Christmas Chocolate Chip – Christmas Pudding Cookies
As Christmas is fast approaching I thought I would make a few extra video tutorials this December all themed around my festive baking. If anyone has ever seen my blog posts around this time of year they will know one of my favourite things to make for family and friends are my Christmas pudding, chocolate chip cookies. These are great, whether you are bringing out a whole plate, or packaging them up for family and friends as gifts. So for this reason I thought I would start off my Christmas tutorials with my Christmas cookies…
Please find below the video tutorial. I really hope you like it and enjoy making your own Christmas cookies. If you do please subscribe to my YouTube channel. Also I would love to hear what you think of my new video tutorials, so if you have any comments or questions please just let me know.
Black & Gold Dessert Table
In January I had the pleasure of creating items which were to be used on a dessert table for a 30th birthday party with a black and gold theme. The party was created by the party and wedding planner Aimee Dunne, at the beautiful Fawsley Hall. The different items which I created to make up the dessert table were a 2 tier black ruffle and gold cake, cupcakes, cookies, cake pops and all the stationery / printed designs which can be seen on the table. I loved the black and gold theme and think these 2 colours worked so well together…
The cake itself was 2 tiers made up of a 6 inch cake on the top and 8 inch cake on the bottom. The bottom was covered in black icing / fondant ruffles and the top was painted gold with edible gold colouring. The number 30 on top was cut out of black gumpaste in the same style as the fonts used on the stationery to tie it all together.
When creating the cake pops, cookies and cupcakes I used a variety of gold edible glitters and sugars to decorate them. My favourite had to be the very find edible gold that was sprinkled over the cake pops as they dried. I used the edible glitter over the top of yellow candy melts which gave such a lovely shimmer effect.
I also had the opportunity to create all the stationery which was to be used around the venue for the party, this included menus for food and cocktails, which can be see in the photo below, sweet signs and signs for the dessert table. I loved bringing design elements from both the cakes and stationery together and combining them so they fit perfectly within the theme. More of my stationery designs can be see on my wedding based website The Little Touches.
Giant Spiderman Cookie
One of the ladies who brought one of my Christmas gingerbread houses asked me to create a giant cookie for her grandsons birthday with his name on it. What I decided to create was a giant slab of gingerbread and a smaller single cookie themed around Spiderman. The large slab was 25cm x 10cm and I covered this in icing / fondant. For the single cookie I used an egg shaped cutter to create Sidermans head.
When it came to wrapping up the cookies I made a large bag out of cellophane and slid the large cookie to the bottom with a cardboard backing. I then put the single cookie into a single cellophane bag, slide this inside and tied them both together with a bow. When the bag was lifted up it looked like the single cookie was floating above the slab. I really love how it looked all packaged up and I really hope the little boy liked eating it.
Christmas Pudding Cookies
Happy 2012 everyone! (I know its a few weeks late) I am so behind with my blog posts and I have so many new cakes to show you. Between the start of December and where we are now, 2 weeks into January I have never baked so much. Over Christmas the oven was on constantly, creating birthday cakes, 15 gingerbread houses in total, boxes and boxes of cupcakes and over 60 Christmas pudding cookies…
I love these Christmas pudding cookies, I made them first last year for my family and this year other people started to ask for them. They are a chocolate chip cookie to which I have added royal icing to make the white part, and then I added little holly leaves to them. This year I actually brought a set of holly cutters, which I must admit they saved me so much time and looked so cute. Once they were all bagged up with their little bows and gift tags they looked very christmasy, and I hope everyone that received them was pleased.
Christmas Gingerbread Houses
Christmas is definitely here, I have been baking so much this month, and I have some great cakes and cookies to show you. First here is my Christmas gingerbread house. It was so much fun creating these 2 demo houses so people could see what they would look like. I had such great feedback from people about these little houses and I have loads to make. They are 6inches x 6 inches and totally edible. The house structure is made with your typical gingerbread and they are covered with Royal icing and icing / fondant decorations.
Above is my favourite images of these little houses. I love the way that the christmas lights look on the front of the house and the chimney sticking out through the snow. For the christmas tree I rolled out a piece of green icing into a cone shape and then using a pair of scissors chopped into it to create the branches. I think this really worked and gave a great effect.
Once the houses were finished I put them in clear 6inch plastic boxes (I must say that was probably the hardest part of the whole thing. trying to lower the house into the box without it breaking!!), tied a bow around the top and added a gift tag.
There are more images of these houses in my cookies gallery, so please take a look.
