Christmas Eve

This has been a busy week running up to Christmas. 

I'll post the photos with explanations rather than list everything this time.

First, to start the week off, I made 24 mini Victoria sponges for Jo's work place last Thursday for Friday morning delivery as it was her birthday at the weekend - I made 18 jam and butter-cream ones and 6 lemon curd and lemon butter-cream ones.

Then on Friday I made a dozen blueberry muffins and also a dozen chocolate cupcakes and covered them in a white chocolate butter-cream and topped with some gold sugar crystals

Then it was down to the Christmas items

I managed to ice and decorate the mini Christmas cakes and the Christmas loaf cake on Friday morning - keeping it simple this year and using my new tree and holly leaf cutters

The loaf cake should be covered in a gold shimmer, it doesn't show up very well and I think the gold must have sunk to the bottom of the spray can, I will have another shake and spray later I think

Then on Monday next on the list were the Baileys mince pies - very yummy pastry with Baileys in the pastry :-) There were, in fact, 14 but two had to be tested for quality control you understand ;-)

I also made the Mary Berry mincemeat streusel from her programme on the television this week. This has now been cut into 16 pieces and is ready to transport

Finally, for this side of Christmas anyway, the Christmas Ham

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all who read my blog - thanks for looking xxx

Week ending 14th December

A little more baking this week, Christmas cakes due to be iced next week but I did manage to get the marzipan on this week, and have also managed a white loaf, another giant cupcake, some mini ginger cakes with an orange butter-cream filling and topping, some plain cupcakes with a festive green swirly topping and festive sprinkles, plus a raspberry hazelnut meringue roulade from Mary Berry's Baking Bible.  

First of all I started the week on Sunday with a large white loaf

Then I made another giant cupcake - third one I've done now, getting a bit better at the icing hopefully, need an excuse to make another one now please ;-)

Then I decided it was time to marzipan the Christmas cakes so the marzipan had time to dry out before the icing went on next week

Then mini ginger cakes with a nice little topper of mini gingerbread men, (good old sainsburys) and an orange butter-cream filling

and next the plain cupcakes with a festive topping in green - the topping is actually darker than it looks in this photo

Finally, for this week anyway, I had a go at a raspberry meringue roulade, which I have to say is very moreish - not good for the diet but hey ho its Christmas !!

Come back next week to see what I decide to do about the tops of the Christmas cakes (still undecided at the moment)

7th December

Seems I have not updated my blog for three weeks - thank goodness for my photos being stored in date order!! 

First of the last three weeks baking consisted of blueberry muffins, a new recipe for chocolate hazelnut cupcakes - very yummy especially if you are a Nutella fan!!, some lemon cupcakes with lemon butter-cream and sugar nibs. I also made a large white loaf. Off to a 50th birthday surprise for the weekend so no more baking till the following week.

The following week I made another giant cupcake - this one was for my daughters birthday and I had to transport it (very carefully) by train  to Surrey - it arrived safely and undamaged - phew! I also made a family favourite - oat and raisin cookies, plus some mini Victoria sponges with a lemon curd and butter-cream filling, some vanilla cupcakes with a chocolate and vanilla butter-cream topping - using my newly acquired large duo piping set and I finally got around to making 8 mini Christmas puddings which I put a low oven overnight in a large pan of water.
The kitchen smelt like Christmas the next morning :-)

Finally for this week (so far!) I have made some mincemeat cupcakes covered with a brandy butter topping and a Christmas themed decoration, some vanilla cupcakes with a 'sweety theme' topping and yet another batch of those oat and raisin cookies- I'll be able to do them in my sleep soon but they are delicious - thanks to Jo Wheatley and her book A Passion for Baking

Feel free to leave any comments or questions at the end.

Thanks for reading

Fortnight ending 16th November

Two weeks in one today as I have been unwell in between and was not able to update my blog. So calling on my little grey cells now to recall two weeks ago !!

I could not forget my first ever attempt at a giant cupcake, I also made my Christmas cake(s), I made 12 small individual cakes and used the rest of the mix to make a loaf shaped Christmas cake in the smaller of my two 2 lb loaf tins. I did forget to take a photo of the loaf tin cake before packing it away for storage (and brandy adding of course) but will post pictures once its marzipaned and iced.

I  had also made some small fairy cakes accompanied by my grandson, Max, plus a large loaf of bread.

Now this week is was all about the little cakes and some new recipes. I made some mini coffee and walnut sponges, some lovely ginger and cinnamon cupcakes plus some lemon cupcakes topped with a creamy lemon buttercream and sugar nibs. No biscuits this week as I had less time, having been out of action for about 9 days  

First of all my very first giant cupcake in stages 

Now my loaf

crust looks a little wonky but it was all fine when cut and eaten !    

Then the fairy cakes made with help from Max age 2 3/4

And now for the mini Christmas cakes- looking forward to decorating these.. they are actually darker than they look in the photo - probably too much light on them or the wrong angle, need to improve my photography skills !!

Now the mini coffee and walnut sponges

Followed by the lemon topped cupcakes

and finally the ginger and cinnamon cupcakes - they look pretty ordinary but the taste is wonderful, especially if you are a fan of ginger as I am.

Fortnight ending 2nd November

As I only did a little baking last week due to time constraints I have included those in with this weeks. Last week I made a lemon drizzle tray bake and of course the obligatory oat and raisin cookies (I now make these every week!! but I will try and vary the biscuit theme from time to time with other types of cookies and biscuits). 

Then this week I have made a white loaf, some banana and blueberry muffins, some cupcakes topped with a lovely lilac butter-cream plus maltesers (left over from the trick or treat box, and a country farmhouse fruit cake topped with some of my supply of sugar nibs, this cake was done for Philip's birthday. I also made an apple and blackberry crumble and of course another batch of those cookies!!!

Last weeks first - cookies

Then the lemon drizzle traybake

Now onto this week and first of all the white loaf

quickly followed by banana and blueberry muffins

and cupcakes

not forgetting the required element of cookies

next was the apple and blackberry crumble

and finally the country farmhouse fruit cake - which was too big for my container so I had to divide it between two, so I can also show a picture of the inside