christmas bake-off part five:

I know.
It is January. And half way through January at that.
But I made my friend's dog some cookies for Christmas, but didn't see him until this week. The cookies had started to mold (Mold!?! What's that? Oh yeah, it's what happens to food that isn't filled with chemicals!), so a second batch was required.

Here's the recipe:

1/2 cup pureed pumpkin
4 tablespoons molasses
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons water
2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix together wet ingredients and sift in dry. Drop on cookie sheet in teaspoon-sized balls and prick the tops with a fork. Bake for 15-20 minutes until they come off of the sheet easily.

Let cool. Feed to your husband pooch. (What? They're made of people food!) And make them work for it, just because you can.

Here's Stella, the cookie recipient. She seemed to enjoy the cookies, but she'll eat anything.

I saved some for Lucy, my doodle, as well. She prefers to eat wallets, cardboard boxes, and sports bras, but refused to eat her usual treats when I started baking these. Here's a gratuitous picture of her.

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 three:

A repeat of the Thanksgiving challah for work Christmas pot-luck.

gingerbread houses are hard.

Leave it to my good friend Marissa to host a gingerbread house-building event! Little did we know cookie and frosting construction would be so challenging. I have a new-found respect for all of the parents (and teachers) who endeavor to make these structures with small children. Crumbling cookies and frosting avalanches followed by an inevitable sugar crash must be quite a chore...

After much experimentation and several glasses of wine, we did manage to build solid cookie homes without the use of Gorilla Glue.

Following are not the most amazing photos, but they are really an adequate representation of the event:

So it began, just a simple home. Spray icing, some trees, a spice drop roof, peppermint doors--


And then, the dinosaurs attacked!


My partner-in-crime's wintery pterodactyl home.

The finished products, side by side; a tiny community rooted in high fructose corn syrup and multi-colored sprinkles.

And somehow secure enough to survive the car ride home. And now, my home is twice as decorated for Christmas as it was yesterday morning.

sweet christmas inspiration

Partridge in a Pear Tree, In Gingerbread

from Not Martha

Pretty Sugar Cookies

from Brookie's Cookies

Peppermint Bark

from Vanilla Garlic via The One in Pink

Eggnog Creme Brulee

from Citrus and Candy

Cranberry Sorbet

from Annie's Eats

A Twist on Spritz

from Hungry Cravings

Fruitcake?

from Food for Poems

Boozy Spiced Cider

from Savory Sweet Life

Holiday Brew Beer Floats

from Caroline on Crack at Bottlerock Downtown LA

Any Christmas sweet traditions you'd like to share? Or new trends to try?