If you’re anything like me, you were so excited to make some trees out of cake that you convinced yourself to order a pack of 200+ paper cups.  Now, I can only guess at this one here, but I would assume that you too made a cute, edible forest, and are still left wondering what to do with the remaining 175 or so cups that are leftover.  Never fear, I have a chilly solution that will please taste buds and tummys alike.

That’s right, more trees!  But this time, my evergreens are frozen; green tea freezer pops from My Sweet Vegan, to be exact.  They come together in an instant, so they can easily satisfy a sweet craving, and they just happen to be the perfect color without any additional dyes required.  Any other sort of popsicle recipe will also work though:  Just set the cups in a bunch of mugs like you did for the cake trees and pour the mixture in about 3/4 of the way to the top.  Place all the mugs on a tray, and set the tray on a level shelf in your freezer.  Let them sit for about an hour or so, until they begin to firm up a bit, and insert the stick into the center so that it stands up straight.  Allow at least 4 hours for the pops to completely freeze.

And if you’re still as crazy as me, you’ll think that it’s a pretty cool idea to take the popsicles outside and photograph them in the freshly fallen snow.  Okay, so I’m guessing I’m alone on this one, but I just couldn’t resist!

I never had a Christmas tree growing up, nor a Hannukah bush, so it seems like I’m now making up for lost time. They’re just so much fun to decorate, and provide so much room for creative interpretations, I can barely keep track of all of my ideas for these lovely evergreens. Even when they’re stoically weathering the conditions outside, dusted with a coat of powdery snow, they are an incredibly beautiful symbol of the season. I guess in that case, you might say I had a tree every single year for the holidays; it’s just always been outside!

This miniature forest, however, you’ll definitely want to keep indoors. Composed of chocolate cake, mint frosting, and all the sprinkles you can pile on, it’s far tastier than the traditional pine, and perhaps even more fun to adorn.

The trickiest part of creating these edible trees is locating cone-shaped paper cups, that are NOT lined with wax, but those are easily ordered online if you can’t find them at your local office supply store. Lightly spritz the insides with baking spray, and place them in oven-safe mugs so that they stand pretty much upright.

Whip out your favorite chocolate cake or cupcake recipe, and use that to fill the cones 3/4 of the way to the top. Place the mugs onto a baking sheet to easily pull the cake out of the oven, and also prevent overflow should the batter bubble over the edge. Save part of the batter and use that to fill in an equal number of mini cupcake tins- These will become the stumps later on. Bake the stumps and the trees separately.

Baking time will vary, but bear in mind that it will take longer than your average cupcake, and you’ll need to use a long skewer to test all the way down into the tip of the cone. Be patient and wait until your tester comes out completely clean, otherwise you’ll end up with mushy trees!

Let the cake pieces cool, then trim the uneven edges off both the cones and stumps. Now you’re ready to prepare whichever vanilla frosting you’re most fond of. Add in about a teaspoon of peppermint extract, and a few drops of natural green food coloring. Beat it all until fluffy and smooth, and smear a dollop on top of each stump. Carefully tear the paper cone away from the cake, and stick that on top of the stump. If you’re having some trouble getting it to stand up straight without falling, or plan on having your kids help decorate and will need some reinforcements, stick a thin wooden dowel through the whole thing, and then firmly plant the end of it into a styrofoam block.

Transfer the remaining frosting into a pipping bag fitted with a large star tip, and simply press the tip to the side of the cake, starting at the bottom, give it a little pressure, and pull straight away. Go around the cake, working your way up, until you reach the top. Once the trees are covered with pine needles, it’s time to pull out the sprinkles, dragees, and quins, and just have fun with it!

You could also go the more elegant route and give each tree a light dusting of confectioner’s sugar for that classic snowy look.

There are a number of other similar ideas for tree cake out there, each very creative and cute, so look around, get inspired, and make one of these for each guest at your holiday dinner. They’re both fun to make and eat!

Each season has its own flavor in my mind, as fruits and vegetables hit their prime and become part of the daily menu for weeks on end. Spring makes me think of luscious, ruby red strawberries; summer, those succulent stone fruits, all so unique and flavorful; fall most definitely has me dreaming of pumpkin concoctions; winter? Well, that’s where it stops making sense. Sure, there’s plenty in season now, and tons of appropriately seasonal delights to indulge in, but the snowy days of winter make me dream of peppermint.

Perhaps that’s thanks to the abundance of red and white striped candy canes found around this time… Or the need to freshen one’s breath in case of getting caught under the mistletoe? How peppermint became synonymous with this time of year, I certainly couldn’t tell you, but I do know one thing about it: My fondest memories of holiday sweets revolve around pairing that fresh, minty flavor with chocolate.

Plenty of people claim to hate mint-flavored desserts, likening the experience to eating a tube of toothpaste, but even they can’t resist the pull of a seriously rich, dark chocolate fudge covered in crushed candy canes. To make this addictive creation, I adapted my recipe for Five Minute Coconut Fudge (scroll down) from My Sweet Vegan by adding 1 teaspoon of peppermint extract into the fudge itself, along with 4 smashed candy canes. Then, I omitted the flaked coconut, and instead topped it off with the crumbs of 5 additional crushed candy canes.

Decadent, sweet, and satisfying, these little squares make excellent gifts… Although you may find it hard to part with them!

Simplicity is often best when it comes to food, as so many classic dishes continue to prove. In search of a side that everyone at the table will enjoy, it often comes down to very basic but delicious concoctions that agree with even the pickiest palates. Take mashed potatoes, for instance, or rice pilaf, or…

Garlic Bread.

Each one is a snap to make, with very humble beginnings, and can be adapted to accommodate whatever creative additions the cook might think of. Traditional garlic bread, however, is barely even worth mentioning. Any recipe that has an ingredient list that reads “one loaf of bread, a stick of margarine, a couple cloves of garlic” is mercifully easy to remember and prepare, but not worthy of raves. Even bad garlic bread is pretty good, because who doesn’t love the stinking rose?

It may seem a bit counter-intuitive to take this easy dish and turn it into something more complicated, but I just couldn’t leave well enough alone. As tasty as plain old garlic bread can be, I wanted something more special, more flavorful, and certainly more homemade.

Even before this loaf was halfway done baking, I knew that this would be one intensely flavored bread, as the kitchen was awash in the smell of roasted garlic. Definitely something for serious garlic lovers, this is the sort of thing that you’ll want to make sure everyone gets a slice of, lest one person feel assaulted by the inevitable garlic breath that follows. You could certainly dial it down a bit and use only one head of garlic, but either way, this is one version that is guaranteed to be 100% more impressive than the usual approach.

Whip out this loaf at your next big family feast, and it will be more than just the obligatory side dish; it will make the meal worth remembering.

Yield: Makes 1 Loaf; 10 - 12 Servings

Garlic Lover's Bread

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Two entire heads of roasted garlic go directly into this bread dough, creating the most aromatic, intensely garlicky loaf you've ever dreamed of.

Prep Time 30 minutes

Cook Time 1 hour

Additional Time 1 hour 30 minutes

Total Time 3 hours

Ingredients

• 2 Heads Garlic
• Olive Oil Spray
• 2 Tablespoons Vegan Butter
• 1 Cup Warm Water
• 1 Tablespoon Granulated Sugar
• 1 (1/4 Ounce) Packet (or 2 1/4 Teaspoons) Active Dry Yeast
• 1 Teaspoon Salt
• 2 Tablespoons Fresh, Chopped Parsley
• 3 – 4 Cups White Whole Wheat Flour or All-Purpose Flour

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
   
2. Peel the papery outer skin off the heads of garlic, but do not separate the cloves. Cut the tops off, and give them a quick spritz with cooking spray. Wrap both up together in a piece of aluminum foil, and pop the whole package into the oven for about 35 minutes. Let cool until you can comfortably handle it, and squeeze out the roasted cloves directly into your food processor or blender. (Make sure you get all of the papery bits off!) Toss in the vegan butter and pulse until you get a relatively smooth paste. Set aside.
   
3. In a large bowl, mix together the sugar and water, and then sprinkle over the yeast. Let it sit for 5 – 10 minutes until frothy. Add in the salt, garlic paste, chopped parsley, and the first 3 cups of flour. If using your stand mixer, install the bread hook and let it slowly kneed the flour in. You can also mix it by hand, until you get a cohesive but somewhat tacky dough. If it still seems too wet, add in more flour, 1/4 cup at a time, until you reach the right consistency.
   
4. Turn the dough out onto a well-floured surface, and knead by hand for about 10 minutes, until smooth and elastic. Lightly grease a large bowl, and drop the ball of dough in. Cover with plastic wrap and place somewhere warm for about 1 – 1 1/2 hours until doubled in volume. At this point, you can also stash it in the fridge overnight, and then pick up where you left off in the morning.
   
5. Once risen, turn the dough out onto a well-floured surface again and shape as desired. I braided mine just to make it a bit fancier, but you can always make it into a simple loaf shape. Here is a very good guide for making nicely shaped loaves, and here are a few ideas about making braids. Either way, lightly grease an 8 x 4 inch loaf pan, and place your shaped loaf inside. Give the top a quick spritz with cooking spray or a drizzle of olive oil, and let rise for another hour, until it’s peaking out from above the rim by about an inch or so.
   
6. Once it seems to be almost fully risen, preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Bake the bread for about 30 minutes, until golden brown all over.
   
7. Now, for the hardest part: Let the loaf cool completely before cutting into it!  If you’re one of those people who absolutely needs to eat their garlic bread immediately, since it smells so tempting, you might want to consider making it as a bubble loaf so you can pick it apart while still warm.

Notes

You can easily make this bread days in advance and store it in the freezer until you’re ready to serve it. Just make sure you let it thaw at room temperature and do not microwave it to take the chill off. It’s particularly tasty if you take the time to toast each individual slice to give it a nice crunch.  This recipe can also be doubled to make two loaves at once, in case you need to feed a crowd or want to have an extra loaf just in case.

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• 
  European Style Cultured Vegan Butter
• 
  Red Star, Active Dry Yeast, 0.25 oz (7 g)
• 
  King Arthur White Whole Wheat Multi Purpose Flour, 5 lb

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

12

Serving Size:

1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 487Total Fat: 6gSaturated Fat: 1gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 4gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 181mgCarbohydrates: 97gFiber: 13gSugar: 2gProtein: 18g

All nutritional information presented within this site are intended for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and any nutritional information on BitterSweetBlog.com should only be used as a general guideline. This information is provided as a courtesy and there is no guarantee that the information will be completely accurate. Even though I try to provide accurate nutritional information to the best of my ability, these figures should still be considered estimations.