| | | | |

Thursday: Santa Cookies.

The best thing about Santa Cookies is that you can you just about any cookie recipe, of if you don’t feel up to baking them, you can easily buy some plain biscuits.

Difficulty: ★★☆☆☆

Ingredients:

• 1 roll (16.5 oz) Pillsbury® refrigerated sugar cookies
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• Additional 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup vanilla creamy ready-to-spread frosting (from 1-lb container)
• Red food color (liquid or paste)
• Miniature candy-coated chocolate baking bits and/or chocolate chips

Preparations:

Heat oven to 350ºF. In large bowl, break up cookie dough. Stir or knead in 1/4 cup flour until well blended. Remove half the dough, and refrigerate remaining dough until needed. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons flour onto work surface. With floured rolling pin, roll out dough 1/4 inch thick. 
With cookie cutters, cut dough into 2 1/2-inch rounds, ovals, stars and half moon shapes (see shapes in photo). On ungreased cookie sheets, place shapes 2 inches apart. Repeat with remaining half of dough and flour.
Bake 6 to 8 minutes or until light golden brown. Immediately remove from cookie sheets to cooling racks. Cool completely, about 15 minutes.
In small bowl, mix 1/2 cup of the frosting and food color until well blended and desired red color. Decorate each cookie to look like Santa with red frosting, white frosting and baking bits.

Wednesday: Vanilla Cupcakes (via elliewaller)

Difficulty: ★☆☆☆☆

Ingredients:

65g butter, softened 
1 cup sugar 
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 eggs 
3/4 cup self-raising flour 
1/2 cup, plus 2 tbsp flour 
1/2 cup milk 
Sprinkles, to decorate as desired

Tuesday: Christmas Cake Pops.

We fell in love with these little creations as soon as we saw them, so we just had to make them. These are rather easy to make, but it’s rather fiddly and can be annoying if you don’t get it exactly right. If you have a little cellophane and a ribbon you could make these great little presents. Enjoy.

Difficulty: ★★★☆☆

Ingredients:

1 box cake mix (cook as directed on box for 13 X 9 cake)
1 can frosting (16 oz.)
Wax paper
Candy meltsLollipop sticks
Edible ink pens

Preparation:

After cake is cooked and cooled completely, crumble into large bowl.
Mix thoroughly with 1 can frosting. (I use the back of a large spoon, but it may be easier to use fingers to mix together. But, be warned, it will get messy. Also, you may not need the entire can of frosting, so start out by using almost the entire can and add more if you need to.) Roll mixture into quarter size balls and place on wax paper covered cookie sheet. (Should make 45-50) Melt chocolate in the microwave per directions on package. (30 sec intervals, stirring in between.)
Dip the tip of your lollipop stick in a little of the melted candy coating and insert into the cake balls. (Insert a little less than halfway.) Place them in the freezer for a little while to firm up. Once firm, carefully insert the cake ball into the candy coating by holding the lollipop stick and rotating until covered. Once covered remove and softly tap and rotate until the excess chocolate falls off. Don’t tap too hard or the cake ball will fall off, too. Place in a styrofoam block to dry. Once dry, draw faces with an edible ink pen and allow ink to dry!

Christmas Trees
Trees: Green Candy Melts
Stars: Jumbo Star Sprinkles
Ornaments: Rainbow chip sprinkles
Paper Lollipop Sticks

Decorate the trees: Make a cone shape instead of a ball and insert the lollipop sticks as usual. Place in the freezer until firm. Dip the entire tree in green candy melts. While still wet, you can use a toothpick to create the branches. When the trees are dry, you can also use toothpicks to apply a drop of green melted candy to the tree in the places you want the ornaments to be.

Here are some more:

Reindeer
Heads: Chocolate Candy MeltsAntlers: ABC Pretzels found at the World Market chain. The E, F, and Y letters work great. (If you can’t find these, just use regular or mini pretzel twists and break them in half for a pair of antlers.)
Noses: Red lemon heads, red M&Ms, or anything red and round will work, brown M&Ms
Eyes: Mini Confetti Sprinkles (the white ones)
Expressions: Americolor Edible Ink Pens (Black)
Paper Lollipop Sticks

Make the reindeers: Make regular cake pops using the chocolate candy melts. You can adhere the antlers while the reindeer pops are still wet or wait until they are dry and then apply a small dab of chocolate to the head to glue the antlers on. Once dry, you can also add the eyes and noses by gluing. Then using the edible ink pen, draw the mouths and dot your eyes.

Santa Hats
Hats: Red Candy Melts and White Candy Melts
Fur: white sugar crystal sprinkles
Balls: white coated expresso beans, gumballs, yogurt covered peanuts will work
Paper Lollipop Sticks

Make the Hats: Make a cone shape instead of a ball. Put in the freezer until firm. Then, holding the top part of the hat, dip the bottoms in white candy melts, insert the lollipop stick and set in a styrofoam block to dry. Once dry, dip the tops in red candy melts so that it meets where the white ends. Gently place the balls to the top of the hat while still wet. Let them dry. Then, use a toothpick to generously dab more white candy melts all around the bottom of the hat. While still wet, sprinkle the sugar crystals on.

These are fabulous for the season.
The biggest thank you to Bakerella for these.

Monday: Mini Pavlovas recipe.

Celebrate With Cake was founded in New Zealand and is still run from New Zealand, so it’s only right to honor our homecountry with a traditional favorite; Pavlova. Enjoy.

Difficulty: ★★★★☆

Ingredients:

4 egg whites
2,5 dl or 1 cup caster sugar
2 tsp cornstarch
1 tsp vinegar

Preparations:

Preheat the oven to 125℃. This is very important since you can not leave the meringue waiting for the oven to be hot enough.

Make sure your eggs are room temperature; this is also of the utter most importance when making this.

Separate the egg whites from the yolks. It is important not to get any water on the egg whites and also no yolk should be present. If you happen to get some yolk into the egg whites you can take some kitchen paper and put that on the yolk part and it will get sucked into the paper and your meringue will not be ruined.

Place the egg whites into a bowl that is dry and made out of glass or steel, if you use a plastic one it might have some fat stuck to it and that will ruin the meringue.

Beat the egg whites with a hand held mixer or by hand, but then you would need to make sure that your whisk is round and made out of steel so that it captures enough air into the meringue.

When the egg whites have turned foamy measure half of the sugar and pour it into the bowl slowly, mixing everything at high speed at the same time. It helps if you have someone helping you out in the kitchen at this time, but this can be done alone too, it’s just a bit harder that way.

Measure the other half of the sugar and mix it together with the cornstarch. Pour them into the bowl once again mixing at the same time.

Beat everything together until you have a shiny and hard mixture.

Lastly mix in the vinegar. Now you can make the traditional meringue test and hold the bowl over your head and see if anything falls on your head; it’s done if nothing falls.

Line a baking tray with baking paper and spoon the meringue on to the baking tray, make small circles with the spoon and make the edges rise higher than the middle of the cake making a small nest in the middle. If you are making a big pavlova then draw a circle on to the baking paper and spoon the meringue on to the baking tray using the circle as help and form a big round meringue cake; you will need to make the nest in the middle with the bigger version too. You can lift the meringue with a spoon around the edges to make it look fluffier.

If you are aiming for a more professional looking pavlova you will need a round tipped piping tube and using that you can pipe the meringue into a perfect circle. I myself don’t mind if mine look like they were hand made.

Bake the mini pavlovas for 1 1/2 hours. Let them cool before taking them of the baking tray.

Fill them with your choice of filling and remember to fill them just before serving, they are not as good as they should be if you leave them to wait.

How to separate egg whites:
Crack the egg into your open hand.

Let the egg whites drop away from the yolk which is on your hand.

The yolk usually remains nicely without any trouble, this is the easiest way in which to separate egg yolks.

The finished meringue should look like this after you have added the vinegar to it; it is shiny and very white.

Test the meringue by turning it upside down, if it sticks, it’s done.

Spoon the meringue onto a baking tray lined with baking paper. Make small nests by spooning the meringue higher on the sides.

Balsamic strawberries

1 cup diced strawberries
1 tbls balsamic vinegar, it is fine to use the cheaper variety
2 tbls honey or 2 heaping tbls sugar

Mix everything together and let it sit for 1 hour. Add some freshly ground black pepper if you feel like it.

Whipped cream with mascarpone

1 part whipped cream
1 part mascarpone cheese, something like Philadelphia is fine too
Sugar and vanilla extract according to taste

Whip the cream until it is light and fluffy and then mix in the cheese, sugar and vanilla extract.

Another naturally gluten-free dessert which also very easy, and takes less than 10 minutes to make, is some cream quark with berries or fruit.

Quark

500 grams quark
2,5 dl or 1 cup cream
2 cups chopped fruit or berries
1 dl or 0,4 cup sugar, you can also use honey or something like stevia
2 tsp vanilla extract

Whip the cream and then fold in the berries, sugar, vanilla and quark.

Saturday: User Submission (Brent McCorrigan, USA): Spiced Caramel Corn.

Brent: “I can’t remember a Christmas without Caramel Corn, popcorn has always played a part in the traditional American Christmas, many American’s dress their trees in popcorn threads, I think it’s better to eat. This recipe is a favorite among my friends and family, however like the threading, popcorn is very finicky, I recommend you get natural, unsalted popcorn without butter, otherwise it becomes greasy. That in mind I give it the following difficulty level…”

Difficulty: ★★★☆☆

Ingredients:

• 1 teaspoon clarified butter
• 1/2 cup unpopped popcorn
• 1/2 cup brown rice syrup
• 1/2 cup maple syrup
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon pure chile powder
• 1 teaspoon fine-grain sea salt
• 1 cup mixed toasted nuts and seeds

Preparations:

Heat the butter in a large, heavy pot over high heat. Add the popcorn and cover with a lid. When the corn starts popping, shake the pan constantly to prevent the kernels from burning. When the rate of popping falls off dramatically, immediately remove from the heat and remove the lid.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. In another large pot, stir together the syrups, cinnamon, nutmeg, chile powder, and salt and bring to a boil over medium heat. Resist stirring with a spoon; instead, carefully swirl the mixture for 5 minutes, until actively bubbling, starting to reduce, and deeply fragrant. Stir in the nuts, seeds, and popcorn and mix gently until everything is well coated. Turn out onto the prepared baking sheet, gently spread it out, and allow to cool.

Like all recipes on Celebrate With Cake, this is from a trusted source, and Celebrate With Cake takes no claim to the ownership of this recipe, if this is your recipe and it is copyrighted, we advise you to email us and we will remove it. However we do want to remind you that we are a non-profit organization, we are simply spreading the magic.

If you would like the source of any of our recipes, please email us, by clicking the link at the top of the page.

Wednesday: Chocolate Cupcakes.

This recipe doesn’t show you how to decorate the cupcakes, we like you to come up with your own ideas, if you aren’t sure just how to decorate them, there are many tutorials available on the internet.

Difficulty: ★★☆☆☆

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 3/4 cup water
• 2 large eggs
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 4 ounces melted unsweetened  baking chocolate

Preparations:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line cupcake pans with paper liners.

Combine all ingredients into large mixing bowl.  Mix at low speed for 30 seconds, and scrape bowl.  Mix at high speed for 3 minutes.

Fill liners 1/2 to 2/3 full of batter.  Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Cool 10 minutes in pans then remove from pan, and place on wire racks to cool completely.

Frost when chocolate cupcakes are completely cool.

Thursday: Minty Chocolate Cookies.

The idea of mint at Christmas is not an unheard of tradition, while not common in some countries, mint is a refreshing herb, and is often linked to the crisp smell of pine. Of course Chocolate is an all round favorite, so bringing it into your festive dishes is not a foolish move.

These little cookies are great as snacks for the coffee table with a cup of warm cocoa (see our hot chocolate recipe here and watch out for more), a warm fire and a classic Christmas movie.

Difficulty Level: ★★★☆☆

Ingredients:

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup nonalkalized cocoa powder
1 egg white
3/4 teaspoon fine-grain sea salt
1 1/2 cups whole-wheat pastry flour

Peppermint cream filling:

2+ cups powdered sugar, sifted
10 - 15 drops peppermint extract (to taste)
1/4 cup half and half (or water if you are going to keep the cookies around unrefrigerated for a while)

Preparations:

Pre-heat the oven to 350F degrees, position the racks in the middle of the oven, and line two baking sheets with parchment paper or a Silpat.

Using a stand mixer or handheld mixer, cream the butter until light and fluffy. Add the powdered sugar and cream some more, scraping the sides of the bowl a time or two. Stir in the vanilla extract, cocoa powder, egg white, and salt and mix until the cocoa powder is integrated and the batter is smooth and creamy and the consistency of a thick frosting. Add the flour and mix just until the batter is no longer dusty looking. It might still be a bit crumbly, and that’s okay.

Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface, gather it into a ball, and knead it just once or twice to bring it together into a smooth mass. Divide into two pieces place each into a plastic bag and flatten into disks roughly 1 inch thick. Put the dough in the freezer for 20 minutes to chill.

One bag at a time remove the dough from the freezer. On a well floured surface roll it out very thin (remember these are going to be sandwich cookies) - roughly 1/8 inch thick. Or you might find it easiest to roll it out between to Silpats or pieces of plastic. Stamp out cookies in whatever shape you like - I used tiny scalloped circles here. Place on the prepared baking sheets, and bake for 7-10 minutes, or until they small of deep warm chocolate with toasty overtones. Larger cookies will take longer to cook than smaller ones. Remove from the oven and cool completely on a wire rack (if you have one).

While the cookies are baking, go ahead and make the filling. Using a stand mixer or handheld mixer, whisk together the sugar and half and half until nice and fluffy. You want the filling to be thick enough that it doesn’t ooze out the sides of the cookies after they are filled, so if you need to add more powdered sugar, do so in small increments. If you need to thin out your filling, add more half and half a few drops at a time. Whisk in the peppermint extract a bit at a time, and taste as you go, the peppermint flavor shouldn’t be overwhelming. When the cookies have completely cooled slather a bit of filling on half of the cookies. Top each slather with another cookie.

Makes about 3 dozen 1 1/2-inch sandwich cookies.

Tuesday: Peppermint Semifreddo.

The semifreddo is great for small family gatherings, like on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, these one’s in particular are served in small glasses, which makes them cute and not over the top like some Christmas desserts. The dessert is sophisticated but great for those that don’t own an ice cream maker.

Difficulty: ★★★★☆

Ingredients:

1/2 cup peppermint candies (divided)
1 1/2 cups heavy cream, chilled
3 large organic eggs, separated
1/2 cup granulated sugar (divided)
1/3 cup peppermint liquor

Preparations:

Start by putting the peppermint candies in a paper or plastic baggy - crush them into little chunks (not dust) with a rolling pin.

Now you are going to whip the cream. Pour all of the cream into a medium-sized bowl and whisk until soft, floppy peaks form - they should be lazy peaks, if they look pert and perky, you’ve gone too far. Place the whipped cream in the refrigerator until you are ready to use it.

Prepare an ice bath by filling an extra-large bowl with water and ice cubes. I don’t like to sacrifice all those perfectly good ice cubes so I usually throw a couple bags of frozen corn (still in the bag) into the water instead. Set the ice bath aside.

Set a large heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water. You need to move quickly here, so have everything right on hand. Add the egg yolks and 1/4 cup of the sugar, and quickly start whisking - whisk until the mixture starts to pale, 30 seconds or so. Add the peppermint liquor and whisk like you’ve never whisked before until the mixture starts to thicken (somewhere between 30 seconds and 2 minutes depending on the heat). Quickly move the bowl from the stove and set it in the ice bath. Whisk the mixture until it is cool to the touch. Keep the pot of water simmering.

Take another heatproof bowl (you can use the one from your electric mixer if you’ve got one) and set it over the simmering water, whisk the egg whites and the remaining 1/4 cup of sugar. Start whisking, you want the sugar to dissolve and the egg whites to warm up a touch - the heat makes it easier to whip them. After a minute or so remove them from the heat and whisk the whites until they have glossy peaks - four or five minutes.. They should be structured and stiff.

Time to put it all together: Gently fold the egg-whites into the egg yolk mixture. Pull the whipped cream from the refrigerator and for that in as well. Add half the crushed peppermint candies, and fold in with as few strokes as possible. One of the reasons I add the peppermint candies in the end is because I don’t want them to stain everything pink. If you stir them too much you are going to get pink.

Spoon the mixture into serving glasses. 
This dessert is rich in heavy cream, so I like to do tiny portions of it served in little vintage shot-shaped glasses. Just the right amount of sweet to end a meal w/o putting you over the top. Sprinkle with the remaining peppermint candies and place in the freezer until it firms up, an hour or so.

This recipe will make a dozen or so desserts, depending on the size of your glasses.

Monday: Blueberry Cake

While not the most common ingredient in a holiday dish, blueberries never fail to please, for example who doesn’t like a blueberry muffin, with enough preparation one can get a crunchy outside with a moist interior. But in a cake, for Christmas? Try it and see what you think, you may just love it. Bake this earlier in the season.

Difficulty: ★★☆☆☆

Ingredients:

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon fine grain sea salt

1/2 teaspoon cider vinegar
5 tablespoons milk (divided)
1/2 cup unsulphered molasses
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, barely melted

1 1/2 cups blueberries, frozen (I freeze fresh berries)
1 teaspoon flour

Serve with a sprinkling of powdered sugar (optional), or a big dollop of sweetened freshly whipped cream

Preparations:

Preheat your oven to 350F degrees. Butter and flour a 9-inch round cake pan (or equivalent).

In a large bowl sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

In a small bowl whisk together the cider vinegar with 3 tablespoons of the milk. In another bowl whisk the molasses with the remaining 2 tablespoons of milk. Whisk the cider vinegar mixture into the molasses mixture, then whisk in the eggs.

Pour the wet ingredients over the dry and stir until just barely combined. Stir in the butter. Toss the blueberries with 1 teaspoon of flour and fold them into the batter.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about thirty minutes or until a toothpick poked into the center comes out clean. Let cool for a few minutes and then serve sprinkled with powdered sugar, or with a dollop of whipped cream on the side. We just enjoyed this cake served straight out of the pan, but you can turn it out if you like.

Serves 8 - 10.

Gelato

While it may be Winter, Gelato is all year round. Enjoy

Difficulty: ★★★★☆

Ingredients:

2 cups milk
1 cup heavy cream
4 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar

Preparations:

In a medium saucepan, mix milk and cream. Warm until foam forms around the edges. Remove from heat.

In a large bowl, beat the egg yolks and sugar until frothy. Gradually pour the warm milk into the egg yolks, whisking constantly. Return mixture to saucepan; cook over medium heat, stirring with a wooden spoon until the mixture gels slightly and coats the back of the spoon. If small egg lumps begin to show, remove from heat immediately.

Pour the mixture through a sieve or fine strainer into a bowl. Cover, and chill for several hours or overnight.

Pour the mixture into an ice cream maker, and freeze according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Transfer to a sealed container, and freeze until firm. If the gelato is too firm, place it in the refrigerator until it reaches the desired consistency.

Caramel Apple Cobbler.

Cobblers have long been a favorite for dessert at a dinner party, they’re delicious hot or cold, with cream or with ice cream. Enjoy.

Difficulty: ★★☆☆☆

Ingredients:

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup sugar, divided
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup butter or margarine
• 2 eggs
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 3 tablespoons milk
• 8 cups thinly sliced peeled baking apples
• 2 tablespoons quick-cooking tapioca
• Topping:
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 3/4 teaspoon sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preparations:

In a bowl, combine flour, 1/4 cup sugar, baking powder and salt. Cut in butter until crumbly. In another bowl, lightly beat eggs and vanilla; add to crumb mixture. With a fork, gently mix in milk to moisten. Stir until dough forms a ball. Press half of the dough into the bottom of a greased 13-in. x 9-in. x 2-in. baking pan. Chill the remaining dough. Toss apples with tapioca, cinnamon and remaining sugar; place over dough in pan. On a lightly floured surface, roll chilled dough to fit top of pan. Place over apples. Brush with milk. Combine sugar and cinnamon; sprinkle on top. Bake at 350 degrees F for 45-50 minutes or until apples are tender and crust is golden.

Makes 6 servings.

Chocolate Clusters

Clusters have always been a favorite, because they’re tasty and so easy. While not being a very fancy snack, they’re fun to make and they go fast. Enjoy.

Difficulty: ★☆☆☆☆

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups finely shredded unsweetened coconut, lightly toasted and cooled
1/2 cup toasted almonds, cooled and chopped
7-8 ounces dark chocolate, chopped
1 tablespoon finely ground espresso beans (optional)
a big grain finishing salt

Preparations:

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a Silpat. Combine the coconut and almonds in a large bowl. Place the chocolate in a double boiler (or a bowl placed over a bit of simmering water) to melt along with the ground espresso. Pour the chocolate over the coconut mixture and stir to combine. Let cool a few minutes and then drop by the tablespoonful onto baking sheet. Finish with a few grains of salt on top of each. The mixture will be a bit crumbly, but will set as the chocolate cools. If your kitchen is on the cool side the clusters will set up over the course of an hour or so. If you want to speed up the process a bit, pop them in the refrigerator.

Makes 36 clusters.