Snowman, anyone?

Is anyone else still in a food coma from Christmas? Dinner was good, if I say so myself, but I had way too many desserts. I tried a rum cake and was afraid it might not be to everyone's liking, so I made a double chocolate layer cake too. Chocolate chip cookies are a must here at Christmas. A good friend gave me peanut butter fudge to share. I also made Chocolate Almond Macaroon Bars that taste like Almond Joy candy bars. Last but not least, these snowmen were for my great niece and two great nephews.


In the past I have dipped Oreos in melted chocolate, but this year I bought a box of white fudge covered Oreos. The ear muffs and noses are snipped gum drops. The eyes are mini chocolate chips held in place with a drop of white writing gel. Red gel was used for their mouths.

If you decide to make the Chocolate Almond Macaroon Bars and can't find chocolate wafer cookies for the base layer, you can use Oreos. I scraped the filling off of some but not all, before turning them into crumbs. I left the white chocolate chips off of the top layer as that step is truly overkill. I've had them with and without, and you really don't need them. This is very rich dessert and small squares go a long way.

The rum cake was easy to make and is still moist and delicious four days after baking it.

Cake:
1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts
1 - 18.5 oz. pkg. yellow cake mix
1 - 3-3/4 oz. pkg. Jello Instant Vanilla pudding mix
4 eggs
1/4 cup cold water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup Bacardi Dark Rum (important - not the light rum)

Glaze:
1/4 lb. butter
1/4 cup water
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup Bacardi Dark Rum (80 proof)

Glaze instructions: Melt butter in saucepan. Stir in water and sugar. Boil 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Stir in rum.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour 10" tube or 12-cup Bundt pan. Sprinkle nuts over bottom of pan. Mix all cake ingredients together. Pour batter over nuts. Bake 1 hour. Cool. Invert onto serving plate. Poke holes in top of cake with toothpick. Drizzle and smooth glaze evenly and slowly over top and sides, allowing the cake to absorb the glaze. Repeat until all glaze is used.

Getting back to snowmen, here is my 30 year old former Marine, playing in snow for the first time in 7 years. His snowman was never finished as it was more fun to pitch snowballs at this dad instead.

At Christmas, everyone is a kid again, no matter their age.