It's a sweet, sweet Christmas

This past weekend it was as though the Sugar Plum Fairy visited our house, and left all of her sugar. My mom and I were the amazing baking duo this weekend baking toffee, fudge, cookies and cake. My kitchen is covered in sugar and flour, as am I, but we have so much to show for all our hard work. We made some old favorites as well as some new recipes that turned out quite well if I do say so myself!

Every year it isn't Christmas until the gingerbread cookies are made so that is what we started out with. My cake decorating classes really helped in decorating the gingerbread and sugar cookies this year!

Next we tried out a new recipe by Martha Stewart (if interested in it please click here). They are Peppermint Meringues with a chocolate ganache filling. The secret to getting the striped look is to paint the inside of the piping bag with red food coloring. They turned out great!

We also made Russian tea cake cookies that are another favorite childhood cookies of mine.

I am hosting my Christmas bunko group this week so in my final cake class this week I made a cake for bunko that turned out pretty cute. I was proud of learning how to make simple roses!


As though all of this sugar load wasn't enough, I also decided to make cake pops for the first time. My mom had bought me Bakerella's cake pops recipe book and I just had to try out the Santa hat cake pops, they turned out so cute, especially for my first time trying them!
Besides cleaning and getting to the gym this week post sugar high, I will be working to finish up the last touches to the house for our Christmas party! The holiday season is in full swing...I love it!

So much to be thankful for.....

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year and as always it reminds me of how much I have to be thankful of. We are all in good health, have a great home and wonderful friends and family to share it with.

We hosted Thanksgiving at our home this year and it turned out great. My mom made an apple pie and a chocolate pecan pie and I whipped up some pumpkin cheesecake. The kids loved helping us this year and were so cute in their aprons!




There was no shortage of food and we all enjoyed a wonderful meal. I was really happy with my table scape and all the beautiful food, like Paul's smoked turkey, that was delicious!


I especially enjoyed fueling up before Black Friday Shopping, there were some great deals out there! Now onto decorating the house for Christmas!