During the 12 days until Christmas break, the King Street Chronicle will again present staff favorites from the holiday season. This sixth edition will not include six geese-a-laying, but beloved Christmas songs, memories, recipes, movies, and activities.
Song: “Someday At Christmas” performed by Mr. Stevie Wonder and Ms. Andra Day.
Recipe: Gingerbread Cupcakes
Total Time: Two hours and 15 minutes
Quantity: 12 cupcakes
Ingredients:
One and one-half cups and two tablespoons of all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
One-half teaspoon of baking soda
One-half teaspoon of baking powder
Two teaspoons of ground ginger
One teaspoon of ground cinnamon
One-half teaspoon of ground nutmeg
One-fourth teaspoon of ground cloves
One-fourth teaspoon of salt
One-third cup of unsulfured molasses
One-half cup of buttermilk
One-half cup of packed dark brown sugar
One-half cup of unsalted butter, at room temperature
Two large eggs
One teaspoon of vanilla extract
Eight ounces of full-fat cream cheese, at room temperature
One-half cup of unsalted butter, at room temperature
Four cups of powdered sugar
One teaspoon of vanilla extract
One-half teaspoon of cinnamon
Pinch of salt
Steps:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and line a cupcake tin with 12 cupcake liners.
In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients of flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices and set aside.
In a measuring glass, mix together the buttermilk and molasses. Set aside.
With an electric mixer using the paddle attachment, cream the butter and brown sugar together until the mixture is light and fluffy.
Mix in the eggs, one at a time, and then add the vanilla.
Mix half the dry ingredients with the milk and molasses mixture. Add the rest of the dry ingredients and the brown sugar mixture, and mix thoroughly.
Evenly distribute your batter among the 12 cups, filling them three-fourths of the way. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes or until a toothpick comes out with a few moist crumbs.
Let the cupcakes cool completely before frosting.
While the cupcakes cool, check on the cookie dough. If it is firm to the touch, it is ready. If it is still too soft, it should continue to chill.
When ready, stamp out the cookies and place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for eight to ten minutes or until they are evenly darkened.
Cream the cream cheese and butter together with an electric mixer. Make sure they are both room temperature so you get a smooth frosting.
Mix in the powdered sugar, one cup at a time, until fully combined.
Mix in the vanilla and salt.
Fill your piping bag fitted with a large French tip and decorate your cupcakes in a swirl motion. Top with your cooled and set gingerbread cookies.
Keep the cookies in the fridge if you need to store them for more than a few hours, and then eat them at room temperature.
Movie: Holidate
“Fed up with being single on holidays, two strangers agree to be each other’s platonic plus-ones all year long, only to catch real feelings along the way,” courtesy of imdb.com.
Activity: Paper Plate Santa
Supplies:
Paper plate
Red, black, white and orange paint
Glue
Cotton wool
White pom-pom
Steps:
Paint half of the paper plate a skin tone and the other half a vibrant red, with a curve around the edge of the paper plate to create a hat shape.
Add a big red nose.
Between the border of the skin-colored paint and red, add plenty of glue.
Separate and thin out the cotton wool and spread along the trail of glue, leaving some space to create the appearance of a hanging Santa hat.
Add some glue to the bottom of the paper plate.
Add more cotton wool, fluffing it up a little to create a nice fluffy beard.
Finish off by adding a pair of eyes using black paint and add a white pom-pom to the tip of the hat.
Memory: Mr. Cameron McManus
“This was my and Mrs. McManus’ first Christmas with a baby: Johnny, nine months old at the time. Looking at him during that time made the sheer, breathtaking beauty of Christmas hit me in a way it never had before: God, Subsistent Existence Itself, the great ‘I AM,’ became not only Man, but a baby. As G.K. Chesterton put it, ‘The hands that had made the sun and stars were too small to reach the huge heads of the cattle…[It is] something too good to be true, except that it is true.'”
Featured Image by Caitlin Leahy ’25