The Great Bake Fest of 2011

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This Christmas marks three big firsts for me:

1. My first Christmas as a married lady

2. My first Christmas {and holiday for that matter} hosting

3. My first Christmas volunteering to bring desserts to our family's Christmases

If I'm being honest, #3 is the biggest deal. I don't bake...I'm an appetizer type of girl. You need a snack? I'm on it! Dessert? No way Jose. Thanks to my new love of Pinterest I have been inspired and motivated. When asked what I would like to bring to all four Christmases I excitedly and nervously responded "dessert!" To which all four families responded, "Are you sure?" Thanks guys. Anyways, the SECOND I knew I was in charge of dessert I turned to the one and only person who could help me in such situation....THE BEEB. 

Last night my beloved Carolyn came over and helped prevent me from a nervous breakdown, provided essential baking instructions and stained her palms red in the process. We were two little Baking Bee Machines! In terms of our productivity...I give our Mint Martinis full credit. 

We experimented with five different Pinterest recipes and of the five, four of them turned out....which I consider to be an enormous success! Hey, these were made in my kitchen, it's a miracle any of them turned out. 

The one recipe that did not work out was the Angel Bite Mints found HERE.

I think the problem was that I added way too much powdered sugar...we followed the recipe exactly, but it got way too clumpy. I tried to salvage the recipe by adding more cream cheese, but then it got too soft and sticky. Eventually I had to let it go. Huge bummer. 

My attempt at Angel Bites. 

Now, let's get to the good stuff...the recipes that worked! 

Yup, check that out! Baked it all! WHOOP! 

I think my favorite to make were these ADORABLE reindeer cookies that turned out exponentially better than I was expecting! 

How cute are they?! I think they're going to be a hit! They're Peanut Butter Cookies with mini-chocolate covered pretzels as the antlers, chocolate chips for the eyes and a red M&M for the nose! Check out the recipe HERE!

We also made Mini-Oreo Cheesecakes, which after accidentally trying one for breakfast turned out AMAZING! 

 These were shockingly easy....find the recipe right HERE! 

Then we made these adorable little chocolate dipped marshmallows! 

There wasn't a set recipe for these bad boys but all we did was melt semi-sweet chocolate chips and then dipped the tops of the marshmallows and then sprinkled them with festive sprinkles! The inspiration for these little guys was found HERE! 

We had a last minute addition when I saw Red Velvet Cheesecake Cookies on Pinterest! 

WARNING: Red Velvet cake mix gets EVERYWHERE and stains everything red. When you sample the cookies you may end up looking like you were part of a murder crime scene.....Exhibit A. 

Though incredibly messy and a little scary these cookies turned out amazing...I will say though, they are HUGE! The recipe yields 10, we doubled it and made the cookies smaller and still ended up with only 16 cookies, granted a couple broke on the sheet and a couple ended up in our bellys. 

We decided to skip the white chocolate drizzle due to the fact that they are already about the sweetest cookies I've ever tasted. Find the recipe for these HERE! 

It was such a fun night filled with Christmas music, adult beverages, a HUGE mess and a successful first bake session! Thanks Beebs for being there to hold my hand...when everyone "oohs and ahhs" over my amazing desserts I will take full credit, but I will be thinking of you and your red hands! :) 

After 4 hours of baking you tend to look a hot mess. 

What are you baking this Christmas season?