We are staying close to home this holiday season, which means lots of holiday cooking (and eating!). It's a chance to try a special red and green Pinterest category that's languished in the years where we've been traveling.
To begin, there is Orange Roll Breakfast Cake. A treasured aunt always made orange rolls when we visited, and they were amazing. I'm loathe to do the actual work of yeast breads, especially multistep recipes, so finding a recipe that was just like the orange rolls with far less work was like hitting the jackpot for me. The cake still has three different steps, but no rising of dough or concerns about leavening are to be had. And it's soooooooooooo good--all the orangey goodness I've been missing.
Then there was my contribution to Christmas dinner. First this delightfully Christmas, Pear Pomegranate Salad. I used a spring mix instead of plain spinach, but I think the spinach only would have been less of a distraction to the flavor. I also think I would have liked a slightly sweeter dressing, but this was still very good. The topping combo was excellent.
And then finally, Easy Sour Cream Coconut Cake! I love coconut cake, and the image I saw with red and green sugar sprinkles made this the perfect choice. I used a regular vanilla cake mix and added a box of instant vanilla pudding mix. The cake was extra moist and a little dense, but not in a bad way, at least to my family's thinking. For the frosting, I wanted something that wasn't exclusively cream cheese based, so I searched and landed on this version. Instead of coconut milk, I used half and half--it seemed a shame to open a whole can for two tablespoons. For a 9x13 cake, I made 3/4 of the frosting recipe and that seemed to work pretty well.
Let me just say that we have been eating very well the last few days. We are going to have to keep moving so that it doesn't show too much.😁 Happy holidays and happy eating!
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