Posts Tagged ‘Dessert’

When it comes to holiday gift-giving, I’m definitely in the homemade camp. I prefer to give (and receive) homemade items, and I especially love to give food. I may not know what color scarf you would prefer, but I do know if you like white, dark, or milk chocolate (or no chocolate)! Thus, I usually make food and package it into cute containers. This year I made some chocolate-peanut-butter bark, and I was thrilled to find these super-cute take-out containers for it at World Market.

Adorable Winter Scene Container - Complete with Bark!

These are perfect for many reasons. First, it’s a cute winter woodland scene with critters, and it has a bear in it. I ♥ bears! Because it’s a Winter scene, it’s not specific to any particular holiday. I can give it to friends and family regardless of what they are celebrating: Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, the Winter Solstice, Saturnalia, etc. Second, it has a cute bark design on the sides, and I’m giving chocolate bark. WIN!

If you’re curious about chocolate-peanut-butter bark, I made it from a recipe I found here, with one small change. I also added small mini-pretzels to my bark, so it contains semi-sweet chocolate, peanut butter, salted peanuts, mini Reese’s cups, and pretzels. I love the juxtaposition of sweet, salty, creamy, and crunchy.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Bark from Best Mom on the Block

There’s only one thing better than Halloween, and that’s having your birthday coincide with Halloween. I entered the world 25 or so *cough* years ago and about one whole month later than expected. What can I say; I’ve been a diehard procrastinator since birth. Throughout my life, my birthday and Halloween were inextricably intertwined. I always had a Halloween-themed birthday cake. Usually, my cakes were of the uninspiring sheet-cake variety from the local grocery store bakery:

Standard Halloween Sheet Cake

Not that I cared too terribly much. As a child, anything with chocolate cake and lots of icing was welcomed! Add in all the candy from trick-or-treating later in the evening, and it was pretty much a recipe for disaster as far as my parents were concerned. Can you imagine how loaded with sugar I was after all that cake, ice cream, and Halloween candy?!

Of course, birthday cakes have evolved so much since I was a child. Now children get super-fancy specialty cakes from talented bakers like The Cake Artist. I can’t say I would have minded getting a cake like this:

Halloween Birthday Cake via The Cake Artist

Look at the detail on that cake! It’s absolutely stunning:

Halloween Birthday Cake Details via The Cake Artist

Actually, looking at the decorations on that cake, it seems pretty damn appropriate for someone my age. I like the tombstones, especially the one which says, “Cindy – She worked too hard.”

Hell, at my age, I would just be happy with a cutely decorated slice of pumpkin cheesecake. I’m not picky.

Spiderweb Pumpkin Cheesecake

I hope the restaurant we’re going to for dinner this evening has pumpkin cheesecake! It’s definitely one of my Fall favorites.

What are you doing for Halloween? Do you don a costume? Do you sit at home with the lights off, hiding from trick-or-treaters? Do you go all out and decorate your yard and gear up to frighten all the kids who stop by for candy?