christmas cake, ginger & mandarin trifles & christmas eve canapes

sorry i've only just got round to blogging about all my christmas cooking, first up was my amazing christmas cake, we bought the Waitrose Christmas Cake Kit, as it had been recommended by a few friends, it gives you all the dry ingredients, including the booze soaked fruits, the cake was quite light and delicious, way too many slices have already been eaten... Decided on a fairly simple decoration of a few small pine trees and my trusty little reindeer and some red ribbon, I love it, think it looks really vintage! I would highly recommend buying this kit, took all the hassle of making the cake, happy days!

next up, i was in charge of desserts for christmas day, I wanted to make a traditional trifle with a twist, so decided on vintage tea cup ginger & mandarin trifles... they were delicious.
First off start by slicing a Mcvities Jamaica Ginger cake and spreading each slice with M&S ginger curd and place in the bottom of each tea cup. I then used 2 cans of mandarins in orange juice and heated them up very gently with a splash of Grand Marnier, a stick of cinnamon and 1 star anise, once cooled I then added the fruit and some juice to the tea cup. Next up I made some homemade custard and then topped with whipped cream (I added 2 dessert spoons of mandarin and Grand Marnier Tesco cream), give it a go, they were a fun twist on a classic dessert...

Finally, our family spent christmas eve at my sister and brother-in-laws as they recently moved into their beautiful new house! Katy and I made lots of scrummy canapes, including fig, proscuitto, mozarella and mint forks, salmon, cream cheese, beetroot and chive spoons, pastrami, sun-dried tomato, & horseradish croutons, chorizo & lemongrass puff swirls and pork and apple sausage rolls, all washed down with some tasty pomegranate Prosseco cocktails...

flowerpot seeded bread

my lovely friend Carly bought me a flowerpot seeded bread kit for my birthday this year, this gift is totally up my street and I couldn't wait to give it a go, it was really simple. Just add the flour/seed mix to a bowl with the packet of yeast, 160ml of warm water and 2 tablespoons of olive oil and then knead for about 10 minutes, leave to prove in the greaseproof lined flowerpots for up to an hour (or once they have doubled in size) then bake in the oven (fan assisted) at 190 for 20 minutes, they were so delicious!! I want to host a dinner party now just so that I can serve them up for starters with soup... too cute!

handmade christmas wreaths

mum and i decided to attempt some christmas wreath making today, here are the results!!! all greenery foraged for locally so they were absolutely free!! Merry Christmas!

what do you need?

1 x wire coat hanger

1 x roll of florists green tape

green florists wire

ivy, holly, any greenery you can pick locally

berries

christmas robin plates

a few months ago I spotted these gorgeous Royal Worcester gold trim side plates in my local second hand shop and knew I would be able to up-cycle them at some point.....

Now the temperature has dropped and it is feeling a lot more festive, I decided to go with these very cute little robins, how cute?....

ps sorry for the lack of posts, busy being a student midwife, start my placement on Monday, wish me luck....

Coconut & Banana loaf

i haven't baked in a while now, so on Sunday I was in the mood to give something new a go, I saw this recipe a while ago in a newspaper, forgive me I can't remember which one.... Without the frosting you could even serve it as a breakfast loaf, very light and interesting combination of flavours, I would highly recommend giving it a try...

ingredients

3 mashed ripe bananas

200g coconut milk

2 eggs

120ml vegetable oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

125g granulated sugar

350g self raising flour

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

120g desiccated coconut

1/2 tsp if salt

frosting

150g icing sugar

300g cream cheese

125ml double cream

1 tsp vanilla extract (seeds of 1 vanilla pod)

topping

50g toasted dessicated coconut

method

1 - Heat oven to 170C, grease 2 litre loaf tin

2 - blend bananas and coconut milk together

3 - beat oil and sugar together, gradually add the 2 eggs, stir in the vanilla and banana & coconut milk mix

4 - whisk together the flour, bicarb and salt in a mixing bowl, then fold wet ingredients into the dry & add desiccated coconut.

5 - pour into the loaf tin and bake for 60 minutes

6 - to make the frosting, whip the cream and vanilla, then add to the cream cheese and icing sugar

7 - spread the frosting on top of the cake once cool, toast the 50g desiccated coconut and sprinkle over the top!!

DIY Floral Letter

i was recently browsing Pinterest and came across this little craft project on The Mrs & Momma blog that I really want to give a go... I have a few old picture frames which I want to use for something so thought this would be the perfect answer.... will let you know how i get on!

Liberty & jam jar lid art

Yesterday was my last official day up in London before student life beings tomorrow! After my amazingly relaxing week on the sleepy island of Lopud, Croatia, Sarah treated me to afternoon tea at The Courthouse Hotel, it was delicious, and check out what I did with the jam jar lids... very cute!

We also wandered past Liberty, and believe it or not, i have NEVER been in there before!!!! I fell in love with the place and need an entire day to explore, here are a few snaps... Sarah had to drag me out!

Caramel apple cake

It's my last day at work today and in time honoured tradition I have baked a few cakes for all the guys at work, this is the first time I have made this particular one - "Caramel Apple Cake", I picked up the recipe sheet from a local Waitrose, its pretty simple and blooming delicious with a nice cuppa tea.

Ingredients

300g (3 large) bramley cooking apples (peeled, cored and diced)
125g unsalted, softened butter
397g (1 tin) carnation caramel
2 eggs
225g self raising flour
2 tsp cinammon
2 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp milk
1 tbsp demerara sugar

Method

1 - Preheat oven to 160 and grease and line a 7inch cake tin
2 - Whisk with an electric mixer the butter and 225g caramel together
3 - Add the 2 eggs and beat together
4 - Sift in the flour, cinammon and baking powder and mix well
5 - Stir in the apple and milk and spoon into the cake tin
6 - Sprinkle over the demerara sugar and bake in the oven for 1 hour
7 - Once cooled, gently heat the rest of the caramel and pour over the top of the cake!

little sis got hitched

Just over a week ago my little sister got hitched, I have been patiently waiting to write this blog for over a year now, Katy & Martin got married at the Tithe Barn in our parents village of Lenham, the wedding theme was Recycling and so there was lots of crafting involved, so here goes....

First off, lets talk flowers, Katy had heard from a friend who got married last year, that they picked all their flowers from a local nursery and arranged them all by themsleves, so of course you might remember that I went on a bridal bouquet and buttonhole course earlier this year, well that was all in preparation for the big day! The Friday before the wedding, Katy, Mum and I headed down to Blooming Greens to pick all our wild flowers, it costs £50 per bucket and they advised we would need 3 buckets to allow for one bridal bouquet and 10 table arrangements, it was such a lovely thing to do and I loved the fact the flowers were all seasonal we did it all by ourselves ....

Next up is the beautiful wedding cake and dessert.... My amazingly talented mum made the wedding cake, and my god didnt it look stunning and trust me it tasted divine!!! The cake consisted of 3 tiers, each comprising 4 layers of victoria sponge cake, butter cream and homemade strawberry jam (thanks to Diana in the village)

Katy & Martin decided they wanted fresh strawberries and cream for dessert, but also opted for these gorgeous assortment of different flavours of meringue kisses, made by the exremely talented Meringue Girls, check out their website, they recently made meringues for the opening of the new Picadilly Cath Kidston store....

Next up, the favours, I saw these bride and groom pegs on pinterest ages ago, and fell in love, so did Katy, we wanted to incorporate them into the wedding somehow, Katy decided to use them to fasten the pic n mix favours bag and attach their wedding compilation CD to the bag, cute or what?? Martin also had a stamp made to match their invites.... and a very lovely talented guy who i met through work, Andrew, very kindly made the crate out of salvaged crate, hopefully Katy & Martin can use it as a herb garden.....

Last up, thought you might like to see a few snaps of the venue and the very happy couple.... (Martins Dad, Mick made the Mr & Mrs sign, very clever man!!) and my Mum and Nan Violet made all the pretty bunting.... what an amazing day, epic wedding never to be forgotten....

Last up, thank you very much to Emma's Fabric Studio for lending us the crochet eyes for the tractors, they really make this photo...