The Grand Marnier cake looks and sounds fab.
Posting a link to a blog with the recipe here.
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Yes, although I have been steadily eating them rather than giving them away…
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Gorgeous!!!
Thanks
I won’t tell my mother, who gave a lot of them away years ago because she so many tins (not just Collin Street, but from other gifts, too), and she doesn’t bake like she used to.
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Jack Bishop on Cooks Country said today that imitation vanilla is no different than real vanilla extract. He said people in the test kitchen wouldn’t know the difference. Frankly, it surprised me. What say you?
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I use imitation for most of my baking now. Even if I didn’t want to save money, real vanilla is simply not sold here. All people know here is imitation. I have ground vanilla beans and real extract from the USA that I save for when it matters, but for baking I use imitation.
The issue with it is you need to cook it out. People here treat it like real vanilla and it wallops you with artificial flavor and aroma when used in things like frosting or pastry cream. For me, since I know how artificial that flavor is, it’s very jarring. For people here who have only had the fake stuff it’s normal.
I’ve even used it in pastry cream and found it fine if added from the beginning so it cooks. But it’s not real vanilla which you add at the end because you want the alcohol that carries the flavor and aroma to stay fairly intact. It must be cooked out.
Oh, and lots of people through the years have come to the same conclusion about imitation vanilla after performing taste tests.
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Today, Sunshine and I made “Thumbprint” cookies. Recipe courtesy of Chef John from “Food Wishes” on youtube.
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Christmas biscotti - cranberry and pistachio - with a white chocolate glaze.
For cutting the biscotti, I did a side-by-side test of a serrated bread knife and a recently sharpened chef’s knife. For me, the serrated knife worked much better.
Shown here plated with the other holiday sweets I made this year.
I’m officially done cookie baking for 2022. One or two coffee cakes to go before the holidays are over. I’m reaching that stage where I’m about maxed out on sugar. 
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I like these ‘more than one bite’ goodies!
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A VERY tempting assortment!
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Last night and tonight, baking the traditional Mom cookies with Mom:
Oatmeal raisin (a recipe that’s at least 60 years old)
Tollhouse chocolate chip
Tomorrow:
More lacy ricotta cookies
More candied ginger shortbread
Basler brunsli ( I bought the liquer for this, so I’m plowing ahead)
A second Spiced Cranberry bundt, this one for the family on Xmas eve
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I’ve been eye-balling that cranberry bundt recipe, and even more so after reading your first review. If you’re making it again, it must be good! I’m wondering though, about using dried (soaked) cranberries. I just prefer them in baked goods over fresh. Hmmm … I guess I’ll never know until I try.
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I just read all 109 comments on the NYT Cooking recipe (ugh, the comments) and one person said they did make it with dried, but didn’t say much more. Also, I wanted to mention that I will probably INCREASE the spices slightly for this next bake.
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I decided rather late to get in on the cookie baking. I also committed to only baking cookies I haven’t made before. First to get baked are these sesame coins from Great Cookies. The sesame coins I’m used to baking are Alice Medrich’s and those contain tahini. These are instead flavored with just a bit of sesame oil. They are absolutely delicious. Where Alice’s cookies are sandy, these are crisp and light. They’re made with egg white, which gives them a very light texture. I kept the salt amount the same for these but used salted butter. If I hadn’t I would have doubled the salt.
I have a really hard time shaping these because the batter is very soft, but I have no doubt that’s a matter of the flour available to me, which makes any cookie that contains eggs a bit of a challenge due to having very low absorption. Thankfully since I have a constant supply of egg whites from other baking, I can simply measure out as much as I think I might need, so next time I’ll maybe start with 15-20 grams egg white. I weighed out the portions to make it easier to form the cookies. Each cookie is 9-10 grams of dough.
Got jam crescents (ok I’ve made these before but the dough is made with cheese that I happen to have and want to use up), ginger latte cookies, iced lemon cookies, peanut butter clouds (I’ve also made these, but I’m making a variation with add-ins that I haven’t tried before and sounds great), and a few others planned.
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Ha, this is Carole Walter’s recipe from Great Cookies. Was just looking as I’m considering making them. Nice to know about your alcohol subs.
The Gourmet cookie book has a version with chocolate but no cocoa. More sugary than Carole’s, though.
A savory holiday treat in progress right now: Kenji’s slow-cooked bolognese, which we’re having tomorrow for Christmas Eve dinner. It’s quite a production, and I wish I had thought this through because this is an oven recipe, which means I can’t be baking anything for a couple hours 
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