New Year’s Dessert

Like just about everyone I know, we were not at all sorry to kiss 2016 goodbye last night – and we had fun doing it! Friends in town had a great idea to have a traveling New Year’s house party, where each family hosted a position of the meal (apps, dinner, dessert, and champagne toast) and we all walked from house to house throughout the evening to change venue (and, truth be told, get some fresh air and a breather from all the rich food and drink!).

It was a lot of fun, and I highly recommend it if you live within walking distance of your friends!

Our job was dessert, and we found two recipes we liked a lot. First, mulled wine:


For this we followed Jamie Oliver’s recipe using Beaujolais Nouveau, though I skipped the bay (because we didn’t have any) and added a cardamon pod and a few slices of ginger instead. What you see above is the initial syrup making process, which lets you get all the flavor without burning off all the alcohol by heating all the wine at once. 

Hot mulled wine was nice after a drizzly walk to our house, and it tasted great with the orange pound cake Kirk made: 


We used the recipe from King Arthur Flour, and it was perfect (well, beta cake wasn’t perfect, but that was our own fault for trying to get it out of the Bundt pan too soon). The topping is not the recipe’s suggested bourbon glaze, but a chocolate ganache that Kirk poured over it. That’s a yummy combination, and though I abstained from cake for breakfast this morning, it would be excellent with a cup of coffee as well.

Here’s hoping that 2017 takes a cue from our sweet night and continues to be as fun as its first few hours were!

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