Christmas Baking

 

Anyone who knows me knows that I am not a fan of the kitchen area.  Thanks to Pinterest, I have been feeling the urge to try new things in the kitchen.  Tony is very worried about this new found interest!

Thanks to some really adorable Christmas cookies that I pinned, I decided to try to make my own.  This is my first attempt at Christmas baking on my own.  My prior attempts with Nancy and Chelsea ended in complete failure.  Did you know that you aren't supposed to eat fudge with a spoon?

 

I learned something from this experience.  Cutting the cookies out is the easy part.  Getting them off the initial surface and onto the cookie sheet is the tough part!  I had to roll out many cookies and try again!  Also, the bell was one of my favorite shapes when I first cut it out.  Not so cute after baking!  Tony turned it into a gift box for me.

 

Tony helped with the decorating.  He wasn't thrilled about it, but he's definitely better at that sort of thing than I am.

 

Guess which star/snowflake is Tony decorated.  Yes, it is the pretty one.  I did the others though!

 

In addition to the gingerbread and sugar cookies, I also made some cake balls.   For LSU vs. Bama Part One, I made purple and yellow ones which were delicious!  This time, I forgot to add the dye to the cake batter.  It wasn't until the cake came out of the oven that I remembered.  Oops.  Tony suggested dying the cream cheese instead of to give it the coloring.  It worked, but they weren't as good as the first time.  They also didn't stay together as well, and I had trouble getting the white chocolate to stick.  I will definitely remember the dye next time!

 

Thanks to Pinterest, I learned that if you turn a gingerbread man upside down, you have a reindeer!  These were really fun to make since there are so many options!

 

Since it is just the two of us at home, I packed up all of the cookies and cake balls and brought them to work to share.