Our card reader died, so excuse the pictures! I had taken a beautiful one of this with the Nikon and strobe flash, but oh well — you get the idea.
I was really stressing about making my usual twelve variety of holiday cookies this year, because I have so much work. I decided: NO COOKIES! (Imagine Edna from The Incredibles saying it instead of “no capes!”)
Instead I made one big batch of White Chocolate Candy Cane Bark for Jamie to give to the Lower Middle School Office at school. It is strange this year — he doesn’t have one class, so there is no holiday parties or teacher gifts or class holiday sings…
We made the candy this weekend and Jamie helped me smash the candies.
These are candy cane candies not shaped like canes. lol
I divided the small chunks from the large ones but this isn’t really necessary!
This time, I illustrated the recipe! It is featured on the amazing website, They Draw and Cook, which I absolutely love. It is founded by a brother and sister design team who do wonderful work. I was really inspired by all the great hand lettering they do. It’s something I plan on working on in 2014. I’ve always been afraid of hand lettering, but my friend, Anais, introduced me to a class on skillshare.com taught by Mary Kate McDevitt, an amaaaaazing hand letterer and illustrator. In her class I learned to think of hand lettering as “drawing”. It seems like a simple switch in one’s mind, but it made a huge difference. I had a mental block about it before that change in thinking!
The biggest compliment about my lettering was from Jamie: He asked me what “font” I used (he’s really into typography himself)! :)
There are eleven penguins and three polar bears in here!
Click to see the larger image.
And here is the recipe for easy reference:
White Chocolate Candy Cane Bark
1 pound white chocolate morsels (if you can’t find this, just chop up a big hunk of white chocolate)
1/2 cup crushed candy cane (if your hand gets tired using a mallet, you can use a food processor like we did at the end)
1. Melt chocolate in a double boiler
2. Pour onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Spread out evenly with an off set spatula.
3. Sprinkle crushed candy on top.
4. Chill until completely hardened. Break into pieces.
5. Eat and share with friends. Store in an air tight container (I keep ours in the the refrigerator)
You can also make this with semisweet or milk chocolate. I used white chocolate because it looks prettier in an illustration! You can also just put other things on it instead of candy if you like. Dried fruit and toasted nuts or seeds would be a healthier alternative!
Happy Holidays to all!