It’s no secret that I don’t like to bake. I considered buying dessert for the German-Swiss Dinner Party. At the last minute, I caved. I was inspired to make a gingerbread cake by the beautiful gingerbread-like towns in Switzerland and Germany.

As usual, my baking experience wasn’t great. I coated the bundt pan heavily with softened butter and then coated it with flour.

Unfortunately, some of the cake STILL stuck to the darn pan. This, right here, is why I hate to bake! I really should rename this website that. Hate2Bake.com. I just looked it up and the name isn’t taken. Hmmm.

It’s OK, it all worked out because I carefully lifted out the stuck pieces and gingerly put them in place. See what I did right there, gingerly!

Along with the gingerbread, I served Swiss Hot Chocolate with Asbach brandy from Switzerland.

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At the Craft Party last weekend, it may have been warm outside and most of the guests were wearing shorts and sundresses …. that doesn’t mean we can’t begin to dream about and enjoy the fun and flavors of fall and winter!

What the heck!??! We were making fall and winter crafts so we may as well eat food associated with the season! With that in mind, I made these tasty gingerbread muffins.

Gingerbread Muffins

• 2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 8-ounces sour cream
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped crystallized ginger

Grease 12 muffin cups; set aside.

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Peggy, Anne, and I had our annual Christmas cocktail time last night. Since it was to be held at my house, I wanted to make a new holiday martini for the occasion. While creating other gingerbread recipes this year, I spotted something I didn’t know existed, gingerbread syrup.  I have about a dozen different flavors of Torani syrups in my second refrigerator. I use those to make Italian Creme Sodas for kids’ cooking classes, but gingerbread is a flavor I have never found. I let my “fingers do the walking” as I called Smart & Final, Cost Plus World Market, BevMo, and Total Wine (all the places I know carry the Torani line of syrups) searching for gingerbread. Sadly, not a single one of them had it in stock.  What’s a determined girl to do? Make her own gingerbread syrup, of course! As a result, today you get two recipes for the price of one. Enjoy!

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Picture by Marissa, read the info at the bottom of the post!

Not that kind of housekeeping! I’m not Martha Stewart, I don’t give a darn how you fold your sheets and I certainly hope you do NOT iron them! No, I’m talking about some minor “blog housekeeping” – Firstly, thank you to each and every one of you who have already commented in the last 24 hours, trying to help me reach my goal of 1027 comments by December 31, 2010. We are already up to 994 – fabulous! And somehow, by some wonderful miracle, the comments actually outweighed the blog spam today!

Secondly, for those of you who may have missed it or who live out of the Phoenix area, here is THE LINK to the S’Mores Party clip from yesterday’s Valley Dish. Great fun, too bad we were missing Connor, although I’m sure he was staying warm up in beautiful Flagstaff that Friday night. OK, housekeeping finished – on to today’s recipe.

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It’s been raining here in Arizona all week. Yesterday and this morning have been especially harsh; flooding, high winds, closed airports, several feet of snow up north, (plus a leaking roof for me!) – just crazy stuff for our dry desert state!

This weather makes me want to bake and the chilliness and dark skies make pumpkin and spices seem like the perfect thing to pop in the oven. I was planning to make a regular Bundt cake, but while digging through the cake pans, I found my mini-rose-shaped Bundt pan. These pretty little cuties bring a little warmth and sunshine to an otherwise cold and rainy day.

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If you have an upcoming cookie exchange or you’re just looking for a little something different for your own cookie tray, these gingerbread blondies will fit the bill.  It’s hard to find an aroma or flavor that stirs up more Christmas memories than gingerbread. These pretty bars come together quickly and yield 2 1/2 dozen per pan. That’s hard to beat!

White chocolate can be such a pain to work with. The reason? It’s not real chocolate. White chocolate is a confection of sugar, cocoa butter, and milk solids. It first appeared in the 1930s in Switzerland and was invented by Nestle to use excess cocoa butter.  Nestle introduced it to the United States in 1948.  It burns even easier than real chocolate.  To melt white chocolate, place it in a microwave-safe bowl and cook on high for 1 minute. Stir, return to microwave, and cook on high 1 more minute. Remove and stir until completely melted. I prefer Ghirardelli brand white chocolate chips, I find them the best tasting and easiest to melt.
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