Christmas Crafting and Baking Spectacular

Happy New Year Ya'll!!!

It has been a while since I have posted. The holidays and Pinterest have been taking up much of my spare time! Pinterest has caused me to spend a lot of time at my local Hobby Lobby and give out a lot of homemade gifts for Christmas.

It even helped me with my Halloween costume.

I was black swan for Halloween. I made the tutu myself!

I made hair bows and tutus for my nieces for Christmas, toy boxes for the nephews, cranberry liquor for my girlfriends, and lots of baked goods for everyone. 

And I do mean LOTS of baked goods. I was out of control. Ask my husband. Flour was flying, my mixer was trying to burn out, and the dog was scared to come in the kitchen. But I was determined to use up all of my chocolate, powdered sugar, and get the baking out of my system for a while because moving to Louisiana has made my pants smaller, and we have sworn to be extra careful until Gerald's 30th birthday (March 21) when we will relax the rules a bit and I will make him whatever he wants. So, here is what I made:

Grasshopper Cake (chocolate cake with chocolate mint ganache and mint buttercream)

The recipe comes from one of my Baked cookbooks (New Frontiers in Baking). The result was a moist flavorful cake that wasn't overwhelmingly sweet or rich. It was a hit!

Gingerbread Whoopies with Nutmeg Brown Butter Filling

I took the recipe for the whoopies from the McCormick spice website. Rather than using their recommended lemon creme filling, I made a basic brown butter frosting and added nutmeg to taste. I am sure cinnamon would also be good. The whoopies were more cookie-like than a traditional whoopie, but it was a great flavor--especially for people that don't like their gingerbread too spicy.

Nutella Cookies

The recipe for these can be found here. I have to admit, I am not a huge fan of hazelnut and therefore not big on Nutella, but these cookies are friggin' awesome. They are rich and brownie like. Great with milk!

The "Baked" Brownie

The recipe for this brownie comes from the same book as the grasshopper cake. Can you tell I love this book? There isn't a bad recipe in eitehr of their books. When I lived in Connecticut I even checked out their shop in Brooklyn. It involved a two mile walk in the pouring rain but it was totally worth it. They have the best coffee, brownies, blondies, and bars ever. Period.

These brownies are delicious. Can't you just see their fudgy goodness in the picture? This is definitely one of my favorite brownie recipes.

Soft Sugar Cookies

The recipe for these cookies can be found on this blog. I made these for my brothers' kids and they were a hit. These are soft and chewy just like the ones you buy at a bakery. I did make one change; I added the powdered sugar until the frosting was the desired consistency rather than using the recommended amount. I think this recipe uses too much powdered sugar.

Chocolate Cupcakes with Peppermint Cream Cheese Buttercream

For the cake I use a Texas sheet cake recipe that belonged to a friend's family. The recipe for the frosting, however, can be found here. I already knew the cake would be good because I have made it several times, but this was my first time making this frosting. This frosting is SUPER yummy. I licked the bowl clean after I had frosted the cupcakes. Mmm mmm.

Chocolate Nutella Cupcakes

For this recipe I used the same Texas sheet cake recipe (I was going to make a vanilla cake but I was running out of time) and this Nutella swiss meringue buttercream recipe. Swiss meringue takes lots of patience. Lots and lots and loooottttss of patience. It didn't get quite as fluffy as I had hoped, but it was still light and airy and complemented the cupcakes nicely.

And finally...

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I have been on a quest for the perfect chocolate chip cookie, so I tested out the classic Neiman Marcus recipe found here.  It was pretty good, but not as good as this recipe (my #1 so far). These are definitely a close second. I also made a peanut butter lovers cookie, but I forgot to take a picture of it. I am big on peanut butter but my husband isn't so I don't make sweets involving peanut butter very often. These peanut butter cookies have a fantastic texture. One of my friends described them as little pillows of heaven. =)

Well, that was all the baking I did in roughly two days. Pretty much everything was eaten, and it was all a hit. This was the first year in a long time that I could drive home for the holidays, so I really went all out with the homemade goodies!