Rachel's Chai Cupcakes, Peppermint Bark and Biscochitos... oh my!

Today was a glorious day... it was Farah's birthday, it snowed 5 inches in Portland, and finals got cancelled for tomorrow! So I got to baking...
First, I decided to make Rach's yummy looking chai cupcakes for Farah. 

I made them extremely miniature, which took forever, but they are way cute. I also made a cinnamon vanilla frosting, which turned out a bit too sweet- but good anyway.

Here are some photos... I also included a photo of Ariel enjoying Rachel's batch that the recipe comes from. 

I want to go into the cupcake making industry. Rachel- are you down?

Also, we made incredible Peppermint Bark last night, and I decided to be artsy and take some pictures... so they are here too.

The recipe is easy- and makes for a nice gift!

-2 bags white chocolate chips

-2 bags chocolate chips

-about 30 peppermint candies-crushed

*Pre-heat the oven to 350

*Place aluminum foil on a pan, and sprinkle the chocolate chips over it. Melt them in the oven until they are soft enough to smooth down into a base layer. Let the chocolate harden.

*Place white chocolate in a metal bowl, situated over a pot of boiling water. When the white chocolate melts, quickly pour it over the hardened chocolate. 

*Sprinkle peppermint crumbles on top of white chocolate before it hardens.

*Place in the refrigerator until fully hardened- then cut into triangles!

ENJOY!

Lastly, I made the New Mexico state cookie- BISCOCHITOS!!!!! mmm! The smell of these make me feel like it really is December!!

-6 cups cake flour

-3 tsp baking powder

-2 cups crisco

- 1 1/2 cups sugar

-2 tsp anise seed

-2 eggs

-1/4 cup brandy (or red wine)

-cinnamon

-more sugar

-melting chocolate

*Preheat oven to 350

*Combine flour, baking powder and salt in one bowl

*Cream crisco, sugar and anise together in another bowl- beat in the eggs one at a time

*Mix in flour

*Roll dough out, and cut into shapes (or use a cup for circles)

*Sprinkle a mixture of cinnamon and sugar on each uncooked cookie

*Bake about 10 minutes, until they begin to lightly brown

*Melt chocolate, and once cookies have cooled, dip 1/2 in