Slacker Roundup: What have I been up to?

I'm still here! The holiday season was busy, I've been sick, work has been stressful, my cat ate my homework.

Despite my dislike for shopping and even stronger dislike for Jesus, I appreciate the gatherings and food that go hand in hand with the winter holidays, and the opportunity to hang out with family and friends. Friends that do it up big.

The Spread

Danny harnessed his inner Martha for the centerpiece.

The entirely homemade array of goodies included chocolate chip-walnut cookies, Mexican wedding cakes, mini mocha bundt cakes, sherry cake, chips & salsa, chocolate-drizzled pretzels and popcorn, seitan-in-a-blanket, stuffed mushrooms, mo-f-ing samoas, spinach hummus, pita chips, chocolates, truffles, gingerfolk, sugar cookies, and pure black metal.



Mini-bundts (thanks to shane's folks for the kick ass pan!) also made an appearance at the annual white elephant at Shalon and RJ's, this time in chocolate-cream-filled form.



Coworkers received Mexican wedding cakes and cookie cutters.


Recipe from Joy of Baking, modded with Earth Balance, a full 1 c. of nuts, and only 2 tbs. of sugar in the dough.

Hiboux received some organic wheatgrass from the Temescal Farmer's Market.



The pièce de résistance, however, was the bûche de Noël that I made for my family.


Dressed with pecans, cranberries, and quickly dissolving snow.

I used caramel cake from Hannah, knowing that it would stand up to a rolling. The roll was filled with a cooked buttercream flavored with espresso powder and hazelnut extract, then sprinkled with toasted pecans. Finally, a decadent layer of Isa's ganache went over the top for that tooth-aching, bark-like finish. It probably weighed in at about 5 pounds and I ate the leftovers for breakfast for 2 days. Yum! (shane: You should call this a log blog.)



shane also celebrated a birthday recently, which called for a 4-layer vanilla latte cake, in honor of one of this favorite beverages.



4 layers of vanilla cake, brushed with fresh coffee, and filled with espresso-flavored cooked buttercream.