Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

Christmas baking - love this time of year!

 Well, with Christmas less than one week away now, I have been to more Christmas functions than I can count, and have been busy in the kitchen with Christmas baking. My obsession with Christmas cookies has continued, and my most recent creations are reindeer shaped. I got the idea from a friend's photos on facebook, but used google images to refine it. So I can't claim the idea, but they were lots of fun to make. The gingerbread recipe is amazing! A friend gave it to me not so long ago, and it is the best gingerbread that I've ever had (disclaimer: I don't usually like gingerbread).

To make reindeer, I used a small gingerbread man cutter and used mini-pretzels, jaffas, and mini M&Ms as antlers, nose, and eyes respectively. The legs of the gingerbread man provide extra support for the pretzels/antlers.

You can obviously make any shape you want using the gingerbread as the base cookie. I like using gingerbread for the reindeer because of the colour of the cookie, I've never imagined reindeer to be white like a sugar cookie.


Gingerbread

3 Tbsp golden syrup
75g caster sugar
1 Tbsp water
1 tsp mixed spice
1 1/2 tsp ginger
75g butter
1/2 tsp baking soda
225g flour

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celcius.
2. Place golden syrup, sugar, water and spices in medium sized saucepan and bring to the boil, stirring well.
3. Remove from heat and add butter and baking soda. Mix well.
4. Add flour a bit at a time until a firm dough. Set aside to cool.
5. Once cool, cut out shapes and bake for approx 12 minutes until golden and crisp.

Enjoy the Christmas season!

H xo

Sugar Cookies

Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:
3 cups flour
250g butter
1 cup castor sugar
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 tsp salt

1. Cream the butter and sugar together.
2. Add the egg and vanilla. Mix well.
3. Add in flour and salt. Mix well, the consistency should be that of pastry or similar.
4. Roll out and cut. Don't roll too thin.
5. Bake for 15 minutes at 160 degrees Celcius. Allow to cool completely on a wire rack before decorating.

To decorate, your imagination is your only limitation. I just used home made icing, tubes of ready-made icing for detail, hundreds and thousands, chocolate hail, coconut and coloured balls to decorate them, most of which was already in the cupboard.

Back Again!

Hi everyone,

First, let me apologise for not posting anything over the last three months. Everything happened at once, and I ran out of time to blog.

Since last writing, I have submitted my final project for my Masters degree and spent a month in India. India was such an incredible country to visit, and I look forward to sharing some of my experiences here, including my chance to go to high tea in the City Palace in Udaipur.

Christmas is also on its way, and I am currently obsessed with Christmas cookies. Check out the batch my sister and I made last night, the recipe is here. They were really quick and easy to make, and we had all of the ingredients in the pantry already. The only time consuming part is the decorating! I do a lot of baking at home, but a lot of it is for my family. I have been reminded how nice it is to bake and give it away, so plan on gifting quite a few Christmas cookies over the next couple of weeks.

Watch out for further posts for a Christmas themed high tea. Christmas always excites me because it means summer (in New Zealand) and holidays are on their way. It means time with family and friends, BBQs and the beach.

But for now I must run, it is a gorgeous summer's day here and I'm off to Christmas in the Park.

H xo