On the Ninth Day of Cooking/Baking...

On the ninth day of cooking and baking, I thought I would change it up a little bit.  Instead of doing a cooking recipe, I thought it would be nice to have a festive drink recipe.  It has homemade custard and sugar cookies.  It looks classy and tastes even better!  For our baking recipe, I was looking through my binder full of recipes and I found a Christmas recipe that had obviously been copied from a book.  I am not sure what catalog or book I copied this from, so we will just say that it is courtesy of an anonymous baker!  Our baking recipe is a sweet carrot cake.  It's very simple and very good! Happy drinking/baking!!!

DRINK RECIPE (Courtesy of Pampered Chef): Creamy Eggnog Parfaits  

Ingredients: 
2cups milk, 1 1/2 freshly grated nutmeg, 1/3 cup of sugar, 2 1/2tbsp cornstarch, 1/8tsp salt, 6 egg yolks, 2 cups thawed frozen whipped topping divided, 1/4tsp rum extract, 16 think ginger wafer cookies or other thin wafer cookies plus 8 additional for optional cookie rims divided, Additional freshly grated nutmeg and Cookie garnish

Directions:
1. Place milk in Small Micro Cooker (or a microwave safe bowl).  Microwave on high for THREE minutes.  Meanwhile, grate nutmeg using an adjustable grater (or you can purchase ground nutmeg).  Combine nutmeg, sugar, cornstarch and salt in a saucepan.  Whisk in the egg yolks until smooth.

2. Gradually whisk milk into egg yolk mixture.  Cook over medium heat 3-5 minutes or until mixture comes to a boil and thickens, stirring constantly (DO NOT OVERCOOK).  Remove from heat.  Transfer mixture to a mixing bowl; place a piece of plastic wrap directly onto surface of custard to prevent "skin" from forming.  Refrigerate about 4hrs or until chilled.  Fold in 1 cup of the whipped topping and rum extract.

3. If desired, decorate eight martini glasses with crushed cookie rims (Crush eight wafer cookies into fine crumbs.  Place crumbs on small plate.  Pour 2tbsp water onto another small plate.  Dip rim of each glass into water and then into crumbs).  When ready to assemble parfaits, coarsely chop 16 remaining cookies.  Spoon 1/4 cup of the custard into each glass.  Sprinkle with chopped cookies.  Top with remaining custard.

4. Garnish parfaits with whipped topping and sprinkle with additional nutmeg.  Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Yields 8 servings!

Baking Recipe (Courtesy of an anonymous baker): Mrs. Claus' Carrot Cake

Ingredients: 

1 1/2 cups of oil, 2 cups of sugar, 4 eggs, 2 cups of plain flour, 2tsp baking soda, 2tsp cinnamon, 1/2tsp salt, and 3 cups of grated carrots

Cake Directions:

Blend oil and sugar.  Beat eggs one at a time.  Add dry ingredients, and then mix in carrots.  Pour mixture into three greases and floured cake pans.  Bake on 350 degrees for 15 minutes.  Cool and frost cake.

Icing Ingredients and Directions: 

1 stick softened butter, 1 eight oz container of softened cream cheese, 1 box of powdered sugar, 2tsp of vanilla flavoring, and 1 cup of chopped nuts.

Mix all ingredients in a bowl.  Ice cake when it cools!