Christmas Dessert: Orange Marmalade Cake (+Giveaway)

My husband's younger sisters' winter break finally arrived. I think baking is a great way to spend time together and get over the stress of their school's finals. I didn't really have a specific recipe in mind, but I wanted to make a cake that reflects the holiday season. We started with a simple cake batter and flavored it with orange marmalade I received through our friend Diane from Napa Farmhouse 1885 and store-bought Swedish orange gingersnaps. I crumbled the gingersnaps and added them to the batter and the top of the cake. We baked the cakes in individual Flexipan molds and I let the girls decorate their own version with orange-flavored buttercream and chocolate-covered cherries.

Have fun this holiday season!

Today’s giveaway is 1 fig & Grand Marnier jam, 1 pear & vanilla preserves, 1 orange & ginger marmalade, 1 organic herbs de Provence and 1 organic Italian seasoning from Napa Farmhouse. For a chance to win the prize, just enter today’s giveaway.

Make sure you're a fan of PhamFatale Facebook fan page and Napa Farmhouse 1885, or follow @Phamfatalecom and tweet about this giveaway. To make it easy, you can just copy and paste this tweet if you’d like: "3 jams & two seasonings #Giveaway from @Phamfatalecom and @NapaFarmhouse: http://bit.ly/sp4V7y".

Goat Cheese and Fig Crostini Recipe

We were lucky enough to be able to pick a lot of figs in our garden this year. We had so many, I made several kinds of fig preserves. One of my favorite ways to use fig preserves is to pair it with goat cheese and it just so happened that I received delicious goat cheese from Cypress Grove Chevre today. I spread the two ingredients on crostini for a nice contrast of texture and flavor. I grilled day-old baguette and smeared a layer of goat cheese. The warmth from the bread let the goat cheese ooze and become creamier. The last layer was the fig preserves. I have to admit this easy appetizer is my favorite snack. I love them and could eat a ton!

I have a little story that might sound silly to you but Cypress Grove Chevre goat cheese is very dear to my heart. I remember when I first got married, my husband Lulu surprised me and took me on the 17-mile drive in Carmel, which I had never seen before. I remember he prepared the most romantic picnic on the beach and fed me wonderful Cypress Grove chevre. I had never heard of the company before that picnic but the cute packaging and beautiful scenery has since made it unforgettable to me. The cheese is rich and creamy and absolutely captures what I love about French chevre. It is one of the few American-made cheeses I’ve had that rival its French counterparts.

Cypress Grove Chevre will be a part of our December giveaways, so be sure to check back for your chance to win. Doesn't that sound awesome?