I love to bake with cranberries during the holidays because they add a bright, tart flavour and a pretty pop of colour to baked goods. This cranberry bundt cake is super moist and tender thanks to the addition of buttermilk to the batter. I like to add Grand Marnier or rum to this recipe for…
Category: Holiday Recipes
Soft Sugar Cookies
These soft, pillowy sugar cookies topped with royal icing and sprinkles are a festive holiday treat. My kids love to slather copious amounts of royal icing and sprinkles on these and leave them out for Santa and his reindeer. I think Saint Nick and his team really like these cookies because they always eat the…
Gingerbread Loaf
Sometimes I feel like I’m the only person in the world who actually likes gingerbread. I also genuinely love fruit cake… What’s not to like about the comforting combination of warm molasses, sweet cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and spicy ginger? It just screams Christmas to me. The scent of this bread baking makes the entire house…
Cranberry Trifle
This cranberry trifle is a show-stopper and made the December 2017 cover of Panoram Italia magazine. It’s a riff off a recipe I found in a grocery-store calendar from 1989 my mother had hidden in the bottom of a kitchen drawer. That recipe called for store-bought pound cake and vanilla pudding, which I have replaced…
Caramel Pecan Tart
I have been searching for the perfect pecan pie recipe for ages. After trying out countless recipes, I’ve come up with what I think is the perfect pecan tart. Most of the recipes I tested out used corn syrup — but not this one. I use maple syrup, brown sugar and salted butter to create…
Hazelnut Biscotti
As a child, I remember my aunts baking the most delicious, crunchy almond biscotti. They were perfect dipped in coffee for breakfast. These big, beautiful hazelnut biscotti have the same satisfying crunch — with a little cinnamon to spice things up. These cookies freeze extremely well so they’re the perfect make-ahead treat. Ingredients: 3/4 cup…
Rum Balls
These festive treats are a great way to add a little boozy bite to your holiday sweet table. Rum balls are basically slightly underbaked brownies that are broken up into pieces and mixed with your favourite liqueur. One third of a cup of liqueur is the amount that’s perfect for me — but you can…
Pan di Spagna
Nearly every Italian family has a tried and true pan di spagna (sponge cake) recipe that’s been handed down and passed around. Some call it ciambella or ciambellone. I’ve tried many different pan di spagna recipes over the years and none comes close to the one my husband’s Zia Antonietta shared with me. It’s as…
Rolled Sugar Cookies
It’s become a tradition in our family to get all the kids together before Christmas Eve to decorate cookies for Santa. They love smearing the royal icing on the cookies and getting creative. Not gonna lie…the kids eat most of the royal icing before it gets to the cookies, they almost always use way too…
Croccante Americano (aka Peanut Brittle)
Croccante is Italy’s version of nut brittle. It’s a holiday treat many of our mothers, nonnas and zias typically made with almonds. A few years back, I discovered a recipe for croccante americano — aka peanut brittle — that is highly addictive and made even more delicious by a light sprinkling of flaked sea salt…
Almond Biscotti
Biscotti are the ideal make-ahead cookies because they freeze beautifully and this recipe can be very easily doubled. I have been making these almond biscotti for years; they are crunchy, filled with roasted almonds and not too sweet. What’s great about this recipe is that you can easily change-up the flavour by replacing the almonds…
Cranberry, Orange & White Chocolate Chip Cookies
Cranberries are one of my favourite ingredients to bake with during the holidays because of the tart flavour and festive pop of colour they add to baked goodies. These drop cookies are a great make-ahead holiday treat because you can freeze the unbaked balls of dough and just pop them into the oven when you…
Sara’s Baking Blog 