Christmas break baking: cake pops, meringues, spritzers, peanut butter cookies and Trix bark

With the amount of sweets sitting in my grandma's fridge right now, I could feed a small Kansas town. It's a little ridiculous. So far I've taken cookies to two of her neighbors and introduced my dad's employees to cake pops. Before I talk more about that, some good news.


I won Hoosier Homemade's Holiday Cupcake Challenge! I'm super excited about it. It was a really good excuse for trying some great new cupcake flavors: eggnog, pecan pie, chocolate peppermint and champagne. Thanks to Kelly, who helped me come up with the flavors. I will definitely be making a few of these again.


I've been taking care of all my Christmas traditions lately. This Sunday, my friend Lauren and I went to see the KC Ballet's production of The Nutcracker. She used to dance in her company's production of it, and I have gone to see it every year since...well, I don't know how long. Probably since I was about 5. Mom and I used to go, and then more recently I dragged a boyfriend along, but going with Lauren was perfect, except for the bratty little kid sitting next to her. Sigh. This picture is an old tradition that we don't do anymore, but was still fun when we did. My mom worked at Plymouth Congregational Church for 17 years, and it was a beautiful old building. Every Christmas they had a day of decorating, and my dad and I were unstoppable, because we didn't need a ladder to reach the things that were high up! I'm not sure we could manage that nowadays.


I did a bit of baking last week before coming back to Salina for my psuedo-Christmas break. First, a Christmas present for my friend Tim, who I made Boston Creme Pie for after his birthday. The last time I was at Tim's, there were about four empty bowls on his table that had been filled with Trix at some point, so when I came across this recipe for Trix candy bark, I knew I had to make it for him. It's my understanding it's not going to last very long.


I took these cookies into work (and I absolutely had to go for the Sesame Street fabric...yes I'm a 5-year-old sometimes). They're plain old peanut butter with chocolate chips and peanut butter chips. Always a hit.


Now for the baking at Grandma's. Pretty sure I packed up about half of my kitchen, including my KitchenAid, for my trip back to Salina. First up were cake pops, and these are easily the best ones I've done thus far. Red, green and gold sparkles. Dad's employees loved them!


Then spritzer cookies with the cookie gun Aunt Betty gave me. The recipe makes a gazillion cookies, so I've had to hand some out. I don't think the neighbors mind :)


Then some peppermint meringues with a chocolate frosting filling. Needless to say, Grandma's fridge is full right now. And I came to find that today is national cupcake day. I'm going to have to make up for that later. More holiday baking to come!