Joyce Gourmet

With holidays come baking...and lots of it!  Christmas seems to by synonymous with cookies, at least in my circle of friends back at home.  Every year, the baking side of everyone seems to come out to create delicious baked goods to share and exchange. I decided to bake two types of biscottis, those Italian twice baked cookies.  One was a chocolate biscotti made with mini semi-sweet chocolate chips and white chocolate chips, deliciously dipped in white chocolate. The other was a chocolate biscotti with mint chocolate chips and milk chocolate chips.  This year, I was visiting family in LA from Thanksgiving through New Years, with a wedding in Tahiti for 5 days at the front end.  I have been staying at my mom's place for 2.5 weeks, which is nice because she has so many of the baking tools that I usually require to bake.  I ran over to Joann's to purchase the little goodie baggies and ties, and biscotti ingredients at Ralphs. I took over her kitchen from 10 p.m. through 6

Arrived in LA for a fantastic early Thanksgiving dinner with the in-laws, then more turkey with loads of other deliciousness with family & friends on Thanksgiving Day.  Our flight out to Tahiti/Moorea for my sister-in-law's wedding was Friday night. I was so excited to make my first cake in Los Angeles : Mickey Mouse Clubhouse themed cake for a friend's daughter's 2nd birthday.  Glad I was able to bake & design /decorate the cake in time! Happy that my food coma didn't prevent me from completing the cake, finally finished at 3 am!  Cake: Vanilla Gold Buttercake Filling: Vanilla Buttercream Icing: Vanilla Buttercream Cake toppers & design: Fondant Characters: Disney Character Figurines Happy 2nd Birthday, Rosie!