Christmas Cupcakes

My favourite baking blog - Baking Makes Things Better - posted the cutest Christmas Tree cupcakes this week.  I followed their instructions, which are always easy to follow and really reliable, and they made the cutest cakes.  Their Easy Peasy Chocolate Cake recipe is great and makes lovely moist cupcakes!  I also wanted to try out my new toy, a snowflake press for fondant - I love it!  I need to get a small star press, and its my goal this year to increase my cake decorating supplies. 

Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas Cake

My first attempt at fondant icing and my very first Christmas Cake.  I am really happy with it, but next time I think my fondant layer needs to be thicker.  Working with fondant takes some practice, but I am not so scared of it anymore.  The cake isn't perfect, but I still love it, and next time with a thicker layer am sure my finish will be smoother.

Some of you may remember my original post about making a Christmas cake, and also remember my original cake was square.  Lets just say when you pour some brandy over your cake before storing, you use only a few tablespoons, not half a cup .... Lets also just say my Christmas Cake Pops are going to be adult only and very yummy!

Snowman Cookies

You have to promise not to laugh at me.  I saw these on Pinterest and absolutely love them.  Unfortunately mine turned out rather amateur, but I still love the concept and am sure most of you probably have better icing skills than me.

I used my Basic Butter Biscuit recipe I have previously posted here.  And then followed the great tutorial instructions that I found here - http://www.trulycustomcakery.com/tutorials/25.html.

OK, so are you ready.  This is the picture that inspired me, and is what they should look like:

Pretty awesome huh.  And ... are you ready for the great unveiling ... these are my rather sad masterpieces:

But at the end of the day, my boys LOVE them and I had fun making them, and that's really all that counts!

Strawberry Jam

Strawberry Jam has to be my all time favourite, and then it would have to be Blueberry!  This time of year you can pick up masses of seconds strawberries from the berry farms and they are really reasonably priced.

Great thing about Strawberry Jam is its easy to make.  Just need strawberries, sugar and lemons.  You use the same ratio of strawberries to sugar, but keep it under 2kgs - its heaps easier to work with smaller amounts.

So this is what I used:

1.8kg strawberries

Juice from 4 lemons

1.8kg sugar

Firstly prepare your jars.  I got 4 medium/large and 1 small jar out of the above amount.  Either wash in hot soapy water, or pop through the dishwasher, then keep warm in an oven at 100 - 120 degree.

Hull the strawberries and put into a large pan with the lemon juice.  Heat gently until simmering lightly and cook until fruit is soft and pulpy.

Add the sugar.  I add by the cupful and stir between each addition until the sugar is dissolved.  You can add it all at once but I think you could be at risk of burning it if it sticks to the bottom of the pan.  Make sure it is fully dissolved before the next step.

Now bring it up to a good rolling boil.  Watch closely that its not sticking to the bottom.  Boil until its set when tested.  This took me around 25 minutes or so.  To check whether it is set, drop a small amount onto a cold plate and let it cool slightly - it is set when it wrinkles when you run your finger through it.  Apparantly you can add a knob of butter into it just before dishing it up and this will also help it set.

Remove jars from oven, pot the jam, pop on the lids and let cool on bench.  Wash jars before storing.  Once opened keep in the fridge.  I used these cute labels I found here.



Rainy Day Marshmallow Snowmen

Arrggh, its been raining now for about 24 hours straight.  The children haven't been able to get outside and are going stir crazy.  We made some Marshmallow Snowmen at lunch time for some entertainment.  The kids loved eating their handiwork.

We got three marshmallows per snowman and fed them onto a kebab stick, dipped them into melted white chocolate, used raisins for the buttons and then when dry piped on a face using Writing Icing.

Christmas Spiced Macaroons

These were my first attempt at macaroons and although by no means perfect, I am pretty happy with how they turned out.  I think my eggs were slightly too small, meaning my mixture was a bit thick so I didn't get a smooth top, despite banging my tray and leaving to rest for an hour before cooking - but they have set beautifully on the outside and are delish and moist in the middle.

This recipe was in the latest Australian Womans Weekly.

1 cup finely ground almond meal

1 1/4 cups icing sugar

3 egg whites, at room temperature (I used size 6, think size 7's would be better)

pinch of salt

1/3 cup caster sugar

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon mixed spice

Place 2 sheets of non-stick baking paper (same size as your trays) on the bench and draw 4.5cm diameter circles on them.  Spray the oven trays lightly with non-stick baking spray and place sheets, circle sides down, onto the trays.

Sift the almond meal and icing sugar through a sieve to mix together.  Discard any lumps left in the sieve.

Beat the egg whites and salt with an electric mixer until frothy.  Beat the caster sugar in 1 teaspoon at a time until smoothly combined and thick and glossy.  Carefully mix in the almond mixture and spices, just stirring to combine smoothly. 

Spoon into a piping bag with a 1.5cm plain round nozzle.  Hold the nozzle close to the paper and pipe out to fill the drawn circle.  Once all piped, tap the tray on the bench to level the mixture and flatten.

Stand the trays for at least 45 minutes before cooking (this ensures the nice crust and smooth top of the macaroon - unless its mine, and it still has a peak haha)

During this time preheat the oven to 170 degrees.

Bake for 12 - 15 minutes.  They will puff out slightly but will be firm to touch.  Do not overcook!  Cool on the trays.

Sandwich together with vanilla butter frosting and store in an airtight container for 3 - 5 days.

VANILLA BUTTER FROSTING

125 grams butter, softened

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/4 cups icing sugar

Beat the softened butter, icing sugar and vanilla together until smooth. 



Christmas Wreath

Just thought I would share a picture of the Christmas Wreath I made yesterday.  I stumbled upon Spotlight (a very regular occurance in my week by the way) and they had 50% off all their Christmas decorations. 

The plain wreath cost me $4 and the decorations $11.  Much cheaper than the ones I have been looking at for between $40 - $60 each.  Now the test is whether it a) doesn't fall apart, b) get blown off the door and destroyed or c) stolen!!

Next year I have images of white bows and doves, with silver ribbon and baubles.