Candy Cane Cake

 Happy Holidays Everyone! I've been crazy busy with my new job and haven't had a lot of time to blog recently. With the holiday season upon us, I knew that I had to do some baking and bring you a few seasonal recipes.

Luckily, my department at my new job holds a holiday party each year! My department is so multi-national and multi-cultural, our holiday pot luck was a diverse array of curries, perogies and fried chicken. The entire office floor smelled amazing all day long! I decided to bring in a dessert that looked really fancy, but took no time at all to create.

The striped peppermint frosting hides three layers of rich chocolate cake and chocolate frosting. I went with a homemade chocolate cake recipe, but you can definitely save time and use a box mix. Just be prepared to use a lot of butter when you decorate this cake! There is a lot of buttercream on this bad boy. If you have the right tools, you can get this look in less than ten minutes. Just have a piping bag, turntable and bench scraper on hand and you can have a stripey cake too!

Sorry there is no inside view of this cake. I didn't want to cut it before I took it to the office because I wanted it to look pristine for the party. I also wanted to see how long it would take for someone to cut into it! 

Unfortunately I set the baking bar pretty high with my new coworkers. They are going to be expecting some pretty impressive treats in the future...

One Year Ago: Cherry Cordial Mallomars
Two Years Ago: Candy Cane Mallomars
Three Years Ago: Christmas Fudge
Four Years Ago: Acorn & Sausage Bake
Five Years Ago: Peppermint Mallomars
Six Years Ago: Banana Whoopie Pies

Ice Cream Week - Grasshopper Sandwiches

It's day two of ice cream week! Today we're enjoying ice cream sandwiches, made with the biggest, richest cookies around, filled with ice cream, which is filled with more cookies! Ice cream sandwich Inception!

Summertime is ice cream sandwich time. Who wants to be tied to a bowl and spoon? With these bad boys, you're free to leave the house, roam the world and still eat ice cream. So perfect.

These particular ice cream sandwiches might be the perfect thing to share with a friend. The cookies are enormous and putting two of them together gives you something the size of a baseball. I decided to pair Perry's Grasshopper Pie with these rich cookies. The mint flavor of the ice cream is smooth and not overpowering. There are also crushed cookie pieces and fudge swirls throughout. The combination is totally decadent.

I only made up a few sandwiches with the Grasshopper pie flavor. I'm thinking these cookies would also be amazing with the Cocoa-Nut Bliss flavor - coconut ice cream with chocolate covered almond, fudge pieces and shredded coconut. What would you sandwich between these chocolate cookies???

Disclaimer -  As a member of their Inside Scoopers team, Perry's Ice Cream supplied me with a bunch of their new Escapes flavors. All opinions are my own. I'm only so happy to support this hometown brand because I grew up eating Perry's and they make a damn delicious ice cream!

Two Years Ago: Celebration Cake
Three Years Ago: Cinnamon Roll Cupcakes
Four Years Ago: Cream of Asparagus Soup

Candy Cane Mallomars

It's that time of year again!

I have had very little time to bake cookies this year. In addition to moving house recently, the oven in said new house keeps breaking. Basically, we need a new controller board for the oven. The oven keeps powering off at random times. For that reason, I wound up sending my cookies out two days late. Sorry cookie matches!!!

I held strong to tradition and made a holiday mallomar for the cookie swap. This year I went with the classic flavor of candy canes and added a little visual flair with some red and white. Not only is there peppermint flavoring in the marshmallow, I crushed up a whole box of candy canes and added them to the marshmallow. Sweet and crunchy!

Many thanks go out to Lindsay and Julie for organizing the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap. Not only were there packages of cookies flying all over the world, we also partnered with Cookies for Kid's Cancer and raised money for a good cause.

Since I wasn't able to cook a ton of cookies for the holidays this year, I don't have a bunch of fun new cookie recipes for you. I'm very, very sad about this. Luckily, you can drop by the GFBCS round-ups and see an amazing selection of cookies. Or, you can give these mallomars a try!

One Year Ago: Gingerbread Mallomen
Two Years Ago: Triple Peanut butter and chocolate cookies
Three Years Ago: Peppermint & Chocolate Mallomars
Four Years Ago: Banana Whoopie Pies

Christmas Fudge

We're in the home stretch of the holiday season and it's time to bombard you with a few more festive recipes!  I think we're just about two weeks away from not wanting to see anything peppermint, pumpkin or cranberry related for another year. Until that time comes I'm going to revel in those flavors! Get ready for a holiday countdown of flavor!

Up first is some pretty amazing and easy peppermint and chocolate Christmas fudge.  It's not the holiday season to me until I order my first peppermint hot chocolate from Starbucks.  This fudge is like a condensed, one inch square version of that drink.

I've made a few different varieties of fudge and I think I prefer this method to the classic boiled sugar method. No candy thermometer, no pot and no careful crystallization required. Just microwave, stir and pour. It's incredibly creamy and smooth. I made this batch of fudge for the boyfriends holiday office party and apparently it was gone in no time! I know I had a few pieces for myself.

One Year Ago: Eggnog Mallomars
Two Years Ago: Coconut Brownies

Three Years Ago: Dark Chocolate Hearts

Easy Christmas Fudge

A Wilde Original

1 (14-oz) can fat-free sweetened condensed milk
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
3/4 cup vanilla chips
2 tablespoons powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract
1/4 cup candy canes, crushed

Line an 8-inch pan with wax paper.

Combine 9 tablespoons (7 ounces) sweetened condensed milk with chocolate chips and cocoa powder.  Microwave on high for 1 minute.  Stir until the chocolate chips are melted and the mixture is smooth.  Pour into the prepared pan and smooth out.  Place in the fridge while you prepare the peppermint  layer.

Combine remaining sweetened condensed milk with vanilla chips.  Microwave for 1 minute, stir until mostly melted.  Add powdered sugar and peppermint extract and stir until smooth.  Pour over chocolate layer and smooth out.  Sprinkle with crushed candy canes and gently press in.  Place in the fridge for 2 hours to harden.

Cut slab of fudge into 25 squares.

Homemade Thin Mints

My marathon training continues as it seems to be getting easier to run these longer and longer distances. This weekend was my first "long run," with me logging six miles on a chilly Saturday morning. The training program that I am following gradually increases the weekday runs, from 2 miles to 5 miles, while the long Saturday runs increase by two miles each weekend.

During the week I like to use the treadmill. Especially since I run either very early in the morning (like my 5am, 4 miler yesterday) or late at night (I have a 5 mile run set for 9pm tonight). Right now it's dark outside at those times of day!  Though the best thing about running on the treadmill are speed intervals.

My usual running pace is between 8:30 and 9:30 per mile. I can run at this pace very comfortably and breathe normally. On the treadmill, I tend to get bored about a mile before I hit my goal distance. What do I do? I increase the speed until I'm breathing heavily and have to work hard to keep up with the belt. Yesterday I maxed out at 7:00 per mile.

Speed intervals not only help me bust out those last quarter miles in no time, but they also train my legs for the faster speed. After a week of speed intervals on the treadmill, I find my overall pace when running outside has improved!  Then I come back to the apartment and have a few post-run cookies!

Brownie Cupcake Sundaes

We are only days away from Christmas.  It's been really easy to tell how many days are left before the holiday weekend begins because of the following.  Each day this week...

My morning train has been emptier and emptier.  Friday morning promises to give me a three-seater all to myself!

There have been fewer and fewer people in the halls at work.  My company is closed next week for our winter shutdown and some people choose to extend this vacation by taking a few days this week as well.  I'm pretty sure there will be 10% of the people in the building and maybe 1% of them will be doing actual work.

My evening return to the city each night has become more packed with families.  They are all dressed up in their winter best, heading to the city to see the Rockefeller tree, shop at Macy's and view the holiday windows.  Oh yeah, and be loud and noisy on the train.  Shhhhh...

T minus five days - Boyfriend has fled the cold weather to visit his parents in Florida.  This is a good thing.  While we will be spending Christmas apart (I'll be heading to Buffalo this to visit my own parents), I get to use this time to shop and wrap for the guy. 

I finished my holiday shopping last night after work.  My antibiotics have helped me kick the bronchitis that took up residence in my chest.  And Perry's Ice Cream sent me two containers of holiday flavors.  It's time to celebrate!

Actually, the container of ice cream pictured is not the original one that they sent me.  I accidentally ate all of that one.  All by myself.  Don't worry, it took me almost two weeks to eat the whole container.  BF and I had to make our way to the New Jersey Wegmans and buy the last container of peppermint ice cream.

Before I ate all of the ice cream, I had plans to make these little brownie cupcakes.  These dessert treats are really simple and perfect for a complicated holiday dinner.  Make some brownie cupcakes, top them with your favorite mint/peppermint ice cream and add a dallop of whipped topping.  Hello delicious.

Happy Holidays everyone!  I hope that you get to spend some time with the ones you love.

Many thanks to Perry's Ice cream for helping it feel like home, all these miles away from Buffalo.  I've also found that if people know about Perry's Ice cream, they love it.  If you can find it, give it a try!

Peppermint Pillow Mints

I hope that you are all enjoying your holiday weekend. Maybe you are spending time with family today, sharing a nice meal around the dinner table. Perhaps you are heading outside to enjoy the warmer spring weather. Or maybe you are like boyfriend and I, you're going to do nothing special at all.

My weekend has been spent getting ready for candy month! Have you been waiting patiently for this month and all of the sweet treats that it promised? According to the poll you all took last month, you wanted more recipes for classic candy bars and gummy candy. I have been boiling away batches of caramel and melting slabs and slabs of chocolate. Today however, I went simple and with a confection that had a sentimental facet to it, pillow mints.

My first, and only, experience with pillow mints are from my many childhood visits to my grams house. No matter the season or time of year, there was always a small crystal bowl of mints sitting on the buffet table. I would inevitably sit in my grandmothers rocking chair and eat mint after mint. Picking my favorite from the other colors, I would leave her little house with a bowl emptied of pink mints.

Making these mints was not only easy and fun (my fingers were stained blue from the food coloring!), but it brought back the memories of my gram and spending weekends at her little house.

Chocolate-Peppermint Marshmallows

Happy Valentine's day everyone!  Have you had your fill of pink, hearts and little cupid angels?  Somehow I missed out on this holiday.  Heading to the store this weekend I saw mostly St. Patrick's day decorations and candies.  Between visiting my parents two weekends ago and moving last weekend, January came and went without so much as a snowstorm.

I have done very little to prepare for this love-centric day.  I made no chocolate-covered strawberries, no raspberry covered chocolate mousse, no heart-shaped cookies.  I haven't even planned a wonderful dinner for boyfriend yet!  It will most likely be a last-minute, what can I make with the stuff in the fridge, kind of meal.  I think that as long as I avoid pork, sweet potatoes, shrimp and fruits, he'll like it.

This Valentine's day is a special one for boyfriend and I.  It's the first February 14 that we will get to spend together as a couple and we've been together for nine years.  I suppose that I should make this a special holiday...  Maybe I'll stop at the bakery in Penn station and get him a box of cookies.  We can enjoy the cookies with some hot chocolate and peppermint marshmallows.

Peppermint Mallomars

We are two weeks away from the culmination of the holiday season and my house is full of delicious cookies!  Yes, I've been making dozens and dozens of cookies, but that is not the only reason why I am buried in deliciousness.  Perhaps you have noticed a theme among some of your favorite food blogs today.  The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap! 

I'm so happy to be a part of such a fun, creative and generous group of people.  I originally saw the idea posted on Love and Olive Oil a few weeks ago.  A grand cookie swap between the bloggers of the world.  A massacre of flour, sugar and butter that would culminate in the biggest collection of holiday cookies in one place. 

It was probably not very simple to orchestrate, so many thanks to Lindsay from Love and Olive oil and Julie of The Little Kitchen.  They were able to organize over six hundred bloggers in a complex cookie swap, each blogger sending out three dozen cookies and receiving a three dozen cookies in return, mmm cookies...

I tried out a whole bunch of different recipes before I finally came up with this one.  Something that really represents what I have been doing all year long.  A combination of candy and cookie, I give you the holiday mallomar.  The marshmallow is coated in sparkly sprinkles, rather than chocolate, on top of a dark chocolate cookie.  If you haven't tried making marshmallow yet this year, you should dust your candy thermometer off and get into the kitchen.

Mint Brownies

Is it Christmas yet? I’m pretty sure that it was July about a week ago and all of a sudden Halloween has gone by! And what did I do on Halloween? Perhaps I went to some crazy costume party. Or maybe I enjoyed an evening of pumpkin carving with friends. No, that’s all lies. I spent my Halloween on a train. A five hour train ride getting home from Washington, D.C. The only Halloween festivities that I saw Sunday night were the crazy people in Newark train station. I must mention that I was not out amongst the lunatics, I watched from my little train window as they reveled.

This time of year is rife with holidays, which means that the time seems to pass all that much quicker. No sooner is one holiday upon us that we are looking forward to the next. I like to go buy Halloween candy (for me to eat, not give out to cute kids), but I am confronted with chocolate Santa’s and peppermint nougats. We spend thanksgiving reading the ads for the next day’s black Friday sales. Christmas is spent deciding what you are taking back tomorrow (those pants are totally going back).

So in the spirit of enjoying every moment, I am going to spend the next several days celebrating me! Did you know that it’s my birthday next week? I will be entering into my final year as a twenty-something. So let’s spend the week celebrating with sweets! I’ll throw in something healthy every few days, but I want to celebrate with sugar! And today we start with mint and chocolate, mmm. Happy Birthday me.

Raspberry and peppermint marshmallows (2 recipes)

I do not drink coffee. There I said it. In fact, I do not even like the smell of coffee. Telling this to some people leaves them with the question of “how did you make it through grad school without coffee?” Apparently I’m just a naturally hyper person, you don’t want me caffeinated. I get my energy from the gym, not the mug.

Boyfriend is trying to convert me to a coffee drinker. Suggestions from others include starting with Dunkin’ Donuts lattes. Sugary milk with a hint of coffee. I’m all for sugary milk, but it’s that hint that I can’t get past. I’ve been told to be a grown-up and drink coffee. Grown-up? Bah. I’m going to keep drinking my hot chocolate.

Mmm, hot cocoa. What is even better than plain hot chocolate? Hot cocoa with marshmallows! What about fluffy, pink, raspberry marshmallows? Now, that sounds just perfect.

Do not fear the marshmallow. This is one of the most straightforward recipes there are. If you have a stand mixer, then this is super simple. All you need is a candy thermometer and a heavy pot. In my course of making marshmallows this weekend I tested out two different recipes. One is a simple eggless recipe with fruit puree, the second uses egg whites for structure.