tempting treats for a frosty evening

chocolate gingerbread cookies, meringues, gold dusted and sparkly iced stars, and coconut macaroons

last night, we were happy to serve as the dessert stop (what else?!) on a delightful progressive dinner, and we decided to extend the holiday sparkle that we're all missing a good bit just now with some shimmery, fluffy, possibly even festive treats for our guests. and this isn't a royal "we" -- baking is a family affair here in the fergusandme household, with pretty much everyone pitching in and making favorites, or at least hanging around chatting and waiting for the first batch to come out of the oven, whereupon they are rewarded not only with a couple of meringues, but with some quick washing up to do . . . . 

so, the above are some of our tempting treats for a frosty evening, and below, after the jump, you'll find the first of a batch of yummy recipes . . .  first up, by popular demand, chocolate gingerbread cookies (they're the chocolatey-sugar frosted ones in front)~

fairy cakes

fairy cakes, not just for fairies

we had a birthday celebration yesterday, and as usual, time was short, so we made our favorite fairy cakes (thanks, Nigella!) (check out Nigella Lawson's cookbook, how to be a domestic goddess, chock full of british standards and yummy stuff . . . available here
the absolute best baking book ever~

fairy cakes (a british birthday tea standard)


one half cup unsalted butter, softened
7 tablespoons sugar
2 large eggs
three quarters of a cup self rising cake flour
one half teaspoon vanilla extract
2-3 tablespoons milk

preheat the oven to 400 degrees fahrenheit
put all the ingredients except the milk in a food processor and blitz until smooth, then pulse while adding milk through the funnel until you have a soft, dropping consistency
pour as evenly as possible into 12 cupcake cups; feel free to double or triple the recipe
bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until the fairy cakes are cooked and golden on top
(we have substituted unsweetened soymilk with excellent results)

it is really fun, though very messy, to set up loads of bowls of icing (confectioner's) sugar for children to mix with a little water and a very little food coloring -- use the kind that comes in packs of twelve, like these rather than the boring primary color kind available at the grocery, and go really slow and scanty with the color ~ then, decorate with whatever sprinkles and other doodads you prefer ~ yum