Christmas Delights and a Lesson

Christmas came and went rather quickly this year - I always anxiously await (for months) for this holiday to come, and feel rather somber when it ends in a flash. Despite this melancholic state (I mostly blame it on the lack of sunlight during the winter months), I am always more than delighted by the festivities that take place at my home, each year, on Christmas day. Between the company that I get to spend the holidays with (the same exact group that came to Thanksgiving - you can see them all in the photographs, in that blog post), and the delicious fare that graces the table (all of the desserts made by yours truly, of course - you will find out what I made, a little later on!), Christmas truly is a magical, enjoyable holiday for me and my family.



The Christmas celebration prematurely begins on Christmas Eve, before the presents are arranged around the ornately-decorated Christmas tree (the presents are placed around the tree overnight, so that my youngest nephews are assured that Santa came while they were sleeping). I must admit, it is a bit tempting to just "sneak a peak" at the contents hidden beneath the wrapping paper and/or in the gift-bags; but I always remind myself to be patient, and wait until morning. Unfortunately, Kiwi (my dog) ripped through one of the presents when no one was looking, but we forgave her and her curiosity ;0)



When Christmas morning arrives, everyone gathers around the roaring fireplace and the Christmas tree, in the living-room, to open their respective gifts. After everyone opens the presents (and there is an abundance of Christmas-themed wrapping paper and gift-bags scattered all over the floor), my mom passes out the stockings that adorn the mantel on the fireplace - as you can see, every single person (and animal - can't forget Kiwi!) gets his or her own stocking, filled with little trinkets and goodies.

The rest of the afternoon is spent chatting amongst ourselves, listening to Christmas songs, cleaning up the wrapping paper scraps; and then it is time for my mom and I to head into the kitchen to start preparing (and serving) the Christmas meal - for me, however, this means that I need to get the three desserts ready to serve a little later on, a few hours after the meal.



As everyone continued to mingle, I was busy adding finishing touches to the desserts, and carefully transporting them from the kitchen to the serving-table. Thankfully, all of the desserts made it to the table in one piece (huge sigh of relief here!) - and thankfully they did not last long either (meaning, I must have made some good choices with the sweet-treats that I decided to serve). So what exactly are those three desserts that I served at my Christmas family-gathering? Well, here they are, one by one:



The first dessert that I made was the Silken Chocolate Mousse Cake from My Sweet Vegan; and yes, I did make this cake entirely of chocolate (no carob whatsoever). Since I could not find a vegetable-peeler (which I needed, in order to create chocolate shavings from a chocolate-bar, to adorn the top of the cake), I decided to just decorate the top of the cake with small segments of a Terra Nostra Organic Ricemilk Chocolate Bar. Thankfully, this substitution did not compromise the flavor or the presentation of the cake - and it was less time-consuming as well, to just decorate the cake with segments instead of several, tiny chocolate shavings. This cake definitely won over my family, with its rich, luscious flavor, smooth and creamy texture, and captivating aroma of chocolate. This cake is definitely the epitome of chocolate decadence; and I am thrilled that my family enjoyed it so much :0)



To continue with the theme of "chocolate-decadence-desserts" for my family, I decided to make another chocolate-containing treat from My Sweet Vegan - the Cookies and Crème Pound Cake. Not only is this sweetbread topped off with four cream-filled chocolate-sandwich cookies (I used organic Newman-O's), but the entire pound cake is filled with the cookies as well (since the crushed cookies are mixed throughout the entire batter). To make the pound cake even more appetizing, there is a glaze drizzled over the top. This cake is incredibly moist, and simply irresistible - my family especially loved the fact that this dessert incorporated both cookies and cake, all in one bite. Yet another dessert that disappeared just moments after I placed it on the serving-table :0)



The third and final dessert that I made for my Christmas family-gathering was definitely unconventional, and perhaps my most courageous baking experiment yet - a Raw "Cheesecake." Although my family and I absolutely loved the Mini Ice-Box "Cheesecake" that I made a few weeks ago, I did not want to make the same "cheesecake" for the Christmas party (since I wanted to feature all-new desserts); so when I found a recipe for a raw "cheesecake" on the "Raw Baby Alex" blog (and read how relatively simple it was to make), I knew that I had to try it. Once again (and to my pleasant surprise), this dessert was fabulous - it is almost unbelievable to think that there are just six ingredients in this "cheesecake" (well, seven, but I didn't use the honey that the recipe called for - I just added a little more agave nectar). Since my first shot at making a raw dessert went quite well (and was well-received by my family as well), I am looking forward to experimenting with "baking" more raw desserts in the very near future.



Each individual dessert-plate basically looked the same, since everyone wanted a taste of all three of the desserts - pictured above, is a sampling of the Silken Chocolate Mousse Cake, Cookies and Crème Pound Cake, and the Raw "Cheesecake."

I am quite pleased that this year's Christmas family get-together (i.e. my first Christmas family get-together in which I baked, since I have only been cooking/baking since June 2007) went so well, and that everyone enjoyed the special "Christmas delights" that I decided to make/serve. It was a perfect celebration, for sure; and I am already getting baked-good-requests for our New Year's Eve family get-together, haha.

And now onto the lesson that I learned, which has nothing to do with Christmas - it has to do with "kitchen safety." I may be on vacation from my classes and schoolwork, but that does not mean that I am on vacation from baking - in fact, it means exactly the opposite (i.e. I am producing even more baked goods for my family and friends; and now for my Dad's co-workers as well!).

While this "extra baking" has been going quite well so far, I (rather painfully) learned just yesterday that I might need to consider slowing down with all of the baking sprees, and take on each new baking project one at a time (i.e. forgo trying to make several desserts, all at once):



I will spare you the graphic details of my injury, but let's just say that it has taken me quite a while just to type out this blog post (since my left-hand is rather sore). Luckily, I did not lose any limbs or need to go to the Emergency Room (and that my mom keeps a stocked first-aid kit at home - we couldn't find any pins to keep the bandage on though, so I had to just improvise with a paper-clip, haha); but my hand will definitely be in a bit of pain for the next few days. I was able to do a little more baking before this inconvenient event took place, so I will for sure have some goodies to post about on my blog, in a few days - in the meantime, however, I am going to refrain from baking at least today (so that my hand can heal) - we shall see how long I can tolerate the baking-hiatus ;0) So please learn from my experience, and be extra careful in the kitchen while working with sharp equipment!

I sincerely hope that all of you are having a delightful, fun, and injury-free holiday, and that you continue to do so throughout the rest of the 2007 - and in upcoming new year, as well!! :0)