Candy Cane Coffee Cake

Last night I went on a baking marathon. Knowing that in the next couple of weeks, things would be creeping in...class parties for which little Campbells would want to bring something special and homemade...the staff Christmas party at our house Saturday night...I went ahead and started baking. I found this candy cane coffee cake recipe in a Betty Crocker Best of Christmas cookbook...you know, the ones that are hardback with pretty pictures and sit on your coffee table. Well, it's now been cracked open and has a nice flour dusting all over its pages! In the end, I made 6 of them, and it was no harder than making sugar cookies for all the kids in grades Pre K, 2nd, 3rd, and 5th (do I really have kids in all those grades?!)

First, I made a basic sweet dough with the usual stuff...yeast, butter, egg, flour, sugar, etc. Then I rolled it into a rectangle. I've never actually gotten a rectangle shape by rolling, have you? Oval. That's it. Oval. I can't get maraschino cherries here, so I used some good ol' Turkish cherry jelly to make a sticky red something on the inside. Then I threw some dried cranberries in the center too.

I snipped the sides, 1/2 inch wide and all the way to the jelly.

Then the fun part. You get to criss-cross each one.

I tucked in the edges and formed it into a candy cane shape. Baked it. Then drizzled some powdered sugar mixed with milk. Then I threw some red hots on top (cinnamon hearts for all you Yankees) to make berries.

That brings us to another question. Why do I have red hots? That is one of the items I can not live without. I bring them back in my suitcase each year. Why? I was born in February and Mom always made some cookies with red hots for me to take to school on my birthday. It makes me think of Indiana. It makes me think of Blackhawk Christian School. It makes me think of my mom and me in matching wool jumpers. It makes me think of how hard she worked teaching all day, then doing special things like this for us. It gives me great comfort to know they are in my baking drawer, even though I am all the way over in the Middle East.

So, let's hear it from you, readers! What are you baking to get ready for the holidays?