ARE you facing the Christmas blues at your house?
Here are some fast ways to raise the festive spirit.
Swap your biscuits
Giving home-made biscuits is a great idea, but you also don’t want to be slaving for days making every kind of biscuit possible!
The solution is a biscuit swap with two or three friends. If each of you bakes a triple batch of your favourite recipe, you can get together and swap two-thirds with the other two bakers. You have the same amount of cookies but a different variety.
A biscuit gift
If you have run out of money but your young relatives still want presents, make cookie dough and freeze it in logs. When you’re ready, wrap the log in baking paper, tie a pretty ribbon around it. Maybe add frosting and sprinkles.
Buy your Christmas cake
Let’s be honest here, every year we all say we’re going to make the Christmas cake earlier so it can soak up brandy for weeks. But every year, we start late . . . So who never starts baking Christmas cakes late? Supermarkets. They do the work, you take the credit.
Decorate your cake
Choose one of these easy ideas:
- Arrange fruits and nuts on top and cover with warm apricot jam for a real homemade look.
- Put some paper cutouts, such as stars or snow flakes, on top of the cake and dust with icing sugar.
- Frost it in a thick layer of brandy-flavoured butter icing.
- Pile Christmas stars or tree biscuits on top.
- Turn it into a drip cake by piling on candy canes, chocolate truffles and festive sweets.
Prep-ahead desserts
Don’t get carried away with fancy puddings – make something simple the day before such as fridge cake, ice cream cake, pavlova or mousse. Get them done and leave them in the fridge to chill.
The DIY trifle
Lay out bowls of sliced sponge cake, different flavours of jelly, a selection of liqueurs, various flavoured custards, whipped cream, crumbled fruit cake, biscuits and sprinkles. Get your family to build their own trifles.
That Christmas scent
In a saucepan, combine one to two cups of water, two to three cinnamon sticks, two orange slices, two star anise, one teaspoon cloves, one teaspoon ginger, a dash of vanilla essence, bring it to the boil, then simmer to fill the house with the aroma of Christmas just before the guests arrive. – FOOD24.COM
