There are many things that I look forward to when Christmas time comes around, one of those is baking. I love baking anytime of the year but I especially love baking at Christmas time. I think that's because at Christmas I don't feel as guilty about indulging in food, so I go a bit crazy with all the things I want to bake.
I'm always the one that makes the dessert for Christmas day. I haven't made that yet, that's on my list of things to start doing tomorrow. The last two years I've made a chocolate orange cheesecake, but this year I'm going to make a chocolate caramel cake.
I may have given myself a bit too much baking this year though, as I don't feel like I've stopped but its worth it!
The first things I made this week were some orange and cranberry shortbread. I used a bauble cutter to make them look extra christmassy. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture because I made them and packaged them on the day, to give as gifts. I think there's always something so much nicer about home made gifts. For a lot of my older family members that didn't really want anything this year. I bought them a mug, as they absolutely love tea! Then I filled it with the home made shortbread, so they had something to enjoy with their tea.
I also made some fudge to package up and give to family members. I made white chocolate and raspberry and I also made Rolo. This wasn't the only gift they received, it was just a little extra to go with their gifts. Again I didn't get a picture of the white chocolate and raspberry, that left my house far too quickly. But I do have a picture of the Rolo fudge. I find fudge is quite simple to make, but its very time consuming! You have to stand and constantly stir until it reaches a certain temperature. Time consuming and arm aching, but well worth it when people realise its home made. I had some cake pop bags in my baking cupboard that I never used and seen as I wont be using them for cake pops, I thought I may as well use them to package the fudge.
Mince Pies were the next thing on my baking list. I don't like mince pies at all! But they are Paul's favourite and I haven't made him mince pies in ages. So this year I promised I would. I don't make the mincemeat myself, I do buy a very nice jar of that in. But I do make my own pastry. He likes when I do this because he loves the pastry thin and lots of filling, so by me making them at home he gets them just how he likes them.
My next task was to bake 48 cupcakes for the hubby to take to work with him. I also wanted to make sure there was some left over for me too. I'm not doing all that baking unless I can have some too! I made three different flavours of cupcakes and I tried to keep the flavours in keeping with Christmas. The three flavours I chose were Gingerbread, Chocolate orange and Nutella. Although you can quite easily have chocolate orange and Nutella all year round, the decorations made them feel more christmassy.
The gingerbread cupcakes are gingerbread sponge with a vanilla frosting. I then made little gingerbread biscuit stars for the toppers. The chocolate orange cupcakes have a chocolate orange sponge and chocolate frosting, I topped each cupcake with a segment of Terry's chocolate orange. Lastly the Nutella cupcakes are a chocolate cake that have a Nutella middle and are topped with a hazelnut frosting. I then topped each cupcake with a Ferrero Rocher.
That's what I've been up to over the past three days. Which I think you would agree, its quite a lot of baking. I still have the chocolate and caramel cake to make for Christmas day and I also have my sausage rolls to make too. But both of those will be completed on Christmas Eve.
Have you done any baking for Christmas or do you have any planned in?
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