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.

Chocolate & Hazlenut Loaf Cake

I decided to see if I convert the recipe for the Orange and Fig cake (below):

I swapped the ground almonds for ground hazlenuts
I swapped the fruit juice and zest for hazlenut syrup (Monin coffee syrup) and vanilla extract
I swapped the extra virgin olive oil for hazlenut oil
I added a cup of copped hazlenuts (toasted) and chocolate chunks
I topped with chocolate sauce made by microwaving 50g dark chocolate, 120g milk chocolate, 50g unsalted butter and 1 tbsp of golden syrup for 1 minute
I poured the sauce over the cakes (made two again) and added a few whole toasted hazlenuts  

Olive Ol, Orange, Honey & Fig Loaf Cake

Recipe from the Jamie Oliver Magazine:

300g Sugar
3 Eggs
200g Flour
125g Ground Almonds
Zest of 1 Lemon (I skipped this)
Zest & Juice of 2 Oranges
125ml Extra Virgin Olive Oil
100ml Milk
4 Figs (I used 8 chopped not halved and they were dried not fresh))
3 Tbsp Honey (I just squezzed it from the bottle onto the cakes without measuring)
I added 1 Tbsp of Orange Extract (Sainsburys Valencian Orange Extract)
180 Degrees Celcius
I used 2 standard loaf tins for all this mixture and lined them with the ready bought liners
I cooked them for 30 mins not the 40 mins it says then added the figs ontop and honey and only put in for another 10 mins.
Really really moist and tasty.

Grandma's 80th Birthday Cake

And the completed cake:

Fondant Owls

My first attempt at using fondant - not too bad even if I do say so myself! These are for my Grandma's 80th birthday cake. It's the boozy Christmake made from the recipe on www.thepinkwhisk.co.uk I am still feeding it with more brandy for another week before decorating it.

Ziggy's 1st Birthday Cake

The Hummingbird Bakey Brooklyn Blackout Cake covered with blue icing, chocolate Pocky biscuits, edible glitter, edible white pearls (bubbles) and duck candles. He liked I think?

 

 

Mini Kahlua Cupcakes

www.annies-eats.com

Mini Chocolate Kahlua Cupcakes

Wow - really good, perfect for a party they have quite a kick!

Black Forest FroYo

I used full fat Greek yoghurt, honey, toasted almonds, morello cherry jam and some chuks of chocolate covered marzipan. Yummy flavour but I made a big mistake. I thought 3 hours of freezing the drum would be enough but it wasn't so it didn't really churn and went quite hard. Next froyo I will freeze the drum overnight.

Nutella Crinkle Cookies

wwwhungryrabbitnyc.com
Nutcrackle

I made these for my friend Bonny's 31st birthday present and they went down very well!

Homemade Pizza

 

We used the base from Jamie Oliver's Jamie At Home, then for sauce I roased some home grown tomatoes in olive oil and salt and pepper then sqaushed them through a seive. IU then heated the sauce through with some oregano, a garlic crushed clove and splash of balsamic vinager. Then spead some blobs of pesto, some pine nuts, some sliced onions, peppers, olives and mushrooms and covered with mozzerella - way better than Dominoes! 

 

 

Killer Valrhona Brownies

Killer Valrhona Brownies - Tea with Bea

Amazing!!!!

I didn't use any coconut, I swapped it for hazlenut paste but no question that they are the best brownies ever - so fudgey and chocolatey 10 out 10!

Cappuccino Brownie

Cappuccino Brownie from www.gormet.com

Really worth the effort, they were yummy. I did use extra sugar and cream in the top layer as it was a bit bitter for me. Next time I'm adding Kalua!

Olivia's 1st Birthday Cake

Olivia's 1st Birthday Cake

Jamie Oliver's Chocolate & Banna Loaf (magazine recipe) with bits cut out to shape the 1 then covered in cream cheese frosting and decorated with edible glitter, mini smarties and one candle.

I used the cut out peiced of cake crumbled up and put into a vanilla ice cream mix 5 minutes before the end of the churning and it worked really well.  



Jen's Jubilee Party

I made:

Chocolate Cake Balls With Added Orange Essance in White Chocolate With Red White & Blue Sprinkles (Step By Step Baking by Caroline Bretherton)

Peanutbutter Swirl Brownies (One More Slice by Leila Lindholm)

The Cake was The Renee (Tea With Bea by Bea's of Bloomsbury)

Cornbread with added Roasted Red Pepper & Spring Onion (Step By Step Baking by Caroline Bretherton)

Savory Tart Changed to Mixed Cheese With Red Onion and Pine Nuts Decorated With Red Peppers (Step By Step Baking by Caroline Bretherton)

Easter Tea Party

Peanutbutter Chocolate chip cookies from piterest, a condesed milk cake with mango and condensed milk icing and from the Good Food website the Chocolate and Caramel layer cake which was very rich and yummy!