no baking required.

Or any prep whatsoever, besides keeping a keen eye for the freshest fruit and tossing them into your basket.

But what more could you want?


Super sweet mandarins
Crunchy, bitter chocolate
Smooth vanilla bean ice cream
And a waxy green leaf if proof of un-canned citrus is necessary.

I could eat this for breakfast, lunch, dinner...
And all of the meals between.

christmas bake-off part four:

So about those cupcakes.

There were far too many of them. They were given to co-workers, security guards, secretaries, home groupers, and homeless men, but contrary to the "Who has leftover cake?!" notion, well, I had leftover cake.

So our Christmas treat will be peppermint cake pops. I thought they were quite easy to make until I remembered that the cake and frosting had been finished several days prior and mixed into ball-able dough yesterday.

The resulting treat is satisfyingly cute and super rich, with a fun minty crunch of the candy cane at the end.

Find instructions here. I saw no need for the edible wax, used buttercream frosting, and homemade chocolate cake. If you're going through the trouble to make these, why not bake your own cake?

And there was enough chocolate left over to make a little Christmas eve treat for after our special meal--

Frozen chocolate covered bananas.

Merry Christmas to all!

christmas bake-off part two:

It all started with one little cupcake. Cute, right? Not scary at all.
A dark chocolate peppermint cupcake with vanilla buttercream and crumbled candy canes on top. Even used a nice recipe from the sadly defunct Gourmet as a tribute (with added peppermint extract).
But then, they started to multiply-- tiny, minty warriors.

All the while, I feel ashamed. Will I be overtaken by a monster of my own creation?

But I regained control and paired them off, two by two.

One hundred and twenty-six tiny cupcakes later, they became the perfect army of happy homemade Christmas joy.

christmas bake-off part one:

Dark chocolate-dipped peppermint meringues.

A quick dip in super dark chocolate surprised with a nice contrast to the super-sweet melty peppermint meringues. I was inspired by this Martha Stewart recipe, but totally baffled about how to present a sandwich cookie that is pointy on both ends (other than on... is that chicken wire in her picture?).
Highly recommended as a simple, light cookie alternative. And it is-wait for it- gluten free!
Leftovers can be crumbled to top ice cream sundaes or hot chocolate, too.