Christmas Cookies and Irish Ceili Cakes

​​Christmas Cookies and Irish Ceili Cakes - December/January 2022/2024
For nearly thirty years, right after Thanksgiving, my cookie baking marathon (and cake planning) begins with enthusiasm and joyful frenzy. I go through my Christmas cookie and cake files and pick out some of my tried and true recipes and make a list. And then I sit in a Barnes & Noble bookstore and flip through magazines to find new recipes to add to the list. I also go to Pinterest and get inspired by photos and recipes. I have tattered, brown, and stained vintage cookbooks that I wander through. And I revisit my old Martha Stewart Living magazine issues for December and pull out a few recipes. November is the beginning of hunting season in the northeast of the United States and it is also hunting season for the seasoned confectioner. I’m determined to find new cynsational cookie and cake recipes to impress and dazzle my friends, neighbors, and Irish dancers who attend our New Year’s Day Ceili (Irish music, dancing, and storytelling event) we host each year.

The world may seem to be going to hell in a handbasket, but when I sit down to write my Christmas cookie and cake list, full of thanksgiving, I am suddenly aware that no matter how dismal life can get, creating sweetness with wholesome ingredients for others is joyful magic. It isn’t a burden, except when I want to make too many recipes in a day. I am the Celtic Cookie and Cake Queen conducting kitchen alchemy that transforms simple ingredients into delightful deliciousness. It is the one time of the year when I feel as Robert Browning, who wrote, “God’s in his Heaven/All’s right with the world.” This line is from Songs From Pippa Passes and is about a young, innocent girl wandering through town singing kindness and virtue to the people she encounters (or passes). There are various interpretations, and for me, I become Pippa at Christmastime creating and gifting others with my baked delectables. And when it is over, the spirit of this holiday sprinkles over the year, like fairy dust and confectionary dusting, as I continue to bake for any occasion, and even for no occasion.
The following recipes are ones I have used the past few years and are favorites of mine:

Jam Gems is a buttery cookie recipe that is one of my tried and true recipes and one of the seventeen varieties I made this year for the holidays. This recipe, of course, can be made any time of the year and is a luscious way to use up the half empty jam jars in your fridge.
 
Jam Gems
Ingredients
¼ cup granulated sugar
Pinch of salt
1 ½ cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened (I use organic and oftentimes substitute Miyoko’s alternative butter for half of the butter amount)
2 eggs (one for dough and one for egg wash)
4 tsp. vanilla extract
3 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
¼ tsp. cardamom and zest of an orange or lemon (optional, depending on the jam flavor used)
½ cup turbinado (coarse sugar for sanding)
Jam (try marmalade, raspberry, strawberry, peace, and black current)
 
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees

1. Cream together butter and sugar in an electric mixer until combined and add the vanilla extract and the eggs, one at a time.
2. Stir flour and salt together separately and with the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture to the creamed butter and sugar mixture.
3. Mix until dough comes together and wrap in plastic and chill for half an hour.
4. Roll the dough into 1 ½ inch balls and dip each ball into the egg wash and then roll it in the coarse sugar. Place the balls on a parchment covered cookie sheet and press an indentation into the top of each ball with your thumb.
5. Bake for ten minutes and remove from the oven and re-define the thumbprint. Drop jam into each indentation and bake for another fifteen minutes, until the cookies are golden brown. Cool and eat half a dozen!

 
Rose Pistachio Ceili Cake with Raspberries
​is luscious and a reminder that spring will come again. The recipe was adapted from The Kitchen McCabe web site. It was a perfect cake to serve during tea time at our Irish ceili.
 
Rose Pistachio Ceili Cake with Raspberries
Ingredients
Cake:
3 1/4 cups cake flour
2 cups unsalted pistachios, finely ground in a food processor
1 Tbs. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 cup (two sticks) organic unsalted butter, room temperature (or Miyoko’s alternative butter or half and half)
1 ¼ cup granulated sugar
1 ½ Tbs. vanilla extract
1 large egg or two small
1 cup milk
½ cup plain yogurt
3 egg whites
½ tsp. cream of tartar
Frosting:
1 cup (two sticks) organic unsalted butter, room temperature (or Miyoko’s alternative butter or half and half)
1 Tbs. vanilla extract
½ cup organic raspberries
3 tsp. Organic Veda 100% Pure Rose Petal Powder (Amazon)
5 cups plus powdered sugar
Lots of fresh organic raspberries to pile on top of cake
Organic Veda 100% Pure Rose Petals (Amazon)
Directions:
 
Cake

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees; prepare two 10” round pans or three 9” round pans with parchment paper and avocado spray (or use any size you’d like, stack high or low).
2. Whisk together 1 cup of the ground pistachios (the other cup is for coating the cake later), flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large mixing bowl.
3. In a mixer, beat butter on high until creamy; add the sugar and beat for three minutes; add the vanilla and egg(s), and beat until combined.
4. Stir in the dry ingredients, alternating with the milk and yogurt until just combined.
5. In a mixing bowl, beat the egg whites and cream of tartar until stiff peaks form; gently fold into the batter until incorporated.
6. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans and bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until a tooth pick comes out clean.
7. Remove from oven and cool for 15 minutes. Remove cake from pans and cool on a wire rack.

Frosting

1. Beat butter, vanilla, and raspberries in a large mixing bowl until raspberries are well distributed and mixture is creamy; add the rose powder and a cup of powdered sugar; beat on low speed; add the remaining powdered sugar (add until spreadable) on high until well combined.
2. Spread frosting between each layer of the cake and coat the outside and top of the cake with frosting, spreading evenly.
3. With your hands, press handfuls of the reserved grounded pistachios into the cake until the cake is coated in pistachio.
4. Top with fresh raspberries and sprinkle rose petals on top.
5. Will keep in refrigerator for a week (but will be eaten up way before then).

 
Dark chocolate Ceili Cake with Chocolate Fig Ganache is another cake adapted from The Kitchen McCabe web site. Visit this site and be inspired by the photography and recipes. I decided on this cake because everyone loves chocolate and I loved the way it was decorated on The Kitchen McCabe site. I, of course, made alterations and made it my own.
 
Dark Chocolate Ceili Cake with Chocolate Fig Ganache

​Ingredients
Cake:
1 ¾ cup all-purpose flour
1 cup grandulated sugar
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
¾ cup plus 4 Tbs. Dutch Process Cocoa Powder (I use Droste)
1 cup strong coffee, cooled
¾ cup plain yogurt
3 medium eggs
½ cup avocado or sunflower oil
¼ cup milk
3 tsp. vanilla extract
Chocolate Fig Ganache:
16 oz. chocolate chips (dark preferred)
1 cup whipping cream (I used the alternative Silk Heavy Shipping Cream – dairy free)
¼ cup fig jam
Chocolate Swiss Meringue Buttercream:
3 egg whites
½ cup granulated sugar
1 cup unsalted organic butter, cut into cubes
4 oz. dark chocolate chips melted and cooled slightly
Toppings:
washed lemon grass leaves (florist); stems wrapped in plastic wrap for extra care
washed eucalyptus leaves w/seeds on branches (florist); stems wrapped in plastic wrap for   extra care
fresh figs, cut in half
blackberries
pomegranate arils (seeds)
thin golden ribbon for bottom
 
Directions:
 
Cake:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease and line two 8” pans (or experiment with other sizes) with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl, whisk flour, cocoa, sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda until combined.
3. In a large bowl, pour coffee, add eggs, yogurt, milk, oil, and vanilla extract and stir to combine.
4. Form a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour the wet ingredients into the center and stir to combine; evenly divide batter between cake pans and place in oven; bake for 30-35 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean from the center.
5. Let the cakes cool in the pans for ten minutes before removing; transfer cakes to a cooling rack; cool completely; wrap cakes tightly and put in fridge; chill for an hour or more.

Ganache:

1. Place chocolate chips in a large bowl and place cream into a saucepan and place over low heat. Heat cream to a low simmer and immediately pour over the cholate chips and let sit, undisturbed, for a few minutes; stir the chocolate into cream until smooth; stir in fig jam and set aside.
2. Let ganache sit at room temperature for 3 hours to achieve a spreadable consistency.

Chocolate Swiss Meringue Buttercream:

1. Place egg whites and sugar in a large heatproof bowl.
2. Fill a saucepan with water and bring it to a low simmer and place the bowl over the pan to create a double boiler; whisk the sugar and egg whites together until the sugar dissolves and the mixture becomes opaque; don’t heat too aggressively or you’ll cook the egg (a bit tricky, but bear with it or start again).
3. Pour the egg white mixture into a stand mixed fitted with a whisk attachment and whisk the egg white on high until thoroughly cooled; add pants of butter, 3 to 4 at a time, only adding more when the butter dissolves.
4. Whisk until the frosting reaches a spreadable consistency; fold in the melted chocolate and continue to whisk (if not thick enough, place in the fridge for a few minutes and try again).
5. Spread a thick layer of ganache on the bottom layer of cake and place the second on top; smooth away any ganache that squeezes out and transfer to the fridge to chill for half an hour.
6. Cover the cake in a thin layer of the buttercream frosting (crumb coat); return the cake to the fridge and chill for another thirty minutes (or if it looks good to go, forget chilling and spread the rest of the cake with the frosting).
7. Frost away and be creative and decorate with all the festive toppings! Chill until ready to serve.

 

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