Holiday treats made by friends in SC

I hope everyone had a great holiday! I did, and in spite of all the rush I was able to spend some time in the kitchen as well. I'm back in Brooklyn now and excited to blog about what I made very soon. I don't have much time at this very moment to write a lot of details (I'm in the midst of planning a New Year's Eve dessert project and almost late for yoga class!), but I did want to take a minute to share some photos of a couple of my favorite holiday creations other people made that I got to enjoy when I was at home.

Oreo truffle snowmen

My sister threw a holiday party with all of her friends a couple of days before I came home, and I had the pleasure of sampling some interesting leftovers. My favorite, though (playing to my obsessive/aesthetic tastes), were my sister's friend Morgan's Oreo truffle snowmen! These are truffles made from Oreos and cream cheese, dipped in white chocolate and decorated with dark chocolate and powdered sugar. The hat is made from a small chocolate disk and a marshmallow dipped in melted chocolate. I didn't get a chance to talk to Morgan about what inspired her to make these or the recipe she used, but I found a similar recipe and instructions here. So cute!

Giant cupcake inside of a brownie

My other favorite creation of the week was a cake my cousin Ryan brought to our Christmas Eve dinner. This is a giant strawberry cupcake (made with one of these pans) with puppy chow in the center, nestled in the middle of a brownie, and covered with Funfetti icing. With my purist philosophies and control issues about baking I'd definitely have trouble allowing myself to let loose enough in the kitchen to even conceive of an idea like this unless I was having a lot of fun, which is why I love this cake and the fact that it exists so much (not to mention that icing with the colored dots mixed in seems so hard to find these days, even though it was a staple when we were kids and it is so good!).

For all the praises I can give this cake intellectually, I can't say the artificial strawberry flavoring was exactly my style, but you can see the chunk of brownie I took out on the right.