Christmas Baking

[SashaOfSiberia]

Has anyone got any festive baking planned this year?

I think its generous to describe myself as not being a natural cook, but at christmas I do try and do my bit.

There's the obvious ones likes mice pies and the cake but I'm looking for some inspiration. What are you all baking?

Anyone ever made a christmas cake using a bundt tin. I would have thought it cooks a lot quicker as there is no dense middle. Anyone know how much i should cut the time down by? I am making a Last minute Jane Asher cake. I made it last year in a normal cake tin and it was gorgeous.

i do lots of lebkuchen as they keep for ages and are lovely and christmassy

I usually make a few dozen mince pies and a make Delia's chestnut yule roulade every boxing day.

I love baking and am always happy to make all the goodies people want however, DH and DS don't much like Christmas cake so we have Pandoro instead otherwise I end up eating it all.

Thank you winkle woman, I bake a lot of cakes all year round but have never made biscuits, that tip has probably stopped me stressing

I love the sound of those cakes Grotbagstwin and have just bought some mincemeat this morning so I can make them.

Can anyone link me to a good lebkuchen recipe? I love them, but have never found a good recipe for making at home. I'm scaling back this year because we have a baby due very soon, but I've made three small christmas cakes, a medium-sized "welcome baby" cake, and yesterday 25 mince pies...now 15 so I guess I'll be making a lot more at the weekend! Now I want to make cinnamon buns for christmas breakfast...maybe with mincemeat?

Well I was proud of myself for finally getting around to making salt dough decorations with ds (2.3) this morning! He was disappointed that it tasted yuck so I might try some gingerbread...

Is there such a thing as wheat free lebkuchen recipe? would love that :)

this is the one i use, you may well have tried them already - i have no idea of authenticity and i've never tried any others to compare, but these ones go down very well anyway - i'm no connoisseuse i'm afraid

misty i reckon you could adapt one - they have ground almonds in them and are meant to be sort of dense-ish anyway so that would help

a quick google suggests this too

Definitely going to try the lebkuchen. Thanks for the recipe link. Though I fear they may not even make it out of the kitchen...

shosha which recipe do you use for cinnamon rolls?

Would love to know the recipe for cinnamon rolls too please!
Am not doing very much baking this year, just a Christmas cake, mini mince pies and speculaas (Dutch gingerbread).
Did make my own mincemeat and made chutney and cranberry sauce so guess I got a bit done anyway.

we tried lebkucken after lebkuschen last year and not one was right....

MADMOMMA. I tied this one put yesterday. Not my usual one but it came out brilliant.

Must admit I cheated tho and threw all the dough ingredients into the bread machine and set to dough.

Then followed the filling and got to the point of baking then covered and put in the fridge till the next morning.

www.thehopelesshousewife.com/?hhw_recipes=apple-pie-cinnamon-rolls#_a5y_p=1105447

I've been baking mince pie oaty cookies this morning.

for shosha I look forward to trying it x

We've got two kids' high teas coming up. I have made/will make

• mince pies
• Nigella's mini apple pies
• Nigella's Christmas cupcakes (the best!)
• Delia's light glacé Christmas cake
• this thrilling looking new thing

honeybeesweets88.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/chocolate-cornflake-wreath.html

• blinis (stashed in the freezer for Grown up's Xmas party)
• will probably do some of Nigella's Xmas biscuits at some point as I will feel too guilty about not making use of my seasonal biscuit cutters

Ooh still - recipe please!

I am making this year, Jamaican ginger bread cake its full of christmas spices and rum

will probably make some christmas biscuits with the dc, maybe orange shortcake ones.

I might make the mary berry roulade. Depends how bothered I am !

I will bake a few other cakes christmas eve to, pineapple sponge and black cake made with soaked in rum all year raisans, prunes, dates, cherrys, apricots and peel blended up and mixed in.

Now whether I get round to doing all this is another thing.

raisins*

Has anyone got any fool-proof Christmas recipes for baking with an enthusiastic preschooler? DS is 3.5 and finishes nursery next Friday, so I need something to keep him and me entertained!

We love these Christmas Biscotti For extra sparkliness, we drizzle with white chocolate, then sprinkle with red glitter. They take a little while, with the double baking, but as soooo worth it, and keep really well.

If anyone has any tips on mince pies they would be very welcome - made mincemeat for the first time this year but am a novice with pastry.

The most workable pastry recipe I have (makes 24 ish fairy cake sized ones, esp if you use star cutters for the top)

240g plain flour
60g lard
60g butter
Juice of one orange, in a cup with some salt

Rub the cubed fats into the flour until they're breadcrumby. Stir in about half the juice and bring the pastry together until it all come into a reasonAbly flexible soft ball w/o lots of it falling off. Wrap in cling film and freeze for half an hour before rolling out with lots f flour to hand.

I find this pastry rolls out nice and thin (half a cm) and can be re-rolled serval times without becoming tough.

Fab, thank you charitygirl