"…it pleases us"

This year my Christmas baking hasn’t been quite what it usually is. Unfortunately I’m yet to experience the pre-Christmas wind down. But I did find the time to make these little babies. I wanted to make something else with my festive spice mix that would be an all around crowd pleaser. A vanilla cupcake with [...]

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           I cannot believe that December is upon us! It’s unbelievable that the year is drawing to a close and we are hurtling rapidly towards Christmas and some much needed holidays. In realising that the festive season is moving to full swing, I also realised that I needed to get my festive baking on (you [...]

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It’s no secret that I love sweet things. It therefore shouldn’t surprise anyone that one of my favourite Christmas traditions is dessert focussed. Or more specifically, custard focussed. As a kid, I didn’t like plum pudding, so Christmas dessert was just a bowl full of custard. I have fond memories of making an enormous vat [...]

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                     Mince pies. The pinnacle of my Christmas baking this year and also the most controversial (I never realised so many people hated them!). I have never attempted to make mince pies before, but it was time to try as I was sick of seeing them in the stores and being unable to eat them [...]

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     I love brandy butter. It is a must have on a Christmas pudding and pretty delicious with some mince tarts too. Last year I clipped a gorgeous looking recipe from Australian Gourmet Traveller for a whipped brandy butter. While I ran out of time to make it last year, I made sure it was [...]

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Hello blogosphere! Apologies for my recent lack of posting – this time of year has been just that little too busy on the socialising and cooking front! But thankfully, some of that cooking has been wonderfully festive, so I thought I better blog some of these delicious little treats before Christmas is over. For the [...]

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My workplace recently had a charity cherry drive – order cherries through work and a portion of the sale goes to charity. My workmate S received the email and without reading it too closely ordered two boxes of cherries. It turns out that the boxes were 2kg apiece and suddenly she was flush with excess [...]

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As well as being members of the Daring Cooks, Saskia and I are also Daring Bakers. The December 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to you by Anna of Very Small Anna and Y of Lemonpi. They chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ everywhere to bake and assemble a gingerbread house from scratch. They chose recipes [...]

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Over the weekend, we babysat my nephew, L (3.5 years) and niece, H (21 months). Living in a small terrace, we needed to come up with some activities to keep them from climbing the walls.  L has always taken an interest in cooking and enjoyed making things at our house. After reading last month’s Gourmet [...]

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As previously mentioned, I recently came across some Lustau Pedro Ximénez “San Emilio” Sherry that tasted exactly like sultanas and I was inspired to use it in a Christmas pudding. We do have a family recipe, which uses brandy, but I decided to break with tradition and try something different. I did some internet research [...]

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