Tomato & Basil Soup with Garlic & Cheese Croutons and Bacon & Sautéed Onions - Bakemas Day 4

My day has been filled with sewing, harry potter, a lot of hot chocolate and a trip to the local garden centre to look at the Christmas decorations. I also popped down to Dickensian evening which basically means the town turns into a Charles dickens novel. Okay, so not quite, but they shut off the road there’s stools with tombola’s, crafts, cakes, candyfloss, sausage butties, mulled wine, lots of mulled wine and everyone’s dressed like they’re from the 1800’s. I will say I found it a lot more exciting when I was younger whether that’s because it was better back then or I was just more amused as a child I’ll never know. But on to the food, what we're really here for. I could talk about these croutons all day, so I’d probably be repeating myself a lot but I think I’m officially in love. Cheesy bite sized garlic bread croutons, why have I never thought of this before and I never thought I’d be a “soggy croutons in my soup” kind of person but I was so wrong. I did just give myself more work though, because every time I eat soup I will need these croutons. on the bright side, they're pretty quick to whip up. Did I just stomp all over the soup by bigging up the croutons too much? because this soup is delicious I just can’t stop thinking about those darn croutons. If you ever thought tomato and basil soup was bland make this, then add sautéed onions and bacon, as much bacon as you want...and did I mention croutons? But seriously, homemade soup is so yummy, tomato and basil is hands down my favourite and definitely worth the little effort it takes to make.
This soup is also the perfect thing to eat after being out in the cold and even though it’s not freezing cold tonight it’s still ridiculously yummy, especially with a bowl full of croutons. Okay, I'll shut up about the croutons!

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?

Tuna, Cheese & Vegetable Stuffed Sweet Potatoes - Bakemas Day 2

Healthy comfort food is the ultimate goal when it comes to winter, no one wants to eat salad when it's 5 degrees out unless you're the type of person who uses their heating to make it feel like a sauna. I think I hit the nail on the head, all the comfort and every good intention of being healthy, so maybe the cheese is questionable but everybody deserves a little cheese in their life, especially at Christmas. I’m definitely enjoying that I can prepare this for about 10 minutes then bung it in the oven while I do something else because I seem to have accumulated a lot of things to do again, not to mention I haven’t even started sorting out Christmas presents yet. Okay so being unorganised isn’t rare for me but I think I’m getting slightly better, at least I’m feeling the need to be organised even if I’m not accomplishing it. I spent a lot of the first day of December making Christmassy bags for my granddad to give the kiddos (or just spent time thinking about making them), yes it’s getting festive all up in here, although, I say making I’m still only at the painting stage. The painting stage is the best part though; it gives me an excuse to watch Christmas films while I do it which I’m more than happy to do. Seeing as I stayed up till 3am painting I didn’t find time to put up my tree yet which fingers crossed I can get done today if I get to the end of my to do list, which let’s be honest is highly unlikely. I did help my mum put the tree up outside though, well, I lifted it, then stood there feeding her the lights while she put them on, so all around I was really helpful. If you’re lacking time like I am at the moment this is a really simple and incredibly yummy dinner, like I said, 10 minutes of prep and you can bung it in the oven and come back half an hour later. I put the leftover pepper and onions in the dish but you could even add more veggies in the dish to roast so you don’t have to prepare side vegetables.

Spiced Shortbread Dipped in White Chocolate and Chopped Pistachios - Bakemas Day 1

I’ve been thinking about this since December 1st last year and I'm still not sure I'm entirely mentally prepared. I'm sure if you’re familiar with the internet and youtube you'll have heard of a thing called vlogmas. For any of you who have no idea what I'm talking about it’s when vloggers/people make a video everyday in December on the lead up to Christmas to document all the Christmasy things they're doing, so being the type of person who likes to set them self tasks that I'm slightly unsure I can achieve naturally I thought this was a brilliant idea. I came up with this idea last year, although I’m sure there are other food bloggers who do something similar, but spent way too long umming and ahhing over it. In that case I've technically had 12 months to prepare for this, although it’s the 1st I’m still pretty unprepared and still a tiny bit unsure this is the best idea but we’re going to roll with the punches. So I'm coining this Bakemas! 24 days, 24 recipes, potentially pictures of all the Christmas I’ve injected into my room which by the way doesn’t even have a tree in yet, I know I know it’s going up tonight, and probably a lot of Christmas stories. I’m sure I’ll spend the majority of the month stressing and having a million and one things to do but I’ve sort of grown accustomed to that feeling. I’ll just keep my fingers crossed that my ability to procrastinate like a champion doesn’t mean I end up spending the entire 24 days in the kitchen and chained to my laptop because having time to watch endless amounts of Christmas films and spend a lot of time in pyjamas drinking hot chocolate is extremely important. On that note, these are the perfect accompaniment to hot chocolate or coffee (I can't vouch for tea but potentially that too) taste amazing and really easy to whip up. Happy Bakemas!

Apple Bacon Cheese Burger with Sautéed Onions & Apple Sauce

Is it the wrong season for burgers, because if it is my cravings have no clue what time of year it is. I’ve been calling this an autumn burger, to begin with I hadn’t really named it, I know it turned out to be a very innovative name, but when I had named it, apple bacon cheese burger just seemed too long to say in passing and there’s apple sauce, do I need any more of a reason? I’ve been talking about making this since last month and being the expert procrastinator even through my excitement of making it I didn’t get round to it for a good three weeks. The entire time I was making this I felt like I was running around like a headless chicken, I’ll just say now it’s not hard or messy or challenging it’s actually a pretty simple recipe, so don’t let this put you off. I’d had a long day, the kitchen was a massive tip, I was balancing things on chairs and stacks of magazines there were things everywhere. Partly because when I started my day the kitchen wasn’t all that tidy to begin with and I got a bit too busy to the point where I stopped tidying up in-between finishing one thing and starting another. I was trying to get dinner made by a certain time so I was running around and ended up with a beetroot red face by the time it was done and shot and I finally got round to eating this. I’m surprised something didn’t end up on the floor but it was definitely worth the headless chicken running. If I didn’t put you off too much happy non-headless chicken burger making!