Viewing entries tagged with 'Christmas'
Christmas cake
Making my christmas cake is something I look forward to each November. For me it is the first marker of the festive season. Every year I use a different recipe. Years ago I would diligently follow recipes searching for the perfect one. These days I'm inspired by one of my daughters who makes amazing cakes but never repeats a recipe. Most of her baking is a spontaneous affair. She understands the chemistry of cake making and creates recipes as she goes along. A few years back she made christmas cakes as christmas presents. About 12 cakes from memory, with three variations. It was hard to choose which one of the three variations was most delectable. In her usual style she has no record of the specifics, and I've been trying to recreate them ever since. My favorite essentials are chunks of dark chocolate and ginger and this time I have used coriander and cardamom powder. Another element is my home made mixed peel delicious and far superior in flavour to the shop bought stuff. It has added a cointreau like flavour to the raw mixture. I confess I licked the bowl clean! For more details read the full post.
Figs in Port
Yes it's true, Christmas is just around the corner. When my children were small we used to make almost all the pressies for friends and family. It was a way of getting the children involved in the spirit of Christmas and not so much into the stress around shopping and finding the 'right' present especially for those on a limited family budget. Every year we came up with something different. One year we made home-made paper and envelope sets, another year we made exquisite christmas tree decorations out of dough. Each one was baked, painted and polyurethaned and were little representations of each member of our extended family. Most years the children made shortbreads, gingerbreads and hand-made chocolates. Another year Christmas Stollens filled with home-made marzipan and beautifully presented, made wonderful family gifts. Figs in port, the recipe I'm sharing today was made as a gift on more than one occassion. I always made sure that I kept a jar or two in my own pantry. It makes for a very delicious and rather decadent topping for vanilla ice-cream. One or two figs and some of the syrup drizzled over top and presto a desert to impress! For more details read the full post
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