Holiday Cookies

I wanted to get this post in before it became too far away from the holidays. Each year, I like to bake holiday cookies for my family, neighbors, and friend's families. This year (2011), I gave out cookie plates but decided to move away from the traditional holiday cookies. I made the following: Coconut Sandwich Cookies (left), Lime Meltaways (back), and Chili Chocolate Truffles (right). All of the recipes I used are either from marthastewart.com or inspired from a recipe on there. Though I liked them all, my favorite was surprisingly the Coconut Sandwich Cookies. (I thought it would have been the Lime Meltaways!)

I did make one traditional holiday cookie and it was Gingerbread People Cookies. I made these for my cousins to decorate on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Again, I got the recipe off marthastewart.com. I love her site and all of her recipes. The kids had lots of fun decorating and eating the cookies!

A Twin Celebration

Two of my really good friends are twins. Though they are twins, they are very different, so for their birthday, I took two very different cake recipes and turned them into cupcakes. I got both recipes off the  Martha Stewart website. 

The first is the Sweet and Salty Cake from Baked Bakery in NYC, which was rich and decadent. Usually I'm not a fan of cake batter (I will always try the batter/dough/etc just to make sure it taste right before baking) but I was in love with this batter. It was almost chocolate mousse like. How I made it into a cupcake...I got rid of the caramel layer and just dolloped the ganache frosting ontop.

The second recipe is the Banana Bourbon Layer Cake, which was the best banana cake I've tasted so far (plus I'm a big fan of bourbon). Most banana cake recipes turn out like banana bread more but not this one. It was very cake like, moist and had lots of banana flavor. This recipe originally calls to make it a layer cake but instead I cored the cupcakes and filled it with some topping the cupcake. I topped each cupcake off with a slice of flambe banana. 

Both cupcakes were a hit, and I can't wait to try making them as they were originally meant to be, cakes!

Chocolate Vegan Cupcakes

For my sister's friend's birthday, I decided to make her chocolate vegan cupcakes. I got the recipe from Cupcake Wars winner, Chef Chloe. I've had several vegan cupcakes out there but most of them have been pretty dry. I remember watching the episode Chef Chloe was on and the judges raved about how moist and tasty her cupcakes were. Not mention that she beat everyone and their non-vegan cupcakes.

I didn't make them into strawberry shortcakes. Instead, I made a simple chocolate frosting. They turned out wonderful! They were definitely moist and delicious. Not overly sweet, which was nice.

Christmas Baking

Every year, I bake goodies for my family, friends, and neighbors. This year I had some help from my sister and a friend. Here is what we made....

1. Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

2. M&M Christmas Cookies

3. White Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cookies

4. Tate's Chocolate Chip Cookies

Click on the captions for recipes

Here are my notes and modifications...

1. I follow the recipe exactly. So simple and yummy!

2. I made the following modifications to the original recipe: I mixed in only 1 cup of chocolate chips and pressed Christmas colored M&Ms right when the cookies came out of the oven. 

3. I added 1 cup of Toll House's white chocolate chips instead of making the frosting to go with it. You might want to add 2 cups if you like it more chocolately. (I got the idea to make these from some cookies saw in the bakery at Ralph's Supermarket)

4. My friend had shown me this recipe that she found on Goop (Gwyneth Paltrow's Blog). She came over and helped me bake these. We used 60% cocao chocolate chips from Ghirardelli. 

Halloween Cupcakes (Organic Pumpkin Ginger Cupcakes)

Sorry this post is way late but here it is....

This year, I decided to get make Pumpkin Ginger Cupcakes. I got the recipe off allrecipes.com. It got 5 out of 5 stars and people could not stop saying wonderful things about this recipe in the reviews. Boy, they were not lying because these cupcakes were amazing! They were moist and perfect with cream cheese frosting.

I would describe them as a hybrid cross of cupcakes and muffins. They were hit during Halloween and Thanksgiving! I'm sorry I can't find the pictures I took of these cupcakes.

My Halloween was too much fun this year. I went up to SF with a couple of girlfriends. Three straight up crazy nights. One of them being the night the Giants won the World Series. The city went nuts, and it was awesome being part of the celebration!

Thanksgiving has traditionally been at my house every year. This year my sister made the pumpkin pies while I made the stuffing. Here is the recipe I used. The whole family came and we ate as usual. Luckily, leggings are in right now. You get to wear stretchy pants and look fashionable at the same time!

I love this time of the year because its the start of the holiday season!