Alice and I busted our butts baking today (say that five times really fast). We made my standard gingerbread cookie recipe, which is really more of a gingersnap recipe, but one that is fabulous because the only sweetener in it is the molasses, which is great because the icing adds lots of sweetness. We made one of Alice’s family favourites, Thimble Cookies, basically a shortbread cookie rolled in crushed walnuts and filled with jam.

Although we had our mishaps, we had a blast. Firstly, coordinating icing is a pain in the behind! Either I made it too runny or too thick, as evidenced by Alice’s near blow out with the white icing.

And then there are the macarons. I’ve been seeing more and more of these lovely little meringue pastries all over the Interwebs, so I really wanted to give them a try. My last shred of apprehension about them completely dissolved when I read Tartlette’s post about Candy Cane and Eggnog flavoured macarons.

But as you can see, ours look nothing at all like hers (an example of how they should look is included below). I did the meringue cookies on Sunday because they take some time, but mine totally lack the shiny lustrous tops  and cracked edges that are so typical of the real things. My guess is I didn’t whip up the meringue to the right consistency.

Oh and here’s where else I went wrong. I totally misread the recipe for the butter cream filling. Let’s just say that there is an extraordinary amount, an embarrassing amount of butter in the buttercream filling.

But now I feel like I have a challenge. Perhaps its a challenge that will add several extra pounds to my behind. But damn it, I want to figure out where I went wrong. Consider French macarons my new white whale.

Happy holidays everyone!