It's beginning to smell a lot like Christmas!

As an adult, Christmas stresses me out more than it did when I was a kid (duh, obviously Amanda!).  There is more to do - gifts to buy, decisions on whose family to see when, working full time, trying not to eat every sweet treat in sight so that the pants still fit come January 1...  Know what I mean??   

In truth, Christmas was wonderful in our family when I was a kid (it still is!).  We had a big family breakfast will all the aunts/uncles/cousins/grandparents you could fit into my parents' cozy old house.  Then we'd trek over to my grandparents' home for an all day, open house - family and friends would stop by all day, we'd eat, nap, and eat some more.  Pasta, sauce, braciole (or involtini, to be accurate), cookies, cakes... It was amazing.  A big, loud, Italian-Irish Christmas.  I only regret one thing...

I never appreciated biscotti!  Silly, I know.  Those crunchy, twice-baked Italian cookies that my mom always made.  Now, as an adult, I don't know how I wasn't enchanted by the sweet, almond-apricot treats (that is the flavor I remember mom baking), the zing of the apricot brandy and chunks of dried apricots in the biscuits.  

A couple years ago my mom shared with me the Almond Apricot Biscotti recipe that she got from my aunt, Bethann, many years ago.  I dug it out and made a batch last night. Of course, I can't leave well enough alone and had to dip the finished cookies in melted white chocolate to make them even more enticing.  I instantly craved a strong cup of coffee and wanted to eat the whole batch.  

These do take some time to make, but trust me, it is all worth it! Check out the recipe at the end of this post. 

So, in addition to my Sunday baking bonanza, I made my annual hand-dipped, dark chocolate-covered Oreos.  Um...yes.  These are always a favorite of my colleagues.  I dipped close to five dozen cookies in some delicious Ghirardelli 60% cacao chips, melted until smooth.  My technique as improved quite a bit over the years. When I first started making the chocolate-covered Oreos, it looked like a toddler did them (true story!). 

And finally, I experimented a little and made my own biscotti creation - dark chocolate cranberry.  These taste every bit as good as they sound...even if I was a little heavy-handed on the chocolate. ;)  

Yes, that is a 3 pound bag! 

There is a bunch of sugar  in these cookies, so I opted for the reduced sugar Craisins

Chocolate cranberry biscotti - before the first bake

Almond Apricot Biscotti

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2 3/4 cups flour

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp salt

1/2 cup chilled, unsalted butter

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

3 1/2 oz (about a cup) white chocolate (I use Ghirardelli chips)

1 2/3 cup sliced, toasted almonds

2 large eggs

2 tsp almond extract

1/4 cup + 1 Tbsp of apricot brandy

6 oz chopped dried apricots

Mix together in a food processor flour, sugar, ginger, salt, baking powder, and butter.  Pulse until blended.

Next, mix in white chocolate and toasted almonds.

In a bowl, mix eggs, almond extract, and apricot brandy.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients in the food processor.  Put the mixture in a large bowl and carefully mix in apricots.  It might take some muscle, as the dough will be quite thick now. 

On a foil-lined cookie sheet sprayed with cooking spray, shape the dough into 3 logs - about 2" x 12" each.  Refrigerate for 30 min.  

Then, bake for 30 min. until golden brown.  The logs will be kind of squishy in the middle.  Transfer to a cooling rack and cool.  Reduce oven to 300 degrees.

Cut into 3/4" wide slices.  I use a serrated knife and cut carefully!  Bake for 10 min. on each side.  Cool, then store in an air-tight container for up to 2 weeks (if they last that long!)

*Dark chocolate cranberry version - use dark chocolate instead of white chocolate, and dried cranberries instead of apricots.  I eliminated the almonds, used vanilla extract instead of almond, and used Grand Marnier in place of apricot brandy. 

CRB's Birthday and October Happenings

Again, I've been slacking in my blogging!  Big things have been happening around here - as in CRB turning the big 3-0 this month!  We had a small football/bday/come-see-our-new-place shindig at the end of September, for which I took on my biggest baking challenge to date - I made Jupiter.  Yes, you read that correctly. And yes, I am slightly insane. :)  

It all started when he "liked" a picture on Facebook. The picture was posted on the Space.com website, and it originally came from an Aussie baker's blog, Cakecrumbs.  I jokingly commented/questioned if he would like that for his birthday cake, his mom seemed to think it was a cool idea, and so it was.  Challenge accepted!  I had to do a bit of research to find the recipe, and realized that all the measurements were in metrics. Ack!  So, after a bit of online searching and recalculating, I had a plan.  

This girl on Cakecrumbs really is amazing. Her recipe and instructions were spot on.  Here is what I did....

First, make the center core of Jupiter (which is a rock core, scientifically speaking, of course) as a chocolate mud cake.  It was a dense chocolate cake, baked in 1-cup glass prep bowls.

Step 1 - Jupiter's core

Next up was the layer of "liquid, metallic hydrogen".... well, let's just go with a white sponge cake.  

Put the rock/ice core in the white layer - hemisphere pan did the trick for this part.

Last layer, "molecular hydrogen"...so blue sponge cake works here.

Yes, it is a little well done. The crusty edges come off in the shaping process.

Ultimately, I baked 4 times - center, middle layer, then outer layer twice, since I didn't have two pans big enough for the blue outer layer. I was toast after 5 hours of baking, so I left the assembly and decoration for the next day.

I shaped both hemispheres, trying to get them as round as possible. Using my Grammy's buttercream frosting recipe, I used that as glue between the two halves, did a thin crumb coat, let that dry, then did a thicker smooth coat of icing.

Crumb coat
(please ignore the mess behind the cake! lol!)

After the smooth coat of frosting dried, I set to work on making Jupiter look like, well, Jupiter. I thinned some frosting with almond milk, and added some orange and brown gel icing coloring.  I then painted on the stripes and swirls of the largest planet.  And of course, the Great Spot too!

Ta da!

And what did the Birthday Boy think??

I think he likes it! (Photo credit to CRB's Mom, Judy)

And the inside (Again, thanks Judy for the pictures)

The next weekend, we had the Smuttynose half marathon.  The one where I wanted to PR.  Well, not in the cards for this girl.  I had an awful head cold for about two weeks prior to the race, didn't get much running in, and didn't feel 100% that day.  Oh yeah, and it was raining. Again. Just like last year.  

More to come on my October racing...which involved another few "first races" for a few of my friends. Stay tuned....

A 30th birthday cupcake!

So, it's been a few weeks since I posted (and baked!) and I wanted to catch up.  My posts have been mainly baked goods, so before you think that all I do is bake and eat sweets, I AM going to post pictures today too!  I hadn't snapped many pics lately, and this weekend I took a stroll around the local reservoir and experimented a bit with my trusty image catcher! 

But first - sweet deliciousness!  My sis-in-law (to be) turned 30 last weekend, and while she and my brother were away attending their first (of many) wedding of the season, I was the puppy-sitter for my adorable, furry, four-legged nephew. We walked, played, got into mischeif, and I managed to fit in some baking for them to come home to. 

I channeled my Great Grammy Conlon for this one. I used her from-scratch chocolate cake recipe.  Now Gram passed when I was a senior in high school, and at her services, the relatives made sure that everyone got a copy of Gram's chocolate cake recipe.  That's the thing in my family - recipes are our memories. Memories of cooking in someone's kitchen, laughing, getting flour everywhere.  Yeah, it sounds like a Lifetime movie, but these are our memories. See, my mom can sew and cook like no one's business, and my grandmother is an amazing craftwoman with a pair of knitting needles.  I feel badly that I never perfected either of these crafts.  Then a cousin said something to me - "Gram would be proud of you, you know? Keeping up with the baking...and gardening."  Then it hit me - that's what I am carrying down and passing on.  My Great Gram's love for baking and gardening.  And I am ok with that.

Ok, ok...without further adieu - Gram's Chocolate Cake recipe (in cupcake form) with espresso buttercream frosting.  Behold.....

The cake mix...secret ingredient: sour milk (milk + vinegar). Shhhhh...

I made them a little oversized.



Frosted, with espresso buttercream and ready for a little somethin'...

...like a little decoration and some burgandy chunks. Yup. I'll eat 'em!

Viola!

The Joys of Easter!

One of the most vivid memories I have from my childhood is going to my grandparents' house on Easter and realizing that the Easter Bunny stopped there too!! Oh, the joy of devouring Peeps, jelly beans, chocolate eggs, and the list goes on! Part of the Easter celebration always included a Peep Cake, baked by my grandmother. She would make an angel food cake, frost the top with her homemade buttercream frosting, and LOADS of Peeps. Every variety and color was represented - along with many jelly beans, chocolate eggs, and any other confection that would send all of us kids into a sugar high for days.

This year, I made something similar - Peep cupcakes! I used Pillsbury Funfetti cake mix (I cheated, I know!) and Grammy's homemade buttercream frosting. Then, I topped each cupcake with a Peep (traditional yellow chicks and a more modern green bunny) and some jelly beans.



Little Peep Cakes

When Irish eyes are smiling...

...they must have had these cupcakes! I found this recipe for Irish Car Bomb cupcakes on an awesome blog, Brown Eyed Baker, and HAD to give them a try. But I had to get some key ingredients first.....

Yes, it is a lot of butter.

Yes, all of those lovely items go into making these cupcakes amazing. Guinness in the chocolate cupcakes, Jameson in the chocolate ganache filling, and Baileys (and lots of butter) in the frosting... oh goodness... 

I have to admit, however, that the process was not without its perils (none of which were alcohol-related, I swear!!).  The cakes baked up wonderful (side bar: I haven't *quite*  figured out the oven in my apartment yet...it has only been 2 months.. I may have had a disasterous batch of corn muffins last month!).  The ganache, on the other hand, gave me a run for my money. It didn't set enough, so when I tried to pipe it into the hollowed-out cakes, the chocolate went EVERYWHERE. Into the freezer it went for a bit, then I was able to fill the pastry bag and pipe the chocolatey goodness into the cakes.  Lastly was the Baileys frosting. I channeled Paula Deen for this one (holy butter!).  This process was MUCH easier than the ganache. I piped the frosting on with a star tip, then sprinkled with green sugar sprinkles.

Ta da! Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes

I made 4 dozen all together. Made a couple stops that day/night and brought these to those stops. They got many, many thumbs up!

Here is the recipe if you care to try - Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes. Slainte!