That's the way the cookie crumbles

When it comes to baking, I often have more failures than successes. It's probably the reason I am more likely to pick up sweet treats at Elegant Touch in Hollister or Gayle's Bakery in Capitola than make them at home.

But this holiday season it seemed like a good idea to bake some breads, cookies and other treats to share with family and friends. This last weekend we tackled four cookie recipes. Now making one batch of cookies from scratch isn't too much trouble, but making four, or five, or six is a lot more trouble. In the oven in my house, only one sheet of cookies can go in at a time, which means even for a small bath it takes quite awhile to bake them.

We decided to take a shortcut with a semi-homemade recipe from Sandra Lee that used store-bought sugar cookie dough. I had made candy cane shaped cookies from scratch once before a few years ago, not very successfully, and this seemed like it would be easy. The only problem was the sugar cookie dough didn't really seem to want to roll out into the white and red ropes needed to make the candy cane shape. The dough kept falling apart, and I got only half the cookies I was supposed to get out of it. As I was twisting them into candy cane shapes, the dough kept cracking. And then when they came out of the oven, the cookies kept falling apart.

Then we made what were supposed to be white peppermint snow ball cookies - snow ball as in round. But the cookies we made turned out flatter than pancakes. But the cookies still taste alright, and the other varieties I made turned out just fine. Next weekend I will take on crinkle cookies and plain old chocolate chip. For recipes of the cookies pictured below, visit the Weekend Pinnacle on Friday.

Mexican mocha cookies with Kahlua frosting

White peppermint snow ball cookies

Cranberry white chocolate chip cookies

Candy cane cookies

Visions of wedding cakes

I dreamt about wedding cakes last night. Luckily, I think yesterday's cake tasting for my cousin's wedding is the last one. We went to four places, including two places in San Jose that just focus on wedding cakes; a local wedding cake designer whose space doubles as a cupcake shop; and a bakery/deli that happens to do wedding cakes, too.

Though you might think the places that just focus on the wedding cakes would have the edge, I don't really think that is the case. At both places we went to that just do wedding cakes, we found the cake dry and the fillings not very flavorful. At those places, there were long lists of cake varieties and fillings, but pretty much everything is an "upgrade." So even if the base price for the cake is $500, by the end it goes up a few hundred dollars. Want fresh strawberries? That will be $1 a person, but for $25 per layer you can get strawberry gel. Hmmm, no thanks. I think these places focus more on the decorating than on the flavor. The cost was also $200-300 more than we were quoted at the two places that actually had good-tasting cakes.

There is something to be said for a smaller shop where the decorater and the baker are one in the same because I think they will strive for the best of both - a good-tasting and good-looking cake. My cousin has the final say on her cake, but I think we are looking at a three-layered cake with chocolate cake and kahlua hazelnut cream layer, a layer of French vanilla and strawberry buttercream, and a to-be-decided layer from the local bakery that delivers. As for the other bakery with the amazing buttercream made with pastry cream, my cousin couldn't find a place with a refrigerated that would deliver so it's kinda out of the runnings. My mom and I, however, do have plans to order a cake from that place for my cousin's bridal shower since we would easily be able to transport a smaller cake by car!