I was visiting the Martha Stewart site earlier, admiring all of the great holiday baking and craft ideas. I found wonderful ideas for food gifts and some great examples of handmade gifts and wrapping styles. It’s all quite beautiful, I would like to try to duplicate some of them for our own family celebrations this year.

Today’s cookie feature was scrumptious peppermint meringues with chocolate filling - they not only look fantastic, but sound irresitable.  I think we’d also enjoy the butter pecan rounds, so we’ll be trying a few new recipes this year. It might not always turn out perfectly the first time, but we won’t mind tasting the experiments!

This is the time of year when our baking really shifts into high gear. There are cookies to be made, pies to be baked, dessert breads to create. We love making mini-breads since they’re a perfect breakfast treat and are also wonderful to give out as gourmet gifts. Another big favorite of our is homemade cheesecake. Sometimes there is nothing quite as satisfying after a delicious meal than a creamy, melt-in-your-mouth homemade cheesecake. One of our favorite baking pans is the Kaiser Springform Table set.

 What’s particularly wonderful about this pan is that it includes a sturdy acrylic cake cover so that we can make our family’s favorite cheesecake and easily travel with it to the dinner destination. The pan is made of commercial-weight for even and gentle heat distribution for consistent baking. The 2-layer nonstick interior and exterior coating eliminates the need for flouring pans and allows for quick and easy release. Plus, the pan features Kaiser’s magnum coating which allows for cutting in the pan without damaging the surface. You really can’t beat the lasting value you get with Kaiser Bakeware.