The twelve bakes of Christmas 2012

While many people are beginning their New Year’s dieting resolutions, we are still happily chomping our way through all the yummy Christmas wares that we’ve baked throughout the festive period.

So here you have it, our 12 bakes of Christmas:

1. Christmas Cake

This was the first bit of baking, as we like to do it well in advance so that it can be well fed with brandy. Admittedly, I had a bit of a disaster the first time I tried it – thanks to being sidetracked by the kids – and baked it covered in only one sheet of greaseproof paper. BIG mistake…it came out so incinerated that even the middle wasn’t recoverable.

Second time round, I went a bit crazy with the baking paper and wrapped it up well…and a lovely, fruity, tasty cake emerged unscathed.

We don’t really like icing in our house so I just used a coffee stencil to make icing sugar patterns on the top instead.

2. Pizza Cookies

These got made three times because the Wee Man loves them! Once for his preschool Christmas party, once for my work party and once for the kids Christmas party that I organize every year.

They’re so easy for little ones to make and taste delicious 🙂

3. Lolly Cake

A Kiwi classic that we make every year. Really, really simple for cooking with the kids – it’s only got 5 ingredients – and looks lovely as a festive treat. We made some for the Wee Man’s preschool Christmas fete (and we did keep a little bit for ourselves as well!)

4. Christmas pudding

Every time I tried to make the pudding, I realized that I’d run out of one of the vital ingredients. The process of making it was delayed later and later, until it seemed like I might completely run out of time! Luckily we finally managed to get everything and everyone together (it’s family tradition that everyone has a stir and makes a wish) and it was steamed for 8 hours on Christmas Eve, ready for lunch the next day.

5. Jaffa Torte

Every year we go to Kiwi Christmas, and every year we come up with a new Kiwi-confectionary-inspired dessert. This year it was the turn of the Jaffas, small round reddish orange chocolate sweets that look a bit like aniseed balls (but taste like mini chocolate oranges).

So we made a Chocolate Jaffa Torte which looked and tasted lovely, yet was actually fairly simple to make.

6. Kit Kat and Malteser Cake

Reading through some blogs before Christmas, I spotted an amazing cake that I knew the Other Half would love for his birthday – Mummy Mishap’s Glittery Malteser and Kit Kat cake. I used the Sainsbury’s Kit Kat alternative, and gold shimmer spray rather than silver, but the outcome was still  – as she says – amazing 🙂

7. Christmas Fudge

We decided to make a small gift for everyone this year rather than buying things, and so I decided to give fudge making a go. I settled on two different types – dark chocolate ginger and fruity Christmas fudge, and threw some ingredients together in the hope that this was what I would achieve. And as it turned out, it worked very nicely. We wrapped them in little cellophane bags with red ribbon and a handwritten label, and I think they were appreciated. I know of at least one bagful that’s already been scoffed, anyway!

8. Snow cookies

There was no real reason for baking these, other than the Wee Man wanted to and I thought, well, why not? Whilst mine were shaped into rounded biscuit styles, he decided he wanted to make his look like dog poos…and he was very pleased with the results. They tasted good either way…

9. Sausage rolls

As part of the sausage roll competition for Kiwi Christmas, we made shortcrust sausage rolls. These are usually lovely served warm as part of a nibbly buffet – however this time round they were a bit on the strange side due to ending up being barbecued…

10. Pavlova

Normally, for the Other Half’s birthday every year (which is on Boxing Day) my mum whips him up a pavlova. However, on Christmas Day this year I got a sad little text which said ‘I’ve run out of cornflour :’( )

So, since we did in fact have some cornflour, eggs, white wine vinegar and caster sugar I decided perhaps I would do what I’ve not done for a few years now, and give it a go. One ‘helpful’ three year old and a wasted egg white + random-things-thrown-in-the-bowl-while-mummy-is-whisking mix later, I was beginning to question this decision. However, having ejected the Wee Man from the kitchen and into the custody of his Grandad, success was achieved – and the finished result was surprisingly good!

11. Mince pies

Well, you’ve got to have mince pies at Christmas haven’t you? This year we decided to do open topped ones with little pastry shapes instead of lids, and the Wee Man chose an angel, a bell and a teddy bear. I thought I’d greased the tin really well but it turned out not well enough – some of them ended up with their bottoms firmly glued to the tin. I’ll know for next year!

12. Sainsbury’s Billionare’s Torte

The clue is in the name – we didn’t actually bake this one ourselves! But we do like to flick through the various little magazines that come out in the supermarkets at Christmas time showcasing all the lovely yummy food that’s on offer, and when the Other Half and I saw this billionaire’s torte, we just couldn’t help adding it to our Christmas shopping list.

Following our Christmas dinner it slipped down a treat accompanied by a big glass of Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference Prosecco…and whilst we didn’t exactly feel like billionaires it certainly was extremely tasty and lived up to its yummy sounding description. Didn’t take long for the plate to be licked clean, and there were only five of us there!

 

So that’s it! There are still a few crumbs to be had and then it’s onto an altogether drearier and much healthier list – the twelve bakes (potatoes most likely) of January…