Nativity Christmas Cake

Eskimo Christmas Cake

The cake for both was the boozy fruit cake from www.thepinkwhisk.co.uk but this year she had made the cooking method easier and the recipe more flexible. This one was for my family and the nativity scene cake was for my partners family.

Reindeer Cupcakes

I wanted to make something for Christmas day that my neices and nephews (and sister) could eat that were alchol free so decided to make these:

 

The cupcakes and frosting are the Chocolate and Orange Cupcakes from the Hummingbird Bakery's Cake Days cookbook

The buscuits are the Sugar Cookies from www.sweetopia.net

I used sugarpaste for the eyeballs, an icing pen for the mouth, M&M's for the nose and pretzels (some chocolate covered and some plain) for the antlers.      

Christmas Movie Munchie Treat Box's

The two movie munchie boxes were for Kelly and Bonny and contained the Hazlenut Shortbread, Dairy Free Maple Pecan Dark Chocolate Shortbread, Peanut Brittle and Coconut Caramel Popcorn. I also made Peanut Brittle for Mrs D.

The Coconut Caramel Popcorn came from www.saveur.com and didn't look amazing but did taste nice. The peanut brittle was from www.fifteenspatulas.com and was amazing (though I did have to make it twice as the first batch tasted burnt).

Dairy Free Dark Chocolate Maple Pecan Shortbread & (Dairy) Hazlenut Shorbread

The recipe was Martha Stewart's Maple Pecan Shortbread. For the Hazlenut Moose Heads I swapped the pecan for hazlenuts and the maple syrup for hazlenut syrup (monin coffee syrup) and swapped the maple extract for vanilla exctract and it worked really well. These were for Fluer, Kelly and Bonny.

For the dairy free gold maple leafs I simply swapped the butter for Pure diary free butter, added some dark chocolate chunks and decorated with icing mixed with cocoa, maple syrup and edible gold glitter. These were for Magda, Kelly and Bonny.

 

 

 

 

Christmas Chutney & Crackers Gift Box

Mike said he would like to give our Carribean chutney we made recently to his aunt and uncle for Christmas with some home made crakers and I think it made a really nice gift.

The chutney was made to use up some home grown chilli's and included banana, sultanans, spiced rum, and allspice and was a success but I lost the recipe I amended for it which is a shame.

The Cheese and Rosemary Sables came from Delicios magazine (Decmeber 2012) and the Poppy Seed Crackers came from Good Housekeeping magazine (December 2012).

 

 

Christmas Rocky Road

To make the rocky road Christmasy I melted two seperate batches of white chocolate and added red food colouring to one and green to the other and put these into the base of a clingfilm lined tin so when it was turned out it would become the top (I just made swirly patterns with them). Then in the mixture I added gingernut biscuits, orange zest, orange essance, cinnamon, nutmeg, mixed spice and vanilla essance, about 1 tsp of each. I added shortbread cookies, pecans, cherries and cranberries and lots of marshmallows, dark chocolate, butter and golden syrup mixed it all together and firdged it for an hour, cut it into squares and dusted with icing sugar.

The spices were a big hit with my sister who loves rocky road so I had to make extra for her even though it was a gift for my friend Donna.

Mini Gingerbread Cupcakes

Mini versions of the Gingerbread Cupcakes from the Hummingbird Bakey book - always a winner! These were for Kelly and Paul's house warming.

Dairy Free Maple Pecan Shortbread

These were my first attempt at the Diary Free Maple Pecan Shortbread but I preferred the second attempt with the dark chocolate and gold decoration on the maple leaf shap.

Ferero Rocher Brownies with Nutella Frosting

These are from www.mybakingaddiction.com and were a massive hit with my sister, you can't go wrong with Nutella involved!

Nutella Puff Pastry Swirls

I had some puff pastry in the fridge that needed using up so i spread most of a jar of nutella over it and sprinkled it with chopped pecans and brazil nuts, rolled it up and sliced it into rounds and baked it at 180 c for 12 minutes. Next time I would roll the pastry thinnner as it was quite thick and maybe add a little maple syrup.