Baking extravaganza

 This has been a busy week and a baking extravaganza.  At the beginning of the week, I measured out all the dry ingredients for the recipes I planned.

First up, Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip cookies.  I was pretty happy with these.  They came with me to my first PTA holiday party on Tuesday night.  There was an ornament exchange and you would think everyone was competing for the title of tackiest ornament, except that they weren't.  It was a little unsettling how ugly some of the ornaments were and there was genuine excitement over the bedazzled offerings.  I walked away with strange one, but it had the least amount of glitter.  I'll share it later.  

Wednesday was the annual cookie exchange.  I made a pecan cookie with a brown sugar icing.  I was really happy with these.  The cookies were delicious and the icing tasted exactly like the glaze on a maple bar donut. 

I also made Salted Chocolate Caramel Pretzel Bark.  I'm a big fan of this recipe.  It's easy to execute and the results are yummy.  

I also made Pumpkin Bread mini loaves and wrapped them in adorable woodland creatures tissue paper and tied them up with yarn.  I thought they looked pretty cute.  

Here's all the packaged up treats.  We had the party in the morning while both my kids were in school.  It was a little strange being child-free at a moms group event, but it was mostly awesome. 

And as if I wasn't already doing enough baking, Leo's teacher needed royal icing for the gingerbread houses she's making with the kids tomorrow.  

My final baking project this week was a pumpkin sheet cake with an orange cream cheese frosting.  I brought that to my preschool board meeting tonight.  The meeting went smoothly and quickly so we could get to eating and the gift exchange.  The exchange was holiday items with the theme of "red", and the results were significantly less tacky than PTA.  

The kids have been busy too.  Here's Serafina helping load up donated items for the charity program the preschool participates in during the holidays.  

Today, Leo's class went to the art room and Serafina got to tag along.  

 They made their own versions of Paul Klee's Cat and Bird.