Here is my annual Cake Day cake. I mention this every year, but I don’t make cakes all that often — I’m not very good at decorating / frosting, and even more so in the days of a global pandemic, making cupcakes as not to share food is better anyway. That said, one day out of the year, I do make a cake, so this year is no different. I love the combination of coconut and chocolate so this celebratory has both cake types and frosting types, in addition to garnet-colored sugar flowers as they are the January birthstone color. Here’s to being 50, I guess!
chocolate
Here’s another simple “stocking Stuffer” like idea, if you are looking to make your own foodie Christmas presents this year: Chocolate-Covered Roasted Cashew + Pretzel Rounds Brittle. Takes less than 15 minutes to prepare, an hour to chill/harden and then voila! A homemade present! You can, of course, use other nuts, but I am definitely partial to cashews here. If you want to make them a little cinnamony, that might be a nice twist too.
As many of you know, I try to make many of my Christmas pressies myself (including of course, cookie madness!), so trying to get a head start on some, I made Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate Mix. Quite easy to make, though bashing the hard caramels to bits first with a meat mallet and then the food processor was loud! I put ratios in the recipe instead of exact measurements, in case you wanted to make a lot or a little.
It’s almost Halloween! I am not usually one of those “make all sorts of crazy treats” type of person (mainly because I don’t do a whole lot for Halloween, and you aren’t supposed to give cookies/homemade stuff to strangers). At any rate, this year, we are doing a bit of a thing for work, and I am also using these upcoming treats for giveaways, so here we go. First up, Cinnamon Red Velvet Ghoulie Eye Cookies! It’s my standard crinkle cookie recipe with chocolate, cinnamon and sugar eyeballs. I added the food coloring for extra creepiness (note that you can also buy “bloodshot” eyeball candies). These are surprisingly delicious, especially is you warm them for 10 seconds in the microwave. Nice and gooey then — and who doesn’t love gooey ghoulie eyeballs!