Gingerbread House

On Thursday we went to visit some friends for a little Solstice get-together. They have a really neat reversible cast iron mold that makes two styles of gingerbread houses. Since we've been enjoying the Little House on the Prairie books for the last little while, Bee decided on the log cabin style.

We got the house constructed, but brought it home to decorate, which Bee did last night.
The gingerbread mother, standing by the door, is wearing a blue apron and calling the kids in for dinner. Santa is up on the roof getting ready to go down the chimney. I love the vivid colours she chose for the icing, and the little added details such as the skating marks on the pond and the holly decoration on the front door. The warm glow coming from the windows looks very welcoming.

Merry Christmas!

Homemade Caramels

The kids absolutely love the caramels that one of the vedors sells at our local farmer's market, and I was planning to contact the woman who makes them to see if I could get some for stocking stuffers, but then I got to thinking that surely there must be a recipe for them out there, and I could just make them myself. I did some searching and finally found one that looked promising.

These are the resulting caramels - glossy and creamy and unbelievably good. They might even be better than the ones at the market! They taste a little like the Werther's hard candies, but are soft and chewy and melt in your mouth.

My plan of putting them in the kids' stockings flew right out the window when they started going stir crazy from being stuck at home while I was in the kitchen baking, so I put them to work wrapping the individual candies in waxed paper. Bee (my little manager) took great pride in wrapping them just so, and was so pleased to show off our huge pile of professional looking candies when her dad got home. I think we've got a new holiday tradition on our hands.

The recipe that we used to make these delicious treats can be found here.

Halloween Cookies

The kids spent the morning decorating cookies for Halloween, and now we've got a plateful of scary ghosts, spiders, pumpkins and witches hats to share with the kids in Bee's art class.

I'm surprised the kids are sleeping, they're so excited about the big day tomorrow!

Chocolate Cupcakes

The kids and I had an entire day at home today, so we decided to do some baking. In our search for something to make, we turned to one of our favorite cookbooks, Honest Pretzels.

Mollie Katzen's book has one of the very best chocolate cake recipes I've ever tasted. It's incredibly easy to make (it can be mixed right in the pan), and is totally vegan (no eggs or milk). Even if it wasn't either of those things, it would still be one of my favorites. We decided to use this recipe to make cupcakes, as the kids firmly believe that anything tastes better in miniature form!

Made-in-the-Pan Chocolate Cake:

• 1 1/4 cups unbleached white flour (I've used half whole wheat with good results)
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 3/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1 cup water
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 tsp. vinegar (cider or white)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Stir together until batter is smooth (or mix directly in an 8 inch square pan for a cake). Spoon evenly into a 12 cup muffin pan. Bake for 20 minutes (30 minutes for cake). Allow to cool before frosting (this cake is even good without anything, or with fruit).

Chocolate Frosting (from Allrecipes.com)

• 2 tbsp. butter or non-hydrogentated margarine, melted
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 2 1/2 tbsp. milk
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla
• 1 3/4 cups icing sugar

Mix butter and cocoa with mixer until combined. Stir in milk and vanilla. Add icing sugar until frosting has reached the desired consistency. Adjust with more milk or sugar if necessary.

Cakes made with this recipe are even more moist and delicious the next day,not that they ever last that long!

Okay, I've waited long enough - time to go eat one!