Merry Christmas...

Well, it's finally here. The season of all seasons, the crème de la crème, Christmas.

My hope for you this year is that you take time out from all the baking and cooking. The shopping and wrapping and tree trimming and just be for a moment. Enjoy your families, your life. Just pause. Sip some wassail, hot chocolate or eggnog. Maybe cozy up and watch a Christmas movie while snuggled under a blanket.

Be still and reflect on what this season is about, the birth of Jesus. Go to church and worship Him.

Yes, it finally Christmas. Don’t let it overwhelm you. Take care this holiday season.

Merry Christmas from my little family to yours,

5-Flavor Pound Cake

I have made this recipe several times this past month but for some reason I have not shared the recipe with y’all yet. I don’t know what I am thinking. I blame it on the busy holiday season.

There aren’t words for how wonderful this cake is, dense, creamy, and I am in love with the combination of flavors. When I came across this recipe I noted that the post said “I’ve never met anyone who didn’t like this cake” and so far, after sharing it with many, I find that to be true. In fact everyone comments on how good it is. Who knew a simple pound cake would be the key to cooking adoration? I do now!

For Christmas this year I am making these for gifts for mine and Baby Cakes’ co-workers and bosses; easy, affordable gifts. I’m also making large bundt cakes to take to all the Christmas’ we have to attend this year. It doesn’t get easier than that. Okay, well maybe it does but for a Martha like me it doesn't.


5-Flavor Pound Cake
recipe lightly adapted from Sweet Pea

2 sticks butter
1/2 c vegetable shortening
3 c sugar
5 eggs, well beaten
3 c flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 c milk
1 teaspoon each coconut, butter, lemon, vanilla, and almond extract

Combine butter, shortening and sugar until light and fluffy. Stir in the well beaten eggs.

Combine the flour and baking powder in a small bowl and add to the creamed mixture alternating with milk.

Stir in flavors.

Spoon into a well-greased bundt or loaf pan and bake at 325 degrees for 1 1/2 hours or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Soak with glaze and let cool.


5-Flavor Glaze

1 c sugar
1/2 c water
1 teaspoon each above stated extract

Combine ingredients in a heavy saucepan. Bring to a boil and stir until sugar is melted. Pour over cake after removing from oven.


I can’t think of any way to make this better. Earlier this year I used raspberry extract in lieu of the coconut because I felt it was springier but for winter coconut just seems a more appropriate depth of flavor. I have also seen the recipe with rum extract instead of almond but I am an almond girl. Maybe use them all, a 7-flavor pound cake? Yum.

XOXO,

Eggnog Gingerbread Trifle

Okay you guys, get ready to wipe the drool off your chin! This trifle is amazing. Perhaps I am a bit biased as I love L.O.V.E. love eggnog. If you don’t you could use just a homemade vanilla custard or in lieu of gingerbread you could substitute spice cake. I can’t say enough about this rich, creamy, flavorful dessert. It is amazing. Heaven in a dish, you know, if gingerbread and eggnog were heaven. Grin.

I am always on the lookout for that next dessert, the one that will make everyone at the table hush and say yum. As you might know once a month my best friends and I get together and play poker, what I say is poker is actually hollywood rummy, but at these poker games each one of us has a different responsibility when it comes to eats. I am exclusively dessert although 2 years ago at this time Maggie took over the dessert and made a Luscious Four-Layer Pumpkin Cake which you might remember. As good as it was/is it doesn’t touch this baby.

One of my girlies doesn't care for gingerbread and another for eggnog but they both ate some. Some of the girls had seconds. I left with an empty dish.

This one is a keeper.


Eggnog Gingerbread Trifle
recipe from The Girl Who Ate Everything

1 (14.5 ounce) package gingerbread cake mix
3 cups eggnog
1 (5.1 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix
2 cups heavy cream
1/4 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
gingersnap cookie crumbs (optional)

Prepare gingerbread cake mix and bake according to package directions (any size pan). Cool completely.

Place the pudding mix in a large bowl. Pour in the eggnog and whisk for about 2 minutes. Refrigerate pudding until the gingerbread cake is cool and you are ready to assemble the trifle.

In a large bowl, whip cream until stiff peaks are just about to form. Beat in sugar and vanilla until peaks form.

Crumble 1/2 of the gingerbread into the bottom of a trifle bowl or a large glass bowl. Spread 1/2 of the eggnog pudding over the gingerbread, and then spread 1/2 of the whipped cream on top of the pudding. Repeat the layers with the remaining gingerbread, pudding, and whipped cream.

Refrigerate 6 hours or overnight.

Sprinkle cookie crumbs before serving.

Makes around 10 cups of dessert so make sure your trifle bowl can hold that much.


Side note: you could make multiple layers as the directions above say but I only made one layer of each because I didn't want to tote my stemmed trifle dish. Also, I only used half of the gingerbread when I assembled as the entire thing would have been too much.

This trifle is so good that I am taking it to all of the families Christmas parties.

Eggnog Dreams and Gingerbread Spices,

Snickerdoodle Pie

Something about cold weather put me in a pie frame of mind. I could happily eat pie all year around but I always tend to really think about them with the first cold snap. It also might have been the fact that I received an email chalked full of pie recipe from All You late last week.

So put together the facts that I love pie and the fact that my best friend and I were sitting on her couch chit-chatting Friday night discussing what I’ll be bringing to the girls poker party on Saturday and I remembered that her favorite cookie is a snickerdoodle and ta-da I knew exactly what I was making.

Now, let me explain the poor photos, it isn’t the prettiest pie. Although I am certain someone could or has taken a better photo of it. Let me also explain that it doesn’t quite taste like a snicker doodle, it’s more like a chess pie with some sweetness on top. When I make it again, because despite the fact that it wasn’t spot on snickerdoodle it was really good, I’ll be baking it without the cinnamon sugar on top and instead sprinkling that over after it’s baked. I might also try to come up with some sort of sugar cookie crust. I know that seems like a lot of changes but even without them the pie actually tasted very good like I said above. I brought home half from the party and there is only one piece left as of this writing. That either means it's really good or I am a cow, heck, let's go with both.


Snickerdoodle Pie
recipe from myrecipes.com

1 frozen pie crust, thawed
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
4 large egg yolks, lightly beaten
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt

Fit pie crust dough into a 9-inch pie pan and crimp edge decoratively. Place in refrigerator to chill while preparing filling.

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Set a rack in lower third of oven. Line a baking sheet with foil and set it on oven rack.

In a small bowl, stir together cinnamon and 1 Tbsp. sugar.

In a large bowl, whisk together melted butter, buttermilk, egg yolks, flour, vanilla, salt and remaining 1 cup sugar. Pour into chilled pie shell.

Sprinkle cinnamon-sugar over custard.

Set pie on preheated baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes. Without opening oven, reduce temperature to 325ºF and bake until pie is set, puffed and golden, about 20 minutes longer.

Let cool on a wire rack, then serve, or cover loosely with plastic wrap and refrigerate to serve cold.


The girls said that it had a slight lemon taste which I am assuming is from the buttermilk. It actually reminded me of a pie that Baby Cakes’ Granny makes, incidently a lemon chess pie. I really did enjoy it.

XOXO,

Amaretto Hard Sauce

My Nanny, Green Nanny as I’ve heard her called in the past being as her last name is Green, is down from Idaho for Christmas this year and that means that my Mother’s side, part of them- really just sisters and Mother, are joining in the Jones side festivities. Would you like to know what else that means? It means that I do not have such a heavy work load when it comes to the list of items I am to make (for this particular Christmas party- 2 more to go) and carry over. Whew. This also means that I will be feasting on my Nannie’s Apple Pie and Sweet Potatoes. Yum! I rarely share recipes from that side of the family because like I’ve said in the past I really got the majority of my culinary experience from my Daddies side of the family. However, I have blogged one recipe from the Green side of the family, Goulash O’Neil. So although y’all have no idea to what amazing dishes my non-southern side of the family serves let me tell you that it could very possibly rival some southern dishes, just sayin’.

Anyway, I ramble, so because I haven’t any baking to do for Christmas Eve and because I wanted to contribute something and cannot possibly go somewhere empty handed, I wracked my brain trying to think of something to share with everyone, other than the Eggnog Fudge, and recalled seeing this Hard Sauce recipe on The Pioneer Women’s blog during Thanksgiving. Ta-da, I’ll bring Hard Sauce for Nannies Apple Pie. I contributed and can rest easy. GRIN.

When I saw the ingredient list I thought this is exactly like buttercream frosting, or my Momma’s version of it anyway but it’s not. The difference being that butter cream is mostly powdered sugar and this sauce is mostly butter. Paula Deen would eat it with a spoon and truth be told so could I. It is really good. I had no problem using my finger to clean the mixing bowl.

Everyone who tried it liked it, once I told my Nanny what was in it she asked "could you pour me a glass?", lol.


Amaretto Hard Sauce
recipe from ThePioneerWomen.com

1 stick softened (not room temperature) Butter
1 ½ cups Powdered Sugar
2 Tablespoons Amaretto

Beat butter in mixer with paddle attachment until fluffy. Add powdered sugar gradually until incorporated, scraping sides of the bowl twice during the process.

Add whiskey and beat again, scraping the bowl to make sure everything gets mixed together.

Spoon into a bowl and serve, or keep in the fridge (it will last for days covered in plastic wrap) until you need it.

NOTE: The hard sauce will harden in the fridge, so be sure to remove it at least a couple of hours before you want to serve. Hard sauce should be smooth and easily spooned onto desserts.

Serve on warm pie. Yum!


Merry Christmas to you and yours,

Eggnog Fudge

My littlest brother Daniel, who isn’t so little anymore, he is the father of my niece Hailey, loves Eggnog. In fact out of the 8 of us, before spouses and baby’s came along, My Mother, Daniel and I were the only ones who even liked Eggnog and to this day I think that that is still a fact. A few years ago I began collecting Eggnog themed recipes and putting them aside to one day make for him. This is the one I chose to make for various reasons, one being that it is actually quite easy compared to the Merry Cherry Fudge and the second reason being below.

My Father-in-Law is the Fudge maker in my family, since I began dating Baby Cakes his father has been the one making and sharing fudge with everyone. His is the traditional chocolate fudge with pecans, the recipe you find on the back of the Marshmallow Fluff Jar. It is wonderfully rich and creamy and how I do enjoy it but this year I wanted to play a hand in spreading Christmas Cheer as well so I began searching for ways to do just that, enter Eggnog Fudge. Now I can kill two birds with one stone (which isn’t very Christmas-y now that I think about it, "two partridges in a pair tree…”), make some fudge and make something Eggnog for my youngest baby brother.


Eggnog Fudge
recipe from RecipeGirl.com

2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup dairy eggnog
10.5 ounces white chocolate bars, chopped into small pieces
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg, plus a little more for the top of the fudge
One 7 ounce jar marshmallow creme
1 tsp rum extract

Butter a 8 or 9 inch square glass pan.

In a heavy, 3-quart saucepan combine sugar, butter and eggnog. Bring to a rolling boil, stirring constantly. Continue boiling 8 to 10 minutes over medium heat or until a candy thermometer reaches 235°F, soft ball stage, stirring constantly to prevent scorching. Remove from heat.

Using a wooden spoon, work quickly to stir in white chocolate chips and nutmeg until chocolate is melted and smooth. Stir in the marshmallow creme and rum extract. Mix vigourously until well blended and then pour into the prepared pan. Sprinkle a little freshly ground nutmeg on top. Let stand at room temperature until cooled. Refrigerate if you’d like to speed up the process.

When completely cool, cut into squares. Store in a covered container.



I left a taste for Baby Cakes on the spatula and he raved about it. This tastes exactly like eggnog, in fact when you’re cooking it, the exact moment during the mixing process that the rum extract is added you can smell it, it smells exactly like eggnog. I've already eaten 2 peices! I love it, you'll love it and I can't wait for everyone to try it.

5 More Days...

Merry Cherry Fudge (Homemade Gifts)

This is the first year that Baby Cakes and I have owned a house during Christmas and because of this we decided to make gifts for the extended family instead of purchasing them. So I began buying all the special magazine publications for homemade gifts, so much for saving money right? The funny thing is after dog earring so many delicious looking goodies I found “the one” in the December issue of Better Homes & Gardens Magazine. The moment I saw it I decided that this was the gift I was hand making and handing out to everyone, all 31 attendees. Only I didn’t know…

When I think fudge I think thick sweet creamy goodness and this recipe reminds me more of divinity than fudge. Once it has been brought up to soft ball temperature and then back down to the needed temperature you have to hand whip it with a wooden spoon for 5 minutes. The only problem? I am a weakling and it is really thick and hard to stir “vigorously”. Perhaps I should have waited for the hubs to be home. Oh well, you should see my guns now. lol.


Even though it isn’t necessarily fudgy, actually it has more of a grainy texture, it is very good and I can’t wait to see what everyone thinks about it. If only I could have thought of a different name to call it, something more of a candy than a fudge.

Baby Cakes loves it, but there isn't a sugar the man doesn't love, and has assured me that everyone else will love it too. Oh bless him. XOXO.

Merry Cherry Fudge aka Candied Cherry Opera Fudge
from BHG.com

2 cups sugar
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup half-and-half or light cream
1 Tbsp. light-colored corn syrup
1/2 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. butter
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. amaretto
1/3 cup coarsely chopped candied red cherries
Halved candied red cherries (optional)

Line a 5-3/4x3x2-inch loaf pan with foil, extending foil over the edges of the pan. Butter the foil; set aside.

Butter the sides of a heavy 2-quart saucepan. In the saucepan combine the sugar, milk, half-and-half, corn syrup and salt. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until sugar dissolves and mixture comes to a boil. Clip a candy thermometer to sides of pan.

Continue boiling at a moderate, steady rate, stirring occasionally, until thermometer registers 236 degrees F, soft ball stage, (about 20 minutes). Adjust heat as necessary to maintain a steady boil.

Remove saucepan from heat. Add butter, vanilla, and amaretto but do not stir. Cool, without stirring, to 170 degrees F (about 20 minutes). Remove thermometer from saucepan. Beat mixture vigorously with a wooden spoon for 5 minutes. Add 1/3 cup cherries. Beat mixture vigorously for 1 minute more. Pour into prepared pan, spreading evenly. Let stand until firm. Use foil to lift fudge from pan; remove foil. To serve, top with additional cherries. Cut fudge into thick slices.

To make the tin gifts I simply prepped them with butter and parchment paper and when the mixture was still warm scooped some in and tapped the tin on the counter until smooth and spread out.



I highly recommend this recipe although as I said above it isn’t very fudgy but it is ohhhh so good.

Make some and share. Merry Christmas,

Jose Cuervo Christmas Cookies

Okay so this one is really a joke to be honest but it's funny and it's holiday-ish, you know funny if every year you drink through the holidays (and let's face it who doesn't want to at some point during the craziness? Oh, that's only me? My bad).

At first when I got this in my inbox I thought that it might be a real recipe but the ingredient list clears that notion up right away, I did soldier on and I read through. It is too funny. It kind of reminds me of that drunken Christmas song that comes on during this time of the year.


Jose Cuervo Christmas Cookies

1 cup of water
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup of sugar
1 tsp salt
1 cup or brown sugar
4 large eggs
1 cup nuts
2 cups of dried fruit
1 bottle Jose Cuervo Tequila

Sample the Cuervo to check quality.

Take a large bowl, check the Cuervo again, to be sure it is of the highest quality and then pour one level cup and drink.

Turn on the electric mixer. Beat one cup of butter in a large fluffy bowl. Add one peastoon of sugar. Beat again. At this point it's best to make sure the Cuervo is still ok, try another cup just in case.

Turn off the mixerer thingy.

Break 2 leggs and add to the bowl and chuck in the cup of dried fruit.

Pick the frigging fruit off the floor.

Mix on the turner. If the fried druit gets stuck in the beaters just pry it loose with a drewscriver.

Sample the Cuervo to check for tonsisticity.

Next, sift two cups of salt, or something. Who geeves a sheet. Check the Jose Cuervo. Now shift the lemon juice and strain your nuts.

Add one table.

Add a spoon of sugar, or somefink. Whatever you can find.

Greash the oven.

Turn the cake tin 360 degrees and try not to fall over.

Don't forget to beat off the turner.

Finally, throw the bowl through the window, finish the Cose Juervo and make sure to put the stove in the wishdasher.

Cherry Mistmas!


I have to agree, Cherry Mistmas, lol,