Busy Baker

Every Christmas I go into a baking frenzy.  I always try to make pies, cakes, cookies and an assortment of candies, but this year has been different.  I am just not feeling the Christmas spirit right now so I am way behind and have no motivation.  We even just got our tree up this past week and had it not been for my grandchildren, I probably would have just skipped it.  But, among the blah days, I have had moments of baking inspiration and popped out some delicacies this past week and weekend.

First I made a winter snowflake cake for our office Christmas luncheon.  It was a 3 layer white almond cake with a raspberry buttercream frosting.  This particular flavor is requested often in my family so I make this recipe a lot.

Then I wanted to try out a new recipe that I planned on using for my coworkers gifts, so I created a Mr. & Mrs. Snowman cake for the grandbabies as a test taste trial.  (Say that fast three times.)  I  made the snow people out of gumpaste and fondant.  The snowballs were mini marshmallows.

The test recipe was a hit so I then made cupcakes to give as gifts to my coworkers.  They are a dark chocolate cake dipped in a chocolate peppermint ganache and topped with a peppermint buttercream frosting.  I added a Hershey's Candy Cane Kiss for decoration.  

I found a neat way to package them on Pinterest.  You can see the post here.

All in all, it was a very productive weekend, but I think my burst of creativeness is over for the season.  Maybe the new year will be an inspiring one.