'Tis the Season to Be Baking

Fa la la...etc.

I did so much baking last week that I forgot to take pictures of most of it. Whoops.

Those are Irish Creme Kisses from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar, and they are delicious.

My office holiday luncheon thingy was cancelled this year, due to budgetary considerations. Instead, we all had lunch delivered and ate in the conference room. As you can imagine, festivity was thin on the ground that day, so I brought the holiday spirits in cookie form.

I don't know why, but I make something with Jameson every  December. Most New Year's Eves, I break it out for veganized Bailey's. Last year, I made stout cupcakes with Irish Creme frosting. This year, it was these cookies. I don't know why I associate Irish whiskey with Christmas, but I do.

ANYWAY, the VCIYCJ Irish Creme Kisses are kind of awesome. They're kind of pillowy, but not overly squishy or chewy. I didn't  have the espresso powder the recipe called for, so I used extra cocoa powder, and people pretty much inhaled them. They weren't too chocolatey at all. Nor were they too whiskeyish, even with the stuff in both the cookie dough and the frosting. They're pretty easy to make and they look all kinds of fancy, so I highly recommend them for your grown up kind of parties.

I also made more Mexican Hot Chocolate Snickerdoodles, which went over well, as usual. And another batch of Raspberry Chocolate Chip Blondie Bars from Vegan With a Vengeance for family holiday shindiggery. I also made the Gingerbread Cut-Out Cookies from VCIYCJ for the same family get-together. I was told not to use Channukkah cookie cutters since the holiday was over, but I still wanted to acknowledge the fact that a Jewish holiday happened, so I made gingerbread Jews:

But apparently my family went politically correct without telling me. My mother said someone might think we're making fun, so she stifled my creativity and I had to do the rest differently. My act of rebellion: I refused to make more icing. Yup, we were stuck with gingerbread goths (not really).

Crap decorating job aside, they were still tasty, which is all that matters.

Happy holidays!