Christmas Baking: Some new things for you to try...

I have been baking like a crazy person! I am still not done making everything I plan to make but who knows, I may be forgoing some of the plan because I am running out of days! Here is a tray of some of the things I've made lately. Jace took this to work the other day. The buckeyes aren't baked but I have a great recipe for them. Maybe I'll share that another day. I really love making candy at Christmas (chocolate candy). :) And of course I made some sour cream sugar cookies. These are especially lovely, if I do say so myself. I love white frosting with sanding sugar or edible glitter.

Okay, on to the recipes in this post. The bars on the far left of the picture are called Caramel Chip Bars. But my family affectionately knows them as Excedrin Bars. My dad nicknamed them this after deciding they were worth the headache he would get after eating them. :) His sister makes them each year for our family Christmas. They are a Taste of Home recipe, you can find here. They are a rich and super sweet cookie, I like them cut really small.

And finally, I tried these Pistachio Cookies for the first time this year. They were a simple (started with a cookie mix), festively colored option (the green cookies in this picture). I made them for a cookie exchange with my moms small group.

The recipe:

1 pouch of sugar cookie mix (like Betty Crocker, 1 pound, 1.5 ounce)
1 box of pistachio instant pudding and pie filling
1/4 c. flour
1/2 c. butter, melted
2 eggs

Mix and drop by teaspoon full unto baking sheet. Press down slightly with fingers to flatten. Bake at 350 degrees for 9 to 11 minutes. Cool 2 minutes on the cookie sheet and then remove to wire rack.

I made these two ways. The first batch I mixed in 1/2 c. of dry roasted, salted pistachios slightly chopped and 1/2 c. dried cranberries before baking. These aren't in the picture - I really liked them. They were a recipe I found on All Recipe's site. And the second way, add a 1/2 teaspoon of almond flavoring to the cookie dough and 1 c. of mini chocolate chips. After you remove them from the oven, put a thumbprint in the center of each cookie and add a chocolate covered pistachio by sticking it down with a bit of almond frosting piped on in the thumbprint depression.

Enjoy! And have a very Merry Christmas!!!!!!

Pumpkin Cookies...

Here are some recent pumpkins I made. I was inspired by these pumpkin decorated cupcakes. I decided that three small circle cookies made from my sour cream cookie recipe and decorated with my almond frosting would be cute decorated in this same way.
This takes a ton of frosting! :) I should have used my very smallest round cutter. About an inch in diameter would be the right size. And make your frosting very stiff -
use extra powdered sugar. And don't forget to pipe frosting between the cookie layers.

I wrapped them up and shared them with my mom's group small group.
They were cute and yummy! Give it a try in these next few days before Halloween. But maybe plan to make only part of the batch into these and cut the rest with a pumpkin shaped cookie cutter. Otherwise you will need 10 sticks of butter and lots and lots of time. :)

Pretty in Pink: Maraschino Cherry Cake

I made this yummy and pretty pink cake early in the summer but never had a chance to share. This picture was all that was left to photograph by the time I remembered to do it. :)

I was really intrigued by this recipe with it's egg whites and maraschino cherries. It is from "Old-Fashioned Baking Book" by Jim Fobel. I found it at a flea market in Florida about 18 months ago. It was a really fun find. Full of fun recipes that I have yet to try. I need to get to work on that...

The recipe:

2 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1 c. granulated sugar
1 T. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
3/4 c. milk
1/4 c. juice from maraschino cherries
1 t. vanilla extract
1/2 t. almond extract
4 T (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1/4 c. vegetable shortening
4 large egg whites
18 maraschino cherries, drained and quartered

Cream Cheese Frosting

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease two 8-inch round cake pans (or I used a 9 x 13). Line bottom with waxed paper and then grease the paper (if using rounds, not necessary if you are using a 9 x 13).

In a large bowl stir together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. In a small bowl stir together milk and cherry juice. Add to the flour mixture along with the vanilla, almond, butter and shortening. Beat with an electric mixer just until smooth. Add the egg whites and beat for 3 minutes at medium speed. With a spoon, stir in cherries. Pour batter into prepared pans.

Bake about 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool completely and remove round cake from pans before frosting with Cream Cheese frosting or frost in 9 x 13 pan, if desired.

This is a unique cake - not over the top sweet. Lovely with the cream cheese frosting. When I make it again I will add more cherries. The original recipe calls for walnuts but we are a no nut family so I skipped those and felt like it needed more cherries in the mix. Just my two cents. :)

Enjoy!

Cream Cheese Frosting

Mmmmm. Cream cheese frosting is the best. And so yummy on so many things.

These cupcakes I made last weekend for Linc's FINAL birthday celebration were diet and rather blah. Maybe not that bad but not great by any means. But they had GREAT frosting.

I even lightened it up a bit. :) I used 1/3 less fat cream cheese and half the butter of my regular recipe. It was still delicious.

The recipe:

8 oz. package, 1/3 less fat cream cheese. Softened.
4 T. butter. Also softened.
2 1/2 to 3 cups of powdered sugar

Cream cream cheese and butter. Begin adding sugar a cup at a time. Adding the last cup just a half cup at a time. Deciding if it needs the full three cups or not quite. You'll know when it's right.

Cream cheese frosting is kind of weird :) - it seems really thick at first but the more you mix and the more powdered sugar you add, the creamier and more frosting like it gets. This reduced butter recipe made a little less than a normal recipe but it was plenty (actually more than enough) to frost the 23 small diet cupcakes I made.

Give it a try - on your favorite cupcakes, on sour cream cookies. Really on anything. It is one of the things my dad has always said you could eat on sawdust. :)

Frosting: A no need to measure recipe...

These are mini cupcakes that I sent to school for Ella's birthday a couple of weeks ago. Nothing special about the cupcakes, just a box of chocolate cake but aren't they fabulous with that little bit of sparkle on top???? (have you ever seen that edible glitter - find it near other cake decorating products at craft stores, mine was from Jo Ann's)

Anyway, I thought these would be fun to share because while the baking was nothing special the frosting was homemade and isn't frosting an important part of baking? Of course. :)

I don't measure to make my frosting but I will try to give you some rough amounts so you can try it.

I start with a little softened butter
(1/2 stick to 3/4 stick butter)
Beat until fluffy
Add a cup or so of powdered sugar and a dash of milk
Beat together
Add some more powdered sugar and another splash of milk, plus any food coloring you want to add and flavoring. I like my butter cream frosting flavored with 1/2 t. almond and a splash of vanilla.
Now you've added all the other liquids besides milk, continue to add powdered sugar and splashes of milk until it is spreading consistency.
My guess is you should add between 3 and 4 cups of powdered sugar, plus about 3 T. milk.

Yummy!