Day 12: Jesus Birthday Cakes

I hope you have enjoyed these! If you took the time to try one, please leave a comment and let me know! It makes blogging more fun when people interact with you and makes it worth typing all these out when I know someone is benefiting from it! Have a very Merry Christmas!

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My final post for the 12 Days of Christmas Cookies is a little early because I am going to be in the kitchen all day tomorrow preparing for Thursday! Again, not a cookie but a great Christmas idea that can become a treasured tradition for your family after all these cookies we've made!

I was hoping to use this idea this year, but with all the cookies I ended up making in addition to another dessert I have planned for Christmas, I'm not sure we are going to add a cake into the mix as well. We are going to to a breakfast version of a birthday "cake," so do whatever works for you as you remember and celebrate the birth of our Saviour! Merry CHRISTmas!

Jesus Birthday Cake #1

1 chocolate cake mix
Frosting

Make a round cake - chocolate to symbolize our sin. (or you could do a red velvet cake!)

Cover with white frosting - white to symbolize His purity that covers our sins.

Decorate with a star and an angel - they symbolize the bearers of the first glad tidings.

Add 12 red candles - 12 candles symbolize that Christ is our light through the 12 months and the color red stands for his blood shed for us.

Encircle the cake with green frosting - symbolizing everlasting life.

OR...

JESUS BIRTHDAY CAKE #2 (An alternative to a traditional cake)

1 cup peanuts

1/2 cup oil

1/2 cup butter

1 lb marshmallows

1 bag gumdrop spices (no black)

9 qt popped popcorn

Spray roaster. Put popcorn and nuts into it and keep warm in oven. Melt marshmallows, butter and oil together and pour over popcorn in roaster. Stir. Add gumdrops. Butter a cake pan or angel food cake pan well (whatever shape pan you desire). Pack mixture hard into pan. Cool thoroughly. May put a few gumdrops and nuts on bottom of pan before you press in mixture. Turn out onto serving platter.

Eggnog Cake

At one of our recent MOPS meetings, my co-coordinator, Lynda, brought this cake in for our brunch. I am not a big fan of cake or eggnog, but I loved this cake. So I ended up making it for Thanksgiving and my family loved it too! It's a great dessert to make for the holidays!

INGREDIENTS:
1/2 cup pecans, finely chopped
18 1/4 oz. pkg yellow cake mix
1 cup eggnogg
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
2 Tablespoons orange juice
1/4 tsp nutmeg
2 cups powdered sugar
6 Tablespoons orange juice

DIRECTIONS:
1. Sprinkle chopped pecans into a generously greased and floured 12 cup Bundt pan. Set aside.
2. Combine cake mix, and next 5 ingredients in a large bowl. Beat at medium speed 2 min. Pour batter evenly into prepared pan.
3. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. (I had to bake it for quite a bit longer). Cool in pan 10-15 min, remove from pan and cool.
4. Combine powdered sugar and 6 Tbsp orange juice in a small bowl, stir well. Drizzle glaze evenly over cake. Makes 14 servings.
4.

Oatmeal Carmelitas

Yum Yum Yum. The kids helped me make this delicious dessert to bring to my parent's house tonight. This recipe is definitely a keeper. I had all the ingredients on hand and it was so quick and easy to make. The kids were able to do most of the work and they look and smell fantastic!

INGREDIENTS:

* 1 cup all-purpose flour
* 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 cup quick cooking oats
* 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
* 3/4 cup melted butter
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 6 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
* 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
* 3/4 cup caramel ice cream topping
* 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease one 9x9 inch square pan.
2. Combine the 1 cup flour, baking soda, oats, brown sugar, salt and melted butter. Mix to combine, mixture will be very crumbly. Press half of the mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan.
3. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 10 minutes.
4. Let cool slightly then sprinkle over the crust the chocolate chips and chopped nuts. Mix the caramel ice cream topping with the 3 tablespoons of flour and drizzle over the chocolate chips. Top with the remaining oatmeal mixture. You will need to break it into small pieces to cover.
5. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 15 minutes. Let bars cool before cutting.

Pear Pie

It's pear picking time! We got hundreds of pears off our Barlett Pear tree this past weekend and were very excited to pull out one of our favorite pear recipes...pear pie! I'll be sharing a lot of our favorite pear recipes in the weeks to come (I could seriously write a cookbook on pear recipes alone!), but here is one we get tons of compliments on every time we make it and LOVE to eat!



INGREDIENTS:
* 1/2 cup white sugar
* 2 Tbsp flour
* 1/4 tsp ground ginger
* 1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
* 7 pears- pealed, cored, and sliced
* 2 (9 in) unbaked pie crusts
* 1 1/2 Tbsp lemon juice
* 1/4 tsp white sugar

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, combine first amount of sugar, flour, ginger, and cinnamon. Add pears and toss.
3. Place mixture in uncooked bottom shell, sprinkle with lemon juice and top with unbaked pastry. Cut slits in top and sprinkle with 2nd amount of sugar.
4. Bake on bottom shelf of oven at 350 for 60 minutes, or until pears are cooked and crust is browned. Let cool and serve.

Buon Appetito!!!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Last night I had a craving for chocolate chip cookies and milk! So I pulled up a recipe that had high reviews on Allrecipes and went to work, making a few changes based on what reviewers recommended. These cookies were SO moist and chewy! I've never made choc chip cookies with pudding mix before, but I would definitely make these again! You couldn't really taste it, but I would love to experiment a little with different flavors - I'm sure chocolate would work great too! These cookies don't spread out much when baking, so you can line the dough up pretty close on the cookie sheet. And they are perfect with a tall class of ice cold milk! Yum!

INGREDIENTS:
* 2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 cup butter, softened
* 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
* 1/4 cup white sugar
* 1 (3.4 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix
* 2 eggs
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract ( I doubled the vanilla based on reviews I read)
* 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
* 1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Sift together the flour and baking soda, set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar. Beat in the instant pudding mix until blended. Stir in the eggs and vanilla. Blend in the flour mixture. Finally, stir in the chocolate chips and nuts.

3. Drop cookies by rounded spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven. Edges should be golden brown.

Yields: approx. 3 dozen cookies

Chocolate Yummies

I was looking through some of my recipe books and came across one from Kelloggs I had set aside to try on a rainy day like today. It was so quick and easy, and Riley pretty much did most of the work, so perfect for kids! I made a half a batch because we didn't need that much, but also because my microwave isn't big enough for a 13x9 pan. Best part is on a hot summer day, you don't even need to turn on your oven! They are pretty much a combo between a s'more and a rice krispy treat and they definitely live up to their name!

INGREDIENTS:

* 3 cups Rice Krispies cereal

* 7 pieces honey graham crackers

* 2 1/2 cups mini marhsmallows

* 1 package (2 cups) semi-sweet chocolate chips

* 2/3 cup light corn syrup

* 2 tablespoons margarine

* 1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter

DIRECTIONS:

1. Coat 13x9 microwave safe dish with cooking spray. Play 6 whole pieces graham crackers in a single layer in bottom. Cut remaining pieces to fit remainder of bottom. Sprinkle marshmallows evenly over crackers.

2. Microwave on high 1 minute or until marshmallows are puffy. Remove from microwave and cool completely.

3. In 2 quart mcrowave safe mixing bowl, combine chocolate chips, corn syrup, and margarine. Microwave on high 1 1/2 minutes or until chocolate can be stirred smooth. Stir in peanut butter. Add rice krispies cereal, mixing until evenly combined.

4. Spread over marshmallows. Cover and refrigerate about 1 hour or until firm. Cut and store in airtight container in refrigerator.

Yields: 36 squares

Blueberry Buckle

Blueberry season is here, and we love so much to eat them fresh that I forget there are so many delicious ways to use blueberries for baking! Since we bought a few extra containers on our last grocery trip, I decided to bake up a few using this recipe from allrecipes. This one's a keeper!

INGREDIENTS:

3/4 cup white sugar

1/4 cup shortening

1 egg

1/2 cup milk

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups fresh blueberries

1/2 cup white sugar

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 cup butter

1 tsp vanilla

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease one 8x8 inch pan.

2. Cream together 3/4 cup sugar, shortening, and egg.

3. In a separate bowl mix together 1 1/2 cups flour, baking powder, and salt.

4. Stir into sugar mixture, alternating with milk. Add vanilla.

5. Fold in blueberries. Pour into greased 8x8 inch pan.

6. To make topping: Combine 1/4 cup sugar, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1/3 cup flour, cinnamon, and butter. Sprinkle over cake batter.

7. Bake at 375 degree F (190 degrees C) for 25-30 minutes.

Buon appetito!