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Wednesday 31 December 2014

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...



Tuesday 30 December 2014

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!




Tuesday 16 December 2014

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