Five Must-Bake Holiday Desserts
With the holidays just around the corner, I wanted to highlight my five favorite holiday desserts that I have posted. Without further ado, here they are:
Gingerbread Cupcakes with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting – Gingerbread and lemon make such a great combination. The spices of the season are highlighted in these cupcakes.

Peppermint Chocolate Chip Cookies – I love peppermint and chocolate together in the wintertime. These cookies are festive in color and flavor.

Red Velvet Cheesecake Cake – This was my first cheesecake cake. The vibrant colors are perfect this time of year.

Candy Cane Chocolate Oreo Cupcakes – I took my favorite chocolate cupcake recipe and combined it with my favorite Oreo cupcake recipe and used Candy Cane Joe Joe’s to make these cupcakes.

Peppermint Brownie Mosaic Cheesecake – Brownie bits are baked right in to this cheesecake. With peppermint extract, and crushed candy canes, it has a minty-chocolatey flavor that just screams winter.

One Year Ago: Massaged Kale with Pear and Pumpkin Seeds and Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Pomegranates and Vanilla-Pecan Butter
Two Years Ago: Chocolate Cupcakes with Peppermint Patty Frosting and Homemade Green Bean Casserole
Three Years Ago: Cookie Dough Brownies
Four Years Ago: Lumberjack Cookies and Peppermint Sandies






I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 






I am really very terrible at frosting/decorating cake :\ This came out way better than anything I could make!
beantownbaker — March 25th, 2013 @ 1:18 pm
Ha – I’m pretty bad too. That’s why I love putting stuff on the sides. Coconut does a good job of hiding my sloppy decorating skills.
Coconut and almond, you’ve already got me reeled in 🙂 two of my favorite flavors rolled into what looks like a moist, fluffy cake. YUM
This cake looks so beautiful and the texture is perfect! I love curd as a filling between cake layers but i never knew the trick for preventing it from seeping out – thanks!
beantownbaker — March 25th, 2013 @ 1:19 pm
Yea, it’s definitely very helpful. Even more so when you ACTUALLY do it 😉
We’ve all had those cake experiences. It looks like it turned out well in the end! And it sounds delicious!
beantownbaker — March 25th, 2013 @ 1:20 pm
Glad to hear I’m not the only one. I think it’s easy to get wrapped up in thinking we all need to project that all of our baking/cooking endeavors are hugely successful…
Regardless of any kitchen mishaps, this cake looks divine! Layer cakes always look so special, and the addition of fruit here makes me swooooon!
beantownbaker — March 25th, 2013 @ 1:20 pm
I agree. Layer cakes always look special 🙂
Oh this looks amazing. And aren’t we all our own worst critics when we bake? I can’t tell you how many times I say something is terrible and my husband looks as me like I’m crazy.
beantownbaker — March 25th, 2013 @ 1:21 pm
I agree. At the end of the day, it tasted delicious and no one knew about all the issues I had with the cake. I did want to keep it real on the blog and not give anyone any false sense that things are always easy for me…
I always shy away from layer cakes – yours always come out well, I need some more practice I think! Your “mistakes” are great learning points – did not know about the frosting damn, but it makes so much sense!
beantownbaker — March 25th, 2013 @ 1:23 pm
That’s why I wanted to talk about them. I definitely could have posted about this cake without mentioning any of the issues I had. I’m hoping they’ll help someone (myself included) to learn something for the next time they tackle a layer cake. Yours will definitely improve with practice. Mine surely are. I really want to make that coconut cake you just posted!
i’m always hard on myself too, but you wouldn’t know by the taste i’m sure! looks absolutely wonderful, not to mention i’m drooling over the flavor combo 🙂
beantownbaker — March 25th, 2013 @ 1:24 pm
I agree, I think we all are. I wanted to keep it real with this post in case anyone else found it to be a difficult set of recipes…
Yum, your cake looks so delicious and I really love the sound of the blackberry lime curd!
beantownbaker — March 25th, 2013 @ 1:27 pm
Thanks!
I love coconut cake, and blackberries are my favorite fruit. Such a great idea to put them together. This cake is gorgeous! I would happily take a large slice . . . or maybe the whole thing 😉
beantownbaker — April 27th, 2013 @ 10:02 am
Then you would definitely love this cake!
Could anyone post the blackberry lime curd recipe? The link is no longer working.
Thanks!
beantownbaker — August 12th, 2013 @ 7:39 pm
Sorry about that. I updated the recipe link, but here it is as well: http://www.beantownbaker.com/2013/03/blackberry-lime-curd.html