How To Use Leftover Candy Canes

If you are looking for ways to creatively use your leftover candy canes, here's a video to give you some helpful tips.

Santa Cake for Christmas

Here it is, the Santa Cake I said I was going to make for Christmas. This is a Florida Santa Cake! Can you see his tan face? Well, it's not the same pale Santa from the Swiss Colony catalog, but it's pretty good. I think it came out really cute and festive. The tan is from the peanut butter icing, which is also in the cake. It's a chocolate cake with one thick layer of peanut butter icing, decorated with butter cream icing for Santa's face.

I used a chocolate cake box mix, followed the recipe instructions and embellished with Greek yogurt, vanilla extract, peanuts, butter, and milk. Santa's hat is rolled fondant, same for his little blue eyes.

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays and lots of delicious desserts on your table!

I will be making a delicious and cute Santa Claus face cake - come back later to see pictures of it. I got the idea from the Swiss Colony catalog.

Tip on how to use Anise Star

I had a little bag of anise stars for over 6 months and I had no idea of what to use it with. Well, the other day, as I watched a show on the Food Network, they said you could boil cider something and get a great aroma going in your house. So, with that in mind, I decided to boil the anise stars I had for so long. I started on Sunday I am still boiling the water with the anise stars in it until today.

Just fill up the water half way in a medium size pan and boil it, then keep the heat in low for a while. It leaves a great anise aroma around the house. WHAT A GREAT IDEA and it's perfect for the holidays! It's almost a week and it still smell great.

Give it a try.

Christmas Cookies

Last Sunday I baked a few cookies for our Holiday luncheon at work; it was today. My cookies were a hit! Almost all gone. OK, so I did two types of Christmas cookies, sugar cookies and brownie bites.

1. The sugar cookie was a cookie sandwich with cream cheese icing and crushed peppermint edge; delish!
2. The second type of cookies were more like brownie bites. I baked the double chocolate brownie, then cut them in different shapes; stars, mini Christmas trees, gingerbread man, and snowman. So, once the brownie bites were cut into shapes, I iced them with the same cream cheese icing I used for the sugar cookies, then topped some with colored sugar and some with crushed peppermint.

The cookie tray looked really festive and colorful. See the pictures above and below. I was lazy and only took pictures with my phone, so not the best resolution but you get the idea.