Christmas Is Coming!

Good Evening one and all and thank you for joining me and sticking by me.

Too soon? Perhaps but then Christmas has been in the shops for months already.

I had a rather productive afternoon, with the help of the other one barking orders at me (he will love me telling you that ha)

I decided to try my hand at baking only this time with an actual design, something neither of us have done before. So we made a little wintry, Christmassy wonderland scene with holly, berries, trees and presents made using fondant topping the cake, a cupcake with holly and berries which also has green sponge and a yule log on the side.

For this we just used our basic cake mix which also happens to be vegetarian/vegan friendly if you use appropriate substitutes.

This recipe also happens to be in my cookbook, along with many other sweet recipe ideas. I will include the link down below.

All the sponges were made using the same recipe and then flavoured accordingly:

Ingredients:
2 teaspoons of sugar
2 teaspoons of butter (or you can use a vegetarian/vegan alternative)
2 teaspoons of oil (we used sunflower oil)
2 teaspoons of flour
A dash of milk or suitable alternative
Vanilla
1 teaspoon of baking powder

Method:
You can use 2 eggs but they aren't required as the cake comes out moist and cooked through.

Cream the butter and sugar together.
Add the flour and baking powder and combine, I use the back of a spoon and press down to bring it together.
Add the oil and milk and mix together to form a cake batter.
If you are using flavouring this can be added, for the main cake we used vanilla and for the yule log we followed the same steps and added cocoa powder for the chocolate sponge.
Place in the oven at 180C and bake for around 18 minutes.

Once the sponge is cooled you can add any decorations or frosting you wish. Our main cake we used jam and vanilla frosting to layer the sponge. For the yule log we added a chocolate frosting on top and through the sponge.

Using a green fondant we covered the cake and cupcake first before adding the design. The cherries and presents we used a white fondant which we coloured with food colouring. Once we finished the design and had it all assembled we then sprinkled over icing sugar to create a real Christmassy scene.

This was how it looked before we added the yule log and dusting.

And the finished product.

I must admit, we are rather pleased with ourselves considering this was our first attempt.

Let me know what you think and feel free to show off your own creations, would love to see how you get on.

For anyone interested in trying out some of our ideas I have a cookbook on Amazon, go check it out and let us know what you made, recipes include cookies, cheesecakes, fudge and truffles plus many more:

USA link - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07D7GZL54

UK link - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07D7GZL54

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