End of holiday baking: Eggnog fudge, buttered rum cookies and marshmallows

Christmas may be gone for the year, but looking back, I realize how much better it was than last year's. This year, I got to spend Christmas with family members absent of some pretty tough times. Last year, on the same day, my maternal grandmother died after living with Alzheimer's for years, and my paternal grandmother went to the hospital the same day. This year, I got to spend the holiday at my parents' house, not the hospital, with my stepsiblings in from Canada and my mom just visiting, not here for a funeral. And you know what? That makes Christmas pretty darn good.

I'm pretty much a holiday eggnog fanatic (see: eggnog cupcakes), so when it hits the shelves, I immediately buy some. This year has been a little different, though. I'm eating a lot healthier right now, and frankly, eggnog is terrible for you. So my compromise was this: make an eggnog dessert that tastes so much like the drink that I kill two birds with one stone. Enter eggnog fudge by Brown Eyed Baker. This will 100% become a new holiday tradition for me, because it tastes exactly how it should. It is so decadent, and as an added bonus, they made my apartment smell like yummy eggnog for hours.

My dad loves buttered rum, so I decided to try these buttered rum meltaways from Martha Stewart's Cookies book for his and my stepmom's holiday party a few days before Christmas. I made them far ahead of time and froze them into a roll of dough until just a few days before heading to Salina, so they were convenient in that sense. The jury's still out, though, on whether or not I'll make these again. They didn't taste too rummy or buttery, which I think they should considering their name. Hmm. Can't win them all, I guess.

Pretty sure I've inadvertently started a new holiday tradition for myself. Last year I gave my grandma's signature hot chocolate and homemade marshmallows to a few coworkers at my paper. This year, I did the same, only upping the ante to two flavors of marshmallows — vanilla (the green ones) and peppermint (the red ones) — and giving it to everyone at my office. So far, it seems to be a hit. That old Joy of Cooking marshmallow recipe sure is good. We'll see if I give the same gift next year!

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 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!