Advent :: Day seven

You might be forgiven for thinking I've gone rather overboard on the Christmas cakes this year... but no. Although I've got the fruit soaking for our cake I've not done much else as I've been distracted by making these... which are little individual Christmas cakes.

 

 

Ridiculous as it might sound thay have made me very excited (what is it about small things?) and they weren't nearly as much of a faff as I thought they might be... well, a bit of a faff but my excitment has definitely compensated for any fiddly business.

 

Do you want to know how to make them? You'll need one of those mini Sandwich pans from Lakeland, although I'm guessing a muffin pan would work just as well.

 

Individual Christmas Cakes

Cakes

• 75g currants
• 75g sultanas
• 75g raisins
• 50g glacé cherries, quartered
• Zest and juice of 1 orange
• 25g chopped almonds
• 1 tablespoon brandy plus extra 4 tablespoons
• 150g unsalted butter, softened, plus extra for greasing
• 100g dark muscovado sugar
• 2 tbsp treacle
• 2 large eggs, beaten
• 150g self-raising flour
• 1½ tsp mixed spice
• 1-2 tbsp milk

To decorate

• 2 tbsp apricot jam, warmed and sieved
• 500g marzipan
• 750g ready to roll icing

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 170°C/335°F. Grease and line a mini sandwich pan (from Lakeland) or a 12 hole muffin tin. Place the currants, sultanas, raisins and cherries into a small pan. Add the zest and juice of the orange and heat gently for one minute until the juice is hot but not boiling. Remove from the heat and cool to allow the fruit to plump up. Stir in 1 tablespoon of brandy
2. Place all the other ingredients for the cakes, except the nuts, into a large bowl and using an electric mixer, mix all the ingredients until they are well combined. Add the fruit and nuts   and stir in with a spoon, combining well.
3. Divide the cake batter between the Sandwich Pan or the muffin pan and bake on a low shelf for about 25 minutes or until well risen, golden brown and a skewer inserted into the middles comes out clean. Remove from the oven and pierce the top of each cake with a skewer and dowse each cake with 1 teaspoon of brandy. Leave to cool in the tins
4. Brush each cake with apricot jam. Lightly dust a surface with icing sugar and roll out the marzipan out thinly. Cut a disc of marzipan for the top of each cake and a strip to wrap around the sides of each cake, covering it completely. Leave to dry overnight
5. Dust the work surface again with icing sugar then roll out the icing thinly. (I find this easiest to do in two lots, covering half the cakes at a time) Cut out 12 circles big enough to completely cover each cake. Brush each cake with a little boiled water and place an icing disc over the centre of each cake, smoothing it down the sides with your hands. Use the remaining icing to decorate the cakes.

 

 

Wrap in cellophane with some pretty ribbon and you've got some cute little gifts for giving!

Advent :: Day Six

I have never really used my blog as a political platform or as a place to comment on news or world affairs, yet the death of Nelson Mandela yesterday has prompted me to delay my scheduled advent post.

 

photograph: BBC

 

Of all the wonderful tributes that poured out last night I was struck by the words of President Obama who among other things described Nelson Mandela as a "profoundly good human being".

And I thought that in this advent season... the season of good will to all men...  wouldn't it be wonderful if we could all strive to be more profoundly good every day.

 

Nelson Mandela

18th July 1918 - 5th December 2013

Advent :: Day five

I have mixed feelings about Craft Fairs or sales of Handmade goods.

I suppose that there are really good ones... like the Selvedge Christmas Fair (I went last week and it was wonderful!) but then they are understandably going to cost a lot to participate. But local fairs... usually involve a lot of standing around in draughty spaces and having to put up with a lot of tutting at the outrageous prices we dare charge for the items that have taken hours to make and then ultimately very few sales.

 

 

But I'm ever optimistic and I like to support local events and so this afternoon I'll be at a local school for two hours and then on Saturday morning I'll be in the Church (very draughty) for the morning.

 

When I booked a table at the school I was asked if I had Christmas items... no, not really! But I have obliged and made one or two bits and pieces...

 

Like these little book jackets. But I've not made too much because if they don't sell I'm stuck with them for another year... I can't see them selling at summer events somehow!

 

So if these don't sell this by Saturday there could be a sudden Etsy update on Sunday... watch this space!

Advent :: Day four

On day four I give you a recipe...

This is a Paul Hollywood recipe and whilst the man may have fallen from my favour for his shenanigans, he does know how to bake a wonderful cheesy biscuit. Light, flaky melt in your mouth and so easy!

 

 

They don't look much but they taste wonderful and are the perfect accompaniment to drinks... I like mine with a glass of chilled Oloroso.

 

Cheesy Biscuits

 

75g plain flour

75g unsalted butter, cubed

75g Gruyere cheese, finely grated

 

Whizz together the flour and butter in a food processor until it looks like breadcrumbs. Add the cheese and continue to process until the mixture forms a ball. Wrap in clingfilm and chill for half hour.

Pre-heat oven to 200 deg C and line two baking sheets with non stick baking parchment. Roll the dough out to about 5mm thick and cut out circles with a 5 cm round biscuit cutter. (You should get about 24 biscuits.) Put the circles onto the baking sheets and leave them well spaced. Bake for 10 minutes (watch that they don't get too brown). Grind with salt and pepper while they are still warm and allow to cool.

 

Apparently they will keep for a few days in an airtight tin but I can't confirm that as they never last more than a few minutes in our house!

Advent :: Day three

A few weeks ago Penny wrote a post about the process involved in developing a pattern for her Crochet Christmas Baubles and the trials and tribulations of writing patterns, getting them tested and then having to put up with the response that $5 was too much to charge. Having gone through the process of trying to write and publish my own pattern I know that $5 is very little to charge! So when Penny asked for volunteers to test the pattern I was happy to help.

 

 

This is the result of my pattern testing, using Penny's own cottons. The pattern was clear and easy to follow and worth every penny (or cent)

 

Whatever the colour combination they look so pretty, and also look a lot more complex than they actually were to make.

 

When I'd finished trying out the different colours I then tried a wintery, sparkling combination.

 

which is equally effective, especially against greenery.

 

However there was one colour combination that really didn't work...  it looks like a bloodshot eyeball!

 

So you see... a really versatile pattern than can be used for your Halloween decorations too!

The pattern can be found here.

Advent :: Day two

On Saturday it was our last Young Embroiderer's meeting before Christmas. You may remember that back in October I announced I was no longer going to be the YE leader at our Guild but unfortunately things didn't work out quite as planned and so the girls have got to put up with me for a little while longer. I put together a few felt tree decorations as inspiration...

 

 

I gave a brief explaination of how they needed to use the paper patterns to cut out pairs of felt shapes, decorate them with ribbon, braid, ric-rac and buttons. Then stitch the pairs together with running stitch or blanket stitch, adding a little stuffing as they went... I was about to offer to do a short demo but they were already away putting together their own decorations and coming up with their own ideas.

 

 

They really don't need much by the way of adult help at all...

 

There were trees and Christmas puddings...

 

Little stockings...

 

and stars.

 

Each and every one unique and quite lovely!

 

There are going to be some very smart trees around here this Christmas... and Hannah even came up with the idea of making hers into a Holly brooch.

 

They are all brilliant... well done girls. I had a lovely time and secretly I'm quite glad to still be YE leader... it's a privilege to work with such a lovely talented bunch of youngsters!

 

Next year they want to learn to crochet... now that should be interesting!

Advent :: Day one

A couple of weeks ago someone happened to mention they were looking forward to my advent posts. Oh... I thought I might not do it this year was my reply. But then I just happpened to notice that if I do a daily blog post throughout December as I have done for the past three years by the time we get to 24th December I will have written exactly 1000 posts. Got to be done really hasn't it? And if you stick with me throughout the month there will be recipes, possibly a tutorial or two and there could well be some sort of  giveaway to round up the celebrations .

 

 

This is a season of traditions and it has become something of a tradition for me to post a photo of our advent calendar on the 1st December each year. But this year I give you someone else's advent calendar.

 

This was a commission I made for a friend's daughter, which was delivered a couple of weeks ago. I had made one very similiar to our own, featuring angels, for her first daughter, so this was made to match but be slightly different. This time the hand appliqued panel features the three Kings delivering gifts.

 

But I don't like to break with tradition so I'll show you our calendar too... hanging up today with twenty four little bags filled with a daily chocolate treat for each of the adults in my house!

 

Are we the only house of adults who have an advent calendar?