how sweet it is

As you might guess, I'm a huge fan of sugar. Any baker really has to be. I like all kinds: brown sugar, which we used to eat pinches of, straight from the container, coffee lovers' sugar crystals in my tea, demerara sugar for topping blueberry muffins. So you can imagine my delight at being among a group of bloggers selected by C&H to receive a gift card to help defray the cost of supplies for holiday baking. With my baking projects this week, I've been to at least two grocery stores per day, every day, and my credit card has been getting quite a workout. The $20 was a definite help!

In fact, I've been going through so many supplies, I've started buying in bulk - 10 pound bags of sugar and flour instead of 5 pound bags. Weirdly, in most grocery stores, a 10 pound bag of sugar costs MORE than two 5 pound bags. I totally don't understand this.

Anyway, so far this week, I've made eleven dozen cookies (chocolate chip, oatmeal-cranberry-raisin, and triple chocolate threat), Venetians, brownies, lemon bars (see previous post), toffee bars, and rugelach. That's a lot of sugar. C&H also has some great ideas on their site for holiday baking: holiday cookies, edible ornaments, hot drink mixes, and even sugar scrubs (!) - in case I didn't have enough commissioned baking to do!

Here are some pics of the spoils. I made four trays, each of which looked generally like this, for a holiday gift boutique.


I also isolated pictures of each item. Venetians:
Cranberry-pecan rugelach:
Toffee bars:
Lemon bars:
And brownies, which came out unusually fudgy and with weird pockmarks on the top, so I sprinkled them with powdered sugar (shh!):


Thanks, C&H! While I occasionally cheat on you with store-brand granulated sugar, you are the only brand of brown sugar and powdered sugar I use!

Comments

Sandra Dee said…
C -

YAY for YOU! This all looks so yummy....

You are my baking inspiration...whilst I was home sick on the couch all weekend I watched waaaaaayyyyy too many baking shows and in my sick mind (and altered state), I committed to making a SECOND dessert for Thanksgiving:

http://www.christyrost.com/recipes/pumpkin-swirl-cheesecake

A CHEESECAKE! Yes, I am on crack. Or at least, Tylenol Cold and Sinus.....

I'll keep you posted :-)

Hugs,
H
Amanda said…
You are amazing!! The variety... the color.. the textures... it looks wonderful!!

Blessings-
Amanda