Christmas Cake

Whoops, as with the Christmas candy, I completely forgot to post the rest of the photos of the Christmas cake I made last year. I made the same chocolate and orange cake I'd done the year before (since it was a hit) and kept the marzipan decorations because the family loves marzipan. I wanted to do something different for the decorations. After much Pinterest searching, I decided to use quilled snowflakes as decoration.

Christmas Candy

Remember I mentioned that I made chocolates for Christmas in 2013? Probably not since it's been ages. But I finally remembered that I promised to tell you about the chocolates I made and miserably failed to uphold said promise, posting about only two of the half dozen candies I made. Sorry. To make up for it, I will finally tell you about the other four. All in this one post. From my least favorite (don't get me wrong I liked them all) to my favorite:

Mocha Scones

I love a good scone (as evidenced by my scone kick of late.) A good scone should be light and flakey, rather liked a good biscuit. It need not be terribly moist (in fact I typically prefer a dry, flakey scone.) It should not be dense. It should taste like something other than butter and flour (though that's a good start) and they should never be overly sweet. If scones have additives (like chocolate chips or dried fruit) they shouldn't mar the texture. They should have something on top (a simple egg wash will do.) I love a good scone--but I'm very particular about what makes a scone good.

In this case I made my favorite scone recipe from the FCI, with a few key alterations. I substituted a substantial amount of cocoa powder for some of the flour and tossed in a handful of mini chocolate chips. I also added some powdered espresso powder to the mix. For the topping I added an extra coffee kick by mixing some coffee extract into the heavy cream before I sprinkled a healthy amout of sugar on top. The perfect chocolate scone!

White Grapefruit, Strawberry, and Basil Scones

I've been on a scone kick of late. They are simple to make, great to freeze, and delicious. But they can be a bit boring. So I made these. They have white grapefruit juice and zest mixed with milk to create a makeshift buttermilk replacement--citrus replaces the acidity of the buttermilk in the recipe and the milk adds the necessary moisture and fat. Before I added the grapefruit, however, I steeped the milk with some basil leaves. (I love basil, mint's savory cousin, with citrus and berries.) So the grapefruit and basil milk with strawberries made otherwise dull scones something really interesting and quite delicious, if I do say so myself.

I've done a bit more scone experimentation recently, so I'll post them soon.

Brownie Bites

Have you ever had 'two bite brownies'? I love them! Admittedly they aren't the best brownies in the world (they are quite good...but they are still store-bought). But the size is perfect, as is the fudgy texture. I've been trying to recreate them with a better brownie, however I've had trouble with the texture for that size. Of course I've tried to recreate them with good but not great brownie recipes (remember the great brownie showdown? I like all these recipes, but I've found better ones since.)