The Flour Flower Lady Christmas

I love Christmas, and I especially love baking things to share with family and friends. This year I had planned to make my decorated cookies but I got sick the weekend before Christmas so that didn't happen. I did manage to make these pretzel/Rolo/pecan goodies for my friends at work and they were outstanding, and simple. I also made some ornaments with melted peppermint candy in cookie cutters and they turned out very cute and festive tied onto gift bags.

I had a recipe for some energy snacks made with peanut butter, coconut, honey, crushed Cheerios and chocolate chips. They turned out to be very yummy and I gave those out to friends and family too.

Every year I make cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning. I have been using a recipe I found on the Pioneer Woman blog a few years ago. They are really easy, there is no kneading, and you can make the dough the day before and bake them on Christmas morning. My husband ate 3 of them the second I got the frosting on them. They are that good. I always send some home with my guests after Christmas dinner. The original recipe makes 6 pans of rolls but I cut that in half.

For the grand finale I made some Guinness and Bailey's cupcakes. The cupcake recipe calls for Guinness stout in the batter. Then you make a ganache that is dark chocolate, Bailey's, cream and butter (no calories there!) Then you make a frosting with powdered sugar, butter and Bailey's. They were so good! My guests got to take some home. I was disappointed that the ganache turned out pretty solid in the center of the cupcake. I thought it would be more the texture of a thick pudding. It was definitely a great recipe though.

And for flowers, my garden had not yet frozen so I cut the remaining white zinnias and put them in a vase filled with cranberries. It made a pretty centerpiece.

We were blessed to have both my boys with us on Christmas, along with Nick's wife and family, and of course, the best Mom/Grandma/Great Grandma ever! We had such a good time.

My grandkids are so fun! They love my piano as you can see.

Now I'm on to a new year with more baking and more flowers. Stay tuned!