I have become a bit of a stalker of The Pink Whisk website. Ruth has so many amazing looking ideas, and when I saw her idea for Christmas pudding fudge I knew I was going to make it as a gift.
Ruth included a fudge recipe on her site, but I decided to use the one that I know works for me (from Rachel Allen Home Cooking
As with all fudge recipes, get all your equipment and ingredients ready before you start- you don’t want your fudge to burn because you are plugging in the electric whisk or lining the pan.
So, line a pan (I use my brownie pan which is 10×6 inches and line with greaseproof paper), plug in the electric whisk, and get your fudge flavourings ready. This time I chopped up a small ready-to-microwave supermarket Christmas pudding- I think it was 80g?
Sorry it is a bit blurry but you get the idea.
Then in a large pan heat together 100g butter, 450g light brown soft sugar (or caster sugar) and a tin of light condensed milk.
Gently melt the ingredients, stir to stop it burning to the bottom. Then let it bubble away until it reaches the soft ball stage (113C). At this point turn off the heat and add in the Christmas pudding crumbles.
Then get out the electric whisk and beat away. (Traditional recipes seem to say to put the pan in some cold water and beat by hand, but this way always works for me).
Keep going until it gets harder to whisk. If you take the beaters out the fudge will drip off in a sort of stalactite way. Then pour into the lined pan.
Leave it to cool- I leave it at room temperature as I find it much easier to slice when it is still a little soft- in the fridge it goes too crumbly and can snap when slicing. I left this for maybe 2 hours and then it was super easy to slice.
Then bag it up ready for giving as gifts. (I had a friend visit me yesterday so she got the first bag).
Bag up the rest (and optional- keep a little pot for yourself).
It makes loads and loads- as it is so rich you need only put a dozen or so cubes in each bag and I think you could get 6 or 7 bags worth from one batch. Pretty good and a lovely gift idea I think.
It did take a while (and his ears kept falling off at first) but I am really pleased with how he looks! Too pretty to eat! I had fun with the edible glitter too, but you had to dampen the icing for it to stick and that had not dried when I took the photos.
I also did one with gingerbread men and candy canes.
Although I made the mistake of using the gel icing for the eyes- it is super sticky and does not dry. The holly was tricky as you were meant to have cutters but I didn’t so had to make do with a knife- easier said than done!
In the box from Dunelm Mill ready to be given away.
The boxes are so good, as they come with the boards too. Normally I either give them away in tins that I want back, or have to wrap them carefully in a lot of silver foil and things. Ā I will have to remember that for next year. š
A black one that says “Just one more mile…” and a navy one with “Run <3 ” on it. Now they arrived while I was in hospital, so at the moment I have not tried either one out (and won’t get to in the near future either). So anyway I have decided that the winner will get to choose which band they like the most, and I will keep the other one to try out once I am better.
This was so delicious! It was from 
A card made by my class (how sweet- it is a stained glass style-they cut out the holes then covered in tissue paper- this is the style we did for the Christmas cards this year only they did a tree/star shape)- they all signed it too (made me quite tearful), and some lovely flowers from work.
I also feel rather strange as I keep on getting “Get Well Cards” through the post. I am not one used to being unwell, and I did not really feel like my situationĀ warrantedĀ the cards. Andy keeps telling me off- I suppose I was in hospital last week.
On went the marzipan (stuck down with warm apricot jam- I did the top as a circle and then the edges as a long sausage shape which I then moulded together). This had to be left to set/ harden overnight as then the icing would stick better to it.
Then on went the icing. This was rolled out into a huge circle, draped over, smoothed on top and then smoothed around the side. All the extra bits were cut off and used for the next cake.
Onions, peppers and courgettes are what I eat most of anyway, plus pears and clementines are perfect for this time of year. It was the leeks and kale that I was not sure what to do with. I got a lot of suggestions for how to eat the kale- thanks to everyone for those. 
I tried to make kale chips to go along with 
I cooked the leeks in a tsp pure spread.
Then I whizzed up a block of tofu, some natural yoghurt (because I had some left but you could easily leave it out), some red pesto, some sundried tomatoes and a few bits of goats cheese. Then I added in the leeks and a little caramelised onion chutney.
Then I put the mixture into muffin tins (was not sure whether to use cases- I didn’t but think in the future I would as they were hard to get out) and topped with a little more goats cheese.
Turned out pretty well for something made up!
I enjoyed one (for quality control of course) with sweet potato, rocket and hummus, and it was really tasty. The leeks had a nice mild flavour which went well with the sharper goats cheese and sweet caramelised onions. They had the texture of maybe anĀ omeletteĀ but without the eggy flavour (I don’t like eggy flavours!). I have frozen the other ones for a later date- I love a good freezer meal.