The Recipe

Eat your heart out Delia!


The holiday season is upon us and like many other women up and down the country that means that i'm in for a month of baking yummy goodies. I love cooking but most of the time don't get to do that much as I haven't got the time, but at Christmas that all changes - the smell of freshly baked cookies goes hand in hand with the fresh pine Christmas tree and mulled wine. Yum.


So on Saturday I went to the Bot's parents house to learn how to bake a proper Christmas cake. I used to be pretty good at baking cakes but since I went wheat/gluten free my cakes have been less than impressive. The Bot's mum is a bit of a cake pro, often cooking around 12 Christmas cakes for various friends and neighbours. She is also gluten free so knows the pain of cooking sans gluten.


Parakeet feeding in the garden

Locked outside by the Bot. Little git.

Looking good

In my opinion, the best bit about baking a cake is getting to lick the spoon, and the bowl!
The finished article
Et voila, not bad eh? Now I just have to decide how to decorate it...for now it's wrapped up like a little present but I have to decide what to do. Traditional royal icing with a box, a Christmas scene? What do you think? Answers on a postcard please!


After the succes of Saturday, I decided to cook my tradional Christmas cookies on Sunday. I've baked these for the past three years and they are now a festive favourite in our household. They are the easiest biscuits to make - ever - and certainly won't dissapoint! I wish I could credit the recipe but I found it online ages ago.


Ingredients
200g Caster sugar
400g Plain flour
175g unsalted butter (always use unsalted for baking, you can add in the salt later if needs be)
2 Eggs
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of salt
11/2 teaspoons of vanilla essence


1. Preheat over to 180C.
2. Mix butter and sugar until creamy.
3. Add eggs and vanilla essence.
4. Add in flour (make sure you sift the flour), salt and baking powder.
5. Now take the mixture and seperate it into two fat balls. If the mixture is too sticky add a dash more flour, but not too much otherwise the dough will become tough. Put these balls in the fridge for at least an hour.



When the balls have cooled for an hour, take them out one at a time and roll out the dough to about 1/2 cm. Then have fun cutting out whatever shapes you like!

Bake for 8-11 minutes until they are golden brown, and then decorate as you like. Most of the time I tend to leave them plain, but sometimes I use plain white icing and sprinkles.

The Bot decided to bake the star, and the star cutout, so you could push the star through after baking. A bit like a child's toy, but then, he is a big child.


I tend to make up the mixture and cook two batches over the course of a week. Each ball makes about 20-30 small/medium sized cookies.


I hope you don't mind the slight change in my posts - this blog is focused towards bargain fashion, but it's meant to incorporate all aspects of my life, and at this time of year I tend to focus on food!


Happy baking, and let me know how you get on if you attempt these biscuits. Or if you've got any other good Christmas recipes you think I should be trying let me know! xx

pekal

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