Tag: christmas

14Dec

Frosted Candle Jars

I have not enjoyed the build up to Christmas this year as I normally do. With working two jobs and an exam looming I haven’t had time to imerse myself in the preparations as much as I would have liked, from decorating the house to planning what dessert can possibly be light enough after Christmas dinner so you don’t feel like you are going to explode on the sofa while watching Home Alone for the 100th time. A couple years ago I was in a very different frame of mind: I actually had time off during Christmas and my brother was coming home from Switzerland with my new sister-in-law so my mum and I went all out with the decoration and food prep. We even made our own cake stands. We got a bit carried away, we had more stands than cakes. That remains as one of the best Christmas in recent years for me, so I am bringing back one of our many DIY projects from that time which I re-use every year. This idea was born after my mum brought home a selection of unused jars that were going to be thrown away from the lab were she works. We agreed
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05Dec

Marzipan and cinnamon hot chocolate

December is definitely my favourite month. I love what it brings: the chill outside, the snow, the traditional German Christmas markets, family gatherings…My love of December is so great I chose to get married on this month two years ago. Call me crazy but to me there’s nothing more romantic than a winter wedding. And December would not be December without a hot drink to warm our cold bones and help us relax after a long day, right? I will be openly frank here and say that I am being bad. I’ll tell you why: I was planning on posting a recipe of traditional mulled wine to share with all of you but I decided to be a little selfish. Selfish because mulled wine contains alcohol and, dear readers, I am teetotal at the moment as I am breastfeeding. I guess I could have made a litre of mulled wine and just photograph it for the blog. Or let my husband loose with it. But it is Christmas time, a time for sharing. Plus it would be so sad to make mulled wine and not have a drop to drink. So I have adapted a delicious recipe of marzipan hot
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28Nov

Chai spiced fruitcake

A British essential for the holidays is definitely a boozy fruitcake, they are everywhere this time of the year. The whole left side of the bakery aisle in my local supermarket has been transformed in the most amazing selection of dried fruits and citrus peel. I love dried fruits, I love booze and I certainly love cake but not fruitcake. Never been a fan of the traditional recipe and I reckon it’s because the ones I have tried in the past left me feeling underwhelmed, they were either too dry, too boozy or have a ratio of 95:1 fruit to cake, and that is just not the balance I am looking for. So I have adapted a family recipe to share with you a lovely spiced fruitcake. It is based on my grandmother’s orange cake recipe which was always an amazing treat when I was growing up and I’ve packed it (a good balance) with fruits soaked in Amaretto and chai tea, a drink which I have felt in love with recently and it adds an amazing mix of spices. Now as you can see by the pictures I lost my normal 20cm cake tin and had to use one
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