Holiday Baking

Holiday Baking is one of my favorite things about this time of year.  This involves spending hours in the kitchen poring over various recipes in both English and German, mixing, kneading, tasting, decorating and of course photographing.

This can be extremely relaxing, never failing to put me into more of a holiday mood.  While it can also be a little stressful at times; for example when recipes don't work as well as expected or when I struggle to be completely satisfied with the way a shot turns out, in the end I am usually pretty happy with the overall result.

I was taught from a very young age by both my Mom and my Oma (German grandmother) all about Plätzchen; an umbrella term covering and including a broad variety of German Christmas Cookies generally made during the Advent season.

Lebkuchen, Vanillekipferl, Zimtsterne (my personal favorite), Spekulatius and Makronen are some of the most-loved in my household, and so every year around this time I take to baking as many varieties as possible.

The photos included in this post present some of this year's examples, but I have also inserted a few shots of cakes made during the same time- both Isa Chandra's Chocolate Yogurt Bundt Cake and Libby's Pumpkin Roll  because honestly, why not?!