Tuesday, December 21st
I am writing this post while this project is still in progress so as to not forget any details; though it wont be posted until a few days later to keep things a surprise. I took on a project to make baked goods/sweets for a large chunk of my extended family for the upcoming holiday. Enough for approximately 20 households. This project was, in fact, self-inflicted. Why would I choose to do this, you might ask. It may be because I love the holidays; could be because I like a challenge; or perhaps it's because I'm insane. I think it may be a combination of the three. It also makes for an entertaining blog post.

I am making whoopie pies. Chocolate with peppermint icing, rolled in crushed candy canes. Found a really awesome recipe and doubled it. Had several cookies scooped out, one pan was on it's way in the oven when I realized I had forgotten to add the baking soda. No good. Those cookies wouldn't have risen. Thankful to have caught myself just in time. Threw all of the cookies back into the bowl; add baking soda and hot water solution (as directed), re-mix. Wonder why I didn't pick up on the fact that the batter was a little thick. Re-scoop cookies and put in oven. There's batter smeared into the kitchen floor, thankfully it's linoleum. I pause every so often to stir the simmering crock pot with tonight's dinner in it. Dropped a cookie on the floor. Forget to set the timer multiple times, and don't manage to burn any of them until the time I used a timer but had a dark, non-stick pan. Vowed never to use that pan again and continue. All the while, I'm using a kitchen towel to take pans out of the 400 degree gas stove (being careful not to catch the towel on fire) because I threw out my slightly burnt pot holders when I moved out of Pennsylvania and never replaced them.

All of the cookies are out of the oven now, cooling until they can be stored. The ones that came out first are stacked between layers of wax paper, inside my (upside down) cake carrier. There are enough cookies, minus the burnt ones and the one that fell on the floor, for 56 whoopie pies. (That's 112 cookies....) The recipe said it made 18, so i doubled it. Apparently the recipe was wrong, oh well. I only needed 40-ish. They're going in boxes in pairs, along with homemade marshmallows (which are my project for tomorrow)

I'm waiting until Thursday to frost and candy-cane them; they'll hang out in the fridge to keep them fresh until then. Pictures to follow. Now onto cleaning the floor and getting to my other project for the day (Needhams for my dad)

The last of the birthday cakes for a while (hopefully)

I am relocating to Boston soon, and this will be my last post until after I move. I've got some great things planned for December, specifically for Christmas, and am looking forward to working on them in my new kitchen.

For now though, I will finish playing catch-up with this post about my boyfriend's birthday cake. He requested a Black Forest cake, which is something I've never done before. But I like a challenge. After doing some research and looking around online, I found a recipe that reviewers claimed to be very similar to an authentic German Black Forest cake.

The outside is whipped cream, hand-shaved chocolate and maraschino cherries; the inside is frosting and cherry filling, sandwiched between four layers of a not-too-sweet chocolate cake. I wish I had gotten a picture of the inside. Everyone said it was really good too :)