Panthers Cookies! Go CATS!!

Last year, I made ninjabread men, and this year, for my Christmas swapping extravaganza, I decided that I had to commemorate our Panthers.  12-0 AND the division champs with 4 more games to go!! Way to go Cats!!

Ch



The recipe is the same as the ninjabread cookies...

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The Gift of a Fruitcake

I started this blog several years ago, as a way to share recipes with friends and family. A modern day recipe box.  I was so happy to receive a real recipe card from my Aunt Jane, when I asked for her fruitcake recipe.  This, to me, is a gift.  If you have never had a real fruitcake, they can be heavenly. This recipe makes more of a nut cake, with some fruit mixed in.

Maddie, who calls my aunt, Aunt Grandma, decided we had to make it right away. So, of course we did.

Before you start on this venture, a few disclosures.  This is not an inexpensive recipe.  The ingredients for 8 small cakes was about $50. You really need to make it around Christmastime, because it isn't as easy to find the candied fruit other times of the year, and finally, the cakes need to "cure" for two weeks.  If you're still up to the challenge, read on!

Christmas Fruitcake (make at least 2 weeks in advance)

2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

1 lb candied pineapple cut into chunks (in my case, this was equal to 2 containers)
1 lb red candied cherries, halved (I used 1/2 red and 1/2 green, and this was equal to 1 container of each)
1 1/2 lbs pitted dates, halved (this was equal to 3 bags of whole dates - don't get chopped dates)

4 large eggs
1 cup granulated sugar

8 cups (2 lbs) pecans

1/4 cup light corn syrup

Grease 2-9" tube pans, or 6-8 mini loaf pans (I used 8). Line the bottoms with parchment paper.

Mix flour, baking powder, and salt in a very large bowl. Mix dates, pineapple and cherries (in another bowl).

Here is Maddie tasting a plain candied cherry. She clearly doesn't like it. 

Add (fruit) to flour mixture until fruit is well coated (in flour).

Beat eggs and sugar until frothy.  Add to fruit mixture. Mix with a wooden spoon until thoroughly mixed.  Add nuts and continue mixing. Divide mixture into pans.  Press down firmly to fill all spaces.

Bake at 275 for 1 hour and 15 minutes.  (I move the cakes at 30 minutes and at 1hour to make sure they are evenly cooked and not only one cake hits the "hot spot").

Remove and cool 5 minutes on racks.  Remove cakes from pans. Brush with corn syrup ( I added Bourbon to a cake or two - hehe!)  seal in foil.  In one week, brush again with corn syrup.  And in 2weeks, start the giving!   I will post pictures in 2 weeks!

And, finally, I have to share my favorite Aunt and Christmas picture.  I call this one "creepy Santa". I think Santa was a little too happy to have a cute 13 year old on his lap. 

How do you fight kid's cancer? Ninjabread men, of course.

Ok. Full disclosure.  Camera angles were fully and completely manipulated for this post. I am good at many things, patience in baking and fine detail are not on the list.  Making gingerbread, or in this case "Ninjabread," men is a multi-day process.  But when I agreed to make cookies for the charity, Cookies for Kids Cancer, I knew these would be perfect.  So, after work, I proceeded to make the gingerbread.

I modified a recipe from Epicurious (Gingerbread Skeletons) by adding a bit more spice.  The recipe is as follows

1/2 cup sugar

1 stick of unsalted butter

1/2 cup molasses

1/4 cup water

2 1/2 cups flour, sifted

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon ginger
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice

Cream the butter and sugar, using a hand or free standing mixer, if available.  Add molasses and water and mix fully. In another bowl, mix flour, salt, baking soda and spices. Slowly add the flour into the butter/sugar/molasses mixture.  At the end, the dough will be sticky. Put in the refrigerator to cool overnight. 

The next day, get out your rolling pin and some flour.  With a spoon (I used a large wooden spoon), take a ball of dough. I use between a baseball and softball sized chunk.  Lightly flour the outside, and roll out. It shouldn't stick, but add a bit of flour to the dough and your pin if it does.  I roll out to a pretty thick slab - about 1/3 inch (thicker cookies seem to be easier to decorate).  

I bake 6 at a time, on parchment paper, for approximately 10-12 minutes at 375. The cookies don't spread much.

I doubled the recipe for this batch and it made a lot of cookies.  About 5 dozen good sized gingerbread men. 

Let these cool overnight.  See I told you this was a multi-day process. 

Then it's time to frost.  Instead of whipping real egg whitI use powdered merangue. You can buy this at a craft store, like Michaels.  

2 cups powdered sugar

2 tablespoons merangue powder

Up to 1/4 cup water. 

Mix, but slooooowwwwwllllyyyy add the water. It can be deceptive and it is better to have a little bit thicker consistency.  I find that the best consistency is kind of like tacky glue. Not Elmer's, though. That is a bit too runny.  Add some food coloring and away you go. 

I started with the face and hands.  Then did each group one color at a time. 

I let these dry overnight (2 overnights are even better).  Then I finish them off by adding eyes, sashes, and details with food color pens (which I also found at Michaels). 

Like I said, this was a labor of love. I started on Monday, and finished Friday morning with a few details and wrapping them up.  I had a bit of a mess in the kitchen for a few days. But, it is all for a good cause. Check them out. http://www.cookiesforkidscancer.org