Sweet: Treats to Share

Sweet: Treats to Share is a brand new book (in stores from today) that is packed with more than 80 irresistible recipes from some of New Zealand’s best-loved bakers.  You’ll find recipes from such baking legends as Alexa Johnston, Allyson Gofton, Annabelle White, Dean Brettschneider, and Kim Evans.

You’ll find recipes for cakes, biscuits, slices, loaves, muffins, pies and more.  What we like about the book is that nothing looks too fancy or hard to make.  The recipes are for true baked good favourites; the type of treats to fill the tins with.  There’s recipes for Kiwi classics such as Afghan Biscuits and Ginger Crunch, to more contemporary treats like Fresh Cherry Ripple Cake and Maple Rhubarb Crumble Pie.  We’ll be sharing a recipe for a delicious White Chocolate Brownie from the book at a later date, so do check back here on the blog for that.

The food has been beautifully photographed by Manja Wachsmuth and styled by food writer Penny Oliver.  A lot of the baking is photographed on gorgeous vintage china, which when I checked the credits at the back of the book was pleasantly surprised to find that the photography props came from our friends at The Vintage Table – how cool is that?!  (I knew that plate the Ambrosia on page 165 is photographed on was familiar, it’s the one I used photographed my Peanut Butter Chocolate Truffles on and is one of my favourites from The Vintage Table).

Scattered throughout the book are cute little baking related quotes, such as “A baked gift shows you took the time to care” and “Baking is both an art and a pleasure” with which we couldn’t agree more.  The book begins with a rundown of a few baking basics and you’ll find contributor bio’s and a measurement conversion table in the back.  All this, along with the recipes, comes prettily packaged in a padded hardcover book with a marker ribbon.  It’s a delightful book which is sure to appeal, and would make an ideal Mother’s Day or Easter gift for home bakers.

We have a copy of Sweet: Treats to Share to giveaway to one lucky reader.  To enter the draw to win, please leave us a comment (with your name) telling us what your favourite baked treat is to share with friends and family.  Entries close on Friday 4th April at 8pm and the winner will be chosen by a random draw.  However, if you can’t wait until then to get a copy, head along to your nearest good book store.  Sweet: Treats to Share will be hitting the shelves today.

Sweet: Treats to Share. Published by Penguin Group NZ. RRP $45.00. Available nationwide.

Photography credits:
Pumpkin & Prune Cake: Copyright photography © Alan Gillard, 2014. 
Lemon Madeira Load: Copyright photography © Manja Wachsmith, 2014

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?

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!