How are you all doing post holiday? Are you all baked out? Are you turkeyed out? Or are you just finally getting to put your feet up? Nathan and I are just finally getting to put our feet up, and I think we both forgot how much running around there is to do with Christmas. Wrapping presents was pretty hard for me because of my shoulders, so I listened to my body and wrapped in stages lol. Overall it was a great Christmas and everyone was happy as they could be :)
How cute is Berries the reindeer?!?
I have a recipe today that comes from Nathans granny, Dora. She is a sweet lady, born and raised in Texas, and is full of all sorts of kitchen knowledge (aka other uses for cream of tartar) :). So when she stopped in with a recipe from Nathans late grandfather for me to recreate, I was flattered and honored to carry the torch in the family. The only thing I didn't use from the original recipe was the icing, which I was making later at night so opted for the icing I used for Nathans birthday cake (you can find it here), with another Canuckette twist of course. So let me share this gem of a family recipe with you now :)
Dede's Chocolate Sheet Cake
Ingredients
2C all-purpose flour
2C sugar
1/2C shortening
1C water
4Tbs cocoa
2 beaten eggs
1 Tsp baking soda
1 Tsp vanilla
1 Tsp cinnamon
I will apologize in advanced for the lack of pictures, Nathans uncle was over my shoulder the ENTIRE time
Directions:
1) In a large bowl; sift together sugar and flour.
2) Mix shortening, water, and cocoa in a sauce pan, bringing to rapid boil.
3) Pour over the flour and sugar mixture and stir until well mixed.
4) Add the remaining ingredients; eggs, baking soda, vanilla, and cinnamon and mix well. Pour into a greased pan (large cake pan), I ended up using a cupcake tin instead and lined them with cupcake papers.
5) Bake at 400F for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool for 2 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool. Icing them once they are completely cooled.
*Side Note: for the icing I added peppermint extract to give it a festive touch (use your taste buds for this part)*
I ended up adding little candy cane sugar decals to make them even more festive :)
So there you have it, another family recipe passed down to the next generation. What makes it even better is that I am getting them from both sides to create my own family recipes to share with my children :)
So now that the Christmas hoopla is finally over I can share with you the super fun gifts that I made for the ladies in the Texas family. As you guys know I have a pretty kick ass pecan pie muffin recipe (click here). Well every time I make them, the family rants and raves about how tasty they are. So I decided to make jars with all the dry, non perishable ingredients and completed it with the recipe written on a cute gingerbread man (add full recipe on the back). I then finished it off with some festive ribbons, a silver bell, some fun Christmas stickers, and sticky tags to label for all the special someones. I snapped a few pictures of the completed jar so you guys could see it for yourselves :)
The only road block I ran into was that the recipe calls for pecans to be added at the very end before placing into the oven, but thanks to Michael's, I got some festive zip lock bags that I placed on top and it filled the jars perfectly. Now all the special family ladies in my life have the fabulous recipe for themselves always on hand, and they have a super cute recipe card now too! I even had one extra left over so I decided to label it for Nathan, for when he misses me it'll be like I'm already there :)
So there you have it, all my Christmas recipes and super cute gifts, I hope you all enjoyed them as much as I did. Tomorrow I will have a southern recipe to share with you and I will show you some of the super amazingly awesome kitchen gadgets I got from Nathans family, so don't forget to come back and check it out! Until next time..........
Stay sweet,
Jennifer xoxoxo
