I missed telling you about the Thanksgiving Pie Off and the Holiday Cookie Off!
 |
| Pie Off |
 |
| Cookie Off |
  |
| Florentines, jingle bell bars, thumbprints, Bourbon balls, linzers, Dulce de leche . . . Robby even made mocha Venetians! |
Oh well, give me a break I am 9 months pregnant! (Refer to Christmas belly below.)
Instead of going backward and blogging about things that are outdated, although delicious, I am simply going to tell you what I made for Christmas this year.
Christmas Peppermint Cake
Apple Cranberry Christmas Wreath
This year was a Dolan Family Christmas. Meaning we saw the in laws on Christmas Eve and my family on Christmas day.
One of my other big cake fans, besides Robby, is my Aunt Angel.
She asked for a peppermint cake.
And good thing I listened cause she got me some darn good Christmas presents, as usual!
Thanks Ange!
I also usually make something more in an Irish vein for my dad.
(Irish only in that he is Irish. Usually it is more "all American" involving some type of crust and APPLES! He is addicted to apple desserts.)
____________________________________________________________________
I'll start with the cake . . .
This cake is easy cheesy! I made it up with some decorating inspiration from the "internets."
I used my good old Oprah endorsed Chocolate cake recipe, with a few minor alterations to make it a little less moist (it tends to fall apart) and more Christmasy (with eggnog instead of buttermilk).
I filled it with my red velvet cake icing, which I added a healthy dose of peppermint extract to.
And finally i iced it with the same filling only with some green food coloring added.
Chocolate Cake:
3 oz dark chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups hot coffee
3 cups sugar
2 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups cocoa
2tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
3 eggs
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup eggnog
1 tsp vanilla
Preheat oven to 300.
Chop chocolate and pour hot coffee over it. Let stand stirring occasionally until chips dissolve.
Sift together dry ingredients.
Beat eggs until lemon color. Add oil, buttermilk, vanilla, and chocolate mixture.
Add dry to wet and beat until just combined.
Divide between three 10" pans lined with parchment
Bake for 1 hr.
Filling/Icing:
16 oz cream cheese
2 cups heavy whipping cream
16 oz mascarpone cheese
3 cups confectioners sugar
3 tsp peppermint extract
green food coloring
let cream cheese come to room temp.
Whip cream.
Add mascarpone to cream cheese, add sugar and extract.
Fold whipped cream into cheese.
Color 1/2 to minty green.
Chocolate Shell Topping:
8 oz dark chocolate
8 oz butter melted
Pour hot butter of chocolate.
Let stand mixing occasionally till smooth.
Assemble the cake:
Layer as follows: cake - filling - cake - filling - cake - icing . . .
Pour chocolate shell over top.
Enjoy!
_________________________________________________________________________
Now for the Apple Cranberry Christmas Wreath . . . .
This is waaaaaay easier then it looks.
It is essentially a galette, which is a fancy way of saying flat free form pie.
First you'll need to MAKE pie crust.
I did a butter crust bc i had no patience to find the shortening in the cabinet.
Crust:
2 sticks of butter
2 1/2 cups of flour
1 tbs sugar
1/2 cup cold filtered water
I also experimented by mixing this all on low in the stand mixer. Worked pretty well.
Refrigerate until ready to use
Filling:
This filling is easy as pie (I think i may have used that line already . . oh well, it is true.)
6 granny smith apples peeled and sliced
1 cup cranberries (fresh)
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
spices of choice (cinnamon, all spice, nutmeg, ginger, you get the idea) as much as you like
Roll out the crust to about 14" circle.
Arrange filling in circle leaving about 5" clear in center and 2" around outside..
Cut small hole in center and fold crust up onto filling. Do the same with the outer perimeter.
Use scraps and Christmas cookie cutters to make top crust. Laying each cookie crust on top of the other in a pretty overlapping montage of Christmas.
Add some egg to the remaining filling juice and pain top crusts.
Bake at 350 for 45 minutes.
