Holiday Baking Comes to an End

Where did 2010 go?! This year seemed to fly by! So many great things happened and I can only look forward to the new year.

It was quite the year for Christmas baking. I made 4 successful batches of my mom's fudge and they all came out perfect! I even added a new touch, crushed candy canes on top, for an seasonal surprise! The key to making the recipe to come out smooth is to beat the batter for a long time once the temperature has cooled to 110 degrees. The longer, the better. But be careful - when the fudge decides to set, it's going to set immediately. You have to work quickly to get it into the pan.

I also made delicious sugar cookies. They had a very strong almond flavor the day I made them. It immediately reminded me of something from when I was little but I could never figure out what. The almond flavor weakened over the following days and the cookies became even better. Everyone at work loved them and said they reminded them of their mother's sugar cookies. 

Next came a cupcake order and cake order from a co-worker. She requested 6 chocolate peppermint cupcakes and 6 vanilla peppermint cupcakes. The frosting recipe can be found here. I was able to try a chocolate cupcake and L-O-V-E-D it! They will certainly be made again!

She also requested a raspberry chocolate cake, which was more difficult to make. The cake was super light. I'm not sure how it tasted. I must have used different cocoa because the cake didn't come out as dark as the photo in the recipe. The whipped raspberry filling was heavenly, however, it was too light to use as a filling. I found that the layers of cake slid around much to easily and had to put dowels in to hold the cake up. Finally, the cake was frosted with a rich chocolate ganache and topped with fresh raspberries.

Although I'm a day late, I hope you all a Happy New Year!