Best of 2011: My Favourites

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Happy New Year!!! It’s hard to believe that 2011 has come & gone. I am sure many of you will agree with me – 2011 seriously flew by. It was quite a memorable year. Jesse and I bought our first home, my little sister got engaged, we went to Las Vegas for the first time, our friends Ben & Sara got married in September, our friends Patrick & Stephanie got engaged, and Jesse and I went to New York City for nine days in the fall (bucket list item completed!). And to ring in the new year, we attended our friends Robyn and Andrew’s wedding yesterday and danced the night away. We celebrated at midnight with some great friends and tasty champagne. A great way to start 2012!

2011 also saw a lot of cooking & baking in our new kitchen. I cannot tell you how excited I am to get into the kitchen and accomplish many of my cooking & baking goals in 2012. I am also looking forward to posting a lot more in the new year and providing you with more delicious vegetarian dishes & delicious sweet treat recipes.


Do you have any baking or cooking goals for 2012?


Yesterday I read through all my blog posts from 2011 to see which items were my favourites. It became very obvious as I searched through the recipes – I made a lot of cupcakes in 2011! *hah* I made chocolate chip cookie dough cupcakes, pineapple coconut cupcakes, chocolate cupcakes with raspberry frosting, vanilla cupcakes with white chocolate frosting, eggnog cupcakes, pink champagne cupcakes and Easter basket cupcakes. 


After much deliberation, I decided on the following recipes as my favourites in 2011. What were your favourite recipes of 2011?

My Favourite Cupcakes of 2011







Beyond cupcakes, I made a number of other delicious desserts in 2011 to treat my friends and family. One of my favourite desserts of 2011 was the Whipped Peanut Butter Chocolate Pie. Much to my annoyance, the photo does not do it justice! 

My Favourite Sweet Items of 2011











My Favourite Savory Items of 2011


Pumpkin Mac n Cheese








Cranberry Eggnog Muffins with Streusel Topping

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Even though I now own my own home, I love to spend Christmas eve with my parents at their house and then sleep over. Mom and dad always give my sister and I Christmas Eve PJs. One of my favourite traditions! I love getting my new PJs and hopping into bed after a wonderful Christmas eve meal with my parents, grandparents, sister, brother-in-law and boyfriend. Then in the morning, my mom, dad, sister and I all wake up and sit around the Christmas tree and open presents one-by-one. We watch Christmas movies or listen to Christmas music. Mom makes coffee and tea. I inevitably devour a whole box of Ferrero Rocher chocolates. My sister and I open our stockings and eat the cute little Christmas oranges that Santa always puts in the toe. Our stockings are so cute. My mom knitted them when we were little and embroidered our names on them. Every year I look forward to opening my Christmas stocking. It’s the thing we do every Christmas that most reminds me of being a kid.

After we open our gifts, mom always puts together the yummiest of Christmas breakfast treats. Last year she made incredible german apple pancakes. The year before that she made mini savoury quiches for breakfast. I believe she also made potato pancakes that year. Yum!

 This year I thought I would bring a special treat for everyone to contribute to our family Christmas breakfast. These little cranberry eggnog muffins are the perfect treat to serve at a Christmas breakfast or brunch. I’ve been saving this recipe for quite some time and finally was able to whip up a batch today. The muffins are absolutely delicious. Wow! I had trouble not devouring an entire dozen after they came out of the oven. The eggnog flavour is just strong enough without overpowering the muffin. The cranberries are tart but sweet. The muffin crumb is nice and delicate. And the streusel topping creates a nice crunchy top to the muffin. This recipe is a real winner. These muffins will make your Christmas all the merrier and all the more bright. :)

Do you have any family traditions for Christmas morning?

Muffin Ingredients
  • 2 and 1/4 cups of all-purpose flour
  • 1 tablespoon of baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon of salt
  • 1 cup of white granulated sugar
  • 2 tablespoons of white granulated sugar (to sweeten the cranberries)
  • 2 large eggs
  • 3/4 cup of eggnog (low-fat works well)
  • 5 and 1/3 tablespoons of unsalted butter, melted
  • 1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract
  • 1 and 1/2 cups of coarsely chopped fresh cranberries

Streusel Ingredients
  • 1/2 cup of white granulated sugar
  • 1/2 cup of all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
  • 4 tablespoons of unsalted butter; slightly softened
  • 1/2 cup chopped pecans (optional)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 400’F. Line muffin tin with liners.

2. In a medium mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk to combine.

3. In a large mixing bowl, combine 1 cup of sugar, eggs, eggnog, melted (cooled) butter and vanilla extract. Stir well until combined. Mix in the dry ingredients just until incorporated. 

4. Toss the chopped cranberries with the 2 tablespoons of sugar. Fold cranberries until the batter. Divide batter evenly between prepared muffin liners, filling them about 2/3 of the way full.

5. To make the streusel topping: combine the sugar, flour, cinnamon and butter. Cut the butter into the dry ingredients with two knives or a pastry cutter until a coarse, crumbly mixture forms. Stir in pecans if using. Sprinkle the mixture evenly over the top of the muffin batter.

6. Bake muffins for 18 to 22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean or yields a dry crumb. Let muffins cool in the pan for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to allow to cool completely.

Makes 18 to 20 muffins.

Source: Annie’s Eats

Eggnog Cupcakes

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Eggnog is a classic Christmas flavour. And even though I’m not a fan of eggnog itself, I am a huge fan of eggnog flavoured baking! Last year, I decided to make eggnog shortbread to include in my Christmas baking gift baskets. However, the cookies did not make it into the baskets the week of Christmas. They were too difficult to resist and were all eaten within a day or two of being baked. Mmmm!

After success with the eggnog shortbread, I was excited to try an eggnog-related baking item again this year. After I saw this recipe on my favourite blog Annie’s Eats (and because I adore making cupcakes), I decided that this year I would make eggnog cupcakes. I made a batch this past week and brought them into work for our Christmas lunch. The cake itself is really nice, but the best part is definitely the icing. It is delicious. It has the nicest eggnog flavour and looks so pretty with the little flecks of ground nutmeg.

These eggnog cupcakes are the perfect dessert to bring to a holiday party this season. They are really easy to put together and provide a nice unique contrast to all the other Christmas sweets on the dessert table.

Cupcake Ingredients
  • 1 and 1/3 cups of all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon of salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon of ground nutmeg
  • 1/4 cup of dark rum or bourbon (optional)
  • 1 cup of eggnog
  • 1/4 cup of canola or vegetable oil
  • 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
  • 1 cup of granulated white sugar

Frosting Ingredients
  • 20 tablespoons of unsalted butter; at room temperature
  • 2 and 1/2 cups of confectioner’s sugar; sifted
  • pinch of salt
  • 2 and 1/2 tablespoons of eggnog
  • 1 tablespoon of dark rum (optional)

Garnish: ground cinnamon or grated nutmeg

Method

1. To make the cupcakes, preheat the oven to 350’F. Line cupcake pans with paper liners. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and nutmeg. Whisk to combine. In a large bowl, combine the rum, eggnog, oil, vinegar and sugar with an electric mixer. Beat on medium-low speed until well blended. Add the dry ingredients and mix on a low speed just until incorporated.

2. Divide the batter between the prepared cupcakes liners, filling the cups 2/3 full. Bake 22 to 24 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean (with a dry crumb). Allow to cool in the pan 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

3. To make the frosting, place the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat on medium-high speed until smooth, 20 to 30 seconds. Add in the powdered sugar, salt and nutmeg, and mix on medium-high speed until incorporated and smooth (about 1 minute). Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add in the eggnog and whip on medium-high speed until light and fluffy (about 4 minutes). With the mixer on medium-low, blend in the rum.

4. Fill a pastry bag with the frosting and decorate the cooled cupcakes as desired. Sprinkle with ground cinnamon or grated nutmeg.

Source: Annie’s Eats