Fruity Christmas Biscotti

Making home-made gifts is all the rage at the moment, so I thought I'd try these Christmasy biscotti to give to some of my friends and family. They were surprisingly easy to make and they live up to their fruity billing! I particularly enjoyed making these as they're a bit different from your normal bake. I also used Lakeland's Magic Non-Stick Liner to line my baking trays which worked a treat and is completely reusable...just wipe it down and use again next time!

350g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp mixed spice
250g golden caster sugar
3 eggs, beaten
1 orange, zest coarsely grated
85g raisins
85g dried cherries
50g blanched almonds
50g shelled pistachios

Pre-heat the oven to 180c/160c fan/gas 4. Then mix the sugar, flour, baking powder and mixed spice together. Beat up the eggs and then pour in to the dry mixture and add the zest. Combine with a spoon until the mixture starts to clump together, at which point you can use your hands to bring the dough together. Finally, add the fruit and nuts and mix until they are evenly spread throughout the mixture.

When ready, turn the dough out on to a floured surface and split it into 4. Each piece can then be rolled into a sausage, roughly 30cm long. You will need 2 baking trays lined with baking paper, put 2 sausages on each tray, well spaced. The biscotti then go in the oven for 25-30 minutes, the dough should rise and spread but still be pale.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly on a wire rack. Turn down the oven to 140c/120c fan/gas 1. When the biscotti are sufficiently cool, cut them on the diagonal into slices of around 1cm thick. Lay them back on the baking sheets on their sides, bake on the first side for 15 minutes before turning them over and baking on the other side, again for 15 minutes.

Cool on a wire rack and then store in an airtight tin. They'll last for up to a month. Alternatively, package in a gift bag tied with ribbon and give as gifts to your nearest and dearest!

If you wish they can be frozen at the end of the first 25 minute bake. Freeze flat on a baking sheet before bagging them up. They'll last 2 months in the freezer and when you wish to complete the baking it will just take 20 minutes on each side from frozen...simple!

* Adapted from BBC Good Food

Little Banana Cakes with Maple Pecan Icing

These little treats are just the thing to whip up when you're short of time, they're delicious and look impressive... in a cute sort of way, and yet they take no time at all! They were lovely and moist and banana-ry which was helped by very ripe bananas, and the maple icing and pecans finished the cakes off perfectly to give a very tasty treat... and one that I will certainly be making again.

As you can see in the picture the cakes came out of the oven quite rounded, however the recipe calls for them to be served upturned... as you can imagine this would give quite wobbly, odd looking cakes! Therefore I cut the top off each cake before turning it over to give a stable base... and as I don't like waste, I obviously had to eat the off cuts...I was performing a public service... honest! ;-)

In order to ensure your banana cakes come out of the muffin tin in one piece is to make sure the holes are well greased. A top tip is to use Wilton's Cake Release oil which they claim 'works everytime'.

Happy baking!


50g butter, softened
85g caster sugar
100g plain flour
1 tbsp maple syrup
1 large egg
1 ripe banana
11/2 tsp baking powder

Icing

100g icing sugar
2-3 tbsp maple syrup
A drop of vanilla extract
18 pecan halves (toasted if you wish)

Pre-heat your oven to 190c/170c fan/gas 5 and grease a muffin pan (I made double the quantity and used a 12 hole pan). Add all the cake ingredients in to a bowl and beat with an electric whisk until you've got a smooth batter. Divide the mixture between the muffin pan holes and bake for around 15minutes, check with a cake tester. Once removed from the oven, leave for 5 mins in the pan before cooling on a wire rack. At this stage you can also freeze these cakes!

Once cool, to make the icing, sift the icing sugar into a bowl and then add in the maple syrup and vanilla and then mix to a smooth, thick icing which is suitable for drizzling over your cakes. Then finally, turn your cakes upside down (cutting the tops off if necessary) and drizzle the icing over the cakes, letting it run down the sides before topping each cake with 2-3 pecans.

* Adapted from BBC GoodFood 2012 Calendar

Cute Christmas Cupcakes

These cute cupcakes could be a case in point when it comes to how addictive baking and cake decorating can be. I decided last night that I would whip up a "quick" batch of Christmas pudding cupcakes, but 6 designs and several hours later this was the result! I have to say I was a little cross-eyed by the end!

The cupcakes are vanilla using my new favourite cupcake recipe from the Hummingbird Bakery Cake Days recipe book. The result is a lovely moist sponge, probably due to the addition of milk:

• 80g unsalted butter
• 280g caster sugar
• 240g plain flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 240ml whole milk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
• 2 large eggs

Preheat your oven to 190c/170c fan/gas 5. Then slowly beat the butter, sugar, flour, baking powder and salt together until they form a fine breadcrumb consistency. Next beat together the milk, vanilla essence and eggs. With your whisk on a slow speed, pour three quarters of the wet mixture into the dry ingredients and mix well before adding the remaining milk mixture and beating to a smooth consistency. Bake for 18-20 minutes.

For regular cupcakes the recipe calls for the cases to be two thirds full but for these cupcakes you don't want the cake to rise too far above the top of the case so I filled them a little less. You should be able to make 12-16 cupcakes from this recipe, if not more.

To decorate I buttercreamed the top of each cupcake and cut out circles of sugarpaste using Ateco circle cutters before adding the embellishments. For one or two of the elements, regular sugarpaste would be too soft, so I added some CMC to the paste in advance which causes it to set harder and therefore allows you make things such as the robin's wings and reindeer's antlers! The antlers also have a spaghetti support inside!

On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me... 12 yummy cupcakes and a partridge in a pear tree!

Afternoon Tea: The Langham Hotel

Another Sunday…another afternoon tea! It may be a tiny bit extravagant but my excuse is that it’s all in the name of research!! So today’s tea was at the Langham Hotel which is on Regent’s Street. It certainly is an opulent setting…very art deco. Expectations were high for this tea as it was awarded the Tea Guild’s Top London Afternoon Tea 2010, the Oscars of the tea world! So what did we eat, well we enjoyed the Festive Tea with the following patisseries: 

• Mini mince pies
• Festive eggnog cream
• Christmas chocolate log cake
• Mini gingerbread house
• Spicy mandarin orange
• Cranberry and morello cherry macaroon 

The spicy mandarin orange was particularly tasty, along with the macaroon! We also had a selection of cakes from the special Bijoux Tea which are based on the designs of jeweller Stephen Webster. These included:

• Crystal Clear Diamond - Lightly perfumed Guinness macaroon with blackcurrant jelly
• Poison Apple - Red peppercorn and dark chocolate shortbread
• Razor Ribbon Ring - Silver needle jasmine mousse with apricot
• Armadillo Ring - Roasted green pistachio Chantilly with airy meringue sponge
• Dagger Done - Valrhona white chocolate creme with strawberry and white balsamic

All these delights were washed down with champagne and a special festive blend tea. As you can see all the cakes looked spectacular and they were very tasty... however, I think I must be an old fashioned girl at heart as they were all a little too fussy for me... as were the sandwiches!! The scones however, get top marks...they were the best I've had in a long time... and I've had a few!! ;-)

So was it better than Fortnum and Mason last Sunday... in a word 'no'. At Fortnums you can while away the hours and enjoy some smart but tasty favourites. At the Langham hotel we were rushed out for the next sitting!!

However, I would recommend it as the patisseries looked fabulous...little works of art and they did have this amazing gingerbread house in the entrance which gets extra bonus points!