Smith Family Weblog

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.