Snowmen

Today I have been baking with my other half.  An army of snowmen all ready to go as Christmas gifts.  

Making small cakes can sometimes be just as time consuming as larger ones, but when you have good company and Christmas songs playing, it makes for an enjoyable afternoon. 

Cakes like this make ideal gifts and can be adapted for any occasion, your imagination is the only limit.

Everything on the cakes is edible and would serve 2 people, making them ideal to share.

The snowmen are made from fondant icing with an additive called Tylo powder, a gum tragacanth substitute, this makes the icing slightly more firm so it holds it's shape better and your snowmen won't look like they are melting, unless that is the look you are going for, if so just don't add it. 

Merry Christmas and have a good holiday, what ever it is you are up to this Christmas.
Niki xx

Army of snowmen

Rudolf Gingerbread

To create this Rudolf cookie is really easy.   All you do is use a gingerbread man cookie cutter and decorate it upside down.  Just use the legs as the antlers and the arms as his ears,  The icing is chocolate flavoured fondant.  Simple but effective.  Have a good one and create something a little more fun this Christmas, they also make ideal gifts.

Rudolf Gingerbread 

Snowmen Gingerbreads

A Christmassy twist on the classic Gingerbread man.

Makes around 8 Gingerbread men sized biscuits.

For this recipe you will need.

Gingerbread 
175g/6oz Plain flour
1.5ml/1/4tsp Bicarbonate of soda
Pinch salt
10ml/2tsp Ground ginger
60g/4Tbsp Unsalted butter or margerine
75g/3oz Caster sugar
30ml/2Tbsp Golden syrup
1 egg yolk






Decorating
Fondant roll out icing white and coloured
Icing sugar (for rolling out the fondant and producing water icing glue)

Method 
1,Sift together the flour, bicarbonate of soda, salt and spices and spices.
2.Rub in the butter/Margerine until the mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs.
3.Add the sugar, egg yolk and syrup and mix until it turns in to a firm dough.
4.Knead lightly.
5.Chill for 30 minutes.
6.Preheat oven to 180 deg C/Gas 4.
7.Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
8.Roll out to a thickness of about 4mm on a floured surface and cut in to shape.
9.Transfer to baking sheet and bake for 10-15 minutes, until golden.
10.Leave to cool on the tray for a few minutes the transfer to a wire cooling rack to completely cool.
11.Roll out the fondant and cut out with the same cutter as you used for the biscuits and glue to the fondant to the biscuit with a little water icing, just enough so that the fondant sticks.
12.Use your imagination to decorate your snowmen or what ever shape you have to baked.

Other ideas 

Christmas place setting 

Christmas place setting

Jewelled decoration

Bat Wedding favour

Heart wedding favour

Groom wedding favour

Bride wedding favour

Happy Baking folks
Niki 

Christmas Biscotti

Biscotti are really easy to make, with fantastically yummy results.

They would be perfect dipped in a hot drink, even mulled wine or a nice glass of port or sherry if you feel that way inclined, it is coming up to Christmas after all.

These keep extremely well in a tin for a few weeks and you would have something to offer guests that pop in.  They also make ideal home-made Christmas gifts.

This is a recipe I have tried and found you can adapt with ease.

I have exchanged  ingredients and added my own favourite fruits and spices. I use this recipe as a base and it works really well.

My favourites are cherry, almond, dried cranberry,  chopped crystallised ginger and raisin, spiced with powdered ginger and mixed spice.

You can truly add any flavour you like providing you used dried fruits etc and you done make the mixture too wet.

Here is the link for the basic recipe.  It also includes nutritional information.

 BBC good food Biscotti recipe.

I have also included a link for a Trio of Biscotti from Paul Hollywood, just in case you fancy trying something a little different,

Paul Hollywood. Trio of Biscottis

Happy Baking

Niki

Time to bring back the blog :-)

After a lovely meal out with friends, talking food and drink as per usual, I thought it was about time I brought back the blog.

People have been asking for recipes and I thought this would be an excellent  place to share them. So the first one I am going to share is a Christmas Biscotti recipe.  Please feel free to share this blog and share your cooking and baking experiences with each other.