Christmas Desserts 2014

One thing I had wanted to eat over the Christmas holiday at home was donuts. However, there were so many other sweet things to try, I didn't actually eat any. Besides everything shown here, I also had gingerbread cookies, Twinkies, Oreo truffle balls, milkshakes and more!

I had a wedding cake flavoured cupcake from The Velvet Cupcake in downtown Columbia, which luckily was not there when I was in college. The cupcake was delicious, though there was so much frosting on top, it was hard to bite into!

After hearing about them from a friend, my stepmom made gooey chocolate toffee brownies, similar to this recipe. Basically, three giant Hershey's Symphony toffee chocolate bars are sandwiched between two brownie mixes, then baked just enough but not too much. Yum!

At my step-brother's daughter's 2nd birthday party, there were owl cupcakes instead of regular cake. The eyes are made from Oreo cookie halves, with M&Ms for the pupils and the nose/beak. So cute and also tasty!

I have wanted to make poached pears for a long time, but I always thought people wouldn't like them. For our Christmas dinner, I finally tried it, and they were delicious! The sauce was similar to mulled wine, seasoned with orange peel, sugar and cinnamon.

I also made pecan pie, which is a classic holiday favorite in our family. But, my mom's new secret for flaky pie crust is to use vodka instead of water! You don't have to use as much liquid, and of course the alcohol bakes out of it.