Skip to main content

A sweet tradition

The empty shelves in the grocery store baking aisle? My fault.

Once a year every December, my kitchen becomes the sweetest, warmest, most popular place around. This year was no exception as a few friends and I got together for a day of serious Christmas baking.  Everyone brought ingredients for a few of their favorite treats to make together.  It's a rough job, let me tell you!  Not only do we have to sample everything for quality control purposes, but we share lunch, spend hours chatting and listen to Christmas music.  Oh, and we slave over two hot stoves.  But we buckled down and got it done in one afternoon.
frosted flake wreaths

Oreo truffles

My mister and his little buddy hung out and watched football while we baked.
Our work filled an eight foot long table, making our next job dividing up the bounty.  But now we all have plates and plates of Christmas goodies to share with our neighbors and guests over the season.  And maybe a little for ourselves, too. 
Labels:

Comments

  1. TopcatDecember 6, 2011 at 4:17 AM

    Awesome! That spread looks fantastic. Enjoy eating all those goodies xx

    ReplyDelete
  2. MichelleDecember 6, 2011 at 11:35 AM

    Yum,sounds like you had a fun day and got to do lots of taste testing. :)

    Michelle

    ReplyDelete
  3. PattiDecember 12, 2011 at 5:44 PM

    Yummy! Sounds like a lot of fun!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Amy WardenDecember 16, 2011 at 8:26 PM

    I'm in total agreement - sounds fabulously fun!! I think you may have inspired a baking day with my girls once school gets out. :)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Soaping with Madder

I know that any color added to soap can morph into a surprise, but there is an added element of unknown when using botanicals to color my soap.  Some people jump out of planes or ski off mountains, but this is how I live on the edge these days.  Hmm.  If I weren't having so much fun, I'd be embarrassed. I recently had my first go with madder.  So....whatsa madder?  It's a root--the root of the madder. Ahem. (I love puns...) I infused 8 oz. of olive oil with 2 t. madder root powder for almost a week.  This amount worked out to be 20% of the oils in my batch. I wanted something in the way of embeds to add visual interest.   I dearly love my soap balls but I don't want to over do a good thing.  I've recently done square-shaped embeds, so this time I cut a bar of white soap into slices. I panicked a little that it wouldn't get dark enough--it was kind of a dusty peach--so I added 1/4 t. dried powder right before pouring. Madder powder can get a little
21 comments
Read more

Soap Challenge--Piping

I'm jumping into Amy W's soap challenge here in week 3--piping soap.  I chose to make a version of a batch I made last year--my Sweet Pea scented soap.  It was really popular for me last summer so why mess with a success? Some soapers assume that piping soap means that it must be whipped, but it's not necessary to whip it first.  When I don't want the whipped look (or more frequently, don't want to clean beaters) I just let it sit until it thickens up on its own.  (By the way, don't you adore these itty-bitty dishes?  I just bought them a few weeks ago. A set of four cost $1 at the Dollar Tree!) I used a Wilton tip #3 to make the little squiggles. I added tip #103 sweet peas and made leaves with a # 352 tip. One thing I love about piping soap....it never leaves even a trace of ash to spoil the design.   And then I took lots of pictures (it was a rather photogenic batch).  Here are a few-- These will be cured enough to have them at t
37 comments
Read more

Soap Challenge--Dandelion Swirl

This Great Cakes challenge started off, well, challenging for me.  I had internet problems (a lack of it) and something went rather tragic in my attempt to cobble together a recipe without access to my online lye calculator crutch or a good saponification chart.  Obviously, I need to work on this skill, since my first batch of soap is still not firm enough to cut.  I've seen firmer marshmallow cream.  I'm estimating that I'll be able to cut it in a week or two or maybe three. The top came out pretty, though, didn't it? Sigh.  I wonder what the inside looks like. On to batch number 2.  I went for a winter/snowy theme this time, scented with BB's Fresh Snow fragrance. I made a small 6-bar batch.  I kept noticing that my divider (a dollar store cutting mat) didn't stay in the center but kept migrating toward the edge with every pour.  I was concerned that it would ruin the design, but it held well enough. I know this challenge was all about the inside,
29 comments
Read more