This weekend was the seventh edition of the Ratskellar Holiday Party, our big annual celebration of the holidays, good cheer, and friends.

It’s hard to believe that we’ve lived in this house long enough to have SEVEN holiday parties here. How did that happen? It feels like yesterday that we–committed uptown Baltimore people–moved to Southeast. There are lots of jokes in Baltimore about people who live in Southeast–we don’t like to go north of Orleans or East of President, we would rather DIE than go to Federal Hill, and we think Southeast is the best place to live in the city. The longer we here, the more true these things are. No denying.

But back to the party. The really important thing for you all to know about the Ratskellar party (other than its awesome) is that it’s the impetus for my annual cookie baking bonanza. And this year was no different! There were many, many tasty cookies, many of which I want to share with you. But I want to start off with one so simple, you should really make a batch tonight and share it with your coworkers tomorrow, and they’ll think you’re some kind of candy making genius!

All for about 10 minutes worth of work! Really! Try it please!

Chocolate Peppermint Crunch Bark

Ingredients:
2 bags good semisweet chocolate chips (I used Ghiradelli)
1/2 package Famous Chocolate Wafers, crushed
4 crushed candy canes
4 oz white chocolate, melted

Directions:

Place chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl. Using the microwave melt the chips, stopping every 30 seconds to stir the chips. The chips should take about 2 minutes. Once they are mostly melted, stir until smooth. Spread the melted chocolate on a baking sheet lined with foil. Sprinkle the crushed chocolate wafers and candy canes evenly over the chocolate. Place melted white chocolate in a zip top bag, close the bag and snip off one corner. Pipe the white chocolate over the spread chocolate mix.

Refrigerate for one hour, or until chocolate is set. Break apart. Store in an airtight container until you’re ready to serve.

My nephew Connor loves Jeeps. Really, he loves all kind of trucks (he’s an equal opportunity type of kid) but Jeeps have a special place in his heart. So when my sister-in-law Misty asked me to make Connor’s birthday cake, I knew I had to go for the Jeep!

I found the perfect Jeep cartoon in a clip art directory, but I was unsure how I could get the image on to the top of the cake, since I had a special request for chocolate cake with chocolate icing, and I had never done image transfer on chocolate before. But some careful thinking and throwback to elementary school art skills saved the day, and I want to share that technique with you!

Instead of tracing the design onto wax paper, then outlining that image in gel icing, I decided to trace the image into the icing of the cake using a toothpick, then slowly cut away pieces of the image to trace the details. This method worked well on large cartoony inanimate objects (like the Jeep) but I suspect it wouldn’t work quite as well on something more detailed (like a cartoon character).

The trick here was to cut tiny pieces away at a time. Trace, cut, trace, cut some more. Yes, it took some time and some scissor skills, but in the end, I think it was totally worth it!

After I finished the tracing, I outlined the tracing with black icing, then filled the Jeep in with a star tip. I really was so happy with that little truck. To finish off the cake, we left the icing on the sides messy (think mud) and crushed up some Famous Chocolate Wafers with icing to create cookie/dirt “rocks” that we used as a border. Who knew rocks could be so tasty?

Finally, we finished the whole thing off, with custom 3D cake toppers from Two Sugar Babies. Her stuff is really amazing, so if you need something custom in fondant, look her up!

In the end we ended up with one happy little boy, who only wanted to eat a piece of his Jeep. My mission was accomplished.

I love the spring. First there’s my birthday, then there’s Kori’s. Yay! More parties on the shore!

I love my little sister so much (more than she even knows!), and I’m always so happy to spend a weekend with her. I’ll admit, this wasn’t always the case. Back when my sister my born in fact, I was downright mad. You see, my parents were painting my birthday gift (a playhouse) and then suddenly, they had to rush to the hospital. In the eyes of a five year old, this is an unforgivable offense. But somehow, the next year, my six year old self got over it, and Kori and I have been tight ever since!

Kori actually asked for this cake LAST year for her birthday, but I goofed. She told me she wanted “the honey cake they serve at the California Grill” which she and her boyfriend, Larry, had enjoyed during their first anniversary dinner at the restaurant. Somehow I only got the “honey cake” part and Kori ended up with a Jewish honey cake. Still tasty, but definitely not the same!

This year though, I got it right. I located the recipe. I made the cake. And since we were staying at Art’s for the weekend, I had a place to assemble, ice, and store in a cool place until serving! Always important, since I don’t want to make my darling sister sick on her birthday!

Honey Crunch Cake
Adapted (just barely) from this recipe on the Orlando Sentinel’s Daily Disney Blog

I’m not gonna lie here people–this cake is over the top AWESOME. It’s very rich and very sweet, but everyone who ate it loved it. And you know what? For being the signature dessert at a fancy restaurant, it was really easy to put together. Making the crunch is the hardest part, and really, you just have to watch the sugar cook to the hard crack stage. In fact, Noel actually ended up making the cake we ate, since one of the cats decided to *sample* the first cake I made, so I had to throw it out. No kitchen magic required for this magnificent dessert!

Ingredients:

Sponge cake:

8 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1/2 cup milk
1 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
3 large eggs
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon almond extract
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Honey crunch:

1 cup sugar
3 tablespoons each: water and corn syrup
2 1/4 teaspoons sifted baking soda

Honey simple syrup:

1/2 cup each: water and sugar
2 teaspoons honey

Honey whipped cream:

3 cups heavy cream
3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar
5 tablespoons honey

For cake: Preheat oven to 375 F. Combine milk and butter in saucepan on low heat, stirring, until butter melts, but do not boil. Remove from heat. Mix flour and baking powder. In the bowl of an electric mixer, whip eggs to break up. Whip in salt. Gradually add sugar, whipping until mixture lightens, about 1-2 minutes. Add extracts. Gently whip in milk and butter mixture. Mix in flour mixture in 4 additions, mixing until smooth after each addition. Pour into buttered and flour-dusted 9-inch pan. I used an 8 inch pan lined with buttered parchment. Bake 15-25 minutes, until cake is light golden brown and a tester inserted in the middle comes out clean.

For crunch: Combine water, sugar and corn syrup in pan. When temperature reaches 310 F (aka the hard crack stage), whisk in sifted baking soda. Make sure your soda is sifted, or you’ll get clumps in the candy. Turn off heat. Let mixture rise up without stirring. Pour onto a Silpat mat. Cool completely. Break into pieces; if you hard time breaking it apart, make sure you’re pushing from the side that was against the mat. Store in airtight container.

For syrup: Bring water and sugar to boil. While still warm, whisk in honey. Refrigerate.

For Cream Icing: Whip cream and sugar on medium 2 minutes. Add honey. Increase speed. Whip to medium soft peaks.

To assemble: Cut cake in half. Drizzle bottom layer with syrup. Spread whipped cream on bottom layer. Arrange honey crunch on whipped cream and press into cream. Spread with a little more whipped cream. Set on top layer. Drizzle syrup on top layer. Frost top and sides with remaining whipped cream. Keep cake in refrigerator until ready to serve. Serve with remaining honey crunch.

Be ready for an over the top dessert!

I will confess, I’m not much of a candy maker. Yes, I’ve made the odd batch of *oreo truffles*–crushed oreos with cream cheese dipped in chocolate–and I once entertained the idea of making actual truffles. But for whatever reason, it just never happened. Maybe I would be more interested in candy making if there was more flour involved? Who knows.

I wasn’t interested, that is, until my sister-in-law Misty put a fantastic idea in my head a few weeks ago. Instead of bringing some big, fancy, iced thing to Easter dinner, why not bring homemade Reese’s eggs, a certified family favorite? I was intrigued. Could you even make Reese’s eggs at home?

A quick search of the internet told me the answer was yes, I could make Reese’s eggs at home, but it would require the use of an egg shaped candy mold, which I, in my procrastination, had run out of time to secure. But what about just plain old Reese’s cups? Could making these at home elevate the classic favorite to a gourmet treat?

The answer–a resounding YES! Even the Bunny couldn’t have done better!

Homemade Peanut Butter Cups

Once, a long time ago, I read this Dan Rodericks piece lamenting America’s love for Reese’s cups. As Dan pointed out, Reese’s cups are one of the most loved candies in America, but they’re made with both inferior chocolate and inferior peanut butter, both of which Dan suggested, Americans would reject on their own. Put together, and Americans were in love. Dan thought that if people love these two poor specimens together so much, what would they do if presented with a cup made of high quality ingredients of each? Well Dan, we found out. I used good chips and decent peanut butter (I used the highly processed stuff, since I read natural peanut butter would be too runny). I tried both semi-sweet and milk chips. The results? AMAZING! Seriously. Like the best peanut butter experience ever. Noel declared them better than Wockenfuss. And I may have found a little love for candy making after all!

Ingredients (for 24 cups):

Candy liners, or mini cupcake liners–I used mini cupcake liners, and they worked fine
One bag of good semi sweet or milk chocolate chips
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup confectioners sugar

Directions:

Set up your candy or cupcake liners on a rimmed cookie sheet.

In a microwave safe bowl, melt half of the chocolate chips, checking after every 30 seconds and stirring the chocolate. Melt only until most of the chips are melted, then stir the chocolate until the remaining chips are gone. This is important, because it keep your chocolate from melting.

Spoon about 1/2 teaspoon of chocolate (or just enough to cover the bottom of the cup) into each cup. After the cups are filled, place the cookie sheet in the freezer to allow chocolate to harden.

Meanwhile, in the stand of an electric mixer, or by hand, mix the peanut butter and confectioners sugar until well mixed (ie no clumps of powdered sugar remain). Remove the cookie sheet from the freezer (make sure it has at least 10 minutes in there) and spoon about one teaspoon of the peanut butter mixture into each cup. Place the tray back in the freezer.

Melt the remaining chocolate in the microwave. Once the chocolate is melted, remove the tray and spoon just enough chocolate over each peanut butter ball to cover it. Distribute any leftover chocolate between the cups. Then, with the back of a spoon, smooth the tops of the chocolate peanut butter covered lump/ball to smooth it out. Place the cups back into the freezer until they’re hard. Store cups in a box in the fridge as long as they last, which might not be very long.

Enjoy your own peanut butter cups at home! I can’t wait to try these with some other nut butters. I think almond butter is going to be positively dreamy!

Today is a very big day. See today is Noel’s birthday. And not just any birthday–he’s 40 today!

I can’t believe Noel’s birthday has come up so fast. I feel like I’ve been planning for it for months, but somehow I’m still not ready. I have no card, no dinner reservations, nothing. I’m going to blame it on the fact that the combination of Snowmageddon and Snoverkill have kept me stranded in the house since last Friday. Yep, that’s it!

Alright, maybe I was being a little harsh on myself…I do have something for Noel. We’re leaving tomorrow for a cruise through the Western Caribbean! Hopefully seven days in the warm sun will make all of this snow and the shoveling and the muscle pain seem like a distant memory…

And I also made Noel these. They are for him to share with his office mates. Because why should the elementary school tradition of taking cupcakes in for the class on your birthday be just for kids? This is just the warm up act of Noel’s birthday sweets, but man, it’s a good one!

Peanut Butter Filled Cupcakes
Adapted from Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes

For Noel’s work party, I wanted something that was quintessentially Noel–simple, unfussy, and full of his favorite flavors. These cupcakes made me think of a Reese’s cup in cake form, which I thought would be perfect for Noel to share since they are his all time favorite candy. And they turned out JUST perfect! A brownie like cake meets a smooth peanut butter filling–so lovable, just like Noel!

Baker’s Note: The recipe below makes 12 cupcakes, but I doubled it to make 24. The cupcake liners are really full once all of the layers are in there, but the cakes won’t rise too much, making for a perfect sized treat!

Ingredients:

• 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
• 4 ounces semisweet chocolate
• 2 ounces unsweetened chocolate
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar (I used raw sugar, which I think gave these cupcakes their super textured top)
• 3 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Peanut Butter Filling:

• 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted
• 1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar, sifted
• 3/4 cup smooth peanut butter
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

To make: Combine ingredients and stir until smooth. Use immediately.

Cupcake Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line a standard muffin tin with paper liners–if you’re making for Noel, use orange and black polka dots! Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Put butter and chocolates in a heatproof bowl and melt in the microwave, checking every 30 seconds to see if melted. Allow chocolate to mostly melt, then remove from microwave and stir until smooth.

Whisk granulated sugar into chocolate mixture. Add eggs, and stir until smooth. Add vanilla. Add flour mixture; stir until well incorporated, making sure to scrape the bottom to fully mix the flour in.

Spoon 2 tablespoons chocolate batter into each lined cup (a cookie scoop works well here!), followed by 1 tablespoon peanut butter filling. Repeat with another tablespoon of batter.

Bake, rotating tin halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in center comes out with only a few moist crumbs attached, about 40 minutes. Transfer tin to a wire rack to cool completely before removing cupcakes. Cupcakes can be stored up to 3 days at room temperature in airtight containers.

Happy Birthday Noel! I’m so happy to celebrate it with you!

And for you dear readers, I’ve left you a few things for while I’m away. And Eileen will be checking in with a guest post! Have a happy Valentine’s Day, President’s Day, and all that jazz–and for you in Baltimore, I wish you a week without snow!

This has been a week. And no, not in a good way.

My brain is old fashioned, like a calendar, so my weeks start on Sundays. And this Sunday did not start out so fantastically. After a whole day of wonderful with some of my favorite once and future travel companions, I got a big old dose of reality on Sunday morning thanks to a trip to the office. Yeah, I knew I had to work on Sunday all along and I know I’m very fortunate to have a job that doesn’t require a lot of weekend work, but you see, I’m a girl who believes weekend are practically sacred, so a little part of me cries when weekend work is on tap. But I went into it with a positive outlook, knowing I could be in and out in a few hours and then get on with my day.

So I went and did, fully intending to come home and get on. But Noel greeted me at the door with some unexpected news–it seemed we had a plumbing situation. Not a major “there are six inches of water in the basement” situation (thank goodness!) but a “the water isn’t leaving the house properly” situation. Eight hours and two trips to Home Depot later and the problem still existed, and I had managed to do a ridiculous amount of cooking in the interim, generating an enormous pile of dishes that we now had no way to wash. FANTASTIC!

On to Monday. Noel calls a plumber, who informs us that snakeing our pipes is more complicated than usual and therefore ridiculously expensive. But what are we going to do, go with out water? A few hours and a big check later, we have water again, along with a whole stack of dishes and a mound of laundry waiting for it’s return.

Pile on top of that a crazy exhausting work schedule and the other commitments of this sometimes frantic life, and by Wednesday afternoon I was beat, and so ready for the week to be over. But thankfully, this cake saved me AND my week.

The saving started on Wednesday night with class, which was just so much fun with a great group of ladies and a gent, I felt rejuvenized. Like the true extrovert that I am, I get recharged around a great group of people and class really filled my batteries for the rest of the week. And then there was the cake itself, which I served up to my equally battle-weary coworkers on Thursday. With it’s forward lemon flavor in a light, fluffy cake form it was a wonderful Thursday wake up and almost a breath of spring. It was enough to get me over the death of our burr grinder on Thursday morning. And a reminder that when things are rough, tomorrow I’ll find better days.

Lemon Layer Cake
Adapted from Serious Eats

Serious Eats adapted this recipe from Cooking Light, and I was amazed that a cake that tasted this good could be remotely healthy. Not that my particular iteration was, once I topped it with all of that crisco laden icing that is the assigned recipe for class. But I do have to say, after this particular cake class I see the purpose of the crisco stuff. It crusts and holds it’s shape like nobody’s business, which is essential when you’re doing a design like what we had on the cake. Yep, everything on top is made of icing, except for the basket itself, which we did with a chocolate mold.

Ingredients:

• Cooking spray
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup nonfat buttermilk or skim milk with one tablespoon of vinegar stirred in
• 2 tablespoons finely grated lemon rind (I used Meyer lemons for both the zest and the juice)
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Coat 2 (8-inch) round cake pans with cooking spray; line bottoms of pans with wax paper. Coat wax paper with cooking spray, and set aside.

Lightly spoon 2 cups flour into dry measuring cups, and level with a knife. Combine 2 cups flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, stirring with a whisk.

Place granulated sugar and 1/2 cup butter in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended (about 5 minutes). Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add flour mixture and nonfat buttermilk alternately to sugar mixture, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Beat in 2 tablespoons lemon rind and 2 tablespoons lemon juice.

Pour batter into prepared pans; sharply tap pans once on counter to remove air bubbles. Bake at 350°F for 32 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 minutes on a wire rack; remove from pans. Cool completely on wire rack; remove wax paper from cake layers.

Ice cakes with the icing you please (there is a lighter version at the Serious Eats link). If you use a traditional decorating or plain vanilla icing like I did, know that some of the lemon flavor from the cake will seep into the icing–but trust me, it’s a good thing! Serve up as a bright dessert.

Sometime late last summer, I was sitting around a fire pit where folks were roasting marshmallows for smores. With a few glasses of wine in me, I boldly proclaimed, “you know, I can MAKE marshmallows!” Not that I had ever made marshmallows, but I had seen people on the internet do it, so I was sure it could work for me too. Pairs of surprised eyes turned to me. And then someone said, “or we could just buy and eat the store bought ones.” Marshmallow roasting resumed. But I felt a challenge had been issued. I needed to make marshmallows. And they needed to be made into smores!

Fast forward six months. It was December, and I still hadn’t made marshmallows, and now they were appearing in holiday baking magazines everywhere, cutely shaped into snowmen and other festive creations. Taunting me. I took another look at the marshmallow recipe I was planning on using, and realized I had everything I needed except gelatin, so I picked some up at Safeway. But then, further derailing, compliments of fear. After the near epic fail with these, I decided that I should really stop trying to eyeball the temperature of hot liquids. Candy making was delayed until a candy thermometer could be obtained.

Christmas came, and I got not one but TWO candy thermometers! And someone was nice enough to find me a sleeve of digestive biscuits–which I was certain would form the perfect base for homemade smores. After the bustle of the holidays was over, there was no excuse, marshmallow time had arrived. Noel and I set aside some time on a quiet Saturday night, read and re-read the directions, and then we were off. We weren’t quite ready for the revelation that was waiting for us at the other end of our journey, but we were soon really glad we made the trip!

Revelation? Yes, revelation, as in, homemade marshmallows are a food revelation. They are fantastic, and after you have one–which is an experience like having a cloud melt on your tongue–you are never going to want jet-puffed again. And you know what, after all the time it took me to getting around to making them, the marshmallows really weren’t that hard. But definitely worth the effort, oh, a thousand times over!

Vanilla Marshmallows
Adapted from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking

As I mentioned above, once I fully comprehended the technique (it took several reads through the instructions!) these marshmallows were pretty simple to make. You just dissolve the gelatin, bring the sugar and corn syrup to temperature and then whip until you have marshmallow. But there are a couple of things you should not try this recipe without–mainly a candy thermometer and a stand mixer. No, you cannot use a hand mixer, because my KitchenAid Artisan barely had enough horsepower to handle this job. Also, the marshmallow base itself is pretty tasteless, so you can add which ever type of extract you please to flavor your marshmallows. I’m already dreaming of peppermint ones dipped in chocolate!

Ingredients:

• 4 packets of gelatin
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup light corn syrup
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup sifted confectioners sugar, plus more for dusting

Directions:

Grease a 9×13 pan with veggie shortening or cooking spray (like Pam for Baking). Make sure you really coat that pan!

Put gelatin packets in a bowl with 1/4 cup cold water. Allow to dissolve, the gelatin will soak up all the water and will be solid to the touch at this point. Place the bowl in the microwave and heat in 30 second increments until the gelatin is liquid.

In a medium saucepan, gently stir together the sugar, 1/2 cup of the corn syrup, and 1/2 cup water. Be careful not to splash the ingredients onto the sides of the pan. Put the saucepan over medium high heat and clip a candy thermometer to the side of the pan.

Put the remaining 1/2 cup of corn syrup in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Turn the mixer on low speed and slowly pour the melted gelatin into the corn syrup. Keep the mixer on low.

Bring the sugar mixture (the one on the stove with the candy thermometer) to the soft ball stage on your candy thermometer (235-240 degrees), then remove from the heat. Take out the candy thermometer. Turn the mixer up to medium for one minute, then slowly pour the hot sugar mixture into the gelatin mixture. When all of the sugar mixture has been added, turn the mixer to medium high and beat for about 5 minutes. The marshmallow mixture will begin to turn white and fluffy. Add the vanilla extract and salt and turn the mixer up to its highest setting for another minute. Your mixer will probably sound strained at this point–mine did!–but don’t worry, it will be okay!

Working very, very quickly, pour the marshmallow into the prepared pan. Use an offset spatula to spread out the mixture evenly. Sprinkle with a bit of sifted confectioner’s sugar and let set for 6 hours, or overnight.

Use a knife to loosen the marshmallow from the edges of the pan, and use your hands to pull the marshmallow out (it will come out in one HUGE piece). Place on a surface you can cut on dusted with powdered sugar. Prepare a bowl with some powdered sugar. Use a chef’s knife to cut the marshmallows into a 6 by 8 grid. Roll each marshmallow in confectioner’s sugar. The marshmallows will keep in an airtight container for up to 1 week.

These marshmallows are delightful treats as is, but my favorite way to eat them is in smores, particularly ones made with digestive biscuits. Yeah they sound funny, but digestive biscuits are absolutely fantastic wholemeal biscuits (think first cousin to a graham cracker) dipped in chocolate, that are sold mostly in the UK. They’re my absolute, all time favorite packaged cookie, and I usually beg anyone going on holiday to the UK to bring me back a few sleeves. But luckily for me, Carlos found some at World Market last week! Woohoo! Lots of digestives for me!

So, to make the fantastic digestive smores, take one biscuit and top with one homemade marshmallow. Place it on a foil lined sheet in your toaster oven (you could also do this under the broiler in your big oven, but keep an eye on them!) and set to toast for about 4 minutes. Remove when the top is browned and crystallized, allow to cool slightly, and enjoy the most amazing smore of your life! And don’t forget to share the joy with your friends–you know they’re worth it!