Count down to Christmas.....with a list of things to bake...


Fruitcake

"Sugar and spice; and everything nice " is found in this fruitcake.
It has everything sweet and nice in it.
This fruitcake consisted of 2 nuts: walnuts and pecans,
a whole array of wonderful dried fruits like apricots,raisins,sultanas,dates and figs.
Candied fruits used are orange peel and ginger and glacé cherries.
Spices included are cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg.
This is an adapted version from Mary Berry's fruitcake recipe.


All the dried fruits were macerated in Myers's Rum the night before baking.

Pan was lined with a strip of buttered parchment paper that extends about 2 inches above the pan.

Mixture was then poured in and decorated with whole blanched almonds.

The pan was lined with another layer of parchment for that slow 2-3 hours bake in the oven.

After the long baking, the fruitcake is ready.

Cake having a quick photoshot before retiring into paper and foil wraps with regular feeding of rum til Christmas.

After weeks of maturing the fruitcake, it is all ready on Christmas morning.

              

Christmas Morning

Merry Christmas

Count down to Christmas.....with a list of things to bake...


Gingerbread man

Using the same gingerbread dough from the gingerbread house, I made some gingerbread cookies.

My daughter loves decorating them.

Mr Gingerbread man and his house :)

 

Count down to Christmas.....with a list of things to bake...


Gingerbread house

Gingerbread Houses- One of my favourite things for Christmas. The smell of gingerbread is wonderful; the smell of ground ginger and strong cinnamon.
Recipe was taken from Martha Stewart and is a Swedish gingerbread house.


Building the house:
1.Cut and bake dough-
   Cut out the components of the house according to the templates.
   There are 2 side walls, 2 roof tops, 1 front wall with door, 1 back wall and 
   cutouts for the chimney too.
   Bake the dough and leave them to cool completely.

2 side walls

Front with door and back walls

2 pieces of roofs

 2.Assembly-
    Before assembly, outline and decorate the edges of the windows 
    and doors with icing.
    My daughter did all the piping decorations to the house.
    She added dots in addition to the lines.

To assemble, first, apply royal icing to each adjoining side of the walls to be held together and hold together for a few seconds. The icing will harden holding the pieces together.
Assemble the 2 side walls with the back and front walls.
Once all 4 walls are held together, attach the roof by applying some icing on the V-shape and attach the roof pieces.

After assembly, the house is left to dry overnight.

Adding the Finishing Touches.....

Chocolate pretzels were first glued on both roofs and decorated with icing.
Colourful candies lined the edge of the roof.

Assemble the chimney together and attach to the front  roof of the house.

Side walls of house decorated with more coloured candies.

Front walls decked with colourful lights of jelly beans.
                      

                          
Candy canes for front gate post and icing as snow.

Candy canes also formed fence around house.

Decorated front door and chocolate waffle mat.
Icicles formed on edge of roof.
                      


Completed Gingerbread house....

And not forgetting the figurines........
Snowman is placed at the front porch.

Santa is climbing down the chimney while his reindeer with sleigh is waiting on the roof top.

 

Nicely embellished and ready for Christmas. Merry Christmas.

Count down to Christmas.....with a list of things to bake...


Panettone with choc chips