 2tbsp or 2 1/2 ounces Confectioners Sugar
1 1/2 tsp Flour
2  large Egg Whites
pinch Cream of Tartar
1/3 C or 2 1/2 ounces Granulated Sugar

Directions:
Preheat oven 175 degrees.  Sift confectioners sugar and flour together into a small bowl.  Combine the egg whites and cream of tartar in a mixing bowl. Using the mixer fitted with the whisk attachment beat egg whites on med speed until they hold soft peaks. Slowly add the granulated sugar, beat until stiff shiny peaks form.  Using a spatula gently fold in the confectioner sugar/flour mixture until just incorporated.

Piping Mushrooms:
Pipe immediately.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.  Transfer the meringue to a pastry bag. Place the bag in a tall cup, 1/2 inch tip already inserted, and fold the ends over the cup.  Pipe the mushroom caps first: hold the pastry bag horizontal to the sheet and squeeze the bag until you reach your desired size and lift away quickly. Smooth any tails away with a wet finger.  Next pipe the stems by making kiss shaped meringues: start by piping a small dot of meringue then release the pressure and slowly lift the bag to create a tail. 

Place the sheet in the oven and bake for 4 hours keeping the door slightly ajar with the handle of a wooden spoon.  The meringues should be very dry but should not color.  If you see that they are coloring reduce oven temp by 25 degrees.  When mushrooms are ready remove from the oven and let cool completely.  They may feel a little soft when they come right out of the oven, but they will firm up as they cool. 

Coffee Syrup

Ingredients:
1/2 C or 4 oz Coffee, brewed double strength
1/3 C or 2 1/2 oz Sugar

Directions:
In a small sauce pan, combine the coffee and sugar and bring to a simmer, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Remove from the heat and let it cool, the fridge will speed up this process.

Pistachio Moss:

Ingredients:
1/4 C or 1 1/4 oz Pistachio nuts

Directions:
In a blender or food processor process the pistachios into a powder.


Almond Ganache Bark

Ingredients:
1 C or 3 1/2 oz Sliced Almonds
6 oz Bittersweet Chocolate, chopped
3/4 C or 6 oz Heavy Cream

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350. Spread the almonds out on a baking sheet and bake for 5 min or until toasted. Stir halfway through to ensure even toasting. Transfer to a small plate to cool.  Place the chopped chocolate in a small heatproof bowl. In a small saucepan bring the heavy cream to just under a boil. Pour the cream over the chocolate and let sit for 1 min, then stir the mixture until it is melted, smooth and shiny.

Add the cooled almonds and mix gently. Place the mixture in the fridge for 15 min or until it has thickened and is a good spreading consistency.  If the ganache becomes too hard for spreading you can place the heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and stir with a wooden spoon until it softens to the right consistency.

Assembling the buche:

Directions:
Place the cooled cake on parchment paper or plastic wrap.  Using a pastry brush, moisten the entire cake with the cooled coffee syrup.  Transfer all the buttercream to the cake and spread evenly with a spatula leaving a 1 inch strip on each long side of the cake void of buttercream.  Starting from the longest side nearest you, begin rolling the cake tightly, using the plastic wrap to help you. Don't worry about the state of the ends, they will both be cut off anyways. Refrigerate the rolled cake for at least 2 hours.

Using a sharp knife, cut a thick slice off each end at the diagonal . Set the cleanest best looking end aside. To frost the cake, use an offset spatula to spread the ganache bark evenly over the cake leaving the faces of the two ends exposed. Make sure you reserve enough ganache to frost the "bough" which is your reserved end piece.

Place the diagonal slice, the bough, on top of the frosted cake towards one of the cakes ends. Make sure the diagonal end is facing up. Next frost the sides of the bough leaving the top face exposed.  Transfer the cake to your serving dish. To assemble each mushroom use the tip of a small paring knife to whittle a hole on the underside of the cap where the stem will fit.  Using some of the ganache as glue, attach the stem to the caps.  Finish decorating the buche with the mushrooms, moss, and other decorations.  Finish with dusting of confectioner's sugar.

Hawaiian Snowballs

Probably the last Christmas cookie I'm going to make this year are Martha Stewart's Hawaiian Snowballs.  These yummy little treats are basically little sugar cookie balls filled with macadamia nuts and pineapple dusted with powdered sugar.  Perfect if you're dreaming about spending Christmas someplace warm but you're stuck in the rain or snow. 

This recipe is super simple, but the dough does need to be chilled so make these ahead if you need to.  The pineapple wasn't exactly finely chopped, it was actually pretty annoying since it kept getting stuck to the knife.  Next time I'll give it a try in my food processor.  My snowballs ended up a little malformed so I would probably spend a bit more time rolling them next time.  Also, keep in mind this recipe makes a boat load of cookies so if you're not planning on serving them for a party or giving them away I would half the recipe.  I got this recipe out of Martha's Holiday Cookie Magazine, it was definitely worth the $6!

Ingredients:

(Makes about 8 dozen)
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups salted, roasted macadamia nuts, finely chopped
1 1/3 cups finely chopped dried pineapple
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar, for dusting

1. Beat butter and granulated sugar with an electric mixer on med-high speed until pale and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes.  Reduce speed to med, and add egg, vanilla, and salt.  Mix until combined.  Reduce speed to low and add flour in 2 batches, mixing until just incorporated.  Mix in nuts and dried pineapple.  Flatten dough into a disk and wrap in plastic.  Chill 2 hours or up to 1 day.

2. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.  Roll dough into 1-inch balls, place on parchment lined baking sheets, spacing 2 inches apart.  Bake, rotating sheets halfway through until edges are barely golden, about 15 minutes.  Transfer to wire racks to cool completely.  Dust evenly with confectioner's sugar and dust again just before serving.  Cookies can be stored in airtight container at room temp for up to 5 days.

Martha's Toffee Millionaires

Oh lordy are these good.  These bars are a buttery golden shortbread, topped with smooth chocolate toffee, and finished with coarsely chopped chocolate covered toffee bars.  Yuuuuum.  Another one out of Martha Stewart's Holiday Cookie magazine, these are seriously amazing.  I don't even want to think about how many calories are in one little square, so I won't.  It is the holiday season after all.

The recipe is very simple, just a bit time consuming.  Melting the toffee chocolate pieces took about 20 minutes, I seriously thought they were never going to melt.  Next time I make these I'll be sure to chop them up much finer than I did.  I used Heath bars for melting and Trader Joe's toffee almond bars for the topping.

Ingredients

Makes 16 squares

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened, plus more for pan
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/4 teaspoons coarse salt
• 3/4 cup packed light-brown sugar
• 1 cup finely chopped chocolate-covered toffee bars plus 1/2 cup coarsely chopped chocolate-covered toffee bars (about 10 ounces total)
• 1/4 cup heavy cream

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees, with rack in upper third. Butter an 8-inch square baking pan. Whisk to combine flour and salt into a bowl.
2. In a separate bowl, beat butter with an electric mixer on medium-high until creamy, 2 to 3 minutes. Gradually add brown sugar; beat until fluffy, about 2 minutes more. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture; mix just until combined. Using plastic wrap, press dough into prepared pan. With plastic on dough, chill 45 minutes.
3. Pierce dough all over with a wooden skewer. Bake, rotating pan halfway through, until golden brown and center is firm, about 70 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack; let cool 10 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, heat finely chopped toffee bars and cream in a saucepan, stirring constantly, over medium-low heat until smooth. Pour over shortbread in pan; sprinkle with coarsely chopped toffee. Let cool slightly. Cut into squares. Let cool completely.

Cream Wafers

Christmas = cream wafers.  I loooove these cookies, my Mom has been making them as long as I can remember so not only are they delectable, but very nostalgic for me as well.  I don't know why these are considered holiday cookies, but in my house they are only made once a year during the holidays.  Well, maybe twice.  I think they would be perfect for a baby shower or some other event that calls for dainty sweet things.

This recipe is from my Mom's Betty Crocker cookbook from the 60s.  These delicate cookies consist of a melt-in-your-mouth cookie and a creamy vanilla filling.  My Mom gave me the recipe years ago but I never made them until last year, I get nervous around recipes that aren't drop cookies.  But these are really easy to make, and the result is a cute, delicious treat.  And yet for some reason they never do taste quite as good as when my Mom makes them.

A couple notes about the recipe: I used vanilla for the creamy filling and doubled the recipe.  I like icing and there is no way what they recommend would cut it.  I also find these cookies taste best when slightly chilled so I keep them in the fridge until about 1/2 hour before serving.  Enjoy!

2 C all purpose flour
1 C butter
1/3 C whipping cream
Sugar
Creamy Filling (to follow)

Mix flour, butter & whipping cream. Cover & refrigerate at least
1 hour.

Heat oven to 375 deg. F. Roll about 1/3 of the dough at a time
1/8 in. thick on floured cloth-covered borad (keep reamining
dough refrigerated until ready to roll). Cut into 1 1/2 in. rounds.

Transfer round with metal spatula to piece of waxed paper that is
heavily coated with sugar; turn to coat each round. Place about
1 in. apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Prick each round with a
fork about 4 times. Bake just until set but not brown, 7 - 9 min.
Cool. Just before serving put cookies together in pairs w/creamy
filling. About 5 doz. cookies

Creamy Filling

Beat 1/4 C. margarine or butter, softened, 3/4 C. powdered sugar
& 1 tsp. vanilla until smooth & fluffy. Tint with few (1 to 2)
drops food color, if desired. (You want a pastel color). Beat
in a few drops water, if necessary, until of spreading consistency.
Just before serving, spread about 1 tsp. of tinted filling between
2 cookies.

Lemon Wreath Cookies

I am so behind on my posts, but I wanted to start blogging my holiday baking before the holidays are over.  Other than my Mom's creme wafers (recipe coming soon!) I wanted to try some new recipes this year.  I bought Martha's Holiday Cookie recipe magazine and it has loads of delicious sounding recipes, we had a really hard time narrowing down which ones to make.

The first ones I wanted to try were the lemon wreath cookies.  I love lemon in baking and these cookies don't disappoint.  They are buttery and lemony and just taste like Christmas.  They are fairly easy to make and I think they're super cute.  I would definitely make these again.

Ingredients

Makes 6 dozen

• FOR THE COOKIES
• 3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for surface
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 1/4 teaspoons coarse salt
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
• 8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 3 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
• FOR THE GLAZE
• 3 cups confectioners' sugar
• 7 to 8 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (from 4 lemons)
• 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons white nonpareils, for sprinkling

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Make the cookies: Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Pulse sugar and zest in a food processor until combined, about 2 minutes.
2. Beat sugar-zest mixture and butter in a mixer on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla and lemon juice. Reduce speed to low. Gradually add flour mixture, and beat until combined.
3. Scoop 1 tablespoon dough (or use a 11/8-inch ice cream scoop), and transfer to a lightly floured surface. Roll dough into a 4-inch rope. Bring ends together, overlapping slightly, and press together to form a ring. Repeat with remaining dough. Transfer rings to parchment-lined baking sheets, about 1 1/2 inches apart, as you work. Bake until pale golden on the bottoms and around the edges, about 18 minutes. Transfer to wire racks, and let cool.
4. Make the glaze: Whisk together confectioners' sugar and lemon juice in a small bowl until smooth. Dip the top side of each cookie into glaze, letting excess drip off. Return cookies to wire racks, glaze side up, and sprinkle with nonpareils. Let dry completely.