Just Thought I'ld Throw This Out There...
Decorating By QTCakes1 Updated 13 Sep 2011 , 10:54pm by imagenthatnj
Anyone thinking of holiday baking? Any holiday gift baking? I know a few years ago there was thread where everyone kind of encouraged each other with their holiday baking/gift baking. We also exchanged recipe ideas. Anyone else up for this or is it to soon? ...of course I love the holidays!
It was over one hundred degrees last week and the high today was sixty. Yep, it's beginning to feel like Christmas! I am thinking about breads-date, poppy seed, or orange.
AHAHAHA!!! I'm with you there. I think the sudden drop into cold temps. for the rest of the week is what got me started thinking about the holidays!
I love giving baked treats for gifts! This year, my dad got my hubby and I a big freezer so I'll be starting early this year! This means less stress at the last minute!!! WOOHOO! =D
I make a variety of cookies. The constants are my cruschiki (bowtie) cookies and the white chocolate cherry shortbread cookie from the better homes and gardens site. I almost didn't make the latter last year until one of the relatives raved so much about them and how she looks forward to them every year. They are pretty so it stays in the mix.
Oh, I've been planning stuff all year.
I have a fall cake combo coming up for my birthday. My brother's birthday is a few days before mine, and I'm doing a tree stump cake with a pumpkin and autumn leaves all around it. (Of course it will be a pumpkin spice cake).
But I have actually already planned to make candy canes (different flavored, not peppermint) to go on top of petit fours for my family get togethers. And for my neighbors homemade apple pie filling made from the apples off their tree, with the dry parts of the crust premixed so they can just roll out the crust, dump the filling, and bake.
I just bought a new baking magazine yesterday. Earmarked the Guiness cookies, pink champagne cookies, and butter pecan bars. I love holiday baking.
For the holidays I make sweetbreads, pies, coffeecakes, and cookies. My favorite is making cookie trays and boxes for my own gifting. (I love making cookie trays and boxes!) Last week I started baking little colored cut outs; those take the most time so I bake and freeze. I make all the others in December.
I just posted these in another thread
http://bakingfix.com/thefix/?p=3168
http://bakingfix.com/thefix/?p=2612
WHOO! Great. I don't feel like such a dork anymore. I love holiday baking and love talking about it. I am just so glad that you guys feel the same way. So, I plan on a pound cake, cookies, and candy. Now the flavored breads sound like a great idea. I am looking to things that will last a little longer this year. I also would like to start early. I've seen great holiday baskets on here before and would love to give those away as gifts this year.
Girl, I was thinking about Christmas baking on January 1st! I LOVE October through December. We got married on December 11th so I didn't get to do much in the way of Christmas baking. All of my baking was for my wedding cakes. But I did have a Christmas confetti cake for one of my tiers if that counts, LOL.
Count me IN on whatever you guys are doing. I am so excited!
Great! And I love those boxes. I think I want to go the box route. So, I know for sure a vanilla bean pound cake, salted caramels, chocolate salted caramels, mashmallows (NOTHING like a homemade marshmallow by the way) and of course caramel covered mashmallows. Also peppermint bark. For cookies I know for sure shortbread, almond cherry biscotti, and pistachio cranberry biscotti. And of course gingerbread cookies. Oh yeah, cake pops/truffles. Just tried them and I actually liked them.
So, for the things I have heard mentioned so far, I would love to hear more about the poppyseed bread, the champagne cookies, & the cruschikis.
Oh my goodness. Holiday baking was the last thing on my mind until I started reading this post. Now I'm salivating over all of your ideas--and feeling weirdly pressured, too. Eeek!
But I'd love to know more about how to make the salted caramel (my hubby's favorite) and the caramel covered (!!!) marshmallows. I'm sure I'd die and to go heaven after just one bite.
I LOVE Christmas baking! It was so cold today all I could think about was a cup of something hot and baking. You guys are inspiring - I'm going to have to start planning now!
I love holiday baking. I started it as a tradition with my dh and kids to give to family and friends and now they look forward to the day we start baking. Even dh has a special chocolate chip cookie recipe he makes to give away.
Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! mini cream horns will be topping my list of holiday tray items along with mini lemon tarts and cream puffs. I'm looking forward to many more varieties this year. I love the fall and winter seasons...the smells of baked goods are overwhelming! MMMMMMMMMM
Funny you should bring this up - just this morning I was thinking of fruit cake. I used to hate fruit cake, until I ate my 5 year old wedding cake that had been in the freezer. It was absolutely delicious! So now I want to make a proper fruit cake for Christmas. Just have no idea what kind of recipe to try. There are so many different types out there!
All4cake, you better give up that cream horns recipe!
I was thinking of trying my hand at fudge this year. I have found so many awesome recipes. I've found key lime fudge, eggnog fudge, peppermint fudge, and cake batter fudge, to name a few. I will also probably do my standard sugar cookies and cake mix cookies (those are the BOMB).
I have also been thinking about doing a REAL fruit cake. I have a couple of UK decorating books and the fruit cakes in there look delish. Several people said the Delia Smith recipe is the best one.
http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/cuisine/european/english/the-classic-christmas-cake.html
I think this is it. If there are any UK bakers on this thread, are fruit cake and Christmas cake used interchangeably? I see both terms used to describe basically the same thing. Or maybe it's just called Christmas cake at Christmas, LOL.
Annie, I gotta hunt one down! I seen one that called for cottage cheese (ladylocks, I think) with which I plan to begin the research for my favorite. Hopefully, the search begins and ends there.
My boss from a previous job would make what I dubbed nubbies. When he was done wrapping all the cream horn tubes, he'd take the leftover strips and form 2 inch or less pastries. I was the filler of the horns and we didn't sell the little ones so, I HAD to eat them. Perfect size...perfect filling to pastry ratio...fit perfectly on my ever growing hips. THAT'S what I want!
I would love to see what you come up with. Those would be fun to put on a dessert tray for Christmas.
I might buy a mini tart pan so I can make little pecan pies and pumpkin pies. NOM.
Thats funny I also started thinking about making cookies : ) I make cookie trays everyear for family and friends I sorta think they look forward to them lol I make Pizzeles and Italian biscotti mostly I am the official cookie maker in my family and everyyear I try to add a new cookie but always go to my favorites for sure
I make regular Christmas cakes and also tropical fruit cakes with dried pineapple, mango, currants and coconut and then soak in coconut flavoured. People who always say they don't like fruitcake try either one and their eyes light up. "Yes, fruitcake can be good!"
I am joining Cakestyles.... slaps for all of you
not thinking of the holidays yet because it means jackets and coats.
Actually double slaps for all of you.
Sorry but I've had it with summer and all this heat there's only so much a person can take you know give me some Cold air any time and if thinking of baking holiday cookies can do that for me well be it lol so no Slaps Girl miss luntus lol
I make regular Christmas cakes and also tropical fruit cakes with dried pineapple, mango, currants and coconut and then soak in coconut flavoured. People who always say they don't like fruitcake try either one and their eyes light up. "Yes, fruitcake can be good!"
Now this tropical version sounds good and would love the recipe!
I have to look for my salted chocolate caramel recipe, so I'll get on that tonight. As far as the caramel covered mashmallows, you can take any caramel recipe, pour it into a sheet pan and let it cool, not all the way though. Take a slice of marshmallow, sliced the long way, and lay it in the middle of the caramel and your going to roll the caramel around the marshmallow and cut into candy pieces.
It's still over 100 degrees here so I am totally jealous of everyone living where it's already cooling off. I love baking for the Holidays and this year we are going to bake a bunch of stuff (cake pops, sugar cookies, surprise meringues, fudge, peanut blossoms, and banana bread) to give away and my kids love it.
If there are any UK bakers on this thread, are fruit cake and Christmas cake used interchangeably? I see both terms used to describe basically the same thing. Or maybe it's just called Christmas cake at Christmas, LOL.
In the UK, fruit cake, Christmas cake, celebration cake are all the same thing Apart from Delia, Mich Turner of the Little Venice Cake Company does well at selling her fruit cake all over the place - here is a video showing how she does it, it actually looks fairly simple although I have never tried it. If I were to try a fruit cake one day, I would use the recipe my Mum uses, which is from a cookbook from the 70's. Well loaded with alcohol of course
Chocolate Dipped Vanilla Caramels w/ Sea Salt
2 sticks unsalted butter
2 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
1 cup heavy cream
1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped I used a tsp. of vanilla bean paste
coarse sea salt crumbled
1 lb. bittersweet chcolate, melted Now I am not a chocolate person, let alone bittersweet, but the chocolate does not taste bitter with caramel, for those who don't like bitter sweet chocolate.
1. Line a 9x13" pan with foil, spray with vegtable oil. In heavy saucepan, melt butter. Add the sugar, corn syrup, and cream and bring to boil, stirring until sugar dissolves. Add the vanilla seeds. Cook over moderately low hear, stirring, until a golden brown caramel forms and candy thermometer reaches 245 degrees. About an hour. Stir in 1 TBLS. of salt and scraped the caramel into the prepared pan. Let cool and set completely overnight.
2. Lightly oil a sheet of parchment paper and line 2 baking sheets with wax paper. Invert the caramel onto the parchment and peel off foil. Using a sharp knife, cut the caramel into 1" wide strips and then into 1" squares. Dip the caramel into the chocolate, tap off excess and transfer to the wax paper on baking sheet. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt and refrigerate for 10 mins. Wrap the plain caramels in wax paper and tie with thread.
For the salted caramels I do the same, without dipping in chcolate and as it almost cools, I sprinkle with the salt. If you do it while it is too warm, it will melt into the caramel.
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