Berries & Cream Ginger Beer Float - Bakemas Day 16

I feel like the only way to describe this is “kind of like a root beer/coke float...but kind of not at all”. I mean it’s berry-ie and creamy and gingery and fizzy and it gets this crazy foamy head you can eat with a spoon and it’s so quick to make especially when you use a hand blender.

Vegan Coconut Brandy Cream - Bakemas Day 7

This is one of those staple recipes you need for any Christmas. It’s so simple to whip up and you can put it with pretty much any dessert and it’ll taste good. Christmas pudding, Christmas cake, mince pies, mousse, chocolate cake; seriously you name it and it probably tastes good.

Gingerbread Frappe - Bakemas Day 17

Because I have this weird obsession with eating ice cream based foods in winter.

Rhubarb, Ginger & Orange Cake with Fresh Cream and Candied Rhubarb

The sun is FINALLY out, after a week of hot weather then two-three weeks of misery it finally came back and I’m so ready to share this cake.

It is still rhubarb season right? Because full disclosure this cake has been sitting in a folder for about a month now and I just kept putting off going through the photos. I probably should not be admitting that, but let’s do this!

No Bake Chestnut Cheesecakes with Chocolate & Cherries - Bakemas Day 22

How it’s day 22 I have no idea, I’ve only just started sorting out presents so everything is going to be a mad rush for the next two days. Every year I say I’m going to be on top of things and honestly I do try I’m just terrible at it, and considering I decided to do bakemas that just threw a lot of work into the mix. I’m already starting to get a little down about Christmas nearly being over though, and the fact that I can't spend hours wrapping these presents because I do love a good ol' bit of wrapping; can we do Christmas the week after? I feel like this dessert oozes “I’ve got my life together” which it so far from the truth but I’m sure we all feel that way. Side note: not sure I want to use the word oozes on here again, although I feel like Nigella Lawson uses that word quite a lot, maybe I’m imagining things. This is one of those recipe I thought up and even though I can’t eat it decided to make it anyway because I’m over the “BOO I can’t eat it” stage in the dairy grieving process and cheesecake makes me happy even if I can only stare at it... I did eat that fork full though, and maybe a couple more and I would devour the whole thing if I could because it’s seriously yummy! This cheesecake started out as a test, I was testing out the recipe in ramekins for what originally was supposed to be a big cheesecake to make sure it would set okay but they look so good mini style I just had to photograph them like this. You can make this either way though, there’s instructions under the recipe for how to make a 7-8 inch, but this is perfect if there’s just two of you so you won’t have to eat cheesecake all week, I know, such a chore!

Brandy Cream - Bakemas Day 19

This is definitely a “mum knows best” recipe!

Brandy cream is a must this time of year, mince pies, Christmas pudding, pancakes, chocolate mousse! You can put it with anything, well within reason, but it’s not Christmas without brandy cream!

Homemade is always best and this recipe is, dare I say it, healthier? I’m sure the words healthy and cream aren’t usually something you hear in the same sentence and although this is called brandy cream it’s more like half cream half Greek yogurt. The yogurt gives it a fresher less fatty taste without losing the creaminess when pairing it with rich desserts and when you realise how easy and delicious this is you'll never need to buy it again.

Chocolate Mousse with Baileys Cream & Baileys Butterscotch Sauce - Bakemas Day 3

If you’re going to add alcohol to your food at any point in the year Christmas is the time to do it and baileys cream makes mousse 97.3% better, trust me! If you’re not a drinker don’t run away yet! I fit into that category, although you probably wouldn’t guess it from the way I make brandy cream, but I’m generally not interested in anything even containing alcohol but this is that flavour combination - taste sensation thing everyone brags about. This mousse is also amazing on its own anyway; we’ve been making this for years and its probably the best mouse I’ve ever had. It’s lovely and rich and incredibly easy and quick to make, which seems to be a theme this month. It only contains 3 ingredients, it's low fat and its dairy free, yes dairy free, obviously minus the cream. I will be overjoyed the day I can walk into any supermarket and buy dairy free whipping cream alas no luck, but the cream isn’t essential although it is definitely worth it, if you’re not intolerant do not skip it. I finally got the tree up, and let’s just say it was the magical experience it was supposed to be. So it may have been 3am, I took a shower, put on clean pyjamas, which included ridiculously soft men’s stretchy plaid pyjama bottoms, urgh I could live in them, I made hot chocolate in my new Christmas mug put the Santa clause on and started decorating. Opening the box of decorations is like Christmas morning to me, the festive feeling contained in a box. I love everything I put on my tree but I manage to forget what I actually have and that’s just grounds for getting excited all over again. So my room is pretty festive now with a Christmas duvet, my bed covered in Christmas cushions and my tree up, although there are a couple of other things I still want to put up and make if I find the time. Did all this Christmas talk make you want mousse?

Chocolate and Raspberry Triple Layer Cake with White Chocolate Flavoured Cream and Freeze Dried Raspberries

I am pretty terrible when it comes to giving people gifts on time, I mean I have a good excuse, I like to make the presents I give people and I am the biggest procrastinator known to man. This year I’m trying to step my game up, be a little more organised, the idea of it is great but the execution not so much. My friend Sophie, also known as the majority of the hands on this blog is usually great at giving me presents, and they’re always on time and I am the crumby one so this year instead of feeling bad I actually tried to get it all done on time. I will say everything was still a little last minute, I came up with the idea of what to give her a couple of months ago and still a couple of days before I was seeing her I was making a cushion. I made the cake and some truffles the day before I saw her and I made the card and wrapped the presents a couple of hours before she arrived but it was still done before she arrived, all laid out by the TV like it was Christmas morning. What I’m trying to say is; it still counts. If only I had pictures to show you the packaging, I was giddy wrapping it, I bought brown paper bags and grey twine specifically, I even went as far as to make a box that perfectly fitted the mug to fit in another bigger box with the truffles sitting neatly in bags next to it. Okay so this blog post is not about the presents, it’s actually about the cake. This was a bit of an experiment, like I said, I went all out, three layers, something I’d never tried before a mysterious pink layer. Obviously you know from the title it’s actually raspberry flavoured not a mysterious pink layer. I did have a couple of mishaps, I tried to make dairy free white chocolate mousse without really putting much thought into it and it deflated so I had to run to tesco and buy some cream and made white chocolate cream instead. I also ran out of cream for the top and had to make a second batch and because I could only find the star nozzle, not the round one I ended up scraping the cream off and re-piping it because it looked like something from the 60s but shhh.