Ah yes, still in the lead up to Valentine’s Day (I promise to change topics before next Sunday!) and the final of the cookies that I will be making this year for VDay. I found these cute “Conversation Heart” cookie cutters and decided to put them to the test. The cookies themselves weren’t all that interesting, so I decided to “glitter-ify” them with very nice results.
Every week I make something that can be eaten “out of hand” (i.e. cookies, brownies, etc), but this week was a bit of an uninspired week, and somehow I wasn’t ready to bake something this afternoon, so just ended up making something with ingredients that I had in the house. Ended up being these Apricot White Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies, with Toasted Pine Nuts. Still good for a snack on on a cold January.
I am given unique ingredients as presents and this Christmas was no different as I was gifted a tin of Bourbon Smoked Sea Salt. It is great as a finishing salt on meats and such, but in my constant search for adding more depth of flavor to my baking, I decided to add some to these cookies. They didn’t turn out particularly “smokey” or “boozy” or even “salty”, but they did add a nice flavor.
(Chocolate and Vanilla Cake, with Coffee Liqueur, Espresso Buttercream and Chocolate Shavings)
Tomorrow is my birthday, so I made a cake. Interestingly, I am actually not a fan of my birthday at all (no, it has nothing to do with getting older … it’s a long story), but often in Germany, it is the birthday person who supplies cake. So I made this one to share with some friends and my neighbors. It’s a Mokkatorte (or Mocha Torte, if you prefer) with lots of very strong coffee buttercream frosting. It’s a little involved (two types of cake and two times of frosting, plus decorating) but I think it came off quite well. And Happy Birthday to me.
