Our Candy Christmas Tree

Only 4 days until Christmas! We survived the ending of the Mayan calendar [now what?!] and the last week of work before Christmas. I wish I'd kept track of all the candies, cookies, and other delicious sweets that have made their way into my office, through my mouth, and will be later reincarnated on my thighs in January. There's no turning back now with the holiday gluttony so it's the perfect time for me to share some calorie free sweets with you! Here is our candy Christmas tree in 2010, its very first year.  

The tree has come a long way since then! Last year I briefly gave you a sneak peek of it but never got around to sharing my Candy Land/sugar high vision with you. It all starts with one artificial tree (lights included!) and some gumdrop garland!

Pumpkin Spice Kissed Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

Pumpkin Spice Hershey Kisses have been around for years (at least since 2008) and I just learned of them this year. Once aware of their existence, I was inspired by equal parts hunter, gatherer, and glutton to make them my own. After searching at 2 drug stores and 4 grocery stores I was beginning to feel defeated. 

That's the thing about Hawaii: new, trendy, seasonal mainland things aren't easily available here. Rice cookers, SPAM, musubi, and chop sticks can be found in every home and convenience store but apple cider and Pumpkin Spice Kisses are like unicorns! The real irony here is that Hershey's candies are from my home state of PA, the state that I left - willingly - 4 years ago.

I had to get strategic and think about where such a timely item would be found... my instincts lead me in the right direction: the commissary. The military bases are where the traditional-nuclear-families with 2.5 kids, 1 dog, 1 cat, and a picket fence would go for such a fall oriented treat, duh. My boss brought me 3 bags from the Navy/Air Force commissary and there are 3 more bags waiting for me on the Marine Corps base.

Oh Pumpkin Spice Kisses, how I've searched and longed for you!  

After all the anticipation I was truly scared to eat one, for fear that my hopes were set too high. The wrappers are an adorable fall-ish display of colors.

Birthday BBQ

So... I'm very behind on my posts. My apologies. It's not any news that my birthday was last month. I told you all about my gifts (part 1) but I never shared my birthday BBQ (part 2) or Italian dinner out (part 3 - post coming soon) with you! My birthday was on a Sunday this year and we hosted a BBQ at Ala Moana Beach Park. It was a beautiful day and a nice, relaxing celebration. If you can't tell by my hair, it was windy out!

Mini Triple-Treat Cupcakes

Happy Halloween! I found a recipe for Mini Triple-Treat Cupcakes in the October 2011 Everyday Food Magazine. Leave it up to Martha to create a dessert using leftover candy! These clever and addictive cupcakes were my contribution to our Halloween pre-party this weekend. I will be making them year-round with different seasonal toppers. These are so, so yummy and the best part is that you don't have to frost them!

Mini Triple-Treat Cupcakes 

Ingredients

1 cup of all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon of baking powder

1/4 teaspoon of fine salt

1/2 cup of crunchy peanut butter

6 tablespoons of butter, room temperature

1/2 cup of packed light brown sugar

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

1/4 cup buttermilk (I faked it with 1 tablespoon white vinegar and the remaining 1/4 cup of milk)

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Mini Reese's Cups

Candy Corn

Not Greater Than the Sum of Its Parts

Today I bought myself a snack.  Two of my very favorite things, licorice and chocolate, combined to make one treat.  It sounded very promising!

WRONG (ANNOYING BUZZER SOUND)

My instinct was very wrong.  Chocolate coated licorice is NOT greater than the sum of its parts. 

I ate one piece and hated it, the flavor was too sweet and very strong.  It tasted a little bit like a chocolate covered cherry, but in a very bad way.  I ate just one more piece to see if I could get used to it.  No, not at all.

I asked 5 people in my office if they wanted to try.  4 of them looked at me like I was crazy!  Why did they know it would be gross and I thought I'd love it?  1 person tried it.  She took the smallest bite I've ever seen, then said "it's very strong!"  I assured her I wouldn't be mad if she threw it away, and that's exactly what she did.

I don't like to waste food.  After this lovely description - does anyone want a bag of chocolate coated licorice?  There are only 3 pieces missing!

I was going to take a picture of the actual candies, but they look like... you can use your imagination!  That's why they used an illustration to make them look so cute on the front.  Maybe that should have been my warning!

Let Them Eat Cake

Back in January, I turned 25.  One quarter of a century.  I consider this the first "big" adult birthday.  21 is, of course, a milestone, but everyone's too drunk to remember!  Four years later 25 comes along.  I was ready for it and I'm quite happy with my situation at 25!  I made a promise to myself to finally take a trip to Italy in celebration of the big 2-5 and Bryce and I are planning to go in November :)

I'm still getting used to warm weather birthdays, which is a great improvement from shoveling snow and wearing long John's on your birthday!  This year, I was lucky enough to have my parents and my cousin Dana in Hawaii to celebrate with me.  January is also "birthday month" for my Mom and for Dana, so we all celebrated together!  (Don't ask me what it is about March that makes the magic happen in our family!?!?!)  Anyway...  we threw a big party and I decided to make our cake.

I found this recipe for Heavenly Candy Bar Cake and it looked great!  Since baking typically ends up in disaster and tears for me, I followed the recipe closely.  I did, however, cut back on the amount of candy bars used, only because we didn't buy enough!

Heavenly Candy Bar Cake:

Melt 9 fun-size or 21 mini candy bars (I used Snickers) and 1/2 cup butter in a saucepan for 5 minutes, stirring until smooth, then set aside.

Beat 2 cups of sugar and 1 cup of butter (the recipe called for shortening, but I used butter) with your fancy new mixer for 3 minutes, or until well blended.  Add 3 eggs, one at a time, until blended.

Combine 2.5 cups flour and 1 teaspoon salt.  Stir together buttermilk and baking soda.  Gradually add flour mixture, alternating with buttermilk mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture.  (These are the kind of rules I find annoying and unnecessary while baking, what if I DON'T end with flour mixture?! HUH?)  

Finally, stir in melted candy bar & butter mixture and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, then pour batter into cake pan.  I used 2 square pans which ended up not being the same size!  I had to trim one cake down, who wouldn't like their rough edges trimmed off,  plus I got to have cake for breakfast since there were little pieces leftover.

Into the oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.  Time to make the frosting:  Chocolate-Marshmallow Frosting.  I won't go into detail here because I majorly, seriously, severely screwed up this frosting!  It ended up being a clumpy mess in a water bath.  Bryce was running to the store for ice and got some Duncan-Hines chocolate icing, and it was, literally, the icing on the cake!

This cake was true to it's name, Heavenly!  The taste was pure bliss and it was so heavy and dense I'm sure a few slices and you'd be meeting your maker after the ticker stopped tickin'!  The website says the recipe is from Southern Living and I believe it.  Paula Deen would love this cake, y'all!  

The little pieces of candy bar on top make it adorable!

I was turning 25, Dana 35, and my Mom "45" but we cut corners to fit all the candles = 2,345!

A week later, on my actual birthday, my parents and Bryce surprised me with this Steelers cake!  It was perfect since we had, and won, a big playoff game that day!  I think it's safe to say that it's my favorite birthday cake ever :)

Our happy crew after the Steelers WIN!

Candy Jackpot

Some work days require candy.  After packing and eating a boring lunch and 1 or more cups of home brewed coffee, sometimes you just need a fun afternoon pick me up.  Since alcohol is out of the question (right?) I turn to candy.  During lunch I ran to the store for a few things and couldn't resist the impulse buy of some sugary treats.  I'm a big fan of gummy candy - Sweedish Fish, gummy bears, worms, peachy rings, etc.  For just 99c I quickly added this bag of fruit slices to my order and hurried back to the office.  Later when I pulled the bag out to snack I realized I had hit the candy jackpot!  In my bag was a majority of red candies, everyone's favorite!  Sometimes it's the little things in life :)