Christmas Cake

The top of this year's snowflake cake.

I think the first year I started blogging, which was 2005, I went into great detail about our Christmas celebrations and food. Not much changes from year to year in the department, but there are differences. Usually it's something one of the kids has requested or a recipe I caught from a magazine that I had to try. This year one of the desserts was something I haven't made for about 12 years - a snowflake cake.

I can't remember what magazine I found this beauty in, but I thought it was one of the prettiest cakes I've ever seen and had to tackle it. Back then I had 3 children and lots more time, so it wasn't so taxing to get it done. Over the years, as we added 4 more kids and lost some time I let it slide and intended to make it, but never got 'a round tuit'.

This year I wanted to make that cake come Hell or high water, and I did. I was amazed at how easily it went together and quietly scolded myself for not having done it earlier. It was a show stopper - as it was meant to be - and the cake itself was so good that my mother-in-law called (on behalf of my brother-in-law) to ask if we had any left.

My first snowflake cake from 1997.

The cake itself is one of my newest favorites, Dorie Greenspan's Perfect Party Cake, which I first made with the Daring Bakers almost 2 years ago. I have since come to love that cake and use it as a base for many, many desserts. This time I made 4 layers of the cake and sandwiched ALDI's Fruits of the Forest Spread between the layers (this spread is to-die-for and you must find an ALDI and seek this out) and topped the cake with a basic buttercream icing.

Once assembled, I piped 'snowflakes' (which were really more star-like because they have more than 6 sides) out of melted white chips and added pearlized dragées to them. I usually use silver or gold dragées, but they were hard to find this year.

Once the snowflakes are set, I add them in a pile to the top of the cake and sprinkle the whole top with large crystal sugar to give it extra sparkle. Give it a try sometime - it's a good cake for all winter long, not just Christmas.

What are the food traditions your family can't live without? What is something new you've tried this year?

Christmas Memories, Part One

This year marks the 40th Christmas I will have had in my life. That's a lot of Christmas. I certainly don't remember them all, but there are a few that really stand out in my memories and I wanted to share them.

I've found that the leaner the holiday, the better it was, so I'm hopeful that this year will be a good one. We've never gone without, but we've been so close on many occasions to having nothing at all and those were the times that we witnessed real miracles.

I don't remember even one Christmas before I lived in Pennsylvania. We moved here when I was 4 and shortly after that my parents separated and eventually divorced. Prior to that we'd lived in North Carolina, Indiana and the state I was born in, Michigan. Although there were 5 of us kids, not long after mom and dad's split two of my brothers went to Michigan to live with dad and 3 of us, oldest, youngest and middle-child, all stayed here with mom.

My oldest brother took on a sort of fatherly role that he has never quite lost for his siblings and was a very large part of every Christmas. He was allowed to hole up in mom's room and wrap gifts until his fingers cramped. He was quite good at it and he took charge when it was time to hand out gifts. We always exchanged gifts on Christmas Eve and always one at a time. He also helped with the tree - always a 4 foot tall tree that sat on a small round table in our front window. Mom and Bobby would decorate painstakingly so that everything was symmetrical. The house was decorated impeccably, the food my mother made was nothing less than perfect; Christmas was looked forward to very much in our home.

I still remember the year I got my favorite doll, My Baby Beth - it was also the year my youngest brother, Sean, got his Spider-man action figure and helicopter. Really cool stuff for way back then. One year in particular I wanted a Barbie styling head. I wanted that more than any other gift ever. I was not a child to ask for things over and over or to let it show that I was upset if I didn't get what I wanted. So, when the gifts had all been passed out and she was not there, I did my best not to do exactly what I wanted to do - cry.

Just as we were cleaning up, my brother came down the stairs from mom's room with another unwrapped gift. Mom said, "Oh, look! I guess we forgot a gift." I was swoony over that silly plastic head of hair, but just like My Baby Beth, I can still recall the way it smelled and how soft the ultra-blonde hair was and how not-as-easy-as-the-commercials it was to get make-up on it.

My childhood Christmases were never of the too-much kind. We didn't have a lot and mom sometimes just did as much as she could with what she had. She had remarried, but my step-dad was a steelworker and didn't make a king's wage. Other than that baby doll and doll head, my two other favorite gifts were a beautiful pink sweater my mother had actually gotten at a thrift shop and then packaged beautifully for me, and a clear cased Mickey Mouse watch. I really wish I still had all four gifts, but what I'm really grateful for is the memories I still have of them.

I'll be sharing a few more stories soon, so please check back.

Merry Christmas

Everyone has holiday traditions; or they should. Our family celebrates Christmas with several traditions.

1) A real tree that we usually cut down at a tree farm that we decorate while sipping hot chocolate and munching on Christmas cookies.

2) Secret Santa~we pick names on Thanksgiving after dinner and give gifts to our recipients until Christmas Eve.

3) Our annual Christmas Eve party~just us ~we light every candle we have, light luminarias on the front walk, turn on Christmas songs, put out a table full of appetizer-type food and reveal our Secret Santas with a final gift. We also try to watch a Christmas Movie that night.

4) We put out Magic Reindeer Food before the kids go to bed on Christmas Eve.

5) I stay up after the kids are in bed and wrap presents by "Christmas light" and make "Santa's Footprints" on the floor with baby powder.

6) In the morning I wake the kids (YES, I am up before they are!) by ringing bells and telling them they just missed the Big Guy.

7) New this year will be a bowl full of oranges (clementines) and a small bowl full of pennies in remembrance of my grandfather Theodore Sharp~when he would wake on Christmas morning there was an orange and a penny in his stocking and they always had homemade vanilla ice cream on Christmas Day. I want my children to always understand how fortunate they are that we are able to have so much. We are actually very poor by today's standards but I still believe we are richer than most in what we do have, and I am very grateful for it. I want them to learn that as well.

On to menus! Our Christmas Eve party varies slightly in some aspects each year but there are mainstays that we cannot be without and they are:

Cajun BBQ Shrimp
Chicken Cheese Spread
A plateful of various fish; smoked oysters, kippers, etc.Nanaimos

We also usually have cheeses and crackers, a bowl of candy and Chex mix! My kids worship that stuff.

For Christmas dinner this year I wanted to go as simple as possible without losing any of the festive feel of the day. We will be having:

Roast pork loin and new potatoes with rosemary and garlic (there's mom's rosemary!)
Gravy
Green bean casserole (kids' request)
Baby asparagus
White corn
Relish tray
Homemade rolls
Salad

Dessert:

Croquembouche (I will have to take a picture)
Cherry pie
Cookies etc.

Here are a few of the recipes, I won't repeat ones I have already posted.
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Cajun BBQ Shrimp
Printable Recipe

3 slices bacon-diced fine
2 sticks- 1 c. margarine (NOT butter)
2T. Dijon mustard
1 1/2t. chili powder
1/4 t. dried basil
1/4 t. dried thyme
black pepper to taste
1T. crab boil
1/2t. Tabasco
1 1/2 lbs large shrimp-shell on

Cook bacon in a large oven proof pot until brown. Add margarine and melt. Add remaining ingredients and place in oven-uncovered. Bake at 375 degrees F for 20 minutes.

These are great even with the shell still on and eaten with the shrimp.

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Chicken Cheese Spread
Printable Recipe

2-8oz. pkgs. cream cheese (softened)
2 cans Underwood Chicken Spread
1/4 c. green pepper-small dice
1/4c. peanuts-chopped fine

Mix all and chill-allow to soften slightly before serving with crackers.

Variations on green peppers and peanuts:
red pepper and walnuts
grated carrot and raisins
dried apricot and pecans

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Magic Reindeer Food
Printable Recipe

Santa can't help but stop if the reindeer take him to your treat!
Mix together:

1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup instant oatmeal
2 tbsp of glitter (substitute edible sprinkles if you live in an area with wildlife)