So This Is Christmas... 2012

Here it is.... Christmas In Our Home 2012. December has come around so fast this year and I won't be putting any more than a little energy into all things festive this year. It's been a big year. (Full stop: I could say no more) But that is not to say that I won't whip out some awesome yummy treats and play around with a little bit of Christmas fun.

I am least motivated about Christmas decorating this year, so as a result, I found an awesome branch from our backyard and have used it as our tree this year. I love this simple look. My colour theme is red, white and silver. Simply decorated with a couple of decorations and a single strip of white led lights from Ikea. 

Do note our little Christmas Tonttu to the right, she reports back to Santa every night if the children have been naughty or nice. 

Merry Christmas!

Wishing you and your family a safe and happy Christmas.

And a happy and blessed new year!

Peppermint Mocha Cupcakes

Anything with crushed candy canes in the batter at this time of the year is a good thing. Plus earlier this year I fell in love with mocha cupcakes. So when I saw this recipe, I just had to try it.

 

Mocha Chocolate Goodness

Candy Cane Fun

 

Ready For The Oven

Lots Of Little Goodness

Super Sweet Treats

I found the recipe here. And by no means went 'all out' as you will see if you click on the link. I did a simple butter icing with peppermint essence. Sprinkled crushed candy canes on top with a M&M to top it off.

They were lovely. I guess we are always our own worst critic. The only thing I would change is to make them in bigger paper cups. They were about a 2 to3 bite size, but not big enough to really enjoy the cake underneath the icing. I like to have the mocha flavour come through more, so next time I would use less peppermint in the icing, if any. Or a stronger coffee in the mix. 

Candy Cane Biscuits

A soft cake like dough that transformed into some soft tasty cookies. Although I think I got way too excited about taking them out of the oven that they needed just that little longer to harden up.

Sadly these cookies were never given the opportunity to become what they were meant to be. They were soft and unless eaten straight from the fridge, flopped and broke apart on attempt to consume.

These were extremely tasty though. Another fantastic chocolate cookie with real candy canes crushed and mixed through the batter. Then some more on top just to top them off. I look forward to trying these again hopefully with some more crunchy success.

I did have to stand guard to keep cheeky little boys from trying to swipe them off the tray just out of the oven :-)

Cookies For Santa Recipe

In my mind these are officially one of the yummiest 'true American' style cookie recipes. I made these into Cookies For Santa Jars and gave them out as gifts this year. Here is the recipe for those who are chasing it.

Ingredients & Method

1 1/3 cup all purpose flour, spooned into measuring cup & leveled
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup cooking oats
3/4 cup m&ms
3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup white sugar
1/3 – 1/2 cup chopped pecans

Stir all the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Then add the following:

1 slightly beaten egg
1/2 cup butter (melted slightly in the microwave)
1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix wet ingredients into dry ingredients. Use the back of a large spoon to work it all together. You may even need to use your hands to get everything incorporated. Then roll the cookie dough into 1 1/2 inch balls, place on a parchment covered baking sheet and bake for about 10 minutes in a preheated 350 degree oven.

Adapted from the super creative Bakerella http://www.bakerella.com/mix-things-up/

Enjoy!

Christmas In Our Home 2011

Part of the dining table centerpiece...

Love IKEA Christmas goodies.

Christmas In Our Home 2011

A little love in the kitchen.

Christmas In Our Home 2011

A snippet of Christmas in our home.

Cookies For Santa

I saw these at Christmas 2010 and have waited a year to be able to make these gorgeous homemade gifts. A jar labelled 'Cookies For Santa' filled with the ingredients to make delicious and truly American Christmas cookies. I think they might be called cowboy cookies... You need Christmas M&M's, so as soon as I found some at the shop I stocked up.

I will be honest, they were time consuming and after all that effort you really only want to give them to those who will appreciate it. But that is what gift giving is about: giving your time and effort to show your appreciation to those special people in your life.

I am so pleased with the result and look forward to handing out these special gifts. I will put a post up with my Christmas cookie results and the recipe. With 2 types of sugar, choc chips, m&m's, these are a real treat if you manage to save any for more than a day once they get out of the oven.

Wool n Wire Christmas Craft

Christmas Craft #2 as seen in the Better Homes and Gardens magazine. It was very hard to photograph because I used quite dark wool. After 3 hours of wool winding this is the result.

Simple enough to do, just time consuming. Shape some bendy wire into a word and wrap wool around and around, and around and around....

Gingerbread House

To celebrate the forth coming Christmas season of 2011, I thought I would share some photos of the gingerbread house which I made last year, Christmas 2010.

The gingerbread was made from scratch. I have never been a committed biscuit baker, especially in our 30+ degree heat summers. You need the gingerbread to be nice and firm for the house. Mine was just ok, just a little soft but it made it to the Christmas party without collapsing. I guess the secret is all in getting the thickness of the biscuit just right. 

This was also my first play with royal icing, Got the hang of it pretty quickly and was well underway. Great for concealing any flaws. This stuff is great, I love the roof shingles.

I really loved decorating the house. I love the holly effect and the bunting with m&m's. I also saw the candy canes on the angle from another picture and thought it was such a fun effect. Candy cane light posts, who didn't love the thought as a child? Marshmallow snowmen, complete with orange jelly lolly 'carrot' nose. And how cool are a ice-cream candy ice poles from the roof?

And fancy having to actually take the constructed piece of lollie art on a 20 minute car ride. I must have been crazy. lol.

Christmas Crafts ~ Snowflakes

Christmas is a great time of the year, especially great for baking lots of yummy treats. Now that my youngest boy is 2 1/2, I now have the time to get a little more creative than I did last year. And so... 

....the Christmas Crafts have begun.

I'm going to start with the less challenging of crafts and work up to the more involved. These are snowflakes made out of ice-cream sticks. They are around 50cm in length and I just copied any type of snowflake shape that I could find on some of our old Christmas cards. I think I am going to spray paint them a red gloss, but for the time being I am enjoying the natural look.