Plain scones

Ok, so I did not follow the recipe exactly. But the only thing I did differently was double the mixture and roll out the mixture about two inch's think as opposed to the recommended thickness of 2cm. They were yummy and exactly what I expected of scones, I took these to work with freshly whipped cream and my mum's homemade jam. They did not last long!

Sultana scones

I made this recipe twice and was not happy with either batch. The first ones were mini and the second which the only difference was that I doubled the thickness so there was fewer scones. Even though they were thicker they were not big enough. When I think of a scone I think big not mini. I replaced the sultana's with raisins as I prefer raisins and they were nice but way to small.

Squidgy Chocolate Log

This is a Delia recipe, my Mum makes this at Christmas every year, this year she had to put up with me being around and wanting to but it to her Christmas baking routine. So I made this.

with a little help from my Mum. It was lovely, as it always is. We made this with raspberries in the middle.

I got a little obsessed with making shore the cream and raspberry layers were evenly distributed, even though you can't really tell in the finished product, but that is just the way I roll!

Orange and Cranberry Cupcakes

This year instead of sending Christmas cards at work I decided to make some cupcakes. This is a fairly new concept to me, as I am not a great lover of icing and so I tend not to make things covered in it. But cupcakes always look so pretty and yummy and its Christmas so things have to be sparkly and festive. So I made pretty sparkly cupcakes.

This recipe was taken from the Primrose Bakery Book, and I have to admit the white chocolate icing was lovely. I fancy trying to make more cupcakes.

However, there were two problems, one, I made so many of them and iced so many of them, which was fun, but I was still icing them at 22:30 and I have to admit that the last few were increasingly uneven in presentation. Two, the icing was so overpowering in flavour (yummy) but this distracted you away from the yummy cake and it was yummy cake, yummy enough that it did not need icing.

Christmas cards

I like to come up with different ideas every year for my Christmas cards. Last year I made felted Christmas shapes that doubled as Christmas tree decorations. I poped up to Nottingham a few weeks ago and we visited Aurora lights at Rufford Mill this lead to some great picture. I took most of the picture whilst walking this lead to some interesting images. This gave me an idea, I ventured out at night in to Portsmouth to get some more pictures of Christmas lights and these were the basis of my Christmas card's 2011.

I used cookie cutters to cut out the shapes in the card. Some of them have spray on glitter also to make them even more Christmasy.

Felt Christmas decorations

Felt is a great fabric to use to make Christmas decorations.

And can make cool gift ideas.

Christmas cake 2

This is my finished Christmas cake. What do you think?
My target for next year is to do my own decorations, these ones are plastic if you can't tell. I always find that I leave everything to late at Christmas, I start ordering gifts one or two days before I run out of time. Making cards frantically on the day I need to send them and wrapping before I head out to give gifts. Despite all this I love Christmas preparations because its a great reason to be creative and the dark nights are another great excuse to stay in and get creative. So target for next year is to also start Christmas preparations in November so then I can pack in more creative ideas.

By the way it was a tasty cake as far as Christmas cake goes. Next time I might leave out the Brandy.

 

Paper chain decorations

This is a very simple Christmas decoration but it is effective. I helped my sister and my two nephews to make this one.

Spiced Chocolate Cake

As it is now winter, the dark days and long nights seem to be bringing my work colleagues down, one in particular. So I asked what kind of cake would cheer her up, she said chocolate or vanilla. The Be-Ro cook book has a few chocolate cake recipes but no vanilla ones? This Be-Ro recipe is yummy. I left of the icing that the recipe suggested as it did not need anything else, it was delicious all on its on.

This would have been lovely warmed with custard or cream also, though there was none left to try this.

Christmas Cake

Ok, so I have not tasted this yet, and I am not a great fan of Christmas cake. But it looks delicious. I have no idea if anyone will eat it over Christmas as my family aren't fans either.

I haven't made Christmas cake since being at school, my mum used to make lovely decorations to go on top of the cake (we used to eat the marzipan decorations and leave the cake).

I altered the Be-Ro recipe slightly by adding fruit that I liked (there are no currents, sultans or glacie cherries in this cake) I added figs and dried berries.

I shell up-date my blog with pic's of my blinged up cake.