Show and Tell! Part 4

I normally don't do dressing up; but I will make an exception for the holiday season. So my Chocolate Cupcake gets the creamy treatment to match the festive atmosphere. Besides, kids love it. Another dress option is the drizzle of ganache, the dark chocolate glaze (not shown), my preference.

After all the testing, I am now in a state of perpetual sugar rush.

Hope you will enjoy them, too. Stay warm everyone.

Ku Cake

Show and Tell! Part 3

Ahh...the brownies... These Kahlua Brownies - the picture on the left - are decadent. It's rich in underlining coffee flavor, and the texture lies somewhere between cake and fudge. We're talking about the best of two worlds here. I didn't put any nuts because I don't want to be distracted.

The picture on the right is the Old-Fashioned Icebox Cookie; it is a tribute to my childhood. It's simple, honest, a little nostalgic. When you need a break from all the other flavors, just take a bite of this sugar cookie. A sigh of relief. The recipe is from the old dessert book my mother entrusted to me - we called it 'the Blue Book' - and it tastes the same as I remember.

Show and Tell! Part 2

My favorite cookies! They are all tried and true recipes that amused a lot of people in the past.

The one on the right is the Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies. If I am allowed only one cookie to bake for the rest of my life, I'd pick this one without a hesitation. The origin is the Toll House recipe, you know, the one you can find on the back of its package. But over the years I tweaked it little by little, and I am now quite satisfied with my version.

The middle one is called Mexican Wedding Cake. The ingredients are rather simple: flour, butter, sugar and chopped pecans. It's almost hard to believe these can create such a sensation! Maybe the secret is in chopping the pecans really fine...by hand. This buttery cookie truly melts in your mouth, with a whiff of cinnamon as an spicy accent.

The one on the left is a holiday special: Cranberry Gingerdrop Cookies. This one is a bit cake-y kind of cookie, and is quite refreshing. It features the fresh cranberries and crystalized ginger as main ingredients. When I open the oven door, I could smell the tartness of cranberry. When I bite, the ginger gives a subtle kick. Love this recipe.

Show and Tell

For the past week, I have been really busy baking - testing batch, that is. The Thanksgiving week is long gone, and now it's December: time to gear up for the end-of-year holidays.

First thing's first: I am adding one more pie to the table. This is a simple pear pie I repeat baking for myself. Layers of thinly sliced pears, sprinkled with cinnamon sugar, patiently baked to melt in the mouth. I cannot resist a splash of whipping cream when I have this pie (I'm too lazy to actually whip the cream...)