Gingerbread Milk - Bakemas Day 9

Gingerbread Hot Chocolate with Mini Star Ice Cream Sandwiches - Bakemas Day 23

How is it Christmas Eve TOMORROW, this month has flown by way too fast; I’ve not watched enough Christmas films and I’ve definitely not stared at enough Christmas trees!

Forest Fruit & Ginger Pimms - Bakemas Day 9

I’m kind of surprised I’m back here again, second Saturday in a row and I have another drink recipe.

Gingerbread Popcorn - Bakemas Day 5

Gingerbread flavoured popcorn...because gingerbread seems to be the flavour I want to make everything this year!

Mulled Hot Chocolate - Bakemas Day 24

It’s Christmas Eve, seriously where did the time go?

Gingerbread Frappe - Bakemas Day 17

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

Ginger & Orange Candied Nuts - Bakemas Day 16

Candied nuts were kind of a personal tradition for me around Christmas (yeah, I was the only one); I’d always go to London at the end of November and get nuts from a random man off the streets....that doesn’t sound fishy at all! For the past few years I haven’t been to London around Christmas, actually I’ve not been to London period and as much as love nuts off the streets (still sounds weird) street vendors...that sounds a little better, last year I finally decided to try and make my own. I was obsessed with these, now here’s the part where I start to add all the flavours into my candied nuts, seriously, it’s already begun!

Gingerbread Man Ice Cream Sandwiches - Bakemas Day 14

This is kind of a continuation from yesterdays blog post but it 100% deserved its own post.

I actually wanted to make this recipe for last year’s bakemas, I ran out of time but I’m so glad I ending up waiting because the Ginger shortbread men made the recipe so much better, it gives them a little crunch which goes really well with the ice cream and bonus they don’t freeze rock hard if you make these early and pop them in the freezer for a few days.

Short Gingerbread Men / Ginger Shortbread Men - Bakemas Day 13

These aren’t just any gingerbread men - okay this is not a marks and Spencer advert. As much as I love marks and spencer I never really liked those adverts they always made me feel a little ill, the new Christmas one though I'm a fan of, it’s definitely up there with the coca cola advert. Okay I’m off topic.

Ginger, Coconut & Dark Chocolate Truffles - Bakemas Day 8

There seems to be a couple of ingredients and flavours that I’m obsessed with at the moment and coconut, ginger and chocolate are three of them.

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!

Gingerbread Mince Pies - Bakemas Day 23

I feel like the last minute “I haven’t finished peoples presents” panic hasn’t set in yet even though it’s the 23rd and three peoples presents aren’t finished yet and Santa sets off in 13 hours! These may not be the prettiest mince pies you’ve ever seen but they definitely outdo themselves in taste. I’ve made so many batches of these and the gingerbread on top just won’t stay the shape it’s supposed to, would you believe that the tops of these started off as stars? Aesthetics aside these are amazing so I had to put the recipe up and I think I might like these more than regular mince pies.

Fruit & Yogurt Layered Desserts - Rhubarb & Ginger, Blackberry & Coconut and Raspberry & Almond - Bakemas Day 18

I’m being completely honest here, today has been one of those days where I just can’t bring myself to get stuff done. Every time I decided what to do I was missing an ingredient and then it got really late so this post is actually something I made a couple of weeks ago and never ended up putting up.
I made an apple, yogurt & breadcrumb layered dessert about a month ago which is something we always had as kids but it gave me the idea to try different flavours and use biscuits, nuts etc.

This is kind of a “world is your jellyfish” dessert! (psst, I do know its oyster!) You can add any fruit compote with biscuits, nuts, cereal, oats, breadcrumbs, chocolate, wafers I mean you can pretty much put anything in here and layer up with yogurt. I will say that the rhubarb is by far my favourite which I wasn't expecting.

Gingerbread Latte Layer Cake with Gingerbread Men - Bakemas Day 16

I think I’m pretty much on the way to being better and it’s all thanks to this cake! Okay, maybe not but I mean cake usually makes most things better especially if it involves a triple whammy of flavours and gingerbread men.
Side note: One little snag, you will need a big ol’ tin! This is by no means a big cake but we have an old, and I mean old, quality street tin that looks like it would feed a chocolate hungry village and I still had to kick the gingerbread men over so it would fit in.
Making cakes like this is relaxing to me, I know you probably wouldn’t think it but this is based on the basic cake recipe I know off the top of my head. When I’m in need of any cake this is my go to and I can honestly say it’s the best. I didn’t use a typical ginger cake recipe in this because I wanted the textures to all be the same a little tweak here and there and I’d say it’s pretty close to the flavour of a traditional ginger cake but without the more dense texture.
This would be perfect for a Christmas party; it’s pretty quick to make, serves a lot of people and you can’t really go wrong if there’s gingerbread men on top of your cake!

Roasted Plum & Ginger Fluffy Oatmeal/Porridge - Bakemas Day 8

It’s not quite freezing here but warm breakfasts are always nice this time of year especially if you wake up to a cold house. I’m still battling that cold so a healthy warm breakfast is exactly what I need.
This porridge is made by toasting the oats and boiling the water and letting the oats absorb the liquids so that it’s nice and fluffy and not starchy and slimy like most porridges. I love making porridge like this, it gives the oats a slightly nutty flavour and having soft juicy sweet roasted plums on top is a nice way to have your fruit in the morning and makes you feel all cosy inside, even if there is a little sugar on them.
I finally found time last night after dinner to cosy up with pj’s on and watch a Christmas film, I suppose that's the only slight sliver lining to being ill but I still have the same amount of things to get done and less time to do them in.

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!

Rhubarb and Gingerbread Man Crumble

This post has been sitting in my drafts for a few months, is that bad for me to admit? I've sort of been on an independent post strike when it comes to this but I've finally decided it's time, I guess at least now it's a little more seasonally relevant.

About four months ago I came up with the idea for this crumble and I immediately wrote the blog post, it was funny, witty and down right entertaining, just let me toot my own horn about how amazing this post was, I used the word christmas more than 6 times there where hot chocolate and mini human references, let's bear in mind it was June while I was writing it, and now it's all gone. In my ever so tired state I don't know what the heck I did but it's disappeared and just as I managed to delete my entire post which was 98% finished auto-save stepped in to punch me in the gut. How can you own a computer that can literally track everything you do and remember stuff even when you've deleted it, yet randomly be able to press a few buttons and my work just goes down the drain, I'm sure someone's sitting on the other side of that screen yelling at me how to get it back but nevermind.

Orange Spiced Cheesecake

There's a possibility I might be making orange spiced everything this autumn, I've cottoned on to the idea and I want to put it in everything. When I mentioned I was going to make an orange spiced cheesecake I got a few oh's and um's people weren't that enthralled by the idea and slightly apprehensive. It's safe to say I was on the right track for the season, it basically tastes like christmas in a cheesecake, I realise it's a little early for christmas for some people but I say it's never too early.

I love this type of cheesecake with jelly in, it's lighter and more refreshing than a lot of cheesecakes, it doesn't feel like it's weighing you down after a meal or filling you full of cream. It's one of those desserts that makes my mouth water while I'm still eating it, the only bad thing about it is you feel like you could eat the whole thing, I wouldn't advise it!

Blackberry Muffins with Spiced Ginger Crumb Topping

Last week I had an exhausting day of chopping wood, painting and a lot of sanding directly in the sun. I came out of it with an aching arm and burnt shoulders. On the same day my mum and spontaneously I decided to go blackberry picking after dinner, this wasn't your usual drive to a place and mosey on down along the road filling your box. My mum had mentioned she kept seeing blackberries on her morning walk and even though it was a little early for blackberries we drove up to the usual place we pick them and they were miniature and mostly red. So our blackberry picking consisted of driving to a place spending a few minutes there picking the big ones then moving on, I finally had the idea to go look on the other side of town where we used to live and we hit the jackpot, well, mostly the jackpot, we filled an ice cream tub which is more than enough for what I wanted and at this point the sun was starting to set so we went home.

Is this tooting my own horn a little? I made these thinking well I've never had a blackberry muffin before I'm sure they'll be yummy but oh my damn these are good. I didn't think these muffins would taste better than my blueberry muffins but I stand corrected, the slight tartness of the blackberries balancing with the sweetness and the gingery topping my mouth is watering just thinking about them.

Gingerbread men cupcakes

As much as I love ginger I always find ginger cake to be quite stodgy sticky and sickly until this recipe walked into my life.