Holiday Baking Round-Up

{A Very Giant Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup}

Can I be honest with you? I haven’t been invited to many holiday parties this year. Maybe one. Or two. Three max. And it’s not because I don’t have any friends because I have those! I swear! My friends are kind of busy this year. Everyone’s working or going out of town or working. No one has time to host parties.

I feel a little bit like a loser without a busy holiday party season, but a big part of me is relieved. I imagine you’re different than me. I imagine you have tons of friends, a bustling social life full of fun holiday get-togethers and obligatory shindigs. Me? Nada. But that doesn’t mean I’m not baking or eating or having fun. Oh no, I’m doing all of those aplenty.

Whether you have parties to go to or you wanna sit on your couch watching Love Actually whilst eating cookies, I figured I’d dig into the archives and bring out some of my all-time holiday favorites.

Let’s start with the specimen at the top of this page, shall we? It’s A Very Giant Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. Yes, you heard correctly. It’s giant. There’s peanut butter and chocolate involved.

I’ve been making Alfajores ever since I was a kid. My aunt (who has owned a bakery there for 50 years) would visit us from Peru and make all sorts of crazy Peruvian desserts. Her Alfajores were always my favorite and this recipe is an adaption from a family classic. I love ’em a lot.

Chocolate Buttermilk Biscuits. I love these things. My only recommendation is eating them warm straight out of the oven. I’ve decided that biscuits always should be eaten warm. And in restaurants they should be baked to order.

I totally have a biscuit attitude, can you tell?

Remember when Hostess went out of business? Well, you can make some Homemade Ding Dongs, if you like.

Last year I baked these with my mama. Like the rest of America, she grew up eating these things.

She’d save and collect her change and walk to the neighborhood corner store and buy ding dongs that came in their very famous foil wrappers. She said these tasted just like the original, but better.

Fun fact: I first had Pig Candy on my first date with my now boyfriend. We went to Lou’s, a wine bar in Hollywood, which is now closed (sad!), and drank wine and ate pig candy.

When he ordered Pig Candy off the menu, my face turned into that emoji where the smiley face has hearts in his eyes. I looked exactly like that!

The combination of salty and sweet will never ever get old. Ever. These Salty Vanilla Bean Sugar Cookies are no exception. They’re crumbly and tender and rolled in the perfect ratio of sugar and salt. I totally adore them.

(I just said adore. Who am I?)

Whenever I say “chocolate,” I say it in Spanish so it’s, “choco-la-té!”

Say it with me! Or don’t.

These Hot Chocolate Cupcakes are fun.

They’re labor-intensive but fun, nonetheless. They have a ganache filling, a toasted marshmallow meringue topping and for s’s and giggles I threw a crushed up candy cane on top. It’s festive, man!