Individual Berry Tarts

Yesterday I was invited to attend a get together hosted by Lydia Bakes.  I decided to make two types of little tarts, one sweet and the other savoury (recipe to come later in the week).  These Individual Berry Tarts are delish, and really simple to make.  And, if you buy pre-made pastry tarts from the supermarket, they would be a really quick treat to assemble – perfect for Christmas day.

Ingredients:
Pastry cases:
2 ¾ cups flour
1 cup icing sugar
pinch of salt
250g unsalted butter, cold, chopped
1 egg
1 teaspoon lemon juice
½ teaspoon lemon zest
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Filling:
500g mixed frozen berries
½ cup icing sugar
400g marscapone cheese
½ cup brown sugar
200g white chocolate melts

Method:
Pastry cases:
In a food processor, combine the flour, icing sugar and salt by pulsing the mixture in 2 second bursts.  Add the butter and pulse until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
Add the egg, lemon juice, zest and vanilla essence and pulse the mixture together, about 10 times.  The mixture should look dry and crumbly.
On a lightly floured surface, shape the mixture into a ball.  Wrap in cling film and place in the refrigerator for about 2 hours, or until firm.
Grease a 12 hole muffin tin.  Preheat the oven to 180°C.
Roll the pastry mixture out to about 5mm thick.  Cut out rounds from the pastry, about 6cm in diameter (I used a drinking glass for this).  Place the pastry rounds into the prepared muffin holes and press into place.  Prick the bottom of each pastry case with a fork. 
Cut out squares of baking paper (or use muffin papers) and line each pastry case before filling each with uncooked rice or baking weights.  Place the prepared tin of pastry cases into the freezer for 5 – 10 minutes (or the fridge for 30 minutes) to become cool again and firm up. 
Bake for 10 minutes.  Take the cases out of the oven and remove the paper and baking weights before returning to the oven for a further 2-5 minutes.  Set aside to cool.

Filling:
Place the frozen berries in a bowl and cover with the icing sugar.  Set the berries aside to defrost, mixing regularly to ensure an even coverage of the icing sugar.  If the berries taste too tart, add more icing sugar until you are happy with the level of sweetness.
Melt the white chocolate in a microwave safe bowl using 30 second bursts on high in the microwave, mixing between each burst until the chocolate is smooth.  Using a desert spoon, wave spoonful's of the chocolate over a piece of baking paper to make thin lines.  Turn the paper ninety degrees and repeat, to make a lattice effect.  Set the paper aside while the chocolate sets.
In another bowl, mix together the marscapone and the brown sugar.  Place a dollop of this mixture into each pastry case. 
Drain the berries.  Place a handful of berries on each tart. 
Break off pieces of the chocolate lattice and place into the side of each tart.
Keep the tarts refrigerated before serving.

White Chocolate Rocky Road

This is delicious and it looks Christmassy! There is also a huge bonus in this as it is a not bake recipe which is perfect at this time of year as things are hectic and it’s getting so hot.

Ingredients:
500g white chocolate
25g dehydrated strawberries
100g mini marshmallows
120g pistachio nuts, roughly chopped
75g Whittaker’s raspberry White chocolate, roughly chopped
1/2 cup craisins

Method:
Line a 20x20cm slice tin with grease proof paper.
Melt white chocolate in a double boiler, be sure not to let the boiling water touch the bottom of the bowl that the chocolate is in.
Once all the chocolate is melted remove from the heat.
Allow the chocolate to cool for 2-3 minutes before adding all other ingredients. Stir through to ensure that all additions are distributed evenly.
Pour the mixture into the slice tin and refrigerate for at least an hour before for slicing.
* You can reserve a small amount of the strawberry and pistachio to scatter on top for a more attractive finish, do this before putting into the fridge.

This slice will keep well for up to a week in an airtight container – if it lasts that long!

Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas from Courtenay and Melissa! We hope you all have a safe and relaxing break. We are doing something we have never done before and are taking a wee break from posting to give ourselves some time to chill out and recharge. We’ll be back, bringing you plenty of new recipes and inspiration from January 7. If you are stuck for ideas and want to get into the kitchen we will still be updating our facebook page and there is plenty of inspiration on our Pinterest boards.

See you in the new year xx

Gingerbread Men

My house smelt incredibly Christmassy while popping batches of these smiley gingerbread men in the oven. I’m not a huge fan of gingerbread but Shane is and I have been meaning to make him some the last few Christmas’ and have just run out of time/been a bit lazy! Last year I saw on Pinterest some gingerbread men in a jar and then a few weeks ago I spotted the same idea in the Chelsea gift guide, this compelled me to finally bake a batch. My recipe is slightly different to the Chelsea recipe but works off the same principal (meaning if you want to have a go at making gingerbread men in jars you can download the gift tag/instructions here, cheeky huh?!).

Makes 20.

Ingredients:
Dry
2½ cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon nutmeg

Wet
125 grams butter, softened
½ cup golden syrup
1 egg yolk

Method:
In the bowl of your mixer beat butter with golden syrup and egg yolk until creamy and smooth.
Add the dry ingredients (contents of the jar) and mix on a medium speed until a soft dough forms.
Lay some cling film on your bench or a hard surface, place your dough on to the cling film and knead into a ball. Wrap the cling film around the ball and chill for 20 minutes.
While your dough is chilling, pre-heat oven to 170ºC and line two baking trays with baking paper.
Roll out gingerbread dough to about 3 mm (if its sticky roll between two sheets of baking paper – I did this and found it worked very well).
Cut using a gingerbread man shaped cookie cutter. Transfer to baking trays and cook for 8-12 minutes (until golden) depending on how hard you like your gingerbread.
If you want to decorate your gingerbread men/people it is best to use royal icing, you can buy powder for this at the supermarket or you can make your own using the left over egg white by beating the egg white with a whisk attachment until it is foamy. At this point you can sift in 1/2 cup of icing sugar, stir and repeat until the icing holds it shape, which is important if you can going to pipe it on (this shouldn't take more than 1 – 1 1/2 cups). Transfer icing to a piping bag an decorate as desired.

I think these gingerbread men will make the perfect gift for those who love to eat home baking but don’t necessarily like to get in the kitchen and bake. The jars on the other hand are the perfect homemade gift for bakers of all levels of experience at this time of year.

Candy Cane Cupcakes

I’ve gotten well and truly into the Christmas spirit over the last few days, I saw cupcakes like these on Pinterest after Christmas last year and decided that this year they would be a goer! And, of course many of you will know we had our Christmas baking class yesterday – which Melissa will fill you in on very soon. For these cupcakes I used my go to chocolate cupcake recipe for the base, the candy cane flavour and looks all comes down to the frosting, which is easier than you may think.

Ingredients:
Cupcakes
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1½ cups flour
1 egg
½ cup milk
150g butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
Pinch of salt
½ cup boiling water

Candy Cane Buttercream
150 grams butter
3 cups icing sugar
2-4 tablespoons hot water (or room temperature milk)
1 teaspoon peppermint essence
red gel colouring
crushed candy cane to top

Method:
Pre-heat your oven to 180°C and line a 12 hole standard and mini muffin tin with cupcake papers.
Place all ingredients in a bowl EXCEPT the water. Add water last; do not mix until it is added. Beat well with an electric mixer.
Fill cupcake papers ⅔ full and bake in your pre heated oven for about 12 minutes or until they bounce back when touched or a skewer can be inserted and then removed cleanly.
Set aside to cool while you make your buttercream.
To make the frosting, cream butter in the bowl of your mixer (or with a hand held mixer) until pale and fluffy.
On a low-medium speed, add icing sugar alternating with hot water and adding peppermint.
Continue to beat until light and fluffy or until it’s reached a consistency you are happy with.
Turn your piping bag inside out and on one side ‘paint’ 3-4 stripes of red colouring to get the stripped effect of a candy cane. Fit your piping bag with whatever tip you want to use (I used a large round tip but you could use a large star shaped one like a 1M or 2D).
Fill your piping bag with your white butter cream and decorate your cupcakes as desired.

So there you have it, the first of our 2012 Christmas recipes! Has the spirit of the silly season hit you yet?

Christmas Baking Ideas 2012

Wow, it’s December already! It was at about this time last year we shared some Christmas baking inspiration with you made up of things we had previously posted.

You can find that post here, it contains links to the recipes pictured in the above collage and more.

Last year we added few new things to our Christmas baking repertoire. I just love these Candy Cane Cookies Mel made last year!

These Mini Chocolate Cupcakes with Santa Hats were a real hit:

These Christmas Tree Cupcakes are so simple but effective!

The Sand Art Brownie Jars are gorgeous gifts and the brownies produced by its contents are divine!

Mel and I are already in the Christmas spirit, I was at her place today and she has the cutest DIY tree up! I have a few new recipes to share with you over the next few weeks and we are incredibly excited about our Christmas baking class next weekend.

Have you got any Christmas baking lined up yet? Are you trying something new this year or sticking with the old faithful's?

Stacked Pavlova with Vanilla Cream and Dark Chocoalte Ganache

After watching the previews of Jamie’s Family Christmas, as part of Food TV’s November line up, the idea of Christmas traditions started to run through my mind. In the first episode of the series Jamie shows you how to make the perfect roast turkey, my family hasn’t been much of a turkey family over the years – although Wendy (my Step Mum) makes a mean roast turkey along with what seems like the more traditional (at least in NZ) ham every Christmas Eve. There is something about Pavlova that screams Christmas to me, I think it’s because my Mum only ever really made them for or around Christmas. I haven’t yet perfected the tall, white, perfect pav but recently started making this stacked version which is so simple and decadently delicious, I think I can see it becoming a Christmas tradition in my house.

Ingredients:
Pavlova
5 egg whites
1½ cups caster sugar
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Filling
1¼ cups cream
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
250 grams dark chocolate
25 grams butter
¾ cup cream

Method:
Preheat your oven to 120°C. Use a 20cm round cake tin to trace *four circles on to the back two large pieces of baking paper which will go on two baking trays.
Place your egg whites on the bowl of your electric mixer and beat using the whisk attachment on a medium to high speed until you get soft peaks.
Lower your mixer to a medium speed and gradually add the caster sugar. Continue to mix until thick and glossy before adding the vinegar and vanilla essence.
Once the vinegar and vanilla essence are properly mixed in you can turn off the mixer and spoon the mix onto the four circles you earlier traced out. Use a spatula or the back of a large spoon to spread the mixture evenly so the disks are nice and flat.
Bake in your preheated oven for 1 hour before turning it off and leaving the door ajar to let them cool completely.
Once the pavlovas are nearly cool you can make your ganache by putting the chocolate, butter and 3/4 cup of cream into a large heatproof bowl and put that on top of a pot of simmering water (make sure the water will not touch the bottom of your bowl) to create a double boiler. Stir the ingredients until they have melted and come together before setting it aside to allow it to cool to a consistency that is spreadable.
Using an electric mixer, mix the 1 1/4 cup of cream and vanilla paste until it is thick.
To assemble your stacked pavlova spread ganache over the bottom layer and then top with cream, repeat with the next two layers. Dust the top pavolova with icing sugar and melt any excess ganache in the microwave and drizzle it over.
* I always make four disks in case one crumbles or rises too much. You can use three or four layers if all of them turn out perfectly.

So there you have it. I find it easier than a standard pavlova to get right. Does it look like something you might want to add to the Christmas day menu at your house? Do you have any special traditions cooking or otherwise?

If you want to check out Jamie’s Family Christmas and get into the spirit of the season (albeit a little bit early for some people – if your like me however the timing is perfect!), it premieres tonight on Food TV, SKY channel 9. And, if after watching you think you’d like to decorate you place with awesome paper fans just like Jamie has then head on over to The Pretty Baker and buy up large so you can have your place looking as great as the Oliver’s, while your there I promise it’s worth a look checking out their Christmas stock!

Christmas Baking Class

 

We are VERY EXCITED to announce we will be holding a Christmas Baking Class at the beginning of December!  This is our very first baking class and we are really looking forward to it.

The class will be hands on - we will step you though making a couple of different Christmas cupcakes, some cookies and a sweet treat which you will personally get to make and take home after the class.  You don’t have to be a baking whizz, we are there to help.

We will be providing everything you need during the class as well as some light refreshments, so if you have ever wanted to try some of our baking made by us, now is your chance!

We would love to meet some of our Auckland readers (and if you are out of town and feel like travelling then we would super love that too!) so if you are keen to join us and take part in the fun, please flick us an email to bmtbblog@gmail.com and we will send you out some more details.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Crispy Choc Peanut Truffles

 
I made these delicious little treats for Christmas day, it is one of the (many) recipes I have ripped out of a magazine (God only knows which one it was and how long ago it was now) and put in a folder that sits on shelf in my kitchen waiting for me to try it out.  I am very sorry that it has taken me so long to get around to making them and encourage you to try them out as soon as you get a chance.

Ingredients:
200g dark chocolate
¼ cup smooth peanut butter
½ cup cream
½ teaspoon vanilla essence
¾ cup unsalted peanuts (crushed)
¾ cup rice bubbles
350g milk chocolate (chopped or use melts/buttons)

Method:
Place dark chocolate, peanut butter, cream and vanilla in a large heatproof bowl.  Sit bowl over a pan of simmering water and stir until melted and smooth.  Remove and cool slightly before refrigerating until mix is firm.
Combine nut and rice bubbles in a medium bowl.
Roll heaped teaspoons of the chocolate mixture into balls and roll in the peanut/rice mix pressing lightly so that the coating stays.  Once this step is complete place on to a tray lined with baking paper and refrigerate until firm.

Place milk chocolate in a heatproof bowl and sit it over a pan of simmering water, stir until chocolate has melted and remove from heat.
Using two forks, dip truffles one and a time ensuring that they receive and even coat and that you drain off any excess. Return to the lined tray and refrigerate until set.

These are best served with fruit such as strawberries. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did!

Me with my truffles on Xmas day in the cute apron Mum gave me as a gift!

Christmas Tree Cupcakes and An Update

I am feeling a bit time poor at the moment (I will explain more at the end of this post) but wanted to get into the kitchen to whip something Christmassy up so these were the perfect solution. I had seen variations around and thought they were cute and seemed simple enough. For the cupcake I used my tried and true ‘Easy Peasy Chocolate Cake’ batter and placed it into 16 brown cupcake papers – which look like the base of a tree and baked at 180°C for about 15 minutes (or until they can be lightly touched and spring back).

While they cooked and then cooled I used fondant icing to make the little stars to go on top. To do this cut a piece of fondant off the block it comes in and warm it between your hands, once it has reached a workable consistency you can add a few drops of yellow food colouring (you could also use pre-coloured fondant or leave it white and dust it with edible glitter) and kneed it through so the colour is uniform. To cut the stars you need to dust you work surface and your rolling pin with cornflour, roll your fondant out to about 0.5cm thick and cut your stars, placing them on non-stick wax paper to harden so that they can be stuck on top of your trees. These could be made in advance and placed in an air-tight container.

Once your cupcakes have cooled ice them with a buttercream frosting, you could do plain vanilla or something a little more festive and use a peppermint flavor. To do this you will need:

150 grams butter (softened)
2 - 2½ cups icing sugar
2 tablespoons hot water
1 teaspoon vanilla essence (or ½ teaspoon peppermint essence)
A few drops of green food colouring

Cream the butter until it is pale in colour then sift in your first cup of icing sugar as well as adding 1 tablespoon hot water and your essence, beat until combined and then sift in your remaining 1 –1½ cups of icing sugar until you get the desired consistency and add your colouring. Place your frosting in a piping bag and use a Wilton 1M tip or similar to frost each cupcake so it resembles a tree.

To decorate place coloured chocolate drops or the little edible silver balls so that they resemble decorations around the tree and top each cupcake with a star.

 
Enjoy giving these and lots of our other fantastic recipes a go! Feel free to share what you have been up to by leaving comments here, Facebook, or email us – we love hearing from you. I really want to find the time to give the Candy Cane Cookies Mel posted yesterday a try.

Also while I am here I will give you a brief update on what is happening with me – Shane and I have sold our house and are moving to New Plymouth in February 2012 (I will elaborate on this in the new year), we have to be out of our house late January so I will be very busy packing, trying to catch up with our gorgeous friends and family as well as caring for Maxie - who is also having a big 1st birthday extravaganza before we leave, that I am organising on top of everything else! All of this doesn’t leave a whole heap of time for baking and blogging but I promise to do my best to share anything that I get time to bake.

Before I sign off I thought I would share with you an updated pic of Max – he is 10.5 months now (can you believe it? I can’t!).

 
So from me and my family to you and all of yours, Merry Christmas! Have wonderful days with your loved ones xx

Candy Cane Cookies

These cute little swirled cookies with candy cane topping are made from a delicious peppermint shortbread.  They are quick and easy to whip up and the recipe makes about 35.

250g butter, softened
½ cup caster sugar
1 teaspoon peppermint essence
¼ teaspoon salt
2 ¾ cups flour
4 drops red food colouring
4 peppermint candy canes, crushed

Place the butter and sugar in a bowl and beat until creamy.  Beat in the peppermint essence and salt.  Turn the mixer to a low speed and slowly add in the flour.  Beat to form a dough.
Remove half the mixture and set aside.  Add the food colouring to the remaining dough and mix until a uniform colour.  Roll each dough mixture into 30 x 20 cm rectangles on top of pieces of plastic cling wrap.  Place the uncoloured dough rectangle on top of the red coloured dough rectangle and remove the cling wrap from the top.
Cut off any uneven edges, then roll the rectangle into a log using the remaining cling film to help you.  Wrap the log in the cling film and place it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes until firm.
Heat oven to 180°C.  Cut the log into 5mm thick rounds and place onto baking trays lined with baking paper.  Scatter the crushed candy canes over the top and bake for 10 – 12 minutes.  Remove cookies from the oven and place in a wire rack to cool.

This recipe has been entered in the ‘Jingle all the Way’ event hosted by Edible Entertainment.

And has been sent to Tickling Palates for their Baked Goodies event.

Mini Chocolate Cupcakes with Strawberry Santa Hats

Don’t these look cute?  I saw a picture of something similar to these the other week that were made from what looked like chocolate brownie that had been cut into circular shapes before being topped with the strawberries – too much fuss for me!  I decided to create mine using mini chocolate cupcakes instead.  The cupcake recipe I’ve used is delicious – it has a nice fudgy taste and goes so super well with the frosting and strawberries.  They are super easy to make and I think I’m going to have to re-use this recipe again :)
I’ve put the recipe for the mini muffins first, followed by the frosting and decoration recipe so you don’t get confused with a long list of ingredients.

Makes about 36

Mini Chocolate Muffins:
1 ½ cups all purpose flour
½ cup cocoa powder
2 teaspoon instant coffee powder (optional)
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
¾ cup milk (low fat is ok)
½ cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

Preheat oven to 180°C.  Line 36 mini muffin cups with paper liners.
In a large bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa power, instant coffee powder, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
In a medium bowl, whisk together milk, vegetable oil, vanilla extract and vinegar.  Pour into dry ingredients and stir until just combined and no streaks of flour remain.
Distribute batter evenly into prepared muffin cups, filling each about ¾ full.
Bake for 10-12 minutes, until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean.
Turn cupcakes out onto a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting and Decoration:
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 cups icing sugar, sifted
½ teaspoon vanilla essence
Pinch of salt

36 strawberries, leaves removed

Using an electric mixer, beat the butter on high until light and fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes. Reduce mixer speed to low.  Gradually add the sugar, then the vanilla and salt, and beat until smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary.
Pipe the frosting mixture into a circle on the top of each mini muffin.  Place a strawberry in the centre of each frosting circle.  Pipe a small ball of frosting onto the top of each strawberry as the pom-pom for the Santa hat.

Sand Art Brownies – Recipe Card Download and How To Guide

I’ve made up a another jar of Sand Art Brownies to give as a Secret Santa gift and thought I would share a printable version of the instructions to accompany the ingredients jar for you to download and use.  I’ve included a few different fonts for you to choose from.  You could simply cut out the set of instructions that you like the look of and put them inside a greeting card, or I have included a little bit of a guide on how I made my simple recipe card below if you want to do something similar.



Sand Art Brownie Instructions

How I made my Recipe Instruction card:
-I printed off the instructions, cut them out, then glued them onto a piece of card; allowing enough room around the instructions for the width of the ribbon I wanted to use.


-Next I glued on the two pieces of ribbon (just cheap stuff from Spotlight) down the sides of the instructions.  Then I got my contrasting ribbon which I measured and cut to fit between the two side pieces of ribbon.


-I glued on the top and bottom pieces of ribbon.  Once the glue (I used PVA) was dry I used the ribbon as a guide and cut off the excess card.

Easy Peasy!

I’m sure there are many other ideas that you can come up with for making the Instruction Cards.  I haven’t tried it before, but I reckon printing the recipe then stitching a border around the outside with a sewing machine would look super cute and sophisticated.  Or, if you are putting together jars of Sand Art Brownies with children, you could decorate the instructions using potato stamps!

Raspberry and White Chocolate Friands

 
I had been wanting to try my hand at making friands for a long time but had never tried one before so was kind of put off by the not knowing how they should turn out. However, this obstacle was removed a couple of weeks ago when my Step-Mum bought out a batch when visiting – they were so yummy that I had to give them a go myself and I was very pleased with the results.

They were beautifully golden on the outside but fluffy yet still moist in the middle. Everyone at my house on Saturday found them incredibly morish, between Shane, Max, two of my sisters and I, we managed to polish off the batch!

Ingredients
½ cup plain flour
1½ cups icing sugar
1 cup almond meal
6 egg whites, beaten lightly
150 grams melted butter, cooled
80 grams white chocolate finely chopped
1-2 dozen raspberries (fresh or frozen)

Method
Preheat oven to 180°C fan-forced. Lightly grease 12 friand molds or if you are like me and wanting to try your hand you can use a regular sized muffin tin.
Sift the flour and icing sugar into large mixing bowl. Stir in almond meal, egg whites and melted butter until combined (this can also be done in your electric mixer using the paddle attachment on a low speed). Add the white chocolate and mix again to ensure even distribution through your mixture.
Divide mixture among prepared pans (approximately ¼ cup mixture into each one). Top each one with 1 or 2 raspberries.
Bake in your preheated oven for 20-25 minutes until cooked through and golden (when a skewer is inserted into centre, it should come out clean).
Once baked leave them in the tin for 5-10 minutes to cool and then remove and place on a wire rack to cool for a further 15 or so minutes before dusting with icing sugar and serving.
*** I found I had enough mix left over to make a further 12 mini friands in a mini muffin tin – these only needed about 8 minutes in the oven and I popped them in while my full size batch were cooling.

With the summery flavor of the raspberries and festive red and white colour combo these would be a lovely addition to any Christmas function you have coming up but of course they can be enjoyed all year round. Enjoy!

Christmas Baking Ideas

No doubt you will see some more Christmas themed baking up here before the 25th, but I thought I would write up a summary of the recipes we have previously shared incase you are already in the mood!

It’s always nice to put the time and effort in and make something as a gift for someone else.  Baking is also a great gift idea for kids teachers too!  Courtenay used to always put together packages of shortbread for our colleagues at work, which went down a treat!

For a twist on traditional shortbread, I quite like this recipe which includes pecans.  It tastes delicious.

Courtenay has also tried making Chocolate Peppermint Shortbread :)

If you want to make biscuits but aren’t keen on Shortbread you could always make some cookies and decorate them in Christmas colours, like the ones pictured above – this recipe yields quite a few biscuits.

Or, give baking some Cranberry and White Chocolate Biscuits a try.  They look quite festive with their flecks of red and white.  One of our readers has suggested swapping the pecans with pistachios to add in some green!

Something else that would make an awesome gift are these Mini Chocolate Christmas Puddings.  They are marshmallows covered in chocolate, which are super yummy and easy to make. Also, I think they look super cute!  Courtenay made something similar using my Mint Chocolate Truffle recipe (which would also make an awesome gift without the jazzing up).  Yum!

You could always make some fudge (try my caramel fudge – super easy; no sugar thermometers or fancy ingredients needed) or coconut ice (pictured above with the Chocolate Peppermint Shortbread) too.  Wrap it up in some festive coloured cellophane finished with a bow.

Red Velvet is the perfect colour for this season – make some cupcakes, a cake or whoopie pies.

Speaking of whoopie pies, try decorating the Double Chocolate ones that I’ve put on the blog to suit the season – add white icing to the top with red and green sprinkles to make them look like mince pies or roll the sides of them around in crushed candy canes.

And, if you want to give some baking as gifts but don’t have the time, put together some beautiful jars of Sand Art Brownies ready for someone else to make!

Keep checking back for more Christmas recipes.  In the mean time, I hope this post gives you some ideas and inspiration.  Merry Christmas!