Smith Family Weblog

This year, I decided to do individually-packaged cupcakes for coworkers and friends—26 in all. I found a Peppermint Mocha Cupcake recipe on Bakers Royale, which served as the base for the project. I used the foolproof One-Bowl Chocolate Cupcake recipe from Martha Stewart, adding in espresso powder—I wish I had thought to substitute coffee for the warm water. I used Martha’s Swiss Meringue Buttercream (with a bit of peppermint flavor) to top the cakes.

I was a little concerned about the pouring chocolate—I was worried it wouldn’t harden (and therefore be difficult to transport). But the suggestion to freeze the cupcakes before pouring the chocolate worked very well. I added peppermints (and peppermint pieces) to the tops:

We have a fantastic new baking shop downtown where I found these cupcake boxes.

The supplier has stopped making inserts that keep the cupcake stable, so I hot glued a fluted cupcake liner to the bottom, and set the cupcakes inside. It wasn’t the most reliable solution, but with some very careful transportation, the cupcakes seemed remain mostly upright inside the boxes.

We packaged the boxes into sacks, adding a little bottle of homemade Irish Cream with each one.

My friend Erin hosted a holiday baking party last weekend, and anticipating a rather crowded kitchen, I opted to roll truffles. Working in a kitchenful of close friends made an otherwise tedious task fly by.

We packaged the truffles by nine, and shared with them friends, teachers and neighbors.

A couple of weeks ago, my friend Dawn and I met for an afternoon of baking—together, we knocked off eight double-batches of cookies and froze the dough. Earlier this week, I spent several hours baking…

In addition to the Oatmeal Scones, Lemon-Sour Cream Cookies, Monster Marshmallow Cookies, Iced Oatmeal Applesauce Cookies, Chocolate-Espresso Snowcaps, Molasses-Spice Cookies, Lemon-Pistachio Wreaths I made with Dawn, I also made Peanut Butter Blossoms, a chocolate-cinnamon cookie with cayenne pepper, and these gorgeous Sprinkle Cookies from Saveur:

This was my first attempt at freezing cookie dough, and it worked out beautifully (just as Dawn assured me it would). Now, I have several boxes packaged up and ready to share with friends and family.

I love everything about this Starbucks-inspired recipe—the quick steps produce 24 generous cupcakes, the flavors seem to meld well, and I like any excuse for shiny gold sparkles.

I will note the cake may have been a bit dry, perhaps due to over baking. However, there’s booze in the frosting, so I think it all evens out.