Category: Christmas desserts
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Frosty vanilla snowflake cake
It had been a while since I felt the burning ambition to decorate a cake. Lord knows I’m all about shortcuts these days — which is why when I saw this in the Kraft Kitchens’ holiday edition I knew this recipe would be quick to bake, slower to decorate. And though the purists may be choking…
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Chocolate Mousse Igloo
This chocolate mousse igloo would be the ideal dessert to make with young children, but perhaps not the most sophisticated dessert to serve your adult guests. I decided to make this recipe after seeing a photo for it in one of the Kraft Kitchens magazines, but even before I began the ingredient list made me…
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Paula Deen’s Pumpkin Gingerbread Trifle
I first discovered the recipe for this trifle months ago. But I knew that the only time I could get away with serving a dessert as decadent, as creamy, as luscious, as gooey, as spicy, as flavourful as this one was during the holiday season. And so I flagged this recipe way back then…
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Nigella’s Christmas Cornflake Wreaths
Growing up, Rice Krispie squares were an exotic treat. Celebratory desserts, at our house, were more likely to be baklava, or kenefe (a sweet cheese pastry made with kadaif), or perhaps melomakarona (Greek honey cookies). So, I will admit that I have never ever made Rice Krispie treats and the prospect of making these Christmas…
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Chocolate Gingerbread House Petits Fours
If you are looking for Christmas cheer, you will be disappointed, tonight. I’m rather more Grinch-like than Cindy Lou-like tonight, but with good reason. In less than two months I’ve had bronchitis – twice – and my son’s sick with his own eye and ear infections. I’m nearly at the end of my rope…
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Cookbook Review: The Gourmet Cookie Book
I’ll cut to the chase. This is hands down, the best baking cookbook for 2010. And I’ve been through at least a couple of dozen of the latest and greatest just in the past year. Despite all the cookie collections that have recently hit bookshelves, “The Gourmet Cookie Book” (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) is not…
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Crisp maple shortbread cookies
The recipe for these gems comes from the latest issue of Chatelaine but you can also find them here. Unlike other more traditional shortbread recipes, these were just buttery enough, just light enough that you can eat more than a couple without feeling like you are going to keel over from the sheer weight…
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Bobby Flay’s pumpkin pie with cinnamon crunch and bourbon-maple whipped cream
I have to admit I was wary when making this pie from Bobby Flay’s new book “Throwdown!”, which features recipes from his cooking challenge show on Food Network. For one, whenever he is challenged on his baking skills, he is nervous because he knows baking is not his forte. Second, even he acknowledges taking…
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Christmas tree cupcakes
Maybe one day I will be able to look back on these cupcakes as a learning experience. For now, though, all I associate them with are sobbing over a double boiler of separated green buttercream while holding my baby in one arm and a wooden spoon in another. I made these chocolate cupcakes with…
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Mini pumpkin spice bundt cakes
When the temperature drops, and the leaves crunch under my feet, I want nothing more than to warm my palate with the rich seasonal tastes of pumpkin, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. I took a several-week hiatus from blogging and baking after my son was born, but decided to get back in the kitchen and…