The cookies exchange thread is really great and I didn't want to mess it up with candy and other things, but I would love a place to share all our other favorite holiday recipes. Things like favorite candies and special desserts. Your favorite gift giving items like liqueurs, syrups, Christmas jam and jellies, snack mixes, etc. and the ways you package things to give away. It wouldn't all have to be recipes either. You could share favorite traditions that your family participates in each year, and special little things you do to decorate your home each year. This would include Thanksgiving and Christmas!!!! I for one, love to hear what everyone else does and it's so much fun adding new recipes and ideas to the coming holiday season.
What do you all think???????? Here is one of our favorite candies to share with friends during the holidays.

ORANGE CAPPUCCINO CREAMS

Filling:
1-1/2 lbs. white chocolate chopped
1/2 cup whipping cream
1 Tbs. finely shredded orange zest
1 Tbs. orange liqueur
1 tsp. orange extract
1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts, toasted
About 72 small foil candy cups about 1-1/4 to1-1/2 inches across top( you can spread out the samller ones if necessary)

In a large saucepan combine white chocolate and remaining ingred. except walnuts. Stir over low heat till chocolate is melted. Remove from heat and stir in nuts. Pipe into candy cups about 2/3 full. Chill in frig. for 20 minutes.

Topping:
1/4 cup whipping cream
4 tsp. expresso powder or instant coffee granules
8 oz. semisweet chocolate
White chocolate curls or other decorative toppings

Combine cream and espresso powder in small saucepan over low heat until coffee is dissolved. Add semisweet chocolate and stir until smooth. Pipe 1/2 - 1 tsp. on top of each of the chilled candy cups. Store in the refrigerator.
Makes 72. You can easily cut this in half. They are very easy but quite elegant to serve at dinner.

oooooo, I'm in on this one too! Only I can't do it right now as I'm off to a football game. Will catch up on this one tomorrow!
Good job, as the Holidays are fast approaching.

I'm in too. I'll dig around over the weekend and see what goodies I can find. What a great idea. Can't wait to see what others have to share.

wow sounds yammy
thanks for sharing ,I look in my books for an idea .

This is a great idea! I will check out some of my tried and true gift giving recipes and send them along too.

I wanna play too!! I have a couple recipes somewhere. I will look around and find them.

I'm definately in on this one as well! I will have to break out my cleaning clothes and start going through my boxes to find my recipe book that is still packed from the move. The orange candies sound yummy, I will definately try those this year.

These are my favorite recipes for mini or small bundt cakes that we give to friends and neighbors during the holidays. I either use the mini bundt pan that yields 6 miniature bundt cakes or the smaller 6 cup bundt pan that also gives me 6 nice cupcakes besides the cake. They are terrific to work with and are very dense and rich tasting. This is a new one for fall and it really turned out good.

RICH PUMPKIN BUNDT CAKE

1 package of DH Spice Cake Mix
1 small box instant butterscotch pudding mix
4 eggs
1/4 cup pumpkin pie spice liquid coffee creamer
1/4 cup oil
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/4 tsp. each ground cloves, nutmeg and ginger
1 tsp. cinnamon
32 pumpkin spice hersheys kisses, chopped
1/4 cup chopped, toasted pecans


Combine all in mixer except for nuts and kisses and beat at medium speed for 3 minutes. Fold in nuts and kisses. Fill greased and floured bundt pans and paper lined cupcake pans and bake at 325 degrees until done. The 6 cup bundt pan took exactly 45 minutes and the cupcakes took 20 minutes. Cool in pan for 20 minutes before inverting. Brush your favorite clear ligueur or flavored syrup over the cake tops. Drizzle simple powdered sugar frosting over the tops. I use a little bit of shortening mixed with the powdered sugar and thin it with the same coffee creamer I use in the cake mix.

I have small white cardboard cake rounds and I put the mini cakes in cello bags with a bow.



This next recipe has been my all time favorite for years and years. It has so many possiblities but my favorite if the original Rum Cake and the chocolate version. Everyone who gets this just raves about them.

PECAN RUM CAKE

1 cup toasted chopped pecans
1 box DH butter or yellow cake mix
1 small box vanilla or French vanilla instant pudding
4 eggs
1/2 cup cold water (1/2 of this can be a liquid coffee creamer)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup dark rum

Grease and flour bundt pans. Sprinkle some of the nuts in the bottom of the pan. Combine all the remaining ingred. in mixer and mix at medium speed for 3 minutes. Bake at 325 degrees for 45 minutes. Cool in pan for 20 minutes and then invert. Brush with your favorite syrup, but for the holidays I use the following for this cake.
Syrup:
Gently boil 1/4 cup butter, 1/8 cup water, 1/2 cup sugar and 1/2 cup dark rum. Boil for about 3 minutes. Keeps in the frig. forever and does several cakes.

CHOCOLATE VERSION

Instead of flour to prepare your pans, use cocoa. Use chocolate cake and pudding mix. Use only 1/2 cup nuts and mix them into the batter with 1/2 - 3/4 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips. You can use whatever you want for the liquor such as Amaretto, Rum, Kahlua, etc. etc.
Follow directions as above and decorate however you wish. I always drizzle with a rich chocolate and add almonds, or chocolate leaves, or chocolate roses, etc.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL!!!!

lilybird ... Your killing us here with all your great recipes .I feel the pounds everytime I read another one
We were calling out to you on the Christmas cookie thread
Ok now I have to go look up my Holiday candy recipes to , Thanks for another awesome thread

Thanks, Fiddle. I hope a lot of people will get on here and share not only their favorite recipes for things other than cookies, but their family traditions, funny stories and lot more. Who needs Martha Stewart when we have so many talented people on CC. Hopefully we will all have some new things to try out this holiday season.

lilybird .. I agree I would love to here family traditions and have lots of new candy plus, recipes to try for the Holidays.
Problem is that at my house my family wont let me give up even one recipe that we have every Holiday .
They just keep adding more, so ever year my baking list gets longer and longer.
Its fun though and they even bring the empty containers back for a refill

Oh I love this thread. I have lots of candy recipes and I am always on the look out for more.

Here's a real simple one but you have to like dates and nuts.

Just split open a really nice plump sticky large date and shove a whole pecan or walnut inside. Takes no time to do lots and you can drizzle them with chocolate or whatever you like.

I also like giving homemade marshmallows, turkish delight and soft nougat wrapped in edible paper!

also like giving homemade marshmallows, turkish delight and soft nougat wrapped in edible paper.......banba can you share the recipes ??? I dont even know what turkish delight is ???

I love to make Oreo truffles for gift giving. They are always a big hit!

1 (8 oz) block of cream cheese
1 package of Oreos (crushed fine)

Mix the 2 together and mold into a truffle. Then dunk them in melted chocolate.

I also like to make Drumsticks. Large pretzels dipped in caramel and then dipped in chocolate. I know...both recipes are easy but then my kids can help make them. They like to give them to their teachers.

I would love to know if anyone has any great tips on making chocolate truffles. I tried making them for the first time and the heat of my hands made them a mess and I couldn't get them into nice round balls. I ended up throwing out the batch because it took so long to get 1 truffle made that it was just too frustrating. So if anyone has any advice, I would love to hear it.

Banba--the date candy was my Dad's favorite thing at Christmas and I think of him whenever I hear someone mention those. He liked them with just the powdered sugar, but I dip mine in chocolate also.

I like Liz Franklin's turkish delight recipe from uktvfood, there's lots of recipes for this on the net and make sure you use edible rosewater not the cosmetic kind. I love this candy it's soft and fragrant but you wouldn't eat much in one go! You can make it different flavours and colours it doesn't have to be rosewater but you should try the rose it's yummy. Lavander seems to be a major thing at the moment would love to try that one too!

I had to search hard for my marshmallow recipe as most on the net use cornsyrup and I can't get that here so just surf and find one you like. These are messy when it comes to slicing them into cubes or whatever shapes you like but so yummy. You can have a lot of fun with homemade marshmallows and roll them in all sorts of toppings.

The nougat recipe I got from candymaking.net and I love this site, simple old fashioned candy recipes. I had to bring my temps a bit higher the second time I made this as it was just too soft the first. I wrap it in edible paper to help it keep it's shape and add colour if you use coloured papers. Then I wrap the lot in plain wax wrappers so you can still see the nice coloured edible paper through it.

Lilybird the date candy reminds me of my grandmother she loves them too. She introduced me to them and what a lovely healthy sweet treat and very christmassy!

Love this thread!

banba, here are a couple of links for corn syrup recipes. Soft ball stage is 235-240 F/ 118-120 C. So give them a try, the 1st one has worked for me, hope one does for you and that you'll be able to broaden your candy experiences!!!

http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1823,147170-227206,00.html

http://www.cdkitchen.com/features/data/tip1039734409.shtml

http://www.joyofbaking.com/IngredientSubstitution.html (this lists some substitutions)

dandelion56602 thans a million for the corn syrup recipes can't wait to try these.

Oh, I'm in on this one!!!! Gotta look for recipes, but this year since my family lives far away I am going to make undecorated gingerbread cookies and package them with a tube of icing, red hots, licorice, m&m's and let them decorate their own cookies. I'll send each family member a box with all this inside. I hope they enjoy it.

Off to look for some fav holiday recipes......

This is a terrific thread! For Christmas I do up steamed Christmas puddings and wrap them with cello, tied with a big bow. They are such a hit! There's so many different recipes to use, molasses, spice, and lots more. Here's a pic of the finished product.

I am so glad that this thread is starting to move a little. I know it's early to start thinking of the holidays, but it will be so nice to have this and the cookie thread for future reference. I am already gathering ingredients for some of the recipes that have been posted. With the price of everything going up, I am going to stock up from here on whenever I see a good sale.

gingersoave---your idea using he ginger cookies is just darling. That would be a great gift for so many things. I have some neices and nephews that would love that and I will definitely put some kits together for the fundraisers I have coming up. What are you using for the frosting??? Are you making your own and packaging it and if so what kind do you think is best?

Happy Cooking!!!!

Ohh, can I play? Gotta look thru all those recipies I have stuffed in bags from Mom and Gramma. I'll be back.
What a great idea!

lillybird, I am just buying the wilton that is in the small tube, maybe the wilton red sparkle icing in the tube as well. There are so many different tubes of icing these days. Since I have to ship it I just wanted to make sure it will last. I will package all the sprinkles, m&m's, licorice and red hots in separate treat baggies b/c I can buy all that in bulk and split it up. But since my name is ginger I thought that ginger bread girls and boys would be a cute idea.

Ginger ,what a cute idea for sending a semi homemade gift to enjoy, along with fun for the kids ! Thanks for sharing that,

I know everyone hates fruitcake, and so do I! These two recipes turned me around!!! I make them every year and every year these are eaten up by those that come to my house!

Holiday White Fruitcake from Vicky
1-3/4 cup allo purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1-1/2 cups butter, softened
1 tsp. vanilla
1 Tbl. lemon extract
5 eggs
2 cups candied pineapple, cut up
4 cups pecan halves
1-1/2 cups candied cherries, whole or cut up

Heat oven to 300 degrees.
Grease and flour a 10" tube pan or 2 loaf pans.
In large bowl, combine first 8 ingredients..
Blend 1 minute at low speed, scraping bowl.
Beat 2 min. at medium speed.
Stir in remaining ingredients.
Spoon batter into prepared pans.
Bake 1-1/2 to 2 hours until toothpick comes clean.
Loaf pans: bake 65-75 minutes.

Cool. remove from pan.
Store tightly wrapped in frig for up to 6 mths.


Individual Mini Fruitcakes from Vicky
1 pound pecans
1 pound dates, pitted
3/4 pound candied cherries
1 pound candied pineapple
3/4 cup sifted flour
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
3 eggs

Combine nuts and fruits in large bowl. Stir in flour, sugar, baking pwd., and salt. Mix well.

Beat eggs until foamy, add to first mixture and blend well.
Drop by tablespoons into mini paper baking cups, filling them full.
Bake in 300 degree oven for about 40 minutes.
Makes about 35.
Note: Be sure to cut up all fruit.

Thanks Vicky.. My husband loves fruit cake but without the nuts. Will these work if you them out and add another candy to fill the gap or just more of the other candies that you listed ?

I'm sure just putting other things in there would be fine, but I guess it's the nuts that make this to me. I love them. But these don't taste like the icky tasting batter of fruitcake. These really are good! The mini ones I grew up with and have a bit more of the traditional taste, but the white fruitcake is to die for!

Thanks ! Maybe I can just add a few nuts here and there to see what he thinks.LOL!
I always like to make a recipe the way its written the first time anyway!
So if it keeps for 6 months in the fridge ? You can make it now for the Holiday?? Does it get better the longer it sits ?

Couldn't tell ya! it never lasts even a week in my house!!!

Thanks I will let ya know!