Chocolate-Mint Brownie Cake

Brownie Cake with Peppermint White Chocolate Icing, topped with Melted Semi-Sweet Chocolate.

Recently I have been posting a lot of holiday recipes, and today's post will be no different. I threw in a fish taco post yesterday so that you all would realize that my diet doesn't solely consist of sugar, butter, and chocolate. But it is the holidays, so I thought I would post another solid dessert to serve at Christmas dinners and office holiday parties, or package up as homemade gifts.

Franken-brownie-cake: Part brownie-part cake.

For my own office potluck holiday party I knew I wanted to bring a chocolate dessert. Chocolate is such a crowd pleaser. My first thought was brownies, but I wanted to spruce them up a bit (Christmas tree pun intended). What better compliment to chocolate than peppermint (with peanut butter a close second)? I found a recipe on epicurious.com for a Chocolate-Mint Brownie Cake. Now it's not usually a good idea to bring food that you've never tried out to a party. But having had good luck with epicurious I opted to give it a go.

Makeshift double boiler with white chocolate.

This brownie-cake thing comes together in three steps. First you make the brownie cake. I multiplied all the ingredients by 1.5 to fit into a 13x9 inch pan. The brownie-cake has no leavening ingredient which is what makes it more cake-like. However it is a rather dense cake, making it somewhat in between brownie and cake.

Frosting with peppermint white chocolate icing.

After the cake comes out of the oven you can start on the peppermint frosting. The frosting is essentially a white chocolate ganache with peppermint extract. Mine came out a little grainy and was a little hard to spread, but once I froze it for an hour it seemed to solve the texture problems.

Top with melted semi-sweet chocolate.

Once the cake has been in the freezer for at least an hour you can make the chocolate ganache topping. I opted just to spread melted semi-sweet chocolate on top. Then I put it in the refrigerator to set up. The cake tastes great a little on the cold side. You can let it sit out for a couple hours to soften up a bit. I loved the hard peppermint chocolate topping to complement the softer chewy cake. These are kind of hard to resist. Like a more decadent york peppermint patty.

Mmm peppermint chocolate perfection.

...then we'll eat a whole roll of Tollhouse Cookiedough as fast as we can

Thin mints and cranberry, white chocolate, pecan cookies.

Can anyone guess the movie that this quote is from? I will give you a hint, it's a film from the last decade that has become a holiday classic. Will Ferrell is in it. It's Elf! AJ and I have watched this film every Christmas season since it came out (that's going on 8 years)! Now Elf is one of my favorite ways to celebrate the holiday season, second only to eating a whole roll of cooking dough (and snuggling).

This year we had some friends over to watch the movie, drink some eggnog, and feast on some cookies. I decided to go with two of my favorite holiday cookies, thin mints and cranberry, white chocolate, pecan cookies. The thin mint recipe came from that lovely robot, Ms. Martha Stewart. But in all seriousness she has some amazing cookie recipes (and she's only part-robot). I made them a couple years ago when I spent New Year's Eve in Boston. The best way to finish these cookies off is to drizzle them in white or dark chocolate. This year I didn't have time, but they still tasted great.

The second cookie I chose to make is a JAM holiday favorite that all started 4 years ago or so (Jenny or Malia can correct me if I'm wrong) in my mom's kitchen. Us girls got together for a seasonal cookie bake off. We ended up making the cranberry, white chocolate, pecan cookies, mexican wedding cookies, and one more that I seem to have forgotten. The cranberry, white chocolate cookies have been made with great frequency ever since. Sometimes we throw in some oats for extra texture, sometimes we don't. This time I left out the oats, but they still have the most wonderful sweet, tart, nutty flavor. The recipe (from the Washington Post) calls for cups and cups of cranberries (dried and fresh), pecans, and white chocolate chips. I ended up reducing the amounts by about half a cup each, so that they were more cookie like and less mass of mix-ins. Either way they're super tasty, but the more mix-ins you add the more crumbly they become.

I'm going to have a marsh made out of marshmallows.

To top off my whole baking extravaganza I made marshmallows...from scratch. They were actually pretty easy to make. You soften some gelatin in water, heat up a sugar, corn-syrup, water mixture, and then mix them all together. Fresh marshmallows are the jam! Seriously, you can't beat them. I dusted them in confectioners sugar so you can handle them without them sticking to everything. The only hard part is waiting three hours to eat them (they have to cool and set sufficiently).

I hope I have inspired you all to bake some sweeeet holiday treats! Merry Chrismakwanakah everybody!

Gingerbread Cupcakes with Meyer Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

Gingerbread Cupcakes

I have yet to write about our Thanksgiving feast with the Franks, but the big hit of the evening was the gingerbread pumpkin mousse trifle. This masterpiece of gingerbread inspired me to bake up another gingerbread creation. My coworker's birthday was the perfect occasion to test out some gingerbread cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. I found a neat idea for a lemon frosting on epicurious.com. This recipe combines your basic cream cheese frosting with lemon zest and juice. I jazzed up the lemon factor by using meyer lemons. I absolutely adore meyer lemons. They have a slightly sweeter and brighter flavor.

Rich molasses batter.

The cupcake batter came together very easily. The recipe indicates that the mixture will look curdled after adding the boiling water to the molasses mixture. This could not be more accurate. It looks kind of gross, but once mixed into the flour the batter begins to look normal again. The molasses is so dark that the batter almost looks chocolate.

Fresh out of the oven - these smell like Christmas!

Dress them up with lemon cream cheese frosting!

Out of the oven, the gingerbread has an intense molasses flavor, which gingerbread lovers will appreciate. The ginger, cinnamon, allspice, and cloves adds warmth and depth. The gingerbread is complemented by the tangy, sweet cream cheese frosting. The meyer lemon adds a slight tartness and brightness that lightens up the dark cake. Definitely be sure to refrigerate before frosting, as the juice makes the frosting a bit runny before refrigeration. The combination of flavors is really perfect for the holidays.

Sprinkle with crystallized ginger.

Hope you all enjoy!

Gingerbread Cupcakes:

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1/2 tsp allspice

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 stick (1/4 cup) plus 2 tbsp unsalted butter (softened)

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup unsulfured molasses

1 large egg

1 tsp baking soda

8 oz cream cheese (softened)

1 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 tsp grated lemon zest

2 tsp fresh lemon juice

1 tbsp thinly sliced crystallized ginger

In a bowl sift together, the ground ginger, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, and salt. In another bowl, cream 1/2 stick of the butter, add the granulated sugar, and beat the mixture until fluffy. Beat in the molasses and the egg, beating until the mixture is smooth. In a measuring cup combine the baking soda with 1/2 c boiling water. Stir the mixture until dissolved and add to the molasses mixture (the mixture will appear curdled). Add molasses mixture to flour and stir until well combined. Line twelve muffin tins with paper liners and spoon batter into the liners, filling halfway. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Transfer to a rack and let cool.

For lemon cream cheese frosting:

In a bowl cream together cream cheese and remaining 2 tbsp of butter. Add the confectioner's sugar and vanilla and beat until fluffy. Beat in zest and lemon juice. Chill frosting for 30 minutes and spread on cupcakes. Top with crystallized ginger.