Maple Cupcakes with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

These maple cupcakes with maple cream cheese frosting are pretty spectacular. 

These cupcakes are deeply flavored with maple syrup, both in the cake and in the frosting. These cupcakes are also filled with toasted pecans. 

Venezuelan Christmas Ham Bread - Pan de Jamón

This Pan de Jamón, a Venezuelan Christmas bread, is a wonderful combination of sweet and savory flavors. 

Pan de Jamón is often served on Christmas Eve in Venezuela on a single plate with a chicken salad called ensalada de gallina, roast pork, and hallacas (South American tamales with cracked corn) (source: Gran Cocina Latina: The Food of Latin America by Maricel E. Presilla, 2012). 

Stir-Fried Eggs with Velvet Shrimp

These stir-fried eggs with velvet shrimp made the best "brinner" (breakfast/dinner). 

These stir-fried eggs with velvet shrimp make a tasty breakfast or a dinner main course with rice. They are also fabulous as part of a mult-course Chinese style dinner. 

Christmas Wreath Treats

These Christmas wreath no-bake treats are both fun to make and fun to eat. 

 

You can use these wreaths both as a holiday dessert and/or a holiday decoration! You can even hang them from your tree, as long as you don't have any sneaky pets or children. 

Peppermint Stick Cookies

These peppermint stick cookies are fun to make, fun to eat, and so Christmasy. 

These peppermint stick cookies begin with a vanilla butter cookie. It's drizzled with melted chocolate and then sprinkled with crushed peppermint candies. 

Japanese Milk Bread with Yudane (Shokupan)

This Japanese Milk Bread with Yudane is a soft and fluffy white bread often featured in Japanese bakeries. It's also known as shokupan. 

 

This Japanese milk bread, also known as shokupan, is fluffy, soft, and extra moist. It begins with a yudane, which is a mixture of flour and boiling liquid (either water or milk). 

Swiss Lebkuchen (Christmas Cookies)

These Swiss Lebkuchen are a take on an early version of the gingerbread cookie. They are made with hazelnut and almond meal, along with honey, sugar, and cinnamon, plus some citrus and candied fruit. 

There are many variations of Lebkuchen, both Swiss and German. This one was adapted by Rose Levy Beranbaum in her newest book, The Cookie Bible from a bakery, Confiserie Eichenberger, in Bern, Switzerland.