Provided by CakeSpy.

Whether dipped, dyed, or painted, this Sunday the beloved Easter egg will make its annual appearance in baskets brimming with plastic grass and Easter egg hunts around the world. And while it's a time-honored tradition to be-dazzle our eggs with a variety of designs and techniques, the edible part of the egg is left in its hard-boiled state (that is, until after the holiday, when it's fare game to eat).

Not so with the unholy creation you see here, a concoction of fondant and chocolate that sugar-maven Jessie Oleson of Seattle's CakeSpy Shop calls a Cadbury Creme Deviled Egg.

More >>

​You know the old joke about the Jewish pessimist and the Jewish optimist? The pessimist says, "Oy, things can't get any worse." And the optimist says, "Things can always get worse!"

Things got worse at Voracious' first-ever Great Matzo Showdown -- convened to correct the image of unleavened bread as a flat, flavorless holiday obligation -- when a closer examination of the winning matzo's box revealed the matzo wasn't approved for sacramental purposes. "It's not matzo, it's a different food," panelist and University of Washington Jewish Studies department chair Noam Pianko grumbled after learning Yehuda's gluten-free, kosher for Passover "matzo-style" crackers were made with potato flour. "When given the choice, nobody chooses matzo."

So why mess with matzo? The Torah commands Jews to eat and digest matzo (sorry, Noam) on the first two nights of Passover in recollection of the Jews who fled Egypt before their bread could rise. Matzo also symbolizes humility, since it's not puffed up.

More >>

Bakery Nouveau

​My sixth-grade teacher, Mr. Jaworski, was popular for two reasons: He turned every lesson into a bingo game (with a king-sized Hershey's bar for the winner) and he brought paczki to school on Fat Tuesday.

It's a longstanding tradition for Polish-Americans in the Midwest to mark Fat Tuesday with deep-fried dough, even if it means waking up before dawn; driving miles to the right bakery and waiting in a line that stretches down a snowy street. Paczki are considerably easier to obtain in Seattle: "We'll have a good production going on Tuesday," promises Bakery Nouveau's assistant manager Christopher Donka.

Bakery Nouveau has been selling paczki since 2010, when chef William Leaman learned of the pastries from a buddy with a bakery in Chicago. Leaman had been thinking of fooling around with doughnuts, but didn't want to make a long-term commitment to frying. Paczki provided a seasonal solution.

More >>

​What puts Seattle eaters in the mood for love? Chocolate and oysters, of course - but also vinaigrette, arugula and leeks (roasted, if possible.)

To woo the city's doting couples, restaurants annually devise prix-fixe Valentine's menus studded with quasi-aphrodisiacs. In a highly unscientific method of determining which dishes local eaters associate with romance, we plugged every holiday menu sent us by eager publicists into a word cloud generator: The bigger the word, the more frequently chefs used it.

More >>

​Forget the Champagne and sexy negligee: A small but passionate minority of Valentine's Day celebrants is pushing to make family the focus of the holiday.

"Valentine's Day does not have to be solely reserved for couples or sweethearts," a parenting columnist advised her readers, adding the slightly illicit suggestion that they should "date their children." In Seattle, Tutta Bella is promoting its kid-friendly atmosphere as an alternative to the red rose-and-candlelight restaurants that require reservations and babysitters. "Tutta Bella has a table for the whole family!," trumpets a release.

I'm assuming most parents would prefer to have a romantic Valentine's Day for two, but wondered what kids thought about scoring a seat at the holiday table. Do they appreciate joining their parents for the lovey-doviest day of the year?

More >>

​The Lunar New Year festival, which starts Monday, is always a major holiday on the Chinese calendar. But the celebration is even more exuberant when the coming year is symbolized by a dragon, as is the case this year, says Amy Chinn of the Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience.

"It seems to be bigger," Chinn says. "It's a different kind of feeling when it's a big dragon instead of a little rabbit."

In addition to the traditional lion dance and firecrackers, Wing Luke this month is hosting a series of culinary events in conjunction with Chinese New Year and analogous observances in other Asian cultures.There's a Japanese tea ceremony scheduled for Saturday, and a food walk featuring $2 bites from 20 International District restaurants is planned for Jan. 28.

More >>

​In addition to the general calls for help that food banks issue every Christmas season, the December charitable calendar is chockablock with targeted food drives collecting gluten-free staples, kosher products and pet food. But the stigma that clings to providing alcohol to the poor has prevented do-gooders from mounting any campaigns for holiday wine donations.

Admittedly, the idea of distributing bubbly for New Year's Eve sounds awfully frivolous in the face of a growing hunger crisis: As I called around to report this post, I had to clarify I wasn't working on a satire. But sparkling wine on New Year's Eve has the same symbolic value as toys on Christmas, a ritual that's fiercely supported by non-profits nationwide. Like Xbox 360s and Barbie dolls, toasting the New Year is a signifier of normalcy, and a reminder that there's more to life than applying for jobs and haggling with insurance companies.

More >>

​Organizers of the Japanese Cultural & Community Center of Washington's mochitsuki anticipate this year's edition of the traditional New Year's rice pounding will draw a record number of participants.

"Last year we had 300 or so folks, and we're expecting it to be a little bit bigger," interim executive director Bif Brigman says.

Now in its fifth year, the JCCW celebration is still eclipsed by the mochitsuki annually staged by the Bainbridge Island Japanese American Community, which last year attracted 1200 attendees. But Brigman says collaborations with other organizations and the ebbing of mochitsuki ceremonies around Seattle have helped grow the JCCCW event.

More >>

​Food writers weary of reprinting recipes for no-grease latkes and rehashing the "applesauce or sour cream" debate have this year devoted an increasing number of feature column inches to sufganiyot, the Israeli jelly-filled doughnuts that took hold as a Hanukkah food in the 1950s. To many American Jews, the pastries seem somehow more celebratory than shtetl-style pancakes of potato, onion and matzo meal.

But doughnuts present a problem for party hosts, who know their guests are unlikely to chow down on 300-calorie, saucer-sized sugar spheres while daintily sipping wines and cocktails. And in Seattle, more than 50 miles from the nearest Dunkin' Donuts Munchkin or Tim Horton's Timbit, freshly-made holes can be hard to find.

More >>

​Even when served under the non-comittal heading of "holiday," most seasonal cocktails taste like Christmas. Swamped with the flavors of nutmeg and cream, cinnamon and peppermint, the drinks evoke evenings spent trimming trees and hanging stockings.

"There are 20 volumes on Christmas cocktails, and three volumes on nogs alone," says San Francisco cocktail enthusiast Rob Corwin. "It's not a competition, but Hanukkah needs a cocktail to call its own."

For a recent party, I mixed Dr. Brown's Black Cherry soda with vodka and lime juice to create a distinctly Jewish spritzer for pairing with latkes. But Corwin, who's giving his husband a bottle of Blue Magellan gin for Hanukkah, envisioned something more sophisticated when a friend asked him what they planned to mix for a holiday get-together.

More >>