2023 fall and holiday bakes

I promised myself that once I got through the TEDx talk and the law review article submission process, I would spend my weekends basking in lit candles, folk, music, and baking. And that I have.

This was one of the desserts I made for our winter solstice dinner. It’s fudge brownies with mint frosting! I put a drop of green food coloring in the buttercream. I used green store bought piping frosting to draw the lines and used a toothpick to drag across them to create the effect.

Brownie recipe I used: https://cafedelites.com/worlds-best-fudgiest-brownies

My mint buttercream: 1.5 cups unsalted butter (whip), add 4 cups powdered sugar, 3 tbsp half and half, 1/2 tsp vanilla, 1 tsp peppermint extract. Whip for at least 1 minute. Note these are the proportions I use for a double cake, so you need a lot less for the brownies. When I made it, I reused some for the cake I made for Christmas Eve.

My mom and I made lemon drop, reindeer, peanut butter, and maraschino chocolate cookies. For me the stand out was absolutely maraschino! These were so soft and buttery and sweet.

Recipe: https://www.howsweeteats.com/2022/12/maraschino-cherry-chocolate-chip-cookies/

The Great Deku Tree and the Koroks from The Legand of Zelda in gingerbread! Turns out video game scenes are a great way to engage the preteen in holiday baking and was something fun for me too as a fellow gamer. Kids helped and decorated every step along the way!

My gingerbread was from Joy of Cooking. My biggest tip for building with gingerbread is that when you cut it leave it sitting next to each other and the seams won’t round out as much.

Also, for eating, it is so much better on days 2-4! Let them soften. Same with the sugar cookies. They’re so much softer and better after a few days.

This is the other desert I made for winter solstice. I also added dried cherries sticking them in the bottom of my Bundt pan. They added some much-needed sweetness. If I make this cake again, I will definitely also make an orange drizzle frosting. I think it needed some extra sweetness. Very moist though and better day two.

Ginger Clove Solstice Cake: http://www.wellingtonfarm.ca/news/2018/12/23/solstice-cake

Peppermint pattie enchanted forest cake! last year I had this great recipe for a peppermint cake, but I immediately lost it. Sigh. This year I decided to make one of my favorite chocolate cake recipes, and just added a little extract to the batter, and used my mint buttercream. Voila! The trees are colored candy melt on pretzel rods. I’m not the strongest decorator, so it looks a little bit of a mess, but it’s very cute and so delicious.

My forever go to chocolate cake: https://barefootcontessa.com/recipes/beattys-chocolate-cake

We hosted a cookie decorating party for 11 kids, and third and sixth grade. We had so much fun.

May I recommend a blindfold cookie decorating challenge?

I used the rich roll cookie recipe from the Joy of Cooking cook book. The dough was so sticky! Definitely needs to stay super chilled in a recommend rolling it out with plastic wrap. Like the gingerbread, these cookies are so much better two or three days in.