Homemade Christmas Deserts
Back in November, I wrote a post called: “The Ultimate Christmas Gift Guide 2013.” In this post I mentioned that I had been sent a Christmas cook book called: Love Food: Simple & Delicious Christmas Cookbook.
This year is the first year in which Twin Daddy and I will be staying at home Christmas day. This means I will be cooking Christmas dinner for the first time ever.
How hard can it be?
I’ll probably regret saying that! I’ve made a cooked dinner before so I’m going to assume it will be just like doing that, but with a few more festive vegetables!
Anyhow, when I look back to my childhood I always remember my mum making a Christmas cake every year and I want our twins to have similar fond memories too when they’re older. Using the above book I have my made my own Christmas cake. I love baking and it’s something I haven’t done for such a long time, so I took the opportunity last weekend to make some deliciously tasty Christmas deserts. All recipes used were from the book above and I have to say, considering I have never baked anything other than cupcakes before I am pretty pleased with the results of my creations!
The recipes were all really easy to follow and the only negative I have to say is that the mince pie recipe slightly under estimates the measurements for the amount of pastry you’ll need. I ended up making twice the amount suggested.
Here are my Christmas deserts….
Christmas Cake
This recipe was easy to follow and easy to make! As I have a nut allergy I didn’t include nuts, but everything else was included and all measurements and timings were perfect!
I must confess that I was originally going to make my own icing, but a friend of mine, who happens to make cakes for a living called me mad and suggested I buy Tesco ready to roll icing instead as it tastes nice and is easy to use!
I followed her advice and I totally agree that the icing does taste amazing, it is easy to use and I’m very pleased with the end result!
If, however you do want to make your own icing, the book includes all you need to know on how to do so.
To decorate our cake, I bought some festive characters from the supermarket, along with some cake sparkle and I bought a ‘Merry Christmas’ sign and ribbon online to add a few extra special touches.
Tips
- Make your Christmas cake at least 3 weeks in advance
- Feed your Christmas cake weekly with some brandy. It will keep your cake nice and moist
- Wrap your cake in greaseproof paper then cling film, never foil and store in an airtight container until you are ready to add your marzipan
- Marzipan your cake the second week of December and then ice it the following day. You shouln’t leave marzipan for longer than 24 hours without icing it because marzipan is porous and air may get in which can cause mould growth.
- Once you have added marzipan to your cake, store it in a cardboard box. This is because once marzipan is on, it forms an airtight seal so the cake will sweat and breed bacteria if it kept in airtight container. It needs air around it to dry it out
- Before icing your cake, brush the marzipan with alcohol or cool boiled water and make sure you cover every bit otherwise you’ll get air bubbles in between the marzipan and icing
- Once you have iced your cake store in a cardboard box
Apple Pie
I love apple pie, but again have never made it before! I’ve always bought mine in the shop mainly because I thought making my own pastry would be too hard, but it was incredibly easy following the recipe in this book.
As you can see I did have to carry out a small amount of ‘repair’ work as I did have a random hole in the pastry, but not bad for a first attempt! Using the left over dough, I created some leaves to decorate the top of the pie with.
I used Bramley cooking apples for the filling which took around 10 minutes to prepare and make. I then baked it in the oven for 50 minutes, ensuring that after 20 minutes I turned the heat down slightly as per the recipe.
I allowed the pie to cool completely before I wrapped it tightly in foil and placed it the freezer.
Festive Biscuits
I wanted to make something that our girls could eat and these biscuits are perfect! Using cookie cutters I made three star shaped biscuits, three Christmas tree shaped biscuits and three snowmen shaped biscuits! These biscuits have cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg, in as well as honey so they’re really festive!
I was a bit concerned about the consistency of the dough when making these as it seemed too sticky. I didn’t think it would turn into a biscuit texture and it was hard to move the dough from my work surface to the baking tray so I ended up cutting the dough on the greaseproof paper on the baking tray to save me from transferring it over as I fear they would have lost their shape otherwise! It worked and after baking in the oven, they look great and after a sneaky taste I can confirm that they taste amazing!
I’ve put these biscuits in the freezer along with the apple pie and on Christmas day I’ll take them out and leave them for 30 minutes to defrost then pop them in the oven to warm them a little and then I’m planning on decorating them using icing pens!
Mince Pies
I love mince pies and the recipe for the one in this book is no exception. I love that the lid is stars as in my opinion it makes them a little different.
I haven’t cooked these yet as I’m planning on cooking them from frozen on Christmas morning.
Chocolate Yule Log
I haven’t made this yet as I intend to make this Christmas eve, but I will share pictures with you once I’ve made it!
Overall
I am so pleased that I got sent this book to review! As well as deserts it also contains recipes for starters and main meals. I would highly recommend this book! It’s my new favourite!
I was sent one Christmas cookbook free of charge to review
2 Comments
kerry norris
September 1, 2015 at 3:15 pm
That book looks great! I'll fully admit i'm not a baker but if I have the alone time to do it I will give it a go. Your christmas cake looked beautiful x #ABloggersChristmas
Leandra Bramham
September 7, 2015 at 6:40 pm
These look lovely! Thinking about making my own cake this year, never made one before, I hope it turns out as well as yours! #abloggerschristmas x