Brownie Peppermint Christmas Cookies

Christmas is hands down my favorite time of the year. I love that "spirit" that lifts everyone's smile just a little bit more. I love holiday parties, I love family gatherings. I love decorating and all the Christmas crafts. I am a sucker for a Christmas movie, the cheesier the better, and I LOVE Christmas music... but I have to say, I absolutely look forward every year to all the Christmas yummies! Oh how I love Christmas cookies, and treats, and brownies... I better stop, I'm beginning to drool.

This year for a wonderful Christmas Cookie Exchange I decided to make the cookies from Cooking Classy. These have been some of my favorites for many years now. I do make my own Frosting instead of using hers, and I used Milk Chocolate Brownie mix instead of fudge (this time) and I could hardly tell a difference. 

I also had SO much fun putting together the little recipe cards. I decided instead of trying to make the font small enough to fit the ingredients AND the directions on a card, I would make them front and back.

A Cricut was used to create the "C" (C is for cookie and christmas), and was also used to create the background. Then I punched a hole in the top corner of everything, and tied them together with a ribbon, so both the front and the back of the recipe card are easily accessible.

I had so much fun putting together these little cookie boxes, and had to REALLY fight myself off from just sitting and eating them all.  

I am a serious sucker for a good cookie! 

Here is the Recipe adapted from Cooking Classy:

Brownie Peppermint Cookies

1 (18.3 oz) pkg brownie mix

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup packed light-brown sugar

1/4 tsp salt

2 large eggs

2 Tbsp milk

1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted

1 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 tsp peppermint extract

1 recipe vanilla cream frosting, recipe follows

1/2 cup crushed peppermint candy canes

Vanilla Cream Frosting 

4 cups powdered sugar

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

6 Tbsp heavy cream

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp salt

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a cookie sheet and set aside. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together brownie mix, flour, brown sugar and salt. Add in eggs and milk and stir with a large spoon. Add in melted butter, vanilla and peppermint extract, stir until well blended. Spoon dough by heaping tablespoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet (you can fit 12 per sheet). Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely before frosting. Once cool, frost each cookie and sprinkle with crushed candy canes.

Vanilla Cream Frosting 

In a large mixing bowl, with an electric mixer, whip together sugar, butter and cream until fluffy. Stir in vanilla and salt, blend well.

(I used Crisco instead of Butter)

ENJOY!

Red "Rose" Velvet Peppermint Cake

In full disclosure, this was the first time I ever made a red velvet cake. 

It was my Mother-in-Law's birthday, and my Father-in-Law wanted everything perfect! The whole thing was really just the sweetest thing. 

I wanted to make a cake that was as classy and timeless as she is.

I didn't have much time to make the cake, and I'd never made a red velvet before, so I ran to the store and grabbed a few boxes of Betty Crocker.

The frosting on the other hand... that I made from scratch... I ALWAYS make my frosting from scratch. 

Does anyone else think store bought frosting tastes like chemicals?

Anyway. I thought I would share my delicious frosting recipe that helped take this box cake to a whole new level.

First I baked two pans of cake, I cut the second one to be slightly smaller so it could be a tiered cake. After they cooled, I put frosting on the larger cake to add filling between the layers.

Here is the frosting recipe (more or less):

The hard part about sharing this recipe is that it was given to me by my mother, and she isn't really a "recipe" kind of person. She's just good enough to slap stuff together and it tastes amazing. So when I asked for the recipe for frosting for the first time, and she began with "you take a wab of crisco..." I knew I was in for a treat! 

• 1 "wab" Cup of Crisco
• 1/4 cup of Milk (possibly adding more later depending on texture desired)
• 1 Teaspoon of Vanilla Extract-
• A Dash of Salt
• 4-5 Cups (or more) of Powdered Sugar (Add until you reach your desired texture)

Whip it all together in a Kitchen Aid, or with a hand mixer. Or if you have mad skills, with a whisk.

After whipping this up, I got a hankering to throw in about a teaspoon of Peppermint Extract, and BOY was I glad I did (it was amazing!) That is the beauty of this easy frosting recipe, you can adapt it so easily for any recipe. 

My favorite part of this cake was how simple the design was, yet, it was perfect with the ever-so-classic Red Rose, sprinkled with chocolate shavings.

It. Was. Wonderful.

Not to mention I absolutely LOVED decorating with real, fresh flowers. This will definitely be happening again... and again.

ENJOY!