Happy 2013 to All!

 Here are some pictures I took of the Christmas candy and cookies I made for our house and as gifts for some of our neighbors.  If I haven't already said it, we have wonderful neighbors, and even though it's very busy, and we don't get to chat as much as we like, I like to show them a little appreciation at the end of each year.

In early December, I took a class on how to use fondant.  What an eye-opener!  There are a few more things to learn, but the class was so overloaded, I left pretty angry.  BUT I did learn quite a few things, so I was able to make my cookies prettier than last year. :)  One thing I realized, I didn't take any pictures of the Christmas tree cut-outs.  They turned out so cute, too.  Next year for sure!

These are the Butterscotch Gingerbread men I make, I also use this dough to cut out Gingerbread houses to decorate with the Royal Icing and sugar candy.

Even though the candy canes are sugar cookies, I used some mint extract to attach the fondant, so they have a nice minty, candy-cane flavor.

I thought some of these mittens turned out really cute.  These are the delicious sugar cookies I make with the orange oil and orange zest.  My husband asked me, "So you bought the oranges just to use the outside?"  We actually did eat the oranges.

One of the girls from work gave me some spritz cookies, so I decided if I had the time, I would make a batch and get out my Pampered Chef cookie press.  I got the dough recipe off Food Network, and it worked like a dream!

Here is the candy I made in addition to the cookies - Haystacks (my all-time absolute favorite next to Mom's angelfood), meringue cookies, and fudge.

 Here you can see a Poopie!  He's a good kitchen helper - he sits and watches to make sure everything turns out right, and is a good companion.  He does love to sit on the chairs while we're in here!

These are a small sample of the cookies and candy selection I made for Christmas 2012.


Please leave a comment. Thanks so much!