Boxing Day

We enjoyed a quick walk on the Clent Hills where the beautiful weather gave us amazing views!

 We then arrived back at my parent's house for my family to arrive for a boxing day get-together and present opening!

Winter Lights 2016

Today we went to the rather fab annual Winter Lights at Angleysey Abbey. It is sold out (we got our tickets in the summer!). We loved the silver birches and the mill beautifully light up! The girls enjoyed a pulled pork bun/hot dog whilst watching the shadow dance of Peter and the Wolf. However, we did the miss the entertainers from last year!

Stir up Sunday

Today we made our Christmas pudding. We all had a stir and a wish (although sadly I couldn't find my sixpence from last year! It wasn't where I thought I had put it). I used the same recipe from last year.

We also made our Christmas cake and mini baked bean tin cakes.

Christmas Day

Getting ready for the start of December!

Today I spend a long night wrapping books for our book calendar, beer for the husband's advent calender and making sure everything is ready for tomorrow!

Printing Christmas Cards

Today each of the girls designed and printed Christmas cards.  I cut some pre-bought (from Amazon) styrofoam sheets to make them smaller than the cards.  Then the girls drew their design on the sheet with a felt tip pen and when they were happy we used a pencil to create a relief drawing.  The print will only stick to the surface of the styrofoam that is not carved...it basically does a reverse of how you draw it. (We avoided words for this reason).

We then added some printing ink to a baking sheet and used a roller to add the ink to the Styrofoam block and then we printed.

We found simple designs were most effective!  G was brilliant and her robin and deer designs were amazing.  I came up with a present design which looks very modern.  G and E both did Baubles.  P also tried a snowman but it wasn't as effective!  

Stir Up Sunday - Nigella's pudding recipie and a lucky sixpence!

Stir Up Sunday is traditionally the day when Christmas puddings should be made, in order to give them enough time to mature before Christmas. It’s a day to bring the whole family together, as it is tradition on Stir-Up Sunday for every family member to take it in turns to stir the Christmas pudding mixture and make a wish. A sixpence is traditionally added to the mixture and cooked in the pudding – as it is said to bring luck and wealth to whoever finds the coin on their plate on Christmas day.

And I was lucky enough to win one of 2015 sixpence from the royal mint this year.  

To make our Christmas pudding I used Nigella's ultimate Christmas pudding recipee.  

• 150 grams sultanas

• 150 grams roughly chopped prunes

• 175 ml pedro ximenez sherry

• 100 grams plain flour

• 125 grams fresh breadcrumbs

• 150 grams suet (i used veggie suet)

• 150 grams dark brown muscovado sugar

• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• ¼ teaspoon ground cloves

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• grated zest of 1 lemon

• 3 large eggs

• 1 medium cooking apple (peeled and grated)

• 2 tablespoons honey

• 150 grams currants

1. Put the currants, sultanas and scissored prunes into a bowl with the Pedro Ximénez, swill the bowl a bit, then cover with clingfilm and leave to steep overnight or for up to 1 week.

1. When the fruits have had their steeping time, put a large pan of water on to boil, or heat some water in a conventional steamer, and butter your heatproof plastic pudding basin (or basins), remembering to grease the lid, too.

1. In a large mixing bowl, combine all the remaining pudding ingredients (except the vodka), either in the traditional manner or just any old how; your chosen method of stirring, and who does it, probably won’t affect the outcome of your wishes or your Christmas.

1. Add the steeped fruits, scraping in every last drop of liquor with a rubber spatula, and mix to combine thoroughly, then fold in cola-cleaned six-pence!

1. Ask every house hold member to have a stir and make a wish!

1. Scrape and press the mixture into the prepared pudding basin, squish it down and put on the lid. Then wrap with a layer of foil (probably not necessary, but I do it as I once had a lid-popping and water-entering experience when steaming a pudding) so that the basin is watertight, then either put the basin in the pan of boiling water (to come halfway up the basin) or in the top of a lidded steamer (this size of basin happens to fit perfectly in the top of my all-purpose pot) and steam for 5 hours, checking every now and again that the water hasn’t bubbled away.

1. When it’s had its 5 hours, remove gingerly (you don’t want to burn yourself) and, when manageable, unwrap the foil, and put the pudding in its basin somewhere out of the way in the kitchen.  

we made 3X1 litre Christmas puddings.

Baked Bean Tin Christmas Cake

Today we made individual Christmas cakes,

Christmas Cake(Makes 2 small baked bean tin cakes)

50g glace cherries
100g mixed dried fruit
100g sultanas
50ml sherry or other suitable alcohol like whisky, brandy or sloe gin (if you don’t want to use alcohol, use orange juice instead)
57g butter, softened
57g dark brown sugar
1 large egg, lightly beaten
57 plain flour
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp mixed spice

1) Put cherries and other dried fruits plus zest in bowl and soak in sherry overnight.

2) Line a tall cake tin: Lightly grease base and sides. Line sides with a double thickness of baking parchment that stands 5cm above tin. Make 1 cm cuts at base to help it lie flat. Line base with double layer of parchment. 

3) Preheat oven to 150°c. Whisk butter and sugar for 5 min till light and fluffy. Whisk in eggs slowly. When almost added, whisk in some flour to stop it curdling. Fold in flour, spices, fruit and almonds. Spoon into lined tin and make a small dip in the middle of the mixture. Wrap tin in a double thickness of brown paper (or parchment) and tie with piece of string. Cook for 60-90 minutes. If you want the top of the cake to brown a bit more untie the string, so the top of paper is open, for the last quarter an hour.

4) Once cooked, poke lots of holes in the top of the cake with a skewer and drizzle a teaspoon of sherry over cake. Don’t overfeed it or the cake will go too soggy. Leave to cool in tin. Then remove from tin, remove paper and wrap well in a clean lot of a double layer of greaseproof paper and foil. If you want to you can feed it every week or so with sherry before decorating to keep the cake moist.

Christmas Cake

Today the girls helped me make our Christmas cake.  We followed the recipe on the guardian website which is:

250g currants
250g sultanas
100g dried figs, roughly chopped
100g glacé cherries, cut in half
100g mixed peel
125ml whisky, plus extra to feed
125g butter, softened
125g muscovado sugar
4 eggs, beaten
130g plain flour
½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp mixed spice
50g ground almonds
Grated zest of 1 lemon
50g whole almonds
25g crystallised ginger, chopped

1. Put the dried fruit and peel in a bowl along with the whisky, cover and leave to soak overnight. Stir well before use. Grease and line a 20cm cake tin with 2 layers of baking parchment.

2. Preheat the oven to 140C. Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, then gradually add the eggs, beating well after each addition so the mixture doesn't curdle.

3. Mix together the sifted flour, baking powder, spice, ground almonds and a pinch of salt and then fold this into the butter and sugar mixture. Add the soaked fruits, and any remaining whisky, the lemon zest, chopped almonds and ginger, and stir to combine.

4. Tip the mixture into your prepared tin and smooth the surface, scooping out a small hollow in the middle to prevent a doming effect.

5. Put the cake in the oven for about an hour, then cover with foil, and bake for another 30 minutes and then check the cake. It's done when a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean – check every 10 minutes until it's cooked.

6. Leave to cool in the tin then use the skewer to poke a few holes almost all the way through the cake, and brush them with more whisky. With the baking parchment still attached, wrap well in greaseproof paper and store in an airtight tin or a layer of foil, repeating the feeding every week or so until you're ready to ice just before Christmas. (I'd recommend Nigel Slater's instructions on these matters.)