Holiday cake pops, chocolate mint roll cake and madeleines

I pack up and head west today for my holidays with family. This year, both of my step-siblings will be in town from Canada, which makes our holiday feel a little more full. Actually, my family is fairly small on my dad's side. Usually it's just me, Dad, Cathie and Grandma. So it will be nice to have a few more family members around Christmas morning. Naturally, I'll be carting some baked goods home, along with a boatload of presents and a certain black cat. Can't wait to have him in the car...or not.

The last time Aunt Betty and I made madeleines together, it didn't go. As in, they tasted like lotion or something because of how much rose water the recipe called for. Martha, you failed me on that one. But these were ultimately supposed to be decorated as Santas, and we ran out of time and energy, so we ended up with very lightly flavored orange madeleines. And my opinion of that cookie is redeemed!

Chocolate Andes mint roll cake. Enough said? A goofy Christmas tradition I have is that my mom gives me a box of Andes mints ever year for the holidays no matter what. Roll cakes have kind of eluded me thus far (they seem to crack on me all the time) so Aunt Betty and I decided to try this Andes chocolate roll cake. And boy, was it heavenly. The frosting inside had Andes mints in it as well as the cake having them on top, and it was super rich. And super wonderful.

I feel like Christmas cake pops are going to become a tradition for me (last year's were sparkly!). That, and my friends, Nick and Eric, and their roommates adore these things (I made a batch for Nick's brother for his birthday). So for our viewing of "The Nightmare Before Christmas" this year, I made two flavors of cake pops: the green were chocolate and the white were yellow cake. I hear tell they were gone rather quickly!

Snowstorm baking: Thin Mint cupcakes, chocolate chip cookies, jelly roll cake

So on Tuesday, I made my TV debut. I went on Jayni's Kitchen, our local station's cooking show. Let me tell you, it's completely and totally weird to see yourself on TV. I hear myself talk, watch how much butter goes into frosting (I think it's better people don't know that sort of thing), see myself awkwardly bite into a cupcake I've just frosted. Weird. Even weirder is when it gets turned on in the newsroom and a bunch of my coworkers watch it. Eeek! All weirdness/embarrassment aside, it was pretty awesome. I got to be on TV and do something I really love. I got a call yesterday while at work from a source from a story I wrote who had just seen me on TV. Not a lot beats that for improving a day. I'm hoping to get a video of my segment to post here. We'll see.


I was in part of that massive snow storm that hit the midwest last week. What that meant was my little car was not getting out of the house for a few days. I actually had to have my boss drive me to work one day. You know what else that meant? I ran out of white sugar because I couldn't get to the grocery story. I had no idea that was even possible. But it was, and I wanted to bake. So I searched for a cookie recipe that used only brown sugar, and found this one. Seriously, I think I found a new favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe. SO GOOD. They stayed soft and awesome and so wonderful. Who knew the snowstorm could bring good?


Another snowy dessert were these Thin Mint cupcakes. Who doesn't love Girl Scout cookie season? I saw this recipe on Langes Fadchen, Faules Madchen, a blog I follow, and knew immediately I wanted to make them. So I went to my fellow reporter Mark, whose daughter was my cookie hookup. A box of Thin Mints later, these cupcakes were born. I got two votes in the newsroom of best cupcakes yet, and I get why. Thin Mint on bottom, Thin Mint on top, minty frosting, Thin Mint truffle in the middle of a chocolate cupcake. Thin Minty-goodness all around.


Even better than the cupcake? The thank you card I got from Mark's kids for the cupcakes, diagram included. That, and the video of his son enjoying them. Seriously, cutest kid video ever.


I went home last weekend to see Grandma for the first time since she got out of the hospital. We watched Fantasia 2000, which has a scene with "Rhapsody in Blue" by George Gershwin. She started talking about how she remembered that song when she was young. I looked it up, and the song was released in 1924...my Grandma predates it by four years. Then we watched Fantasia, and she talked about how that came out while she was in college (1940). We also watched Bringing Up Baby with Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant and a leopard. I love going home to watch old movies with her. I also made a jelly roll cake while I was there, with a chocolate genoise cake from my Joy of Cooking and a Swiss meringue buttercream. Darn tasty, and the picture was taken on one of Cathie's tablescapes.


And a neat picture of Grandma. This was one of her favorite toys as a kid: Olive Oyl. You press the button on the bottom and she kind of collapses. It was one of my favorites at her house as a kid too. I like seeing the two together. Also, this weekend: cupcake crawl in Chicago!! Can't wait!

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!