Christmas Baking

Chocolate. What a wonderful way to start the morning. Baking. What an even more wonderful way to begin. 

The past two weeks have been filled with Christmas baking in both my house and my grandparent's (who have an in-law with us). Between the two houses, there has been lots of delicious treats to share and sample. My grandma's glazed pecans and walnuts have always been a favorite of mine. She was kind enough to give me my own personal stash this year, but I ate it all in one sitting while up late doing homework. In fact, I think it was all the sweets that kept me going last week, what with all the end-of-semester project work. I had chocolate saltine bark and homemade granola and chocolate pretzel M&M wreaths and lots of dark chocolate M&Ms. Friday at school everyone was in a particularly cheerful mood. Many people carried tins of fudge and homemade cookies and other goodies that they were eager to share with their friends or whoever they saw in the hallway. What's the fun of food if you can't share it? Soo I have two Christmas recipes to share with you today!

The first is super easy:

Chocolate Cherry Mice 

These things are almost too cute to eat! But then you eat one...and they're too good not to eat. 

Ingredients

Hershey kisses (for the head)

Maraschino cherries with stems

Slivered almonds (for the ears)

Food coloring (for eyes)

Chocolate chips OR more Hershey kisses

1. Place the maraschino cherries on a paper towel and dry them with another paper towel. This will make the chocolate stick easier. *If some of the cherries don't have stems, DON'T THROW THEM AWAY. There is a way to make them work! All it takes is a little surgery :) *

2. Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil to avoid sticking.

3. Melt the chocolate chips or Hershey kisses in the microwave. My grandma and I melted Hershey kisses, and we melted them for 30 seconds, stirred them, and then put them back in the microwave for another 30 seconds.

4. Dip the cherry in the melted chocolate. Dip the base of another Hershey kiss in the melted chocolate, and attach two slivered almonds for the ears. Stick the head to the chocolate-dipped cherry. There's your mouse!

5. If you have a tailless mouse, have no fear! Take a toothpick or anything sharp and just poke a little hole in its bum (sorry, Mousie!). Dip the tip of the cherry stem in chocolate, and just stick it in there! Nothing a little rectum surgery can't fix.

6. Let the mice harden in the fridge. Later, use food coloring to give them eyes. (All we had was green, black and red food coloring, and the red kind of freaked me out, so I used green. Looking back, red would've been really cute for the nose.)

Here's a close-up!

Oh, and the white blocks the mice are surrounding in the first picture are hunks of white chocolate. Don't they look like cheese???

Alrighty, now moving on to Recipe #2. This one is a bit more involved, but it's well worth it: Coconut Key Lime Cake.

Last weekend, my family and I went to DC, and we had this amazing coconut key lime cake. Now I'm picky when it comes to cake, but this cake was GOOD. So, I decided to try and replicate it for my family for Christmas! The only problem was, I didn't want to let them know I was making it. Luckily, Grandma's kitchen is always open.

Coconut Key-Lime Cake 
A key-lime cake frosted with coconut whipped cream

Because I was trying to replicate the recipe at the restaurant, I didn't follow much of a recipe for this cake. But here are the basic steps I followed.

Key-Lime Cake:

For the cake, I just used a Pillsbury white cake mix, but any brand will do. If you're feeling ambitious, you can make it from scratch, but I'm still somewhat of an amateur at baking, so I figured I would start slow. For the key-lime tang, I used an entire 4 1/2 fluid oz container of lime juice, and two grated limes. I grated each lime entirely, skin and all (my hands were tired!). When it comes to how much to use, the best thing you can do is go by taste. Next time, I think I might do less limes, because the cake was really dense and the lime was a bit overpowering. It's all trial and error!

I made this cake in two layers, so after mixing the batter, I separated it into two 8x8 circular cake tins (to avoid sticking, make sure you oil the cake tins well before pouring in the batter), and baked them for approximately 30 minutes at 350ºF. You'll know they're done when you stick a fork in and it comes out clean.

Coconut Whipped Cream:

Before I even knew I wanted to make this cake, I had bought a Coconut Cream Pie dessert mix from a craft fair, which I mixed with 16 fluid oz of homemade whipped cream. (For the whipped cream, all you need is whipping cream and an electric mixer, with vanilla and sugar to taste. Beat the cream until it peaks.) But I'm sure you can just use a recipe for coconut cream pie for the frosting. 

Decorating:

Allow the cakes to cool for a minimum of 30 minutes after you take them out of the oven. While it's cooling, cut thin slices of fruit to layer in the middle. I used strawberries and kiwis. 

Once cool, take one cake and flip it onto whatever you will be presenting the cake on. (I used a glass plate.) Frost it with a layer of the coconut whipped cream. 

Arrange your fruit. 

Apply another layer of coconut whipped cream and fruit, and top it off with a third layer of the whipped cream. Sandwich the filling with the other cake.

Use the rest of the whipped cream to frost the cake. Then go to town with the decorating! I sprinkled coconut flakes around the cake, and used the leftover strawberries and kiwi to add some color. Then, I had a little photo shoot :) 

Do you have any special holiday recipes? There's no reason why I couldn't make the glazed pecans or the mice or any of the other recipes year-round, but then they wouldn't be as special. It's nice to have something to look forward to. 

Here's wishing you all a safe and happy holiday season! 

Megan xo

Following vs. Google Friend Connect

Hey, Crazy Dreamers! So I've received feedback that people are confused about how to follow my blog, and also the difference between following and Google Friend Connect. So I thought it might be helpful to do a housekeeping post about the two, but I promise I will post later in the week with something much more fulfilling!

First of all, let me clarify that following and becoming a member is 100% FREE. Now that we have that out of the way, let's start tackling some questions. What does it mean to follow a blog? By following a blog, you will receive email notifications every time I post, so it will help keep you updated!

The easiest way to follow is to type your email into the Follower gadget in the sidebar.

After you type your email in, click "Submit." A FeedBurner window will pop up. Type in the word in the text box and click, "Complete Subscription Request." 

You'll receive a verification message in your email. 

                              

Click on the link to activate your subscription. Congratulations! You are now a follower!

There's also something called "Google Friend Connect." Google Friend Connect goes one step further from following a blog, and that's becoming a member. When you become a member, you also receive email notifications every time I post, however you become a part of the blog and the blogging community. It's a way to show the blogging community what you're reading, and a way to connect with other readers. You can click on each icon to read a little bit about the other members (if they typed a bio), and also see what other sites they joined if you're looking for another blog to read.

Some of you may have noticed the list of followers in the sidebar.

Some of you may have followed by email, but may be wondering why your name/image isn't under the "Followers" list. This is because the people whose names appear under "Followers" are members of the blog. A key point to highlight is that following a blog does not make you a member.

To become a member, click on "Join this site." A window like the picture below will pop up. 

Unfortunately, Google Friend Connect only works with emails under Google, Twitter, or Yahoo. It's really easy to sign up for an account on any of them if you don't already have one and wish to become a member. Once you have your account, click on your email user and it will ask you to sign in. Then, it will have you sign up for Blogger, where you can choose a display name for yourself.

Congratulations! You are now a part of Blogger! This does not mean you have a blog though, it just means you have a Blogger account (which is, again, FREE). Feel free to do with it what you wish!

The easiest thing to do from here would be to go to my blog again and click "Join this site." You should already be logged in. You'll get a pop-up that asks you if you want to follow publicly, or privately. "Publicly" will display your image under "Followers" (although you don't have to have an image). "Privately" will keep your subscription private, but still allow you to stay updated. 

Then, just click on "Follow this blog" and whallah! You're a member!

I would love to be able to see who my fellow crazy dreamers are, but of course if you don't feel comfortable following or becoming a member, I'm still thrilled to have you stop by! To read more about the difference between "Follower" and "Google Friend Connect," follow this link. Please leave a comment or email me if you have any questions! 

Sweet dreams and happy noticing,

Megan ;)