Sugar Cookie time!!! Our Christmas baking days always included sugar cookies.....Christmas trees, bells, stars, snowmen, all sorts. So here is something fun to make; a 3D Sugar Cookie tree!! I made this for a cake, and am thinking of making them as just the tree's.  Wouldn't they make such great gifts!

Mini Gingerbread Men

I had a party the other day, I was making mini desserts, so I thought how cute would mini gingerbread men be! To decorate gingerbread men, you need a good royal icing recipe. 

Here is the one I use: 

1/4 cup meringue powder

1/4 tsp salt

3-4 cups powdered sugar

3/4 cup cool water

1~put all dry ingredients in large mixer bowl. Add, cool water, and mix slowly to dissolve, starting on low speed, increasing to high speed over several minutes.

2~beat until fluffy, and starts to lose its shine.

3~keep icing covered with damp towel or plastic wrap until you are ready to use it so it doesn't dry out or get crusty.

***TIP: royal icing doesn't like any grease, butters, any kinds of fats, it wont stay stiff, so make sure you have cleaned everything thoroughly before use***

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Chocolate Peppermint Candy Cane Cupcake

Chocolate Peppermint Candy Cane Cupcake.....say that three times!!

These are so yummy, this holiday season candy canes run rampant around here, so here is a cute idea, crush some candy canes (I used my robot-coupe/food processor) but when you do it, they may be a little sticky so  add a little bit of powdered sugar when processing them. Once you fill your cupcake holders, sprinkle some of the crushed candy cane onto your chocolate cake batter before baking them. Add a little peppermint extract to your buttercream/frosting (and I mean a little unless you want it to taste like medicine...yuck!) When I fill my decorator bag to pipe on the frosting I just put a line of red butter-cream up the middle of it before filling with the rest of the white to give it a candy cane swirl affect.

Dip or drizzle a mini candy cane with chocolate to top it off :0) Cute and delicious!!

Tie-dye cake??

So I have "camo-ed" (not sure if thats a word!) the inside of a cake, but I had a customer come in that wanted tie-dye inside. So here was my experiment.
~ I split my batter into 3 bowls, colored on red-ish, one orang-ish, and one blue-ish,, (they will all usually  change a little in the baking process)
~I put a cookie scoop in each bowl (you can just use a spoon if you don't have the scoops, they each need their own so colors don't blend into a big blob of a grey-blah!)
~Alternately plop different colors of batter all throughout your cake pan until all used up.
~Use a knife, spreader, toothpick (hey you can even use your finger if you are baking it for yourself :0) and swirl it around just a little, too much will blend the colors into that grey-blah color I mentioned.
~Like any other cake, get it in the oven right away, and bake......

                      .....and this is what I ended up with! I must say, I think it turned out pretty cool!

Ginger spice

Ok, so during the holidays, especially Christmas, I break out my ground ginger spice. Gingerbread cake, gingerbread cookies, gingerbread scones, I could go on!

Ginger is an awesome tropical spice that has an awesome punch of citrus flavor, and is derived from ginger-root. It has as many antioxidants as a cup of spinach! Ginger has had a long history of other comforting properties, known to help sooth upset stomachs, indigestion and reduce pain, and some research says it offers pain relief for everything from arthritis to nausea to migraines.

So, I'm thinkin it's time to bring out the Gingerbread Men!!

Inspiration

Yes.....so as you can probably already tell..... I will admit, this months post will probably be full of reminiscing, and about love and family, its just what we are about....BUT, it will still be about food somewhere, because well.... that is what we are all about too!
Mom just found a photo of my grandfather (we call Papa) years ago making one of his beautiful cakes, and of course not pictured would be my grandmother who always helped him, typically covering the cakes and smoothing the buttercream.....then Papa would add the details ..... such an inspiration.....