Pomegranate Christmas Cake!

The day after Chirstmas I was heading to my moms for a Christmas dinner with the other half of the fam, and I wanted to bring this pomegranate Christmas cake.

Although they were calling for a snow storm in the afternoon, dinner was still on so I woke up early in the morning to get my baking on.

The recipe I used frosted the cake with creamcheese frosting but since most people have a love/hate relationship with creamcheese frosting, I used what I had on hand to make whipped cream frosting.


Here's my notes from delicious:

line pans with parchment! used 7 1/2 inch round pans, baked 25 min. used 3 whole eggs instead of 6 egg whites (sub 1 whole egg for 2 egg whites) tasted fine, not as white. made 5 "pomegranate wells". Would add 2 more next time.

Pomegranate syrup never really "syruped," let simmer extra 10 min. did thicken slightly as it cooled. Just enough for between 2 layers and top layer, and 5 wells.

Frosted with whipped cream frosting. sprinkled with granulated sugar for snow effect but had melted into frosting by the time it was ready to serve, sprinkle right before serving next time.

While mine isn't as pretty as miss sprinkle bakes, it tasted fabulous, would definitely make it again.

Christmas Mini Cupcake Trio

My blog sort of lives in the past, that's not very attractive, but here it's still Christmas apparently! :oD

Dave and I had 3 stops to make on Christmas, so since I'm crazy I baked up 3 different mini cupcakes to cart around to each Christmas party with me! And they all came out incredible!


Mini one: Hot cocoa cupcake
Chocolate cupcake with marshmallow frosting


This site has some amazing cupcakes. No recipes have failed me yet from it! Marshmallow frosting was good, but not as sturdy as I would of hoped. I just didn't see marshmallow cream at the store, so I used the substitution below for marshmallow cream:

For 1 cup marshmallow cream heat 16 large or 160 miniature marshmallows + 2 tsp corn syrup in the top of a double boiler.

Seemed to work out fine? But it never formed hard peaks when I added my whites to the marshmallow cream, perhaps I didn't whip the egg whites enough? I'll try again with more patience.

Mini Two: Gingerbread
Gingerbread cupcake with vanilla buttercream frosting


This was delicious, it might of been my favorite out of the trio. I should of spent more time with the frosting and added more powdered sugar, but had places to go, dammit. I always forget to sprinkle the cupcakes as soon as I frost them! Otherwise the sprinkles just roll off!

Mini Three: Red Velvet Peppermint
Red velvet cupcake with peppermint buttercream frosting


This is the second time I've made these red velvet cupcakes and they turned out great this time around as well. (Here was the first try.) I think they were everyone's favorite out of the trio.

Cookie post!

I already did one gingerbread cookie post, but this will finish off my cookie post for Christmas baking! It will be a short one since I made Christmas cupcakes this year instead of cookies, plus some other desserts for parties.

So here was my other Christmas cookie!


I got it from a Martha Stewart Christmas cookie magazine I picked up in the super market! Martha knows her stuff. Dave actually picked this one out. I don't have a photo, but the cookie inside is a chocolate mint cookie, like a girlscout thin mint! Delicious!

Something odd happened with the white chocolate though, it melted, then it got really dry and lumpy and I couldn't bring it back to liquid and melty again over the double boiler. I've been meaning to google it and will post if I find an answer! I used Ghirardelli white chocolate chips, plus some bars I had bought for another purpose, but needed after my first bag of chips failed.



So my white chocolate coating came out a little lumpy and not as smooth as Martha's but they tasted good! Only other issue was the crushed candy cane sticks to your teeth when you bite into them, but I didn't hear anyone complaining, haha.

Here's the cookie plate ready for a party!


Next will be my epic dessert post!

Gingerbreading

It's been a long time since I made gingerbread. I think I was in highschool and my friends and I trashed the kitchen because we thought it would be funny to take pictures covered in flour. I never realized until now that my mom was pretty cool about all that... I don't remember the gingerbread being that tasty though, it was hard and the dough was evil and hard to work with. But this try went much better!


Last week I mixed a bunch of gingerbread, chilled it over night, then rolled it out and baked it up. Then let it cool and decorated it for like 3 hours the next day. I used this recipe, and also used her royal icing recipe. It was my first batch of royal icing ever. Exciting. And while my icing was pretty simple and I think it looked pretty good covered in my Christmas sprinkles! :oD


For the cookies, I baked up some normal sized shapes of gingerbread men, reindeer, trees, etc. And I also had a bunch of mini Christmas cookie cutters that made bite size gingerbread cookies. Mini anythings go over so much better with crowds! Recipe is awesome, I've had them covered in tin foil for a week and they're still nice and soft and chewy. Amazing.


For the royal icing though, I required much more water than the recipe called for to make it anywhere close to a good consistency for piping. In fact I could of used more I think, and I had a ton left over. I read it can be stored at room temp in an air tight container for up to two weeks, which I'm doing and had good intentions for a gingerbread house or something else cool, but we'll see.

Here's one more pic of a mini gingerbread tree with Christmas nonpareils.


And one more of a super cool full size gingerbread man.


More are in my baking adventures set, plus more to be uploaded this week!

Embroidered Christmas Cards

Normally I don't send Christmas cards, I'm really bad at hanging on to addresses, but that's what facebook is for. So i crafted christmas cards this year, using these instructions to get me started.

I traced cookie cutters for the stencils. I like the snowflakes best but they're also the most work! Each card took about 2 hours or so! These were sent to friends but I still hope to make some for family!

Definitely should of taken these pics during the daylight, but I had to send em! Here's how some of them turned out!





Right now I'm on a mission to finish a crochet gingerbread house in hopes it will be a center piece for a dinner part Sunday. :oX It's ambitious...so here I go!

Christmas crafting

Just a few things...



Amigurumi reindeer for dave. pattern by me.



Gingerbread hacienda. made from a kit, which, with the frustration of building gingerbread houses is really the only way.



Retro christmas stocking! this is one of two that i crocheted. pattern from Crochet Today.



sweet star for our christmas tree. tin foil and hot glue. xoxo



lillie wishes i was petting her instead of whatever the hell this on the floor is... (stocking before before it became a stocking)

lots more on my flickr page!

Quick holiday baking adventure update

i've been calling them meringue cookies but that's deceiving as there's no real cookie. meringue candies is probably more appropriate? followed this recipe, and here's how they turned out.

More on the flickr page.

I think i can call them a success! They take a long time to make though. I wanted them for Christmas which was a Friday but wouldn't be home Christmas Eve. So I made the meringue Tuesday and baked them. The recipe says let them sit in the oven over night, so I did. Then Wednesday I came home and dipped them in chocolate and crushed peppermint, then let the chocolate harden over night. These cookies were nearly 3 days in the making!

It was the first time i used my cake decorating set and first time i used a pastry bag ever! I made a mess... Come to think of it, it was the first time i ever made meringue too. I'm not sure I've ever seen anyone else make meringue before! My piping skills are a little sloppy, but I'm pleased with how they came out considering!

i should be going to bed...but gingerbread!

i have quite few photos to post, and perhaps soon i shall. I'm working hard on these stockings. i have one finished already, so i think i can manage a second one before christmas.

anyway, just wanted to share these i found on free people's blog. if i had the patience, i'd make them myself.