Hershey's Kisses Candy Cane Blossoms

I followed the recipe straight from a bag of Hershey's Kisses Candy Cane Mint. This cookie is not only easy to make but also seem to be a hit with a lot of people! I love making these for Christmas because they are so festive and colorful.

10 oz bag of Hershey's Kisses Candy Cane Mint (48 pieces of candy)

1/2 cup butter

1 cup granulated sugar

1 egg

1 and 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups all purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons milk

Coarse sugar, rainbow nonpareils, and confetti sprinkles for decoration.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Remove wrappers from candies and leave inside fridge until needed.

Beat butter, granulated sugar, egg and vanilla in large bowl until well blended. Stir together flour, baking soda and salt; add alternately with milk to butter mixture, beating until well blended. 

Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Roll in coarse sugar, rainbow nonpareils, and confetti sprinkles. Place on ungreased cookie sheet. 

Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until edges are lightly browned and cookie is set. Remove from oven; cool 2 to 3 minutes. Press a candy piece into center of each cookie. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely.

Marzipan Carrot

I made these marzipan carrot to decorate Vance's birthday cake. I made a carrot cake for his birthday. This is my first time handling marzipan. I quickly learned that marzipan can get quite sticky. Have some confectioners sugar on hand. You can roll sticky marzipan on confectioners sugar to make it less sticky.

1 tube marzipan

Orange food coloring (or mix yellow with red)

Parsley

Combine marzipan with food coloring until desired color is achieved. Shape into a carrot. Snip a small sprig of parsley (leaves and stem). Stick the stem on top of the marzipan carrot. Let the marzipan carrot chill inside the refrigerator until set.  

Fruitcake Balls

I forgot to line my pans with parchment paper when making fruitcakes this year. Needless to say, the whole cake was stuck into the pan and I had to scrape the whole cake out. Not wanting to waste it, I turned the now giant pile of crumbs into delicious balls that looks like sugar plums. Follow my fruitcake recipe (which makes 2 cakes) and crumble 1 cake into pieces. Recipe as follows:

1 fruitcake, crumbled into pieces
1/2 cup speculoos or smooth peanut butter
1/2 cup brandy or rum (you can add more if you want)
1 cup coarse sugar, for rolling

In an electric mixer with a paddle attachment, add fruitcake crumbs, speculoos and brandy. Mix the ingredients on low speed until crumbs start to stick together.

Shape into 1 inch balls. I used a measuring spoon (1 tablespoon) to make the amount and shape even. Roll balls in coarse sugar. Let chill inside refrigerator for at least 2 hours. Serve cold, or room temperature.

Morimoto's White Lily

I fell head over heels for Morimoto's White Lily cocktail last weekend. It was my first time trying Morimoto's signature cocktail and I just LOVE it. What is not to love. There's Calpico (creamy!), lemon (citrusy!) shochu (smooth!) and Yuzu (citrusy!x2). I was able to approximate on how to make the cocktail without any fanfare. It came out pretty good, not exactly the same as Morimoto's but delicious nonetheless.

I don't have a cocktail shaker so I just mixed all the ingredients together in a pitcher. Chilled your ingredients before mixing so you don't have to add ice and dilute the cocktail, unless you have a shaker (the shaker strains out the cocktail from the ice). You can purchase Yuzu juice online or Japanese supermarkets.

Ingredients:
1.5L bottle Calpico (original flavor; white)
2.5 tbsp Yuzu juice
1.25 cup barley shochu
Lemon twist, for garnish (optional)

Mix ingredients in a pitcher except lemon twist. Serve on a cocktail glass with lemon twist on the side. Makes 4 drinks. Enjoy!

McVities Chocolate Biscuit Cake

All set to watch the wedding of the year? Throwing a viewing party? Perhaps a Royal-themed English breakfast? With William and Catherine walking out of Westminster Abbey this morning, it's time to let the new groom and bride have cake and eat it too! Catherine's wedding cake will be that of a traditional fruit cake while William's groom cake will be a Chocolate Biscuit Cake, a favorite of the prince. Be sure to use McVities Dark Chocolate digestive biscuits, though. Here is the recipe for Chocolate Biscuit Cake (which I deviated a little bit, see below) by Darren McGrady, a former Royal chef.

I've heard concerns about using raw egg in this recipe. Since this cake is not baked, there were concerns of salmonella from using the raw egg. So, instead, I've decided to tweak the recipe by tempering the egg with the melted chocolate. This heat from the melted chocolate will cook the egg slightly (and give a false sense of security that you won't get salmonella!).

A package of McVities Dark Chocolate digestive biscuits comes in a 300g roll (about 10 ounces). I just eyeballed it by taking 4 biscuits out (the remaining is probably around 8 ounces). Look mum ... no measuring!

For the cake:
4 ounces dark chocolate
4 ounces (1/2 cup) granulated sugar
4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter (softened)
1 egg
8 ounces McVities Dark Chocolate digestive biscuits.

8 ounces dark chocolate (for coating)
1 ounce chocolate (for decoration, optional)
½ teaspoon butter for greasing.

Lightly grease a 6 inch by 2 ½ inch cake ring and place on a tray on a sheet of parchment paper. I use a silicone pan so no need to grease and line with paper.

Break each of the biscuits into almond size pieces by hand and set aside.

Using an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar in a bowl until the mixture is fluffy, about 5 minutes. Whisk egg in a small bowl and set aside.

Melt the 4 ounces of chocolate (using a double boiler).

Spoon a small spoonful of the melted chocolate into the egg and quickly whisk it. It will turn into a lumpy mixture but that's OK. We want to increase the temperature of the egg but we don't want to cook it. Slowly add the egg and chocolate mixture back to the melted chocolate and whisk constantly. Your melted chocolate mixture will be smooth and has a shiny sheen. Good job!

Add the chocolate mixture into the butter mixture. Mix with the electric mixer for another 5 minutes until mixture is fluffy (similar consistency to that of chocolate frosting).

Fold in the biscuit pieces until they are all coated with the chocolate mixture.

Spoon the mixture into the prepared cake ring. Try to fill all of the gaps on the bottom of the ring because this will be the top when it is un-molded. Chill the cake in the refrigerator for at least three hours.

Remove the cake from the refrigerator and let it stand while you melt the 8 ounces of chocolate.

Slide the ring off the cake and turn it upside down onto a cake wire. Pour the melted chocolate over the cake and smooth the top and sides using a palette knife (or an offset spatula). I mistakenly used a 9 inch cake pan ... the cake turned out to be more like a cookie!

Allow the chocolate to set at room temperature.Carefully run a knife around the bottom of the cake where the chocolate has stuck it to the cake wire and lift it onto a tea plate.

Melt the remaining 1 ounce of chocolate and use to decorate the top of the cake. I decorated my cake with sugared rose petals (Miss you, Diana!). Serve cake at room temperature.