Round two!

No surprises for this next present....it's...CAKE! It tastes good, everybody loves it and why wouldn't you want a cake as a present?

What better way that to say thank you with chocolate and peanut butter?

What you'll need:

-4oz butter

-4oz caster sugar

-4oz self raising flour

-2 eggs

-cocoa powder (however much you fancy)

-1/2 tsp of baking powder

-2tsps of hazelnut syrup (optional)

The baking of:

-Pre-heat your oven to 170c

-In a large bowl: cream the butter and sugar; beat in the eggs; fold in the flour, syrup, cocoa and baking powder until you've got a nice creamy batter. 

-Pour into a small, but deep greased baking tin. Pop in the oven and bake for approx. 30mins. 

-Make sure it's bouncy, not wobbly before pulling it out of the oven. 

Icing:

-Whilst it's cooling, you'll want to cream together about 5oz butter, 4oz icing sugar and 2tbsp of crunchy/smooth peanut butter. Keep mixing until you're happy with the outcome. 

-If you wish to write a message or decorate with a coloured icing, continue reading, if not then dive in!

-You'll need approx. 2oz butter, 2oz caster sugar and a few drops of food colouring. Mix together and pipe it onto your cake!

Once it's all iced, give it away or just give it to yourself if you're feeling in the need for a cake present. 

Round one!

As I'm leaving both my current job and my house I thought I'd get a little bake happy and make everyone presents. A tasty parting gift!

For work I went for Peanut Butter cups and vanilla shortbread. They went down a treat!

I have to admit, I cheated a little with the PB cups! Whoops. As it was my first time making them I found a recipe for them here; however I didn't actually have enough for the exact measurements so I kinda just made it up as I went a long. In my freezer was a big bag of dark Hershey's chocolate going to waste, so I melted that down. They're very rich, so unless you like dark chocolate I'd go with milk choc. On the plus side, everyone at work loved them! 

I resorted to a firm favourite recipe for the shortbread, which you can find in a couple of previous posts. Chocolate is optional, I just had some left over from the cups. 

Giving food as gifts always works well, so if you're ever stuck for ideas these are quick and easy, and super tasty! 

Giving the gift of food; part two!

So, with a week left until Christmas it seemed only right to actually start baking some presents! Although, unfortunately I've still got a way to go! 

First up; Shortbread biscuits. It was a bit of a cop out really, but when you're posting them to friends and family, it makes a lot more sense. I've just used the same recipe as the Halloween ones, so head over there and you'll be sorted. But of course, use Christmas cutters, not Halloween ones! 

Secondly (and a lot more fiddly), miniature Christmas Puds! 
I'll come clean and admit that I've pinched the idea from a certain Mrs Lawson, but when I saw them I thought, "ugh, amazeballs!". So they were added to the list of baked presents. 
It's actually quite a simple recipe, but it requires a little bit of patience. 

What you'll need:
-350g of Christmas Pud (last years left over, or one from the shop)
-125g dark chocolate
-60ml of sherry
-2 large tbsp of golden syrup
-100g of white chocolate
-green + red icing/glacier cherries 


And....GO!
-First up, the pudding. If you've brought one you'll need to cook it and then let it cool completely. If not, crumble it up into a bowl. 
-Melt the dark chocolate ban-marie style.
-In the bowl: mix the pudding, syrup, sherry and chocolate together. Mix until it's all gloopy and folded into each other. 
-Now comes the fiddly part. Scoop up little handfuls of the mixture, and roll into neat balls. Neat being the operative word, as you'll see, mine aren't. But then, at least you can tell they're handmade! ha!
-Once they're all rolled, pop them on a plate, cover in cling film and whack in the fridge for about 15mins to harden up. 
-Whilst they're toughening up, you can melt the white chocolate and then let that sit for about 10mins. Makes it a little easier to play with. 
-Get your puds out, put a dollop of white chocolate on each and then decorate with either the icing or cherries. Nigella seemed to make it harder for herself but cutting out tiny holly and ivies; I went for the easier route and used the little tubes of piping icing. Personally, I think they look pretty darn cute!

I'm not giving these away until the end of the week, so to make sure they're truly set, I'm leaving them in the fridge. Nigella doesn't say how long to leave them in the fridge, but I'm guessing, if you're planning on the distributing them sooner than myself; leave them at least a day. You don't want to risk them falling apart!


Now, go share your baking wonders! 

IT'S CHRISSTMAAAASSS!!

It may only be the first of December, but as far as I'm concerned, Christmas has arrived! 
Admittedly I've not been this keen for Christmas since I was about 12, so it's good to feel in the spirit of things. A little tidbit for you; there's a good chance I'll be making things (decorations, presents etc) and not just food, so they'll be posted on here too :)

Right. Now, then....Christmas baking; let's begin!

First on the list is: Gingerbread biscuits. 

Ingredients:
- 1 cup of plain/SR flour (I used SR so they're all big and fluffy)
- 50g of butter
- half a cup of brown sugar
- 1 egg, beaten
- 1tsp of bicarbonate soda
- 1tsp of ginger
- half tsp of ground cloves - if you don't like cloves, use nutmeg/cinnamon. 
- pinch of salt

The baking part:
- pre-heat the oven to 190c
- In a bowl (I finally christened my Cath Kidston one!!): mix the flour, bicarbonate of soda and spices together
- Rub in the butter so that the mix becomes like breadcrumbs, then add the sugar. Mix together.
- Add the egg to your mix, this is where it gets messy. You want it to form a dough, but it's so sticky that you'll want to have some extra flour on hand to form the dough a little easier. 
- Once you've managed to peel the goo off your hands, on a floured surface roll out the dough to approx. 3mm. Keep your rolling pin and surface floured - otherwise you wont be a happy baker!
- Pop in the oven on a greased tray and bake for approx. 15mins - or until golden brown. 

Decorating:
I used Dr Oetkers's little tubes of piping icing; you can buy packs of 5 in various colours. 
Before you start making them look pretty though, make sure you wait for them to cool down. Then, get arty! 

These will also make great little extra presents; personalised things always go down so well. Especially when they taste good!