Peppermint Bark

Peppermint bark is a chocolate confection. Generally it consists of peppermint candy pieces, such as candy canes, in white chocolate on top of dark chocolate, but peppermint bark can refer to any chocolate with peppermint candy pieces in it.

Ingredients:

- 8oz Semi-Sweet Chocolate
- 8oz White Chocolate
- 2 tsp Vegetable Oil, divided
- 1/2 tsp Peppermint Extract, divided
- Candy Canes or Peppermint Candies, crushed

Directions

- Line a 8" by 8" baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Smash candies with a meat tenderizer. Then pass them through a mesh strainer to get rid of the dust. We only need the chunks.
- In a heat safe bowl, add brown chocolate and 1 tsp of vegetable oil. Melt chocolate at 50% power in 30 second intervals (about three times). Stir well after each heating.
- When fully melted, stir in 1/4 tsp of peppermint extract.
- Pour melted brown chocolate onto prepared pan and spread out evenly.
- Sprinkle with a small amount of candy chunks.
- Transfer to the fridge for 15 minutes or until fully set and hardened.
- Repeat melting process with white chocolate and 1 tsp of oil at 50% power in 30 second intervals. Stirring well after each heating.
- When fully melted, stir in 1/4 tsp of peppermint extract.
- Pour over brown chocolate. Spread out.
- Sprinkle with remaining candy pieces.
- Transfer to the fridge for an additional 15 minutes or until fully hardened.
- Remove from baking sheet and break into pieces (like peanut brittle).

Eggnog Bread

Eggnog is a sweetened dairy-based beverage traditionally made with milk and/or cream, sugar, and whipped eggs (which gives it a frothy texture). Brandy, rum, whisky, bourbon, vodka, or a combination of liquors are often added. The finished serving is often garnished with a sprinkling of ground cinnamon or nutmeg.

Eggnog is a popular drink throughout the United States and Canada, and is usually associated with Christmas. Eggnog may be added as a flavoring to food or drinks such as coffee and tea. Eggnog as a custard can also be used as an ice cream base.

Ingredients

- 1 1/2 cups of Eggnog
- 2 tsp Rum Flavored Extract

- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract

- 1 cup White Sugar

- 2/3 cup of Butter

- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose Flour

- 2 tsp of Baking Powder 
- 1/4 tsp Salt
- 1/2 tsp ground Nutmeg

- Powdered Sugar for decoration

Directions

- Preheat oven to 350 oF

- Line a 9x5 " loaf pan with parchment paper.

- In a large bowl, beat sugar and butter until well blended.

- In another bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, nutmeg and salt; add to butter mixture alternately with eggnog, beating just until blended.

- Add the vanilla and rum flavored extract. Stir well.

- Bake for about 50 minutes, until golden and center springs back to the touch.

- Allow baked bread to cool.

- Sprinkle the powdered sugar on the loaf.

Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Frosting and Nutella Filling

The history of chocolate cake goes back to 1764, when Dr. James Baker discovered how to make chocolate by grinding cocoa beans between two massive circular millstones.
In 1828, Conrad Van Houten of the Netherlands developed a mechanical extraction method for extracting the fat from cacao liquor resulting in cacao butter and the partly defatted cacao, a compacted mass of solids that could be sold as it was "rock cacao" or ground into powder. The processes transformed chocolate from an exclusive luxury to an inexpensive daily snack. A process for making silkier and smoother chocolate called conching was developed in 1879 by Swiss Rodolphe and made it easier to bake with chocolate as it amalgamates smoothly and completely with cake batters. Until 1890 to 1900, chocolate recipes were mostly for drinks.
The Duff Company of Pittsburgh, a molasses manufacturer, introduced Devil's food chocolate cake mixes in the mid 1930s, but introduction was put on hold during World War II. Duncan Hines introduced a "Three Star Special" (so called because a white, yellow or chocolate cake could be made from the same mix) was introduced three years after cake mixes from General Mills and Duncan Hines, and took over 48 percent of the market.
In the U.S., "chocolate decadence" cakes were popular in the 1980s; in the 1990s, single-serving molten chocolate cakes with liquid chocolate centers and infused chocolates with exotic flavors such as tea, curry, red pepper, passion fruit, and champagne were popular. Chocolate lounges and artisinal chocolate makers were popular in the 2000s. Rich, flourless, all-but-flourless chocolate cakes are "now standard in the modern pâtisserie," according to The New Taste of Chocolate.

- 1/2 cup Vegetable Oil

- 2 tsp Vanilla Extract

- 1 cup Boiling Water

- 2 Eggs

- 1 cup Milk

- 1-1/2 tsp Baking Soda

- 1 tsp Salt

- 1-3/4 cups all-purpose Flour

- 3/4 cup Unsweetened Cocoa

- 1-1/2 tsp Baking Powder

- 2 cups Sugar

(all ingredients should be at room temperature)

- Heat oven to 350°F.  Butter and flour a 9-inch round baking pan. Not recommended to use   a springform pan since batter will be very thin and it might leak out of pan.

- Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a mixer bowl.

- While mixing add eggs one by one, mix well. Then add milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes.

- Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pan.

- Bake for 45 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clear of batter.

- Let the cake cool and  remove from pan to wire racks. Cool completely.

 Chocolate Frosting

- 1 (14 oz.) can Sweetened Condensed Milk
- 2 (1 oz.) sqs. semi-sweet Chocolate
- Dash of Salt
- 3 tbsp Water
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract

- In a saucepan, combine sweetened condensed milk, chocolate and salt. Over medium heat cook and stir rapidly until chocolate melts and mixture thickens.

- Remove from heat. Stir in water and vanilla. Cook and stir rapidly until thickened again about 4 minutes.

- Cool 10 minutes before using it.

Nutella Filling

- A whole Nutella container.

- Cut cake in as many layers as wished.

- Chill Nutella for 30 min, spread on cake.

 

Marble cake

A marble cake is a cake with a streaked or mottled appearance (like marble) achieved by very lightly blending light and dark batter. It can be a mixture of vanilla and chocolate cake, in which case it is mainly vanilla, with streaks of chocolate. Other possibilities are strawberry or other fruit flavors, or (particularly in marbled coffee cakes) cinnamon and/or other spices.

The first print references to marble cake begin appearing in the last quarter of the 19th century. One popular variation of this recipe during Victorian times was “Harlequin cake", which was baked with checkerboard patterns. Early recipes used molasses and spices to achieve the dark-colored batter.

Ingredients

- 2 cups Flour
- 1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
- 1/3 cup Unsalted Butter
- 1 cup Granulated Sugar
- 1 Egg
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 1 tsp Vanilla
- 1 cup Milk
- 2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa dissolved in 2 tbsp of boiling water.

Directions

- Beat the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the egg.
- Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together.
- Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture, alternating with the milk and vanilla.
- Divide the dough in two parts. Add the dissolved cocoa to one of the parts, mix well.
- Butter and flour a 8 inches pan.
- Spread batter in prepared pan.
- Bake 50 to 55 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.
- Cool cake in pan on wire racks 15 minutes. Remove from pans; cool completely.

Spritz Cookies

Pritzgebäck is a type of German Christmas biscuit. The German verb spritzen means to squirt in English. As the name implies, these cookies are made by "squirting" the dough with a cookie press or a pastry bag. In the United States, the name is often shortened to spritz.