Sweet Tradition

Photo from Google Images

Another food-related post! You can tell what's been on my mind during the holidays!

A Hispanic friend of mine told me a couple of years ago that she likes to have tamales on New Year's Eve. I know tamales are traditional during the holiday season, so last year, when we hosted our very first ever New Year's Eve party, we served tamales, pork and chicken. They were a hit of course.

For New Year's Eve 2008, I'm serving something new that I've been curious about all year--Sweet Tamales made with coconut, raisin and pecans. I found out about them last year when I bought the savory tamales at my favorite place, but they had already sold out of the sweet tamales, which are only made during the holiday season. I can't wait to taste them!

Easy Cake Trick

I think I mentioned before that because I'm always making cakes for other people's birthdays, when our own birthdays come around at our house, we like to celebrate with something besides a cake! We usually go for an ice cream cake or cookie cake, but this year I decided to surprise my husband with something different:


Do you like donuts? How about Krispy Kreme donuts? That's right, it's a Krispy Kreme donut cake! It's actually a tower of donuts, but it doesn't really show well in the photo. I found an actual recipe online too, which I followed almost exactly (I ended up with a few extra donuts). I used 2 dozen KK holiday-themed donuts, drizzled with white and dark chocolate and accented with fresh strawberries and blackberries. Easy peasy.

Here is the recipe if you're in need of an unusual and quick cake for your next party:

The following instructions are based on
using 2 dozen Original Glazed™ doughnuts and will result in formation of a ‘pyramid’ construction. You will need a flat platter on which to assemble the cake:
Layer 1
1. Place six doughnuts in a ring formation. Fill in the space in the middle with one full doughnut.
2. Cut one doughnut in pieces to fill any
spaces in the first layer.
3.Place icing on top of this layer so it
adheres to layer 2.
Layer 2
4. Place five doughnuts on top of layer 1 again in a ring formation slightly inwards from the edge of layer 1.
5. Place one doughnut inside the ring.
7. If there are any gaps, cut a doughnut in pieces and place in the gaps.
Remaining Layers
8. Keep layering in the same manner until you get to the crescent remembering to use one less doughnut in each layer to achieve the ‘pyramid’ effect and to bring the layer inward slightly from the edge of the lower layer.
9. Place one doughnut on top of the cake as the final layer.
Decorate!!
10. Here is where you can let all your creativity flow. Melt chocolate and drizzle over the outside, pipe cream into any gaps, use fruits to decorate such as raspberries & strawberries or just shake some icing sugar over your cake.
Recipe from http://www.krispykreme.com.au/doughnuts/recipes/

Cupcake Cakes: Friend or Foe?

On the whole, I dislike Cupcake Cakes. You know, the "cakes" that are made up of individual cupcakes that are iced as a whole cake. I just think they look odd. Sometimes they just look really bad. However, they have been "in", especially for kids' parties, for a few years now, so last Christmas I made my first Cupcake Cake, a Santa Claus one:

Santa Cupcake Cake, based on some other designs seen online

I actually ended up making two of these, because they are quite handy when you're serving a bunch of kids who just cannot wait for an actual cake to be cut! I made one for our Girl Scout holiday party and one for my daughter's class at school. No one thought it was particularly amazing, myself included. (I tend to get oohs and ahhs when my work is really creative, but this wasn't one of those times). But it was cute enough. My cupcake cake curiosity was satisfied, however, and I haven't made another one in an entire year.

I know the large grocery store bakeries (Wal-Mart, HEB, etc.) sell these like crazy, but I think it may be a case of people buying them because they're there, and not necessarily because that's what they really want. I tend to get orders for whole cakes and cupcakes that are individually decorated. I've never had an order for an actual Cupcake Cake, and I can't say I'm too disappointed! However, I am always up to the challenge of doing one, and doing it well, so if anyone ever wants a cupcake cake, let me know!

Decorating for the Holidays

Happy Holidays! How do you like the fancy holiday blog decorations? Just needed a little holiday spirit around here! Free blog background from The Cutest Blog on the Block.

"Business" is usually slow in December as everyone seems to enjoy baking for themselves! That's ok though; have been busy baking for our own holiday parties, including a large batch of cookies for my younger daughter's classroom Hannukah party tomorrow and some chocolate/chocolate chip cupcakes for a Winter Wonderland celebration at my older daughter's school on Friday. Lots of flour, butter and eggs in my kitchen lately.

My watermarking project has been delayed due to having watermarked about a hundred images incorrectly (my own fault). Grrrrrr! Stay tuned!