Annual Christmas Baking Fest...

Mostly these are regulars or semi-regulars, though there are a few newbies - a soft ginger and orange cookie, which I think shall rapidly become a regular and a "double peanut cookie", which is nowhere near as nice as my regular peanut butter cookies, so won't make an appearance again. I added some wintery spices to my vegan GF flapjacks this year, and they are extra yummy, so I'll be doing that again for Christmas.

Christmas Baking!

And here's the plate...

Snickerdoodles

Chocolate and Pistachio Biscotti

Butter Horn Cookies (these were my dad's favourites)

Stained Glass Window Cookies

Russian Tea Cakes

Merry Christmas Cookies (lemon flavoured, iced)

Jam Thumbprints

Ginger and Hazelnut Florentines

Christmas Baking!

Spiced Apple Cake; Plum Shortcake

A couple of bakes today - baking in my house often happens when there is fruit which wants to be used up.  But I've resolved to bake more because it doesn't really take that long, and it's nice to have fresh stuff in the house.  The main issue will be not to eat too much of it, of course!  This one is a spiced toffee apple cake, except I didn't do the toffee part. Recipe is from Good Food Magazine online.

And this one is my usual plum shortcake, the easiest cake ever...

...and then there was cake

Blueberry muffin...in a mug

I recently purchased the book Mug Cakes by Mima Sinclair as a gift for the girls - the idea is you make them in the microwave. They've been testing out a lot of the recipes (with success) and this morning, when I noticed a punnet of blueberries beginning to get a bit old in the fridge, I thought it would be the perfect chance to try for myself. Verdict: Awesome and Easy. I reckon this would be a great present for someone off to university...

Monkey Cake

My entry for the staff bake off (cakes with an animal theme) - it was banana cake inside. I didn't win my round (which is good, as it means I won't have to bake in the final). It was fun though - usually I don't bake for the bake off because it's hard to find time to bake on a weeknight, but I got sucked in this year...

Peanut Butter No-Bakes

This is something I usually only make at Christmas - more from habit than for any particular reason. Today is a good friend's birthday, so I decided to make some as a present - it makes two square trays, so one for her and one for us. Yummmmm.

And then there was cake...

The Boy Bakes Brownies

Festive baking!

Today was the day for the annual Christmas bake fest. These days, it's a lot more relaxed than it used to be as all three kids can help, two of them with little or no supervision. Which means that I don't have to make everything, or even take part in making everything. It worked really well today, actually, as whoever was around wanting to do something just did whatever the next thing was... In fact, we also got all the rest of the presents wrapped, as well! Here are some plates of cookies ready to go to neighbours for Christmas treats. Yum!

Here are some peppermint creams and some florentines. 

These are Merry Christmas cookies - i.e. a rather plain sugar cookie, which is lemon flavoured - nice addition to all the really rich stuff.

Butterhorn cookies - a firm family tradition - these were my dad's favourite. 

Jam thumbprints, which we always run out of first - we really ought to make a double batch in the firstplace!

Rice krispie treats - Alex made these pretty much all by himself this year.

Fruity Christmas Biscotti,

Fudge Meltaways (nothing to do with fudge - no idea why they are called that!)

Jan Hagel - these are kind of like a shortbread with a bit of egg white and chopped nuts. 

And finally, chocolate, peanut-butter no bake squares (though they aren't square as I can't cut straight through them - they are very thick!). 

Snickerdoodles!

Today's baking theme is biscuits/cookies, so Alex requested these family favourites. Hope they go down well at the Gang Show (my hunch is the cast and crew will eat just about anything...)

Gooey brownies

The baking theme tonight for the Gang Show is chocolate, so these are some chocolate brownies with white choc chips in them. I also threw in some mini-marshmallows, which kind of float to the top and melt into the mix, which just makes them chewy and gooey...  Tomorrow the theme is cookies & biscuits!

Ham & Cheese Scones

Gang Show week involves lots of baking - because it's half term and I'm not working, I've done a little (it's to feed the cast and crew during performances - each night has a theme and a contest. I'm not bothered about the contest part, but it seems fair to feed the starving masses!).  Tuesday was savoury day, so ham & cheese scones it was... Of course I made a double batch so there were some for home as well...

Hey, you got your chocolate in my peanut butter...

A recent visit to a little local shop with an excellent import section landed me a bag of peanut butter chips (like chocolate chips except, well, peanut butter flavoured). Some chocolate/peanut butter cookies were called for... And those of you old enough to now have a certain jingle going through your head ("two great tastes which taste great together...") - well, that's just too bad!

Banana Cake...with Rolos

Bananas going over means one of two things - smoothies, or banana cake. Olivia made this pretty much herself, and it was her idea to add the chocolate - not having any chocolate chips to hand (or a bar) she chopped up some Rolos to chuck in. Personally, I don't need the chocolate in my banana cake, but whatever.

Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes

Alex and I baked some cakes for Scout Camp (it's a tradition - homemade cakes through the weekend (or week, if a long camp)). We decided it would be fun to try those cakes which look like an ice cream cone - and actually, they were really easy to do. Hardest part was working out how to keep them upright in the cake box. 

Cupcakes

As we appear to have the National Collection of cake decorating sprinkles and shapes, I charged the kids with making and decorating some cakes - Olivia has gone for a bit of a superhero theme on some of these...

When life hands you...apples?

A big bowl of apples, half of which have seen better days, means we need an apply dessert. Today I chose to make a pie. Alex made the pie crust, with some supervision, to make sure he didn't work it too much - and it was very nice. Despite the fact that these were eating rather than cooking apples, the pie was lovely. 

Snickerdoodles!

In case you think there's a surplus of baking, this morning's pains au chocolat came from a tube - nothing to it!  These, however, were made from scratch.