Holiday Baking And Cooking 2012 Wrap Up

Holiday Baking And Cooking 2012 Wrap Up

Red Velvet Snowball Cake with Whipped Vanilla Frosting

Allen and I went to visit his parents in northern California for Christmas. We spent 12 days there with family and friends, ate at some restaurants (posts to follow), baked and cooked a lot. Below you will find some of the things we made. I cannot think of spending time with family without making food and dessert for them.

December 24, 2012

Red Velvet Cake out the oven

Red Velvet Cake out the oven

For Christmas, I made one of my favorite red velvet cake recipes, Red Velvet Snowball Cake. I think it is the perfect Christmas cake! I found this recipe awhile ago in Redbook but used a different frosting recipe. The Whipped Vanilla Frosting is from: http://www.askchefdennis.com/2011/12/im-dreaming-of-a-white-christmas-cake-with-sweet-peony/. I was happy to use Allen's Grandmother's classic electric Braun mixer and cake pans. The frosting in the original recipe is great, but I wanted a really rich vanilla taste. This vanilla frosting was so fantastic, I also used it with Ina Garten's Coconut Cake for New Years Eve! Chef Dennis makes note he slighted adapted the frosting recipe from Sweetapolita. 

Making Whipped Vanilla Frosting

The Red Velvet Snowball Cake recipe is: http://www.redbookmag.com/recipefinder/red-velvet-snowball-cake-recipe. I made this cake in 2011 as well so you can see my results: http://twofrys.blogspot.com/2011/12/red-velvet-snowball-cake.html.

December 25, 2012

For Christmas we ate turkey, potatoes, sweet mashed potatoes with pecans, green beans, and rolls. 

Christmas Dinner

Christmas Dinner

Here's how much Red Velvet Snowball Cake was left after everyone got a slice.

Red Velvet Snowball Cake

I also made Pecan Pie, but had to use a 9-inch cake pan since I had an Apple Pie in the pie pan. As a result, the edges of the crust cracked as I took the pie out of the oven. The recipe this time around excludes bourbon, so just add a little more Pure Vanilla Extract if you do not have any on hand. The Pecan Pie recipe is: http://twofrys.blogspot.com/2012/11/bourbon-pecan-pie.html.

Pecan Pie

This Rosemary, Thyme, Lemon Turkey is exceptional and I used the same recipe from Thanksgiving. The recipe is: http://twofrys.blogspot.com/2012/11/thanksgiving-dinner.html. You cannot go wrong with this turkey recipe, it is juicy and full of flavor from the compound butter, shallots, olive oil, salt, cracked black pepper, lemon, rosemary and thyme.

Turkey

December 30, 2012

Coconut Cake

Ina Garten's Coconut Cake is one of the best cakes I ever made. Everyone that tries this cake loves it, and it is a recipe I always bake at least once every year. You can find the recipe here: http://twofrys.blogspot.com/2010/09/two-amazing-cakes-that-always-please.html. I used the Whipped Vanilla Frosting recipe listed above with the Red Velvet Snowball Cake. 

December 31, 2012

Honey BBQ Wings

Allen made some killer Honey BBQ Wings. Use our standard chicken wings recipe with whatever BBQ or Hot Sauce you have. Allen used Sweet Baby Ray's Honey BBQ sauce. The recipe is: http://twofrys.blogspot.com/2012/11/chicken-wings-with-dimples-bbq-sauce.html.

Here is Ina Garten's Coconut Cake everyone enjoyed. Less people were over than at Christmas, so we had more cake leftover. Yay! :)

Coconut Cake served with vanilla bean ice cream

Coconut Cake

January, 1, 2013

Apple Pie

We were flying from SFO airport late in the evening today, so I baked my father in law an Apple Pie. I made one earlier in the week, but wanted to leave him some dessert to enjoy for a few days after we were gone.

This is my go to Apple Pie recipe: http://twofrys.blogspot.com/2012/11/apple-pie.html. For this recipe, I used 3 Granny Smith Apples and 3 Red Macintosh Apples since he prefers a sweeter pie. Use whatever firm apples you like!

I hope you all had as great a holiday as we did.

-Sophia and Allen/Two Frys