Christmas break baking: cake pops, meringues, spritzers, peanut butter cookies and Trix bark

With the amount of sweets sitting in my grandma's fridge right now, I could feed a small Kansas town. It's a little ridiculous. So far I've taken cookies to two of her neighbors and introduced my dad's employees to cake pops. Before I talk more about that, some good news.


I won Hoosier Homemade's Holiday Cupcake Challenge! I'm super excited about it. It was a really good excuse for trying some great new cupcake flavors: eggnog, pecan pie, chocolate peppermint and champagne. Thanks to Kelly, who helped me come up with the flavors. I will definitely be making a few of these again.


I've been taking care of all my Christmas traditions lately. This Sunday, my friend Lauren and I went to see the KC Ballet's production of The Nutcracker. She used to dance in her company's production of it, and I have gone to see it every year since...well, I don't know how long. Probably since I was about 5. Mom and I used to go, and then more recently I dragged a boyfriend along, but going with Lauren was perfect, except for the bratty little kid sitting next to her. Sigh. This picture is an old tradition that we don't do anymore, but was still fun when we did. My mom worked at Plymouth Congregational Church for 17 years, and it was a beautiful old building. Every Christmas they had a day of decorating, and my dad and I were unstoppable, because we didn't need a ladder to reach the things that were high up! I'm not sure we could manage that nowadays.


I did a bit of baking last week before coming back to Salina for my psuedo-Christmas break. First, a Christmas present for my friend Tim, who I made Boston Creme Pie for after his birthday. The last time I was at Tim's, there were about four empty bowls on his table that had been filled with Trix at some point, so when I came across this recipe for Trix candy bark, I knew I had to make it for him. It's my understanding it's not going to last very long.


I took these cookies into work (and I absolutely had to go for the Sesame Street fabric...yes I'm a 5-year-old sometimes). They're plain old peanut butter with chocolate chips and peanut butter chips. Always a hit.


Now for the baking at Grandma's. Pretty sure I packed up about half of my kitchen, including my KitchenAid, for my trip back to Salina. First up were cake pops, and these are easily the best ones I've done thus far. Red, green and gold sparkles. Dad's employees loved them!


Then spritzer cookies with the cookie gun Aunt Betty gave me. The recipe makes a gazillion cookies, so I've had to hand some out. I don't think the neighbors mind :)


Then some peppermint meringues with a chocolate frosting filling. Needless to say, Grandma's fridge is full right now. And I came to find that today is national cupcake day. I'm going to have to make up for that later. More holiday baking to come!

Cupcake challenge week 5: Cupcake roundup

Sometimes I get bored with baking. Or find that I really don't have any inspiration, even though I feel like baking. So the holiday cupcake challenge at Hoosier Homemade was really nice, because it made me think a little outside the box. The challenge is over now, except for voting (please vote for my New Year's champagne cupcakes, number 3). So here's what I did for the last month, with both the help of Kelly and Aunt Betty.

Week one: favorite fall flavor. I made egg nog cupcakes...my next goal is to make some egg nog homemade!

Week two: Thanksgiving cupcake. I made pecan pie cupcakes, and found I like them better than actual pecan pie!

Week three: Christmas cupcake. I did chocolate peppermint, with a peppermint patty baked into the middle. They were pretty rich, but people sure seemed to like them.

Week four: New Year's cupcake. I did champagne (not terribly creative, I know). But these were a nod to my Kansan folk (LNOPwooo!), and the frosting was darn good.

So, happy holidays! I'm posting this roundup on the last Hoosier Homemade challenge. Now it's time to go scheme away and come up with more holiday cupcakes. I'm thinking gingerbread.

Cupcake challenge week 4: Champagne cupcakes

It seems a little silly writing about New Year's when I just put up my Christmas tree. This week, when I got home from Salina, I put up my multicolored tree. It's pretty ridiculous, actually. Kelly will tell you so. But hey, I like bright colors, so I suppose my tree should match.

My tree is one of my Christmas traditions I've built for myself. I've found it necessary to start making my own traditions up, because it's pretty tough to keep holiday traditions alive when your parents divorce and move away. So my tree is it. Some of the tradition is through the ornaments. I've got Santas my aunt painted for me, and porcelain versions of the Seven Dwarfs (yes, my parents started me early on the whole Disney thing). There's a collection of cloth ornaments a dear family friend made for me, one each year when I was growing up. There's the super gaudy old ornament with sequins and fringe, and I couldn't even tell you its origins. Mixed in with all the old stuff is the new, though. I've got the colored globe ornaments, but also my 2008 National Championship ornament, next to my Bolt ornament I got last year. There's lots of sparkle too. And a fair number of animal ornaments too.


My other two favorite traditions I've also made plans for. First, I watch White Christmas. A lot. If you let me, I'll force you to watch it too. But also, every year I go see the Nutcracker ballet in Kansas City. It's something I used to do with my mom, then later with various boyfriends throughout the years. I know this show by heart; the songs, the choreography, the costumes (the Dance of the Flowers is my favorite). This year, I'm pretty excited because I just bought tickets to see it with my friend Lauren, who used to dance in the show. I know she will love it just as much as me, and we'll get to do our Christmas tradition together.

Anyway, New Year's Eve is still a little far away to really plan for. I've got to get through the winter holidays first. But for this week's challenge, I had to make a New Year's-themed cupcake. I know champagne is a little cliche, but I hope all of my friends from the Kansan will appreciate what I made this cupcake with: a nice $5 bottle of Andre. Yup. Definitely some sentimental value there, some memorable Wednesday nights at the ends of semesters. I couldn't resist.

So I used this champagne cupcake recipe, which called for whipping the egg whites instead of adding eggs straight in, making the cupcakes a bit lighter than normal. The strawberry Andre gave them just a hint of flavor, but the icing is what really made these cupcakes. It might be in my top three icings ever. It was just a basic buttercream, but with the Andre added, and it almost seemed to have a fizzy flavor. Not possible, but I stand by what I say :)

I'm posting these cupcakes over at the New Year's challenge. I'd really appreciate if you'd go vote for my chocolate peppermint cupcake (number 4) to help me win last week's challenge. Thanks!

Cupcake challenge week 3: Chocolate peppermint cupcakes

Okay, I admit it. I watched yet another Pixar movie after work. This time, it was "Ratatouille." It's funny, the more I watch Food Network, the more of the stuff I recognized on the movie. A recipe with veal stomach, sweet breads and geoduck (pronounced gooey duck)? Sounds gross. Have you ever seen what a geoduck is? Yuck. Some time I want to try making the ratatouille dish in this movie though.

That was totally off-topic, though. My boss said today he was just waiting for a snowstorm to come. I'm just waiting for that sort of weather to roll in; Kansas never disappoints. We've got some cold rain coming today, but no snow. I hate driving in bad weather like that, especially because the roads get so slick. But I do want to try out my new snow boots!


That kind of weather is perfect for these chocolate peppermint cupcakes, which I made for this week's cupcake challenge on Hoosier Homemade. The theme was a Christmas cupcake, which yes, I know, it's a bit early for. But hey, it works. I kind of combined a few recipes on these, making my favorite devil's food cupcakes and baking a mini York peppermint patty inside. I made normal buttercream and flavored it with peppermint extract (while creating a full-on cloud of powdered sugar because I was in a hurry). Topped them with some crushed candy cane, and they were pretty tasty. I will have to make them again when it gets colder, and then pair them with a nice mug of hot chocolate. Mmmmmm.

I'm posting these to the Christmas cupcake challenge at Hoosier Homemade. If you could, I'd appreciate if you voted for my entry into last week's challenge, the pecan pie cupcakes for Thanksgiving (number 9 here).

Also, in other exciting news, I was asked by the folks over at JHill Design to write a guest post for their blog. About Kansas. I had to come up with 10 things I loved about Kansas, and I actually surprised myself. A lot of what I love is traveling out west and seeing the charm of the farmland and small towns. But, of course, I love Allen Fieldhouse too. Couldn't resist putting some KU love in there. Rock chalk! Anyway, it was fun to write, and I hope it introduced some people to some new sights in Kansas. I'd love if you read it and let me know what you thought!

Cupcake challenge week 2: Pecan pie cupcakes

Today was a gloomy day. Sort of a gloomy day to cap off a gloomy week. It was rainy, and chilly, and I stepped in a puddle so my shoes AND socks got soaked. Boo.

On the flip side, I had the day off. I got to bake all day. I went shopping for new clothes. I have a friend coming into town this weekend I haven't seen in months. And I bought stuff for future baking. Sounds like I like baking, eh? And, to capitalize on the gloominess of the day, I am currently curled up in sweats and goofy socks drinking wine and watching Finding Nemo. Yup, that's my life. So exciting.

In a little more than a week, I will be at my grandma's house curled up in sweats and goofy socks and watching some other silly movie. That's what I love about holidays. I get to see my family and hang out and not work for a few days. There's the food, yes, but it's really about the time I get to spend with them. Oh, and that interminable drive home where my cat yowls the whole way because he's ticked I put him in the car. I can't WAIT for that.

This week's cupcake challenge for Hoosier Homemade was to make a Thanksgiving cupcake. I'll admit, I'm not much for decorating cupcakes all cutesy; I don't think I have the patience. I prefer to make neat flavors and experiment. So I made pecan pie cupcakes. Okay, another confession. I'm not a pumpkin pie fan. Or pumpkin anything, really. I can handle like one slice of pumpkin pie per holiday season. I much prefer pecan. Or not pie at all. I know, it's blasphemous.


Anyway, this recipe on TasteBook was the best I could find that wasn't muffin-y. Basically it was a brown sugar cake with a pecan pie filling sort of swirled in, and topped with whipped cream. I was skeptical it would work, but they rose beautifully and tasted better than actual pecan pie, I thought. So maybe I will make them for family Thanksgiving instead of pie. I friggin hate making pastry, anyway.

So I'm adding these to the cupcake challenge at Hoosier Homemade.


And since it's just before midnight, here's my late night Veteran's Day tribute. Both my grandpas as I knew them were older men who were loving and wonderful, Grandpa Hawley buying me treats of Necco wafers and tickling my feet. Grandpa Hofmeister would sit in his chair, hardly ever talking but always taking a photo of me before I left his house.


Long before I came along, though, they were soldiers. Grandpa Hofmeister, my mom's dad, was about 30 when he was drafted and served under General Patton in France and Germany. He always had a love for cameras, and actually took pictures of soldiers and burnt buildings and all sorts of things while serving. This is one of those pictures, probably in Germany, right near the end of the war.


And Grandpa Hawley was a trainer in the Army Air Corps, since it wasn't the Air Force yet. He was lucky enough to never get shipped overseas, but he was darn close many times. He flew some pretty amazing planes, too, like the Memphis Belle and a bomber called Strawberry Bitch.


But beyond them, I also have a veteran in my family who is much closer in age to me, my cousin Jon. He served in Iraq soon after the U.S. went in, and I remember writing letters back and forth with him, anxiously waiting for any news (always hoping for good). I still have those letters. Luckily, he did come back, and I get to see him regularly. Sometimes, these things work out well.

Cupcake challenge week 1: Egg nog cupcakes

Christmas stuff is out in the stores. Well, granted, Hobby Lobby has had Christmas stuff out since, what, July? I don't get it. I like decorating and all that, but we've hardly hit freezing temperatures yet here in Kansas! It's totally out of the ordinary, too. I'm just waiting for that freak ice storm (knock on wood).

The thing I love about this cold season is all the warm things that come with it: snuggling in blankets (with kitties, of course!), fireplaces, homemade hot chocolate — seriously, my grandma's hot chocolate mix is the best ever, no competition. And certain foods sound better, too. Potato soup, stew, heavy chocolatey desserts. And then there's the egg nog. It came out on the shelves last week. I immediately bought a carton, of course. I used to hate the stuff, but now it's one of my favorite holiday treats. I'll probably try making it homemade this year.

But of course I had to make the cupcake version. You know me. It wasn't entirely selfish, though. I'm taking part in a cupcake challenge, hosted over at Hoosier Homemade. Kelly is helping me out. It's a four-week thing: favorite fall flavor, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's. Those are coming up next, but this week is favorite fall flavor. Maple is right up there, but I've made a gazillion maple desserts lately, so egg nog it was!

These cupcakes were made from a recipe over at Annie's Eats, another favorite blog. There's bourbon in them, which was pretty overpowering when I smelled the batter, but not when I tried it. I edited the icing a bit to make it more egg nog-y and thicker as well. Altogether, an excellent fall cupcake.

So I'm adding these to the cupcake challenge at Hoosier Homemade. Now, I'm off to go vote! It's my first time actually voting in my precinct and not using an absentee ballot. I feel so grown up!