Spicy Gingerbread Cupcakes

For several years our family has been building elaborate gingerbread houses.  There is a local contest we enter and the kids love this family tradition.  Each year a theme is released and we custom build our structure around that theme.  This year the theme is “Christmas Carols” which is much better than some of the past ideas. We’ve built homes for Disney Christmas, Tropical Christmas and Santa’s workshop.  None of these were particularly fun from my perspective because it limited our creativity. Other times we have done Christmas around the world and Christmas movies; both of which were really fun. 

Carrot Cake Cookies

 

When I was growing up we ate a lot of processed food. That might come as a surprise, given the amount of whole food and obsession with healthy eating on this site.  As a true eighties kid, my mom served us sugary cereal, cookies from a box, cheese slices and frozen dinners.  As someone who grew up on a farm she ate what they produced throughout her childhood.  As a young adult, I'm sure she found all these new foods exciting and quite simply, easier.  The one exception to all the store bought food, was cakes.  She decorated cakes as a part time job and carrot cake was (and still is) her speciality.  I still remember the first time I finally tried carrot cake.  I was certain I would hate it (it had vegetables in it!) and much to my surprise, it was delicious.  Sometimes moms do know best!