Happy Valentine's Day!

Conversation heart cookies

Valentine's Day has always been one of my favorite holidays, regardless of my relationship status. It's just a fun holiday that partially revolves around chocolate, and who can object to that? I think a main influence of my love for the typically loathed holiday is my mom, who has always made it a really enjoyable day for the whole family. When my siblings and I were younger, we'd all get dressed up in our fanciest clothes and have a special meal that my mom had prepared for us. I've been trying to spread my love of Valentine's Day for years, and I think I'm making some progress. Typically, every year I host a party for my friends, but this year with school and work, there was just no time to plan it. To carry on my tradition of trying to make the day special for everyone, I went into baking overdrive last week to put together some treats to mail out to some friends and family members.

Slight modification for a friend who is into math

The first thing I made was iced sugar cookies. These are really a pain to make. They're so labor intensive and (in my opinion), don't taste that great. But, when they're done right, they look amazing, so I continue to make them. My inspiration for these was the very talented baker/blogger at A Dozen Eggs. I seriously do not know how she does it! I made two sets of cookies, traditional conversation hearts and boxers & lips. They took two nights to complete.

Hot lips & boxers

I also made Rice Krispie treats. I haven't had a homemade one of these in forever. My only complaint is that the recipe on the back of the box (which claims to be for a 13x9" pan) just does not make enough. They came out pretty thin. So, if you're making these using that recipe, double it. I like really thick Rice Krispie treats. I put some heart sprinkles on the top of these.

Rice Krispie Treats

Next up was brownies. I used the tried and true recipe from the Baked cookbook. These are really great, especially if you use good chocolate. No Hershey's chocolate in these...

The marshmallows started looking like this

And ended like this

The thing I was most excited about making for this Valentine's Day was marshmallows. I had never even contemplated making these before I started seeing recipes pop up for them, and I thought they were going to be incredibly complex to make. They could not have been any easier. With only a few ingredients, and a minimal level of skill required, these were really great to make. I dyed them pink for the holiday. I love making things that have a "wow" moment, and these went from a flat cloudy white mixture to a fluffy, shiny marshmallow in under 10 minutes.

Cut marshmallow, rolled in powdered sugar

Hopefully everyone enjoyed their treats!

Everything packaged and ready to go!

Christmas Party

I used to have an annual Christmas cocktail party every December 22nd (actually the first year it was the 23rd, but the hangover on Christmas Eve proved to be something I did not want to repeat year after year). Last year, for various reasons, I didn't end up having the party. This year, I wanted to reincarnate the party in a much smaller, tamer version.

Mini vanilla cupcakes

Even though the party was smaller, that does not mean that I held back on the desserts or food. As I was setting up the table with cookies and cupcakes before any guests had arrived, I realized I had made enough food for 4 times the amount of guests I was expecting.

Chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, peanut butter

I had prepared my cookie doughs the week before and stored them in the fridge. Whenever I had time in the week leading up to the party, I would throw a couple batches of cookies in the oven and store them in Tupperware.

Sugar cookies

This year I made a few of my favorite "classic" Christmas cookies: chocolate chip (perfected over many, many tested recipes), oatmeal raisin, peanut butter, and the sugar cookies I wrote about in the last post. I also made mini vanilla cupcakes in festive liners from left over batter I had from an order last week.

It wouldn't be a party with just desserts (ok...maybe it would be) so I also made a Christmas punch (a blend of pomegranate juice, cranberry juice, pineapple vodka, and seltzer) and some assorted hors d'oeurves. The biggest hit seemed to be cocktail hotdogs wrapped in bacon and baked in dark brown sugar. It sounds weird, but it was really, really good.

Finally - a Cookie Success!

The first time I attempted to make iced sugar cookies, it was a total disaster. I quickly got frustrated and abandoned the whole project. I've been admiring these beautiful sugar cookies on blogs like My Sweet and Saucy and A Dozen Eggs, and mine looked like a preschool arts & crafts project.

Bit of a flooding issue

That was over the summer. Cookies have always been a challenge for me, and with this holiday season, I've been determined to produce beautiful and great tasting cookies. After trying countless chocolate chip cookie recipes (and forcing the results on my coworkers), I've finally found a recipe that produces my idea of the perfect chocolate chip cookie - soft, chewy and thick.

Christmas Trees

After I worked out that battle, the next challenge was to revisit the sugar cookies. I decided to go into it with a plan, drawing out each of the 3 cookie designs I wanted to make, and accepted that it was going to be a very time-consuming project that required a lot of patience. Overall, it went pretty smoothly. Except when on my first batch, the gingerbread people, the brown royal icing flooded out of the top of my pastry bag, all over my counter and floor. Two gingerbread men were lost in the process...

Pretty snowflake

Aside from that initial hiccup, the rest, although really time-consuming, came out really nice. I plan on serving these cookies for my holiday party I'm hosting on Friday, and I think I'm going to make a second batch when I go home for Christmas.

I took these pictures with my iPhone, so while the quality is great for a phone camera, overall it is a bit lacking. Have I mentioned how much I love my new phone my brother gave me for my birthday? I downloaded the Epicurious app and browse recipes on the bus ride home from work - it's really perfect.

My 25th Birthday Party

Mini pumpkin cupcakes

On November 17, I turned the age that when I was much younger I considered to be officially "old" - twenty-five. I was not psyched to be passing this age milestone, so I decided to deal with it in my favorite way - plan a big party. With the party to look forward to, I happily started planning all of the details of the party - most notably the desserts.

Center of the top cake tier

I decided I really wanted a birthday cake - like a big birthday cake. I've been really wanting a Wall-E shaped cake, but decided it didn't really fit with the theme I was going for. The color scheme was purple - my favorite color, and I decided to go all out.

Top chocolate cake tier

From the outer space order I did, I used the remaining pumpkin spice batter to make two dozen mini cupcakes in bright purple liners. Once I topped them with cream cheese frosting, I sprinkled them with purple sugar.

Cakes chilling in the refrigerator with the party beverages

The next piece of this was the cake. I baked a 6 inch chocolate cake that I filled with chocolate frosting and chopped Reese's. I then covered it with more chocolate frosting. The 9 inch cake was vanilla bean, frosted and filled with vanilla frosting. After refrigerating both cakes, I covered them in a lavender fondant. The cakes were then refrigerated again. I stacked them using wooden dowels as support in the 9 inch cake. Then I painted the cakes with an edible sparkly paint and wrapped a darker purple ribbon around the bottoms of both cakes.

Sugar cookies set up on the table

I also made some sugar cookies cut into circles. These were iced with royal icing and covered in purple sugar. Everything came out really well and looked really nice set up. The party was as much of a success as the desserts were.

Side view of the table