The Christmas Kitchen

The Christmas Kitchen.  I love the sound of that.  

The sweet smell of nutmeg and vanilla welcomes you in from the snowy wonderland outside.  Into the heart of our home where the warmth of an oven is baking the winter recipes.  By day ours was filled with a bustle of activity with family reminiscing and laughing together.  And at night, the twinkling of its lights on low when the household had gone to bed.  And when a favorite Christmas song came on and held us in its beauty, the often overwhelming feeling of being blessed - fully blessed is clear.  

Here is a collection of pictures of the goodies that came out of my kitchen this Christmas. Some treats my own creations and some designs inspired by other talented bakers.  But always in the spirit of  fun and a sprinkling of trial and error!

May the Spirit of Christmas find you well!  Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

Xmas Street Pops

These are some character inspired cake pops I made for a little boy's 2nd birthday party this weekend. 

They were so much fun to create as I watched a simple ball of cake come to life.

They were really quite simple to make.  However . . . . .

If you do attempt to make them, be sure to set aside plenty of time to be able to focus on the details.   It took me three hours to make 24.  And that did not include the time to bake the cake.  YIKES!

You have to build these step by step.  Layer upon layer.  Candy upon candy melt.

Melt your colored candy melts first and set aside.  Then assemble all of your candy pieces.  I used ice cream dots for the eyes (colored in with an edible ink marker).

 The noses and beaks were Mike and Ike's candies.

And the hats were created by "painting" candy melts over an icing decoration shaped like a triangle.

To get that furry look you have to add texture to the smoothly dipped cake pop.  You can achieve that by adding another layer of candy melts and "fluff" with a toothpick as it begins to harden.  This is a neat way to try your hand at food sculpting!

The fun was definitely in the details for these pops.  And so worth it! 

Just look at the birthday boy loving his street character pop!