Tis the Season to be Baking

Welcome everyone to a delicious entry at The Magical Mystery Blog.

Around this time of the year I do my holiday baking. While I usually make sugar cookies, this year I’ve decided to do something a little different. As mentioned before, I’ll be creating strawberry angel cookies for the Doctor Who special, The Time of the Doctor set to air on BBC on Christmas Day. But for the holidays, I like to bake some other tasty treats. However, as the days to Christmas begin to wind down I find that I don’t have enough time to bake. So I figured I would share my recipes I was going to attempt this year, with you my fellow readers.

Midnight Christmas Cookies

• Follow this simple sugar cookie recipe: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/easy-sugar-cookies/

• When the cookies are finished baking, allow them to cool. While the cookies are cooling down, take baker’s chocolate (any brand will do like Hershey’s, Ghiradelli, or even Nestle), and put it in a microwave safe bowl. Keep the microwave at medium power and stir at thirty second intervals. It takes  about ninety seconds for one ounce of chocolate to melt. It takes approximately three and a half minutes for six ounces of chocolate to melt.

• Once the chocolate is fully melted, dunk half the sugar cookie in chocolate.

• For the final touch, sprinkle ground up candy cane on the chocolate half of the cookie. In the summer time you can use this recipe again but instead of covering the chocolate half in candy cane, you can use orange or lemon zest.

• Allow the chocolate to cool and serve whenever your stomach is hungry for something sweet.

Strawberry Fields Forever Cake

• This recipe works best with a white cake because the color will show better. You can pick up any box of white cake mix at the store and it will have the recipe on it.

• However, instead of using water use strawberry puree.  To make a strawberry puree simply purchase fresh or frozen strawberries and remove the stems. Afterwards, place them in a blender or a food processor and grind them until they are pureed. As a puree, it will act as a liquid which is why you do not need water for this recipe.

• When you’ve mixed all the ingredients together, proceed to bake the cake for thirty to forty minutes. To see if the cake is fully baked, use a toothpick to poke through the surface. If there’s cake on the pick, it’s not done. If there’s no cake on the pick, it’s ready to be taken out.

• When you remove your cake from the oven you will see that it is indeed, not white. Instead, it’s a strawberry red, giving it that iconic Christmas color we've all come to know.

• If you want to put icing on your cake, give it about five to ten minutes to cool down. Icing the cake is always the fun part and since it’s Christmas, you can decorate it with all sorts of holiday cheer. You can put a marshmallow snowman on the top or pipe snowflakes and stars. Have fun with your baking!

What are your favorite holiday recipes? Feel free to post them in the comments below and as always, feedback and followers are welcomed. 

Oh the Weather Outside is Frightful...

Welcome to another start of the week at The Magical Mystery Blog.

Yesterday New Jersey received the first snowfall of December 2013. Schools were closed, finals were halted, and people awoke to a white wonderland just outside their homes.  Some even tossed themselves into the wintry world and probably started a snowball fight or constructed snowmen from the freshly fallen snow.

I love snow but there are times when I would love to take a flamethrower to it.  Below are the reasons why I have a love/hate relationship for snow.

The Love

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• No school, no finals, no work. Who doesn't love to not work?

• Snowball fights, snow forts, snowmen, snow sculptures, and other excellent snow creations.  People can also partake in other snow related activities such as skiing, snowboarding, snow tubing, tobogganing, ice skating, and many more fun things.

• It creates a beautiful sight. Many artists, writers, and photographers have been inspired by the falling flurries, the most beastly of blizzards, and even the simplest of snowfalls. Not too long ago a photographer was so influenced by the snow that he created a device that allowed him to take pictures of individual snowflakes; proving that no two snowflakes are alike.

• It gets you in the mood for the upcoming holidays, especially Christmas. Christmas is often associated with snow by way of songs, movies, and television specials. They have given us the idea of a perfect Christmas or anything December related is usually perfected with snow. Snow is meant to be seen as beautiful and festive, just like Christmas. Other holidays like Kwanzaa and Hanukkah are sometimes depicted with snowfall, also giving them a glorious glow.

The Hate

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• Driving in it is like piloting a plane on an uncontrollable slip ‘n slide. Because of this, chances are you won’t be able to hang with your friends at the mall, go Christmas shopping, or travel to anywhere of dire importance. Sometimes if the conditions are unbelievably terrible flights will be cancelled, certain roads will be closed off, and even establishments will be closed.

• It’s too cold, much like the rest of winter. You could say it’s cold as ice.

• If temperatures drop even after the snowfall, the snow could freeze, and change into ice or even sleet. Ice makes conditions even worse, freezing power lines, and sometimes breaking them. Ice also makes roads extremely slick to slide on and even runways for airplanes.  Snow can pile up on power lines and also cause them to collapse.

• Snow kills people by way of extreme cold temperatures or other means.  Recalling the fact that our nation is covered in a wintry white murderer, at least eleven people, if not more, have been killed by it. Some of these situations include people being killed by deep freezes, hypothermia, and slick roads, leading to fatal car crashes.  Other instances even include animals dying by the onslaught of snow. This past October, the winter storm Atlas tore through South Dakota, resulting in the multiple deaths of cattle.

So what are your thoughts on the white, wintry wonderland? Do you love snow, hate snow, or happen to fall in between? Feel free to leave your comments below and as always, feedback and followers are welcomed.