so close (pictorial update)

Christmas is a day and a half away, and I am, for once in my adult life, not entirely stressed out. It’s a nice thing. I’m completely finished holiday shopping, and all the packages have arrived. Yay! I only have to wrap.

I did quite a bit of baking this year – jam thumbprints, snickerdoodles, chocolate chip cookies (which remarkably remained soft after baking and cooling) and these, a new recipe:

These are green tea shortbread cookies with white chocolate ganache filling. I’m not sure I’m sold on the outcome of all that hard work, but it was a fun recipe to try. The matcha powder I used was really strong, and so I’ll probably lesson the amount of matcha next time and sweeten up the shortbread a bit. [recipe compliments of smittenkitchen, which is my new favorite place to get recipes]

And last night, I made these Chocolate Stout Cakes:

The original recipe was for a single large bundt cake, but I decided to make mini-bundts. These are about the size of a cupcake, and they’re pretty rich. The recipe called for a ganache topping, but I have to transport them to two different homes over the next two days, so I opted for powdered sugar instead. Yum.

And then there was the Christmas Craft Extravaganza: Jacob, Donna and I settled in Friday night (it was raining and icky out) to make wrapping paper, stockings, and some ornaments:

I think we’re all ready now. Bring on the Santa!