Spiced Cranberry Cake(s)

Made many mini-cakes but adding a middle layer of leftover cranberry sauce. Adapted from Bon Appetit.

Ingredients

cake

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup almond flour or almond meal* (about 2 1/2 ounces)
• 2 1/2 teaspoons Chinese five-spice powder**
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup plain Greek-style yogurt
• 1 cup chopped toasted almonds
• 1 cup whole berry cranberry sauce
• 1/2 cup dried sweetened cranberries
• 
  

Preparation

cake

• Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour 12-cup Bundt pan (or many mini-bundt pans). Whisk first 8 ingredients in medium bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat butter in large bowl until smooth. Add both sugars and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating 1 minute after each addition. Beat in vanilla extract, then Greek-style yogurt. Add dry ingredients; beat just until blended. Fold in almonds and cranberries. Fill prepared pan(s) halfway, evenly spread cranberry sauce, then carefully spread remaining batter on top.
• Bake cake until tester inserted near center comes out almost clean, about 1 hour 10 minutes (much shorter if in separate pans). Cool cake in pan 10 minutes. Turn cake out onto rack and cool completely.
  Frost or sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Fluffernutter & Chocolate Cookies

Fun new addition to the Christmas cookie line-up from this blog...

ingredients:

You will need:
1 batch of peanut butter cookie dough (recipe follows)
regular marshmallows, sliced in half lengthwise
chocolate glaze (recipe follows)

Peanut Butter Cookies:
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

Chocolate Glaze:
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
3 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

directions:

To make peanut butter cookies:
Combine the flour, baking soda and salt in a bowl, set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer or with a hand mixer, beat the butter, peanut butter and sugars for 2 minutes, until light and fluffy. Add in the egg and vanilla.
Gradually add in the flour mixture on low speed. Chill dough 15 minutes in the refrigerator.
Place by rounded spoonfuls on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 7-9 minutes, until edges are very lightly browned (cookies will not spread much at all). Do not overbake.

To make chocolate glaze:
In a double boiler over hot, but not boiling water, combine chocolate chips, butter, and corn syrup. Stir until chips are melted and mixture is smooth, then add vanilla.

To assemble the cookies:
As soon as the peanut butter cookies come out of the oven, place 1 marshmallow half on the top of each cookie (you may need to flatten the cookies slightly with a spatula first). Place them back in the oven for 2-3 minutes, until the marshmallow is melted. Let cool completely.
When completely cooled, spoon a small amount of chocolate glaze over the top of each cookie. Glaze will set slightly upon cooling.

Self-frosting Nutella Cupcakes

These are blogosphere favorites, and were quick and easy to throw together for tomorrow's holiday potlucks. This version of the recipe taken from Baking Bites...

Nutella Frosted Cupcakes
10 tbsp(140 grams) butter, softened
3/4 cup white sugar
3 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 3/4 cups (200 grams) sifted all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
Nutella, approx. 1/3 cup

Preheat oven to 325F. Line 12 muffin tins with paper liners.
Cream together butter and sugar until light, 2 minutes. Add in eggs one at a time, until fully incorporated. Don’t worry if the batter doesn’t look smooth. Add vanilla. Stir in flour, salt and baking powder until batter is uniform and no flour remains.
Using an ice cream scoop, fill each muffin liner with batter. They should be 3/4 full, if you’re not using a scoop. Top each cake with 1 1/2 tsp Nutella. Swirl Nutella in with a toothpick, making sure to fold a bit of batter up over the nutella.
Bake for 20 minutes.
Remove to a wire rack to cool completely.
Makes 12.