Category: Stuff I love!

Hello all

I was asked by the Baking Mad people to have a go at baking one of their Christmas recipes. That sounded right up my street.

I often use the website now as it is chock full of recipes, and I had no idea what I fancied so I ended up browsing for a long time.

I was so excited when I saw the instructions for making penguin decorations! Just what I was looking for!

There were some instructions, but I was a bit unsure as to the relative size of each piece. But, I am very pleased with the finished items. I was not sure how to make the tree, so I made a green cone, and then stuck on little triangles of green icing for the branches.

Then, when browsing again I saw a recipe for stollen bites. Stollen is one of my favourite cakes- I love anything with marzipan, and I think the spices just make it smell like Christmas. The recipe I usually use is a Rachel Allen one, but it does take a while, and this recipe seemed quicker so I decided to give it a go today.

The dough was easy to make, although in the recipe it mentioned adding sugar, but there was no amount given-I went for 50g as the dried fruit and marzipan sweeten it a lot. A word of warning- the dough is very sticky, but that is fine (and the same with other stollen recipes)- it is not like a bread dough, so not that easy to shape. It rested while I was at aerobics, and then I baked it while the oven was on for dinner.

You do have to dust it liberally with icing sugar when it comes out of the oven! Although I am sure that was no where near to the 50g stated in the recipe.

I thought it might be more like a recipe for individual ones, but you baked it in more of a rectangle shape, and then sliced it, although you could easily leave it as a loaf shape. If you fancy trying to make stollen then I would recommend this recipe, because it is much easier than the recipe I have used before, although I would add in some flaked almonds, as I love the crunch they add to the cake.

Perfect with a cup of tea, and it will freeze well too (if I can make it last that long….)

Baking mad also have some fab recipes for cupcakes, and some beautiful looking mince pies, so check them out if you fancy getting your festive bake on.

Are you a stollen fan? Are you decorating your Christmas cake this year? Any other festive recipes I should try?

I am off to try some stollen 🙂

Hey peeps!

I hope you all had a lovely weekend. I had a brilliant weekend in Bath- I love it there.

We drove down on Friday night (our hotel was near Frome, so a bit outside of Bath), and then headed to the park and ride on Saturday morning. That seemed the best way by far (previously we have got the train in, but that is much more expensive as the park and ride was only £2.50 each for the bus with free parking). As we had only had a banana for breakfast we headed straight to Sally Lunn’s for a late brunch!

Yum yum, a bun with lemon curd, and an Earl Grey. Love it!

Then we were off shopping. My, the shops were packed! I had forgotten how busy city centres get this close to Christmas- normally I avoid the shops at this time of year. Anyway, I had a successful day as I had a list of people to buy for, and I managed to find little gifts for them all. The markets were so pretty, but packed (they even had a one way system going) so we had a little look, but decided to go back later (thanks to Lucy for the tip).

By around half 4 we were needing a rest, so headed to Starbucks, when I realised I had missed their 12 days of gifting this year- I meant to get one of their nice green cups but I totally forgot. Ah well, a yummy steamer with gingerbread syrup gave me some more energy.

We had a little look around the markets (so pretty in the dark) and then went to Giraffe for dinner (sweet potato fries mmmmm). Then we had a final wander and bought more gifts, and a few bits for me too (passionfruit curd- how yummy does that sound?). Andy did take a lot of photos (as usual) so I might pop some on here once he emails them to me. For now you shall have to make do with my purchases.

Some of the pretty decorations I bought- although the large wooden ones are for other people.

On Sunday we went to Stourhead, which is a National Trust property near to where we stayed. It was perfect, as they were having a festival of music, so there were local choirs and singers dotted around the grounds. We had a walk around the lake, a look around the house (all decorated with trees etc) and then went for tea (and carrot cake in my case). It was just so festive, I loved it.

I also bought a few more Christmas bits in the shop- the reindeer, and the Christmas tree tealight holder (the snowflake jar was from Bath).

When I got home I was planning on having a run, but it was about half 4, and I realised I had only eaten a banana for breakfast, and carrot cake for lunch- not ideal. So I lit the candles and concentrated on unpacking and tidying (and also searching you-tube for Christmas carols).

We watched the new Bourne film (which I was a bit apprehensive about as I love the first 3, but I really enjoyed it)- and had a nice snacky tea of ciabatta, cheese, salad and fruit.

And I had a lovely hot chocolate later on.

Love it!

This evening I went on a very cold run, and then have been writing some Christmas cards. I might even wrap some presents later!

Oh, and don’t forget to check out the lovely Christmas giveaway that is running at the moment- good luck!

 How are your Christmas preparations going? I am hoping we will put up our tree this week as I feel like the last person in the country to do it!

The lovely folks at the Sainsbury’s food bloggers network have come up with a lovely pre-Christmas giveaway, and I was lucky enough to be one of the host blogs. You could win a lovely pamper kit, to give to someone as a lovely Christmas present.

The kit contains: Nip + Fabs body wash, body lotion, facial wash, hand cream, day cream, eye cream, relaxation mask, hydrating mask and facial scrub and is valued at £40.

Sounds fab, right?

All you have to do it leave a comment on here, saying who you would give the kit to, and why. A team at Sainsbury’s will judge the responses and decide who will win. The winners will be chosen on Monday 17th December, so the winner should get theirs in time for Christmas. Only open to UK people.

Good luck!

Hey peeps, I hope you all had a lovely weekend.

Friday was a bit of a rush, as I had to get to Kings Cross for Friday evening- luckily the traffic driving home was fine, and we made it! Even had time to buy a sandwich to eat on the train.

The Eurostar goes to Brussels, so then it was another train ride to Bruges- we arrived at our hotel pretty late, but were up bright and early the next morning for a lovely wander around. We had breakfast at the Gingerbread Teahouse (is there a more perfect name than that?), and spent hours walking around the streets admiring the pretty buildings, the park, the canals etc. I had a waffle for lunch, and Andy had frites (half the reason for us going there!).

Taken with my mobile to use as a background- Andy took some proper pictures!

In the evening we went for a walk around the Christmas markets- they are so pretty all lit up. There was an ice skating rink, and all the buildings had white lights (I don’t like coloured lights)- there was music playing but none of that Slade rubbish. It looked like a Christmas movie, only it was real!

Today we went back to the Gingerbread tearoom for breakfast (they did the most amazing hot chocolate, which was chocolate chips in the bottom of a cup, with steamed milk poured on top, so you had to stir it and melt the chocolate mmmm), and did a spot of shopping. Actually quite a bit of shopping!

I bought this cute reindeer top! The shop had a cute bear one, and a penguin one (but it was red, which I don’t like to wear)- they had lovely PJ’s too, but I stuck with the top.

I bought a magnet from the Christmas markets- that is what all the buildings look like! Plus some dark chocolate with hazelnuts, cute little Christmas chocolates (holly leaves, reindeer, Christmas trees, snowmen etc) and some rice crispy chocolates which we were going to eat for lunch today but forgot.

As well as selling chocolates, loads of the shops had logs of marzipan in the windows, in many flavours (mocha, chocolate, cherry, hazelnut..)- I bought a slice of pistachio and a slice of orange- sounds so good. Plus this speculoos spread which I think is a cinnamon biscuit?

We decided not to go to any of the museums (eg the chocolate museum) and Andy suggested I spend the money on buying chocolate instead. I bought a little tin (they were everywhere too, and I decided that it would be good to store teabags in)- anyway it would have been rude not to buy a little chocolate figure to go in it.

Whoops, when I got home my Montezuma’s order had arrived- special Christmas hot chocolate (orange and spice flavour) and some yummy coated fruits, plus a free sample of hand cream! Exciting. I think we have plenty of sweet treats to keep us going for a long time!

Anyway, I had never been to Bruges before, but I loved it. It was such a pretty town, there were so many lovely buildings to see, and pretty shops, and the Christmas market was just lovely, not tacky at all. It really put me in a festive mood. I still think it is amazing that we can get the train across to Europe, and now it is high speed it is so quick. It took us longer to get up to Newcastle than it took for us to get there.

I would love to visit there again. Have you ever been to Bruges before? Or any Christmas market? I fancy Salzburg next year, and next week we are off to Bath! I might explode tinsel everywhere in a minute!

PS> You still have time to enter the giveaway for the Zalando voucher- I have had a bit of problem with comments going to the spam, so it might be worth a check if you have entered- check that your comment has come up I mean. x