On the twelfth day of Christmas…

I made a tea loaf.

Yes, over Christmas we have all been able to indulge ourselves doing something that my whole family loves to do…baking!

So, I thought I’d share on my blog our ‘Twelve Bakes of Christmas’ to record for posterity what we’ve all been baking.

1. First off was the Other Half, with his ‘Baked Pineapple Lump Cheesecake’ for the Kiwi Christmas party (this is basically a house full of Kiwi’s and their associated partners and children getting together a week before Christmas, for an early Christmas meal together before everyone travels off to wherever they are actually going for Christmas).

Pineapple Lumps are a New Zealand favourite, and finding the bag of them that I’d stashed away, the Other Half decided to combine them with his current baking number one, the baked cheesecake. It came out rather lovely, I have to say. So lovely in fact, that it all got eaten before I got a picture of it. I suspect someone else probably took pictures of it though, so when I get one I’ll stick it on here!

2. Belgium Biscuits. Another NZ favourite, and baked every year by myself in the week prior to Christmas. They smell and taste fantastic. They have mixed spice, cinnamon and nutmeg to give them a lovely festive taste, and are filled with our homemade raspberry jam before being topped with a raspberry flavoured icing and a sprinkle of raspberry jelly crystals. Yum!

3. Yoyo bisuits. Yet another NZ recipe, and made shortly after the Belgium biscuits.

They’re a little bit like a cross between a shortbread and a custard cream. Extremely moreish.

4. Parsnip gratin – baked by myself for the last two years as part of the Christmas day dinner. It’s made with a bit of mustard and nutmeg to give some lovely flavours to the meal.

5. Christmas cake by Auntie Tooie. Made well in advance so it could be appropriately ‘fed’, but not iced and revealed until Christmas tea-time. We were lucky enough to get a lump to bring home with us too!

6. Mince pies, also by Auntie Tooie. Well, you’ve got to have mince pies at Christmas haven’t you. And home made ones are the best.

7. The Other Half’s Birthday cake for his birthday on the 26th December, made by me. If you saw my Silent Sunday a couple of weeks ago you’ll already know which one I mean.

It’s a victoria sponge with a bit of an F1 theme going on as the decoration – he got F1 tickets as his birthday present so the cake was a nice illustration of that fact.

8. The Wee Man’s fairy cakes – made using my left over cake mix from the Other Half’s birthday cake, and expertly decorated by him using the vermicelli and sprinkles, cake cases and icing mix that Father Christmas gave him in his stocking.

 

9. Mum’s gingerbread house. It stayed looking amazing for about two minutes, when the Wee Man noticed it was actual sweeties forming the house and started devouring it. Luckily I got a photo before that happened!

10. Mum’s GIANT pork pie. Very, very filling and tasty, made to accompany the turkey soup and salady leftovers for the 28th December. There is a photo of this, but I took it on her camera and being somewhat technologically inept (sorry Mum but it’s true!) she hasn’t sent me a copy yet…

11. Death by Chocolate cake, made by me by special request from the Wee Man, for day 9…and 10…and 11…oh and go on then, 12 as well. Basically just because we had a lot of baking ingredients lying around and thought, why not.

It’s very rich, and very, very chocolatey – as the name might suggest. Topped with shiny shiny chocolate icing, and sprinkled with white chocolate to finish. Served a bit warm with vanilla ice cream home-made by the Other Half – actually I’m surprised it even lasted as long as it did.

12. And on the 12th day, something a little bit healthier – tea loaf baked by me!

Fat free, and made with wholemeal flour, but still lovely and tasty and very moist thanks to soaking the fruit in tea for a day before baking it. Lovely served with a smear of butter (whoops, there’s the added fat…)

Now we are all baked out. For a day or two, at least.

And if you want the recipe for any of them, just drop me a line – there are far too many of them for me to list them all here 🙂