Gingerbread Cake with Chocolate Peppermint Icing

 Ho Ho Ho, and Merry November 30!  Oh man, it is almost December!  I know that some of you can probably relate with me when I say that sometimes people give you a raised eyebrow when you start getting into the Christmas Spirit in early November.  As it nears the beginning of December I have realized that one of the benefits of starting the Christmas season so early is that you can fit a lot more awesome stuff in!  25 days is not enough time to experience everything, am I right?

This is another addition to my Christmas series, but unlike the previous ones, this is something I have never tried before.  I am a huge fan of gingerbread.  I love the lattes, the cookies, and that malevolently delicious gingerbread loaf you can get a Starbucks, it mocks me when I stand in line for my coffee!

I decided to experiment with combining the flavours of a gingerbread cake, and peppermint.  These are two of my favourite Christmas-time flavours, but I was curious how they would taste together.  I can now report, that they are a fracking awesome combo!

Are you guys experimenting with any new recipes this holiday season?


Ingredients:

Gingerbread Cake:

2 Cups White Flour
1 tsp Baking Soda
1/4 tsp Salt
1 1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp Nutmeg
1 tsp Ground Ginger
1/2 Cup Margarine
1/2 Cup Packed Brown Sugar
2 Eggs (Large)
1 Cup Liquid (I used water, but milk would work also)
1/2 Cup Molasses 
Miscellaneous Candy


White Peppermint Icing:

1 1/2 Cups Icing Sugr
1/2 tsp Peppermint Extract
1 TB Margarine
1/4 Cup Water  


Chocolate Peppermint Icing:

2 Cups Icing Sugar
2 TB Cocoa Powder
1 TB Margarine
1/4 Cup Water


Directions:

1.  Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Grease and flour two cake dishes, mine were approximately 8 or 9 inches.

2.   Combine the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ground ginger and nutmeg.

3.  In an electric mixer combine the margarine and sugar, mix for about two minutes.  Add the eggs one at a time and beat well.  Lastly, add the molasses and combine!

4.  Alternate between adding the dry ingredients and your cup of liquid, beginning and ending with the dry mixture.  This ensures that everything gets well combined.

5.  Distribute the batter equally between the two pans and place in oven.

Make sure the tops are fairly level!

6.  Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick can be placed inside the cakes and come out clean.  Keep an eye on your cakes because they will cook faster due to separating the batter between the two pans.  While the cakes are cooling, you can start the icing!

7.  You are going to want to start with the white peppermint icing.  Combine the peppermint extract and margarine in your electric mixer.  Add the icing sugar and water and mix until smooth.  Make sure you scrape down the sides of the bowl in case there is any icing sugar that hasn't been combined.

8.  When the cakes are cool ice the top of one with the peppermint icing, letting the icing fall down the sides.  Place the second cake on top of the iced cake.  The top of the second cake is going to be iced with the chocolate peppermint icing.  Add a garnish of crushed candy cake around the sides of your cake to add extra Christmasy flare!  You can always do with more flare!

9.  Begin the chocolate peppermint icing by combining the cocoa powder and margarine in an electric mixer.  Add the water and icing sugar until smooth.  Lick the spatula if no one is watching, share it with them if they are.  

10.  You want this icing to be slightly thinner than the white icing, so it pours easily down the sides.  Add a couple of teaspoons of additional water at a time until it is the consistency you want.     

 

11.  Garnish the top of your cake with an assortment of Christmas candy!  This will make it fun for your guests when they get their piece.  I placed my cake in the fridge for a bit to make sure the icing on top had set so the candy wouldn't sink in too much.  Here are some of the candies I got from the bulk section at Save-on-Foods:

 

Okay guys, can we talk about the creepy, red Santa Penguin?  What is happening here?  He was delicious.

Sour Patch Kid Cookies

Greetings!  This is the second installment in my Christmas Series.  These cookies are my absolute favourite at Christmas.  My mom and I kind of invented them, in a way.  We saw a recipe for something similar, but they used gumdrops.  We decided to switch it up and add Sour Patch Kids instead.  The taste is very unique and fruity.  

The cookies are definitely not sour, as some of the tartness lightens up in the cooking process.  The cookies themselves are very soft and chewy, which is one of the main reasons I love them so much.  I think kids would get a kick out of these because they are so different.  

I had to take my pictures of these quickly as they do not last very long in this house!  


Ingredients:

1 Cup Sour Patch Kids (Red and Green)
1 3/4 Cups White Flour
1/2 Cup Shortening
1 Cup Brown Sugar (packed)
1 Egg
1/4 Cup Orange Juice
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Salt


Directions:

1.  Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

2.  Start by preparing the sour patch kids.  I bought one of the big bags and separated the colours.  Red and green look more festive than using all of the colours, and I found that the bag had exactly one cup of red and green in it.  I cut my sour patch kids in half before placing them in a ziploc with 1/2 cup of the white flour.  Shake them up so they are coated in flour, this keeps them from sticking together when mixed into the batter.

3.  In a mixer combine the shortening and brown sugar.  Add egg and liquid and beat until smooth.

 

4.  In a separate bowl mix the baking soda, salt and 1 1/4 cups of flour.  Add this to the mixer with the creamed mixture.  Add the candy and mix well.

5.  Drop the cookies onto a baking pan with a spoon.  I used greased parchment because it keeps the bottoms from getting too brown.  Make sure you place them at least two inches apart, because these will spread and get stuck together, as some of mine did! This recipe makes approximately 24 cookies.

6.  Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until the bottoms are lightly browned.  They will apear gooey inside when they come right out of the oven, but once they cool they will set.

Butter Tart Pie

And so it begins!  This is the start of what will be a lot of Christmas baking.  I am notorious for starting my Christmas shenanigans on November 1st, and this year hasn't been the exception.

I am going to be doing a Christmas Series on my blog of each of my family members favourite holiday desserts.  This first one is in honour of my Dad and his love of butter tarts.  I decided to do them a little different this time and transform them into a pie!  We typically use the frozen tart shells for this as well, but I decided to go all out and make the pastry.

I am so excited for Christmas!  I bought a new tree (it's white!) and put it up, now all I have to do is dig out the box that has the lights in it!

I got the recipe for the pastry from a vlog by one of my favourite beauty gurus.  It is her mom's recipe and it has been in their family for many years.  It is really delicious, and easy.  It rolls out very nicely.  Here is a link to the video:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tolGy2qzRE


Ingredients:

Pastry:

2 cups White Flour
1 teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon Sugar
2/3 cups, plus 2 tablespoons of Crisco
1/4 cup of Cold Water

Butter Tart Filling:

1 1/2 Cups Brown Sugar
1/2 Cup Raisins
3 Eggs
3 TB Flour
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Vanilla

1.  Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Prepare a pie dish by greasing and flouring it.

2.   Combine flour, salt and sugar in a bowl.  Cut in the Crisco and use a pastry blender or a fork to incorporate it until the shortening is pea-sized.

3.  Add the cold water and mix with the fork, and your hands, until you can form a ball with the pastry.

4.  Roll the pastry out on a cutting board.  The best way to do this is to roll it between two pieces of saran wrap.  This will keep it from sticking to the board, and the rolling pin.  It also makes it easy to flip into a pie dish.  This recipe will make two crusts, so either two bottom crusts, or one pie that has a top and bottom crust.  I froze half of my pastry and used it later.

5.  Once your pastry crust is placed in the dish, sprinkle 1/2 cup of raisins in the bottom.

6.  In an electric mixer, add the brown sugar, eggs, flour, baking powder and vanilla for the filling.  Beat well, for a minimum of 2 minutes.

7.  Pour the filling over the raisins and bake for 30 to 40 minutes.  Your pie is finished cooking when it jiggles only slightly.  I know this is pretty technical, lol.  The filling will set a bit more once it is cool, but if you notice that your pie is jiggling quite a bit it likely needs to be cooked for longer.  If you notice the crust or the top of the pie getting too brown, place a piece of foil over top, folding the foil to create a tent.  Spray the foil so it does not stick to the top of the pie.

Tiny Star Pie did not survive long after baking, it was delicious!

8.  Make sure you are sitting down when you eat this, it really is that good.

I like the shattered effect you get on top when you cut it!

Spinach and Roasted Garlic Soup with Dumplings

Ingredients:

Soup:

1 Yellow Onion
6 TB Margarine
6 TB White Flour
5 cups Broth (Bonus recipe at the bottom for homemade veggie broth)
1 cup Mozzarella Cheese
2 Heads of Roasted Garlic
3 Handfuls of Spinach
Salt and Pepper

Dumplings:

2 cups Flour (I used half white and half whole wheat)
4 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
1 1/3 cup Liquid


I know some of you are thinking, "Spinach soup, ew?!", but this is actually really delicious.  I've realized lately that you can put large amounts of spinach in things to get the health benefit, and not really have a strong veggie taste.  Spinach seems to be one of those things that will just blend in really well with the surrounding flavours.  I've been putting it in my smoothies lately too, and I can't taste it at all.  The spinach in this recipe takes on a lot of the yummy roasted garlic and cheese flavour and the dumplings are such an amazing comfort food for these cold days.  Give it a try!


Directions:

1. Before you start making the soup you are going to want to begin roasting the garlic.  Do this by cutting the top off of the head of garlic, place it on a tray, and sprinkle with oil.  Cook on 350 degrees for 40 minutes or until golden brown.

2.  Begin the soup by lightly caramelizing the onions.  Cook them on medium heat in some oil in what will eventually be the pot you cook the soup in.  Once that is done, move them to a bowl.

3.  Make a roux, you do this by mixing equal parts margarine (or butter), and flour.  It will have a paste-like consistency.  Add 3 cups of the broth (I used Vegetable) and stir until it begins to thicken.  If you were making a sauce you wouldn't add anymore liquid, but we want the soup base to be a bit thinner because the spinach, garlic and dumplings will thicken it up.  Add the remaining 2 cups of liquid.

4.  Add the cheese and stir until melted.  At this point you can add the garlic, previously caramelized onions, and spinach as well.  Blend until smooth using a blender or emulsifier.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

5.  Mix all of the ingredients for the dumplings and spoon into boiling soup.  It may seem like there isn't enough room for all of the dumplings but trust me, they will all fit.  Let the dumplings cook for 15 minutes, and then you are done!

To make your own vegetable broth you add two stalks of celery, two carrots, 5 cloves of garlic, one onion and some basil (optional) to 10 cups of boiling water.  Simmer on low for 90 minutes, the broth will reduce down to 8 cups and work really well for soups, sauces and gravy!