Cookie Exchange

My wishes were answered! Thanks to my friend Heather for sending this picture.  It was a pretty impressive spread for year three!

Holiday Baking

'Tis the season for some very warm kitchens! Most bakers were busy all season long, which is why I'm just now sorting through pictures.  We've also had some really fun Christmas surprises in the Taylor household (in the shape of a new camera!) so pictures of every shape and size are stored in a few places now.  Old camera, new camera, on my phone... you name it and we've got pictures there.

Here's the rundown of my December: 

Third Annual Cookie Exchange
Each month (give or take a few visits) my amazing group of JMU girlfriends gather for potluck dinners. Everyone is VERY dedicated to our themes, and trust me we've had them all. From "Dips for Dinner" to "Food that looks like other foods" we have a great time cooking and catching up at these get togethers.  For the holidays it's worked out for me to host the cookie exchange, and although the crowd and apartment/house has changed, it's always been a fabulous time.  I snagged a few pictures of the sugar cookies I baked, but the full spread is on someone else's phone. (Send those pictures if you have them girls!)

My Favorite Tradition: Hard Candy
Another thing I look forward to in December is making old fashioned hard candy.  I tried some as a kid, and when I was savvy enough to know what a candy thermometer was I made my own batch. It's not always been as streamlined as it was this year- I've broken quite a few thermometers along the way. Each year I try out new flavors, and this year I aimed for some tropical tastes.  Since I've LOVED shopping on places like Etsy and Pick Your Plum in 2012, I made sure to give them some business for this year's crop.

A 30th Birthday (shhh...it was a surprise!) An old friend from Grad School contacted me with plans for a surprise 30th birthday for her husband.  It came at the perfect time for several reasons. 1- she lives in Woodstock, VA, which is normally a bit of a drive for me, but we were heading home to Roanoke to see my parents that weekend. And 2- the party was an "Endless Summer" theme, so I got to dream of summer in the already bleak, and windy winter! Thanks Cassie for calling me up :)

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and a have a wonderful New Year. I'm excited to bring you some MUCH higher quality photos in 2013!

An International Cake

I'm so excited to post this cake, because to be honest- it was one big experiment! My dear teacher friend Tejal has been trying to find an excuse to buy a cake for months.  She planned a surprise trip home to celebrate her dad over Thanksgiving because he was turning 65 AND retiring. (That's a darn good excuse to surprise someone!)

We planned out the cake and scheduled a pickup for the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. Since the party wasn't until Friday I had the tough task of making a cake that would last that long.  She drove it home the next morning and dropped it off at the venue.

Did I mention that her family lives in Canada??

So Tejal was quite a trooper because this was my first cake traveling that far, my first cake that was served so many days after it was made, and for the sake of making this list- my first square cake covered in fondant.

All in all it was a huge success! Gulab was surprised, the cake tasted delicious (so I heard), and it was all in tact.  In fact, the pictures I'm posting are from Tejal's camera and are just as good as the ones I took of the cake days before, and better quality (shocking since I used my iPhone to take a few).

Thanks Lad family! Happy birthday and retirement Gulab!!


*Coming soon: Moira and Graham's Wedding

(I made the amateur mistake of deleting photos from my camera before they were synched with my laptop.  Luckily I know a fabulous photographer who was at the event, Mark Maskell!)