Betty Crocker’s Red Hot Holiday Trends

With the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, we found some great quick and easy recipes for a winter bridal shower, a small snowy wedding, Christmas engagement party, or even a wedding anniversary.  Betty Crocker recently debuted her 2012 Red Hot Holiday Trends, which are designed to excite your taste buds and be the hit at your party.

Here’s what the Betty Crocker team has to say (all recipes, except the non-alcoholic apple cider, and photos are from Betty Crocker):

Trend: Punched Up Punch

Sparkling Ginger Hard Apple Cider

This fruity, sparkly, bubbly, big-batch cocktail gets its signature kick from hard cider, bourbon and ginger liqueur. It’s a modern take on punch that’s perfect for entertaining.

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 15 minutes

Servings: 12

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup bourbon or brandy
• 3/4 cup ginger-flavored liqueur
• 1/4 cup clear orange-flavored liqueur
• 1/2 cup pure maple syrup
• Several dashes aromatic bitters
• 4 bottles (12 oz each) hard apple cider, chilled
• Ice chunks or ice cubes, if desired
• Red apple slices

Directions:

1. In pitcher or punch bowl, mix bourbon, liqueurs, maple syrup and bitters. Slowly add hard cider.

2. Carefully add ice. Garnish with apple slices.

Here is a quick tip: For a non-alcoholic punch idea, try my tasty version:

Frosty ginger apple cider

Ingredients:

• ½ gallon apple cider
• 1 gallon ginger ale (2-2liters)
• Apples thinly sliced (4 apples)
• Cinnamon sticks (garnish)
• Crushed ice

Directions:

1.  In a punch bowl mix apple cider and ginger ale. Add some cinnamon sticks and apple slices to punch bowl. Fill 12 glasses with crushed ice.

2. Garnish each glass with apples and add cinnamon stick; pour over crushed ice. Serve immediately.

Trend: Layers. Layers. Layers.

18 Layer Red Velvet Cake

Take your celebration to impressive new heights! Once you cut into this stunning cake, guests will go gaga over all 18 layers. You don’t have to reveal how easy it is to make. We won’t tell.

Prep time: 1:45 hrs:min

Total time: 4 hours

Servings: 16

Ingredients:

White Cake

• 1 box Betty Crocker® SuperMoist® white cake mix
• 1 1/4 cups water
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 3 eggs

Red Velvet Cake

• 1 box Betty Crocker® SuperMoist® German chocolate cake mix
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 3 eggs
• 2 tablespoons unsweetened baking cocoa
• 1 bottle (1 oz) red liquid food color (about 2 tablespoons)

Frosting

• 2 1/2 cups marshmallow creme (from two 7-oz jars)
• 1 1/2 cups butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 to 2 tablespoons milk
• 4 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Spray 3 (8-inch) round cake pans with cooking spray. Line bottom of each pan with cooking parchment paper. Spray parchment paper with cooking spray.

2. In large bowl, beat White Cake ingredients on low speed 30 seconds, then on medium speed 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Loosely cover and refrigerate.

3. In another large bowl, beat Red Velvet Cake ingredients on low speed 30 seconds, then on medium speed 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally.

4. Spread 1/2 cup red velvet batter in bottom of each pan. Loosely cover and refrigerate remaining batter. Place all 3 pans on oven rack positioned in center of oven. Bake about 8 minutes or until cake is set when lightly touched in center.

5. For next cake layer, spread 1/2 cup white batter evenly over each baked red velvet layer. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until cake is set when lightly touched in center.

6. Repeat steps 4 and 5, twice, baking 9 to 12 minutes per layer or until top of cake layer is set when lightly touched in center.

7. Cool 10 minutes. Remove cakes from pans; remove parchment paper from bottoms of cakes. Cool completely, about 30 minutes.

8. Meanwhile, in large bowl, beat marshmallow creme, butter, vanilla and 1 tablespoon milk with electric mixer on medium speed until blended. Beat in powdered sugar until fluffy. If necessary, beat in more milk, a few drops at a time until spreading consistency.

9. To assemble, stack cake layers, spreading 1/2 cup frosting between each layer. Spread thin layer of frosting over side and top of cake to seal in crumbs. Refrigerate cake 30 to 45 minutes to set frosting. Spread remaining frosting on side and top of cake.

Quick tip: To make your cake sparkle, add White Cake Sparkles from Wilton to give your cake that winter wonderland effect!

Also, dragees or silver balls will make this cake pop. Fancyflours.com has dragees in all sizes ranging from 2 to 10 mm. [Special Note For California Residents: Virtually no one sells silver dragees within CA or to CA residents due to a long-ago – and utterly frivolous – lawsuit. They’re not illegal here, there are no laws on the books restricting sales of them; no one seems to want to be a target of the attorney that brought on the lawsuit.]

The 2012 Red Hot Holiday Trends from the “Original First Lady of Food” Betty Crocker, are a wonderful addition to the bridal world. Sometimes we get so “wrapped up” during the holidays that it is nice to know that Betty is there for you making it easy and delicious.