Christmas is Over???

I can not believe that Christmas is over and the year 2009 is gone as quickly as it arrived. It is hard for me to try and think back on a few things that stick out in 2009, not because it was uneventful, but rather that it went by so fast. Graduation was a big event, getting hired as a pastry chef was another, and I suppose our road trip to the Key West was another big one.

Christmas this year was busy. On Christmas eve I made a Bouche De Noel, which is a chocolate (or other flavored) cake roll decorated to look like a log. Have a look:

I made a genoise chocolate cake from Martha Stewart's Cooking School for the inside of the cake. Genoise cakes are really easy to make and bake in about 7 minutes. The cake needs to be rolled up, while warm, in a clean dish cloth that has been dusted with cocoa powder. The cake is allowed to cool in the cloth so it retains a rolled shape. If you tried to roll this cake while it was cold it would just crumble apart.


Here is my Bouche De Noel all decorated, I filled it with fresh whipped cream, covered it with chocolate buttercream and piped it with buttercream holly and berries. I also put a Merry Christmas sign on the log, which I purchased from work.


Our friend Nicole recently celebrated her 37th birthday. We had plans on going out for dinner, but there were no plans for a birthday cake. It is my firm belief that everyone should have a cake on their birthday so I made this cake for Nicole at work. I love the little Christmas light cake picks. The cake is marble cake with a mix of chocolate whipped cream and chocolate buttercream.


One of Brian's officemates wanted a cake for Christmas so I made this. The flavors requested were yellow butter cake with nuts and raisins frosted with Bailey's Irish Cream buttercream.


Every year I handmake 60 Christmas cards for all of our friends and family. I love using various mediums to embellish the cards. Every year I make snowmen. Last year I painted snowmen and made faux bois paper as the background. This year I found flocking powder by (of course) Martha Stewart Crafts and used that to make the snowman's scarf and VERY TALL top hat fuzzy.

Instead of hand painting 60 snowmen I paint a few, scan them, copy them and then cut them out for the cards. Here is a sheet of snowmen covered with "fennel" colored flocking powder.


The flocking powder is used just like glitter, you place glue where you want the powder to be and then sprinkle with powder.


I was not sure if I liked the flocking powder on the scarf so I tried different color glitters (girl, you know I have hundreds of kinds!) In the end I chose the flocking powder, and it just did not feel right without glitter. I was going through glitter withdrawals so I glittered the band on his hat.


Here is the finished card. I used two contrasting types of scrapbook paper and a cute red ribbon and I stamped blue snowflakes on the background. The card itself was a brown recycled cardstock.


I am glad all of the daunting tasks of Christmas are done and we have the new year to look forward to. I am about to go make pierogi for the very first time. Wish me luck!