it’s frosty outside

I’m looking at this Betty Crocker cookbook my mom’s brought home, and I see these cuter-than-cute cupcakes decorated with slices of marshmallow dipped in coloured sugar. I get really itchy, and I bust out my sack of flour and my bottle of vanilla (pure!-I splurged for it last week) until I realize.

I’m in the midst of the worst snow storm to hit Toronto in 60 years, and I’ve run out of butter. So I put on the expensive Canada Goose jacket my uncle gave me for my birthday, and trudge over to the convenience store for a pat of unsalted.

I tried just one at first, and I was so pleased with the result that I continued!

I think they turned out rather well!

I originally just made them with my red coloured sugar I had saved up for a rainy (or well, snowy) day, but then I decided, well why not try other things. I had a bit of yellow sugar as well, and a package of blue kool-aid that I was never actually going to use. And so!

they package rather nicely too!

They’re actually quite simple.

Ingredients:
vanilla cupcakes
1 pkg large marshmallows
coloured sugar
ribbon, to decorate
frosting

I got lazy and opened up a can of (ironic enough) Betty Crocker icing, and mixed in some of my butter, milk, and added in a dash of mint extract so that it wouldn’t be too sweet (my vanilla cupcakes were already plenty sweet), but you can always go on with your own version of buttercream.

Anyways, if you slice the large marshmallows with a wet knife (keep the knife in a cup of warm water), and then dip it into the coloured sugar, you can create petals and arrange them nicely on top of the frosting.

The ribbon around the cupcake holders was a bit of a pain, but well worth the effort: they came out looking so cute!

I also whipped up a batch of candy cane cookies

which were delightfully minty!

I got the recipe for this from familyfun.com
http://jas.familyfun.go.com/recipefinder/display?id=15060

But simply, you need:

3/4 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp. peppermint extract
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
Red food coloring (mix a few drops with a tablespoon of water before adding to dough).

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Add the egg and beat well. Stir in the peppermint and vanilla extracts. Gradually mix in the flour.

2. Divide the dough in half. Color one half with red food coloring and leave the other half plain. Roll out a tablespoon of red dough and a tablespoon of plain until they are each 6 to 8 inches long. Twist them into a candy cane, pinching the ends. Repeat.

3. Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet for 8 to 10 minutes, or until set but not brown.

I was very pleased with the results! Definitely something package-able. I think I’m going to distribute these en masse on Friday, when we break for the holidays.

On Friday, we made a batch of After Eight Cupcakes to sell at a concert.

We used:

chocolate cupcakes with less sugar than usual
1 pkg Betty Crocker French Vanilla Frosting
2 tsp mint extract
1/2 cup softened butter
1 cup milk
2 cups icing sugar
4 drops green food colouring
chocolate shavings

I am a sight to behold when I wield my whisk!
I whisked together the Betty Crocker, milk, butter, mint extract, icing sugar, and green food colouring to make an entirely delectable icing mixture, and we proceeded to piece together the after eight cupcakes.

We cut an inverted cone into the cupcake, and filled it with the icing mixture, and then put the cap back on, frosting it to hide any imperfections, and sprinkled the chocolate shavings on top (I simply used some leftover Lindt that I found, and scraped away with a butter knife).

They looked absolutely deeelicious!

Okay, there is a hair in one of them, but we took that one out and ate it ourselves before we sold the rest!

Whew! Lots of baking. I guess that’s what comes with the holidays.

A couple weeks ago, I was suddenly taken by the urge to get into flour and batter and things like that, and then I decided to make gingerbread.

I thought they looked cute, if a bit crude, so imagine my disappointment when someone asked me if they were tofu bits!

Anyways, no matter, they were delicious and that someone (literally) ate their words.

Delicious Gingerbread:
2 small ripe bananas
4 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup soft butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup molasses

Puree the bananas. Combine the dry ingredients. Cream the butter and sugar, then beat in the molasses and banana mixture. Stir in the dry ingredients with a wooden spoon. Cover and refrigerate for an hour.

Preheat to 375 F and cut out cookies at 1/8 inch thickness.

Bake for 10-15 min on greased cookie sheets.

I was never partial to gingerbread men, so I decided to make gingerbread hearts and gingerbread teddy bears instead!

I made the icing by simply combining icing sugar and a couple tablespoons milk, as well as food colouring. It was a little too sweet for my taste, but other people seemed to enjoy it, so no matter!