Snowy Scene Gingerbread Cookies

A round cutter and three colors of royal icing are all you need to make these Snowy Scene Gingerbread Cookies.

A cool 3-D effect on the cookie is created by adding the tree and a few additional snowflakes after the basecoat has dried. These are fun to make and there are so many design options depending on what colors you choose. Using black icing for the background would give you a night scene and you could even add a few gold dots for stars to the sky. A snowman would also be a cute and easy to pipe free-hand.

Here's how I decorated them and my favorite Gingerbread Cookie recipe:

Outline and flood the cookies with blue royal icing and immediately add different sized dots of white using medium consistency icing and a #1 tip. Let the cookies dry completely before moving onto the next step.

Using medium consistency green royal icing, outline and fill a tree in the center of the cookie.

Immediately add a few dots of medium consistency white icing on the tree and outline and fill a snowy bank under the tree.

The final step is to add a brown trunk with medium consistency royal icing and a #1 tip.

Let the cookies dry completely before serving or packaging.

Gingerbread Cookie Dough
6 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
1 cup packed dark-brown sugar
4 teaspoons ground ginger
4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
1 teaspoon finely ground pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
2 large eggs
1 cup unsulfured molasses

Sift together flour, baking soda, and baking powder into a large bowl. Set aside.

Put butter and brown sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; mix on medium speed until fluffy. Mix in spices and salt, then eggs and molasses. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture; mix until just combined. Divide dough into thirds; wrap each in plastic. Refrigerate until cold, about 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roll out dough on a lightly floured work surface to a 1/4-inch thick. With cookie cutters, cut into desired shapes. Space 2 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper, and refrigerate until firm, about 15 minutes.

Bake cookies until crisp but not dark, 10 to 14 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks.

Cookie Sale Time

Gingerbread Snowflakes

It's hard to believe, but it's already time for another Christmas Cookie Box sale to benefit hunger ministries at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral. Boy the year went by fast!

For me, the annual sale is a lot of work but it's also a lot of fun because I get to bake thousands of cookies with my friends.

Each box contains more than 40 all-butter cookies and is artfully packaged with a shiny red bow and decorated gingerbread cookie like these pretty white on white snowflakes that I made. Inside the box are shortbread cookies, brownie biscotti, ruglach, Linzer cookies and Russian teacakes, just to name a few.

Next Sunday, we will be pre-selling the boxes in Kempton Hall at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral (147 NW 19th Ave) between 9 a.m. and noon and this is the only way to buy a box, so here's additional information:

It’s once again time for the Annual Christmas Cookie Box sale benefiting hunger ministries at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral.  This is our largest fundraiser of the year. Each box contains 40 + delicious all-butter cookies, made in-house by a team of bakers from the Wednesday Community Meal.  Cookie boxes are artfully packaged and make wonderful gifts!  The cost is $40 with 90% of the proceeds going directly to Hunger Ministries.  Boxes can be pre-ordered on Sunday Dec. 7 in Kempton Hall before and after the 10 a.m. service.  Pick up must be on Sunday, Dec 14th between 9 a.m. and noon in Kempton Hall.  We do require pre-ordering and payment at time of order (cash, check or credit card).  

Sack Lunches And Thanksgiving Preparations

Edible centerpieces for the Community Thanksgiving Meal.

We handed out 215 sack lunches today at The Wednesday Community Meal since we were unable to serve in Kempton Hall due to it being set up for Trinity Episcopal Cathedral's annual Community Thanksgiving Meal.

In addition to the sack lunches that included turkey sandwiches and homemade chocolate chip cookies, we served cups of hot soup and drinks.

Luckily the weather was nice, no rain and in the mid 60's, so our guests were comfortable eating outside. And, as always, they were kind and understanding about the change in service and many said they were looking forward to returning for tomorrow's big meal.

In addition to preparing and serving the sack lunches, community meal volunteers helped with the Thanksgiving preparations by arranging centerpieces, filling candy dishes and making gravy. 

I am so thankful for all the volunteers who work so hard each week. They are a blessing!

One of my jobs today was making gravy. Standing on a stool makes it so much easier to whisk. Plus, it's nice for once to be the tallest person in the kitchen.

Volunteers making sandwiches for the sack lunches. Thank you Nancy for smiling for the camera!

Cake Tip: Add A Frosting Frame

A cake with a frame. Adding the design detail is easy when you create an outline to follow.

A piped icing frame around lettering on a cake is a nice way to add decoration and little extra oomph to the design. Piping a perfect shaped frame is easy to do if you first create an outline and you do this using a dish. That's right, a dish.

Let me explain. First add the lettering to your cake then find a dish with a shape you like that fits around the writing.

For a recent sheetcake, I used a 2.5 quart CorningWare casserole dish. Once you have your dish, you just carefully set it upside down centered around the lettering on your cake so that the lip creates an outline in the base frosting to follow for piping your frame. Carefully remove the dish, add the piping and you have a frame for your cake.

The casserole dish that I used.

Adding the piping.

Piping closeup. I used a Wilton star tip for this design.

A few icing roses are also nice but that's another story.

David

I lost a friend today.

I first met David more than six years ago when he began hanging out near Trinity Episcopal Cathedral and eating at The Wednesday Community Meal. He was always very friendly, talkative and curious about what I was going to be cooking.

David liked to cook too, having worked in restaurants, and would share his stories with me. His all-time favorite food was beef stroganoff and I think he must have asked me fifty times or more when I was going to serve it at the community meal. I told him I promised to make it if I ever got a donation of steak and mushrooms in the same week.  "I'm looking forward to it," he would say.

Finally after years of waiting, Phil's Uptown Meat Market donated a small container of already-made beef stroganoff,  just enough for one giant serving for my friend. I was so excited and couldn't wait to surprise him. "Wow do I feel special," he said when I gave it to him. "You are special," I said.

David was a regular at the Wednesday meal and when he didn't show up, I worried because I knew he lived and slept outside and his life was hard. He suffered from alcoholism, seizures and abuse. One day he showed up at Trinity with hands down the worst black eye I had ever seen. "I was beat up during the night," he said. He told me Trinity was the place he felt the safest.

Despite all his suffering, David somehow remained gentle and kind. He reached out to me and wouldn't leave a Wednesday meal without stopping by the kitchen window to smile and say "thank you." 

David was found dead this morning of exposure. He was only 54 years old and had dreams of one day having his own apartment.

It's so much easier to find public assistance in this country if you are female or a senior citizen. David was in great need of help but he fell through the cracks of our system and sadly he's not alone. By my estimate, more than 80-percent of our guests on Wednesday are men between the ages of 30 and 60. This is not equality. 

We served 285 meals today and for two hours our guests were able to be comfortable and warm, but what about now? It's night, it's cold and it's raining.

Guinness Chocolate Cake With Peanut Butter Filling

What's better than a Guinness Chocolate Cake? Two Guinness Chocolate Cakes with Peanut Butter Filling!

Hands down, my most requested cake is Chocolate Cake With Peanut Butter Filling and Chocolate Buttercream but sometimes it's fun to experiment and mix things up a bit. So staying with the peanut butter and chocolate theme I instead made two Guinness Chocolate Cakes and topped each of them with Peanut Butter Filling and Cream Cheese Icing.

I just thought the smooth lightly sweet icing would go really well with the chunky peanut butter filling. And, there really is no cake better than super moist Guinness chocolate.

When it came to decorating, I kept the sides of the cakes bare since I like the look of the bright white cream cheese icing against the dark chocolate brown cake. For a little extra pizazz I piped borders around the top, middle and base of the cake. The border also hides the not so pretty edges of where the peanut butter filling and icing meet.

I'm serving this cake tomorrow at the Wednesday Community Meal in recognition of our volunteers who have November birthdays and I hope it's a hit.

Here's how I made it:

Guinness Chocolate Cake
(makes two 9-inch cakes)

2 cup Guinness
2 sticks plus 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups cocoa powder
4 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups sour cream
4 eggs
2 tablespoons vanilla
4 cups all-purpose flour
5 teaspoons baking soda

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and butter and line two 9-inch springform pans.

Pour the Guinness into a large saucepan, add the butter in slices and heat until the butter is melted. Turn off the heat and whisk in the cocoa and sugar. Beat the sour cream with the eggs and vanilla and pour into the beer mixture and finally whisk in the flour and baking soda.

Divide the cake batter among the two greased and lined pans and bake the cakes for 45 minutes to 1 hour. Leave them to cool completely in the pan on a cooling rack before releasing them from the pan.

Once the cakes are cool, make the filling and cream cheese icing.

Peanut Butter Filling:
1 1/2 cup chunky peanut butter
1/4 cup butter, room temperature
2/3 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
1/3 cup milk

In a mixing bowl, whip peanut butter and butter together. Add vanilla and powdered sugar and beat until smooth. Finally add milk and beat just until the filling comes together and is spreadable. Don't over beat.

Cream Cheese Topping
2 packages (8 oz) cream cheese, room temperature
1 1/4 cups powdered sugar
1 cup heavy cream

Whip the cream cheese until smooth. Add powdered sugar and whip again. Add the cream and whip again until it's light and spreadable.

To Assemble:

Place one of the cakes on a platter and top with half of the filling.

Spread the filling evenly over the cake being careful not to get too close to the sides.

Add a little more than a third of the icing to the top of the filling and spread it evenly, trying your best to keep it neat and the layers separate.

Top the first cake with the second cake and repeat, adding filling and cream cheese icing to the top.

Put the remaining icing into a pastry bag fitted with the tip of your choice and pipe a border around the top of the cake.

Also add a border around the middle of the cake. This hides the messy edge of where the filling meets the icing.

Finally, add a third border to the base of the cake. Keep the cake chilled until you are ready to serve. Enjoy!

Coffee Salted Caramel Macarons

These Coffee Salted Caramel Macarons are cute, delicious and easy to make. The filling is just butter, salted caramel, espresso powder dissolved in a bit of water and an extra dash of sea salt whipped together.

After her first taste, my daughter Eleanor gave me a big smile and said "Mom, the kids at my school would go crazy for these because they taste just like a Starbuck's caramel frappuccino."

The macaron batter is colored with a bit of fuschia and violet gel paste but the filling is au natural.

The color of the macaron batter before baking.

Here's a side by side comparison of the baked and unbaked macarons. The color of the batter always lightens after baking so you need to color the batter darker than the color you want.

I really like the look and taste of these and I'm anxious to see what others think when I serve them this Saturday at the Leonard Cohen Alternative Liturgy at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral.

If you'd like a taste, please join us. Here are the details about the Liturgy which is a fundraiser for Trinity's hunger ministries which supports The Wednesday Community Meal and the recipe:

LEONARD COHEN LITURGY
Saturday, November 15, 6:00 p.m., Kempton Hall. Join Trinity for an alternative liturgy set to the songs of popular music’s saint of solitude, prophet of the heart and brother of mercy. From “Hallelujah” to “Tower of Song,” Leonard Cohen stands with Bob Dylan as one of the world’s most fascinating and prophetic songwriters. But this Alt.Liturgy will show that he also stands with David in the Psalms, constantly asking, “Can you hear my song?” A freewill offering will benefit Trinity’s hunger ministries.

Coffee Salted Caramel Macarons
180g ground almonds, sifted
270g powdered sugar, sifted
150g egg whites, aged 2 to 4 days in the fridge and then brought to room temperature
100g granulated sugar
fuschia gel coloring (optional)
violet gel coloring (optional)

Line four heavy baking sheets with good quality parchment paper and set aside. Also, set aside two pastry bags for the piping of the macarons.

Sift together your ground almonds with the powdered sugar and set aside.

Whisk the egg whites (at room temperature) to glossy firm peaks adding the granulated sugar gradually in four parts. Add the coloring if desired and mix well.

Incorporate the dry ingredients into the beaten egg whites using a large rubber scraper.  Mix well.

Fold the mixture with the rubber scraper by pulling down the sides and flipping the mixture over. Do this until you have a smooth mixture that falls like a “ribbon” off the scraper.

Transfer the mixture into the two piping bags. Use rubber bands to close the piping bags. Clip the tip of the bags, one at a time, and pipe small quarter sized rounds, leaving 1-inch of space between each because they spread as they set.

Leave to set for about 30 minutes or until the top has formed a crust and is not sticky to the touch. 
While they are setting, preheat the oven to 325 degrees. A convection oven is preferable. 

Bake one sheet at a time in the center of the oven for about 12 minutes or until the cookie is firm, matte and doesn't wobble when touched.

Leave them on the baking tray until cool then lift them all off the parchment carefully. You may need to use a thin knife to help lift them off.

Sort into pairs and fill with Coffee Salted Caramel Buttercream.

Coffee Salted Caramel Buttercream
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/3 cup salted caramel sauce
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
2 teaspoons espresso powder dissolved in 2 teaspoons of hot water, cooled

Whip the butter until it is smooth and light. Add the caramel sauce, dissolved espresso mixture and salt and whip again until light and creamy. 

Filling the macarons.