It's that lovely time of year when I clamber up into the loft and fetch down my Christmas decorations. They are stored in a shabby old Fortnum & Mason's wicker hamper which keeps all my precious Christmas trucs safe.
Every year Spike and myself exchange lots of little silly gifts in the hand-made Christmas sacks I made a few years back (you can safely assume that I'm a bit of a Christmas freak... the stockings we had before were far too small to fit anything in!!!)
We also have a lovely tradition of picking out for each other a special bauble each year for the Christmas tree which gives it a wonderfully eclectic look and although our tree is smaller than usual I think it's beautiful all the same and because it has roots it can be planted out in the garden in the new year.
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| Our tree - small but perfectly formed |
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| The drinks cabinet stocked & ready for friends who drop by |
This year we are having a quiet Christmas day to ourselves that will hopefully consist of sitting around in pyjamas for the first part of the day while we open our presents, moving on to necking the booze out of little bottle shaped liqueur chocolates (not the healthiest breakfast but you may say but you might as well start as you mean to go on!!) before eventually being persuaded by the dogs to get dressed and take them out for a long winters walk.
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| By this time a bit splodgy but still yummy |
Once all these things have been done the preparations for Christmas lunch can start. This year, as it's just the two of us, we are not being traditional at all so we are going to roast some monkfish stuffed with a mushroom duxelle (hopefully with some truffle shavings too if I can get my mitts on one... another story for another day!).
I know this Christmas lunch sounds a bit unorthodox but I don't eat meat (that makes me a pescetarian apparently). Luckily for Spike we have meat-eating friends over for supper on Boxing Day so he will not miss out.
Something I always make this time of year are Christmas cupcakes which are a variation on the traditional Christmas cake but much lighter, oozing with cognac with a yummy cream cheese frosting on the top.
They keep really well and can be offered all through the holiday season to anyone who drops by (our French neighbours absolutely gobbled them up last year when they popped in for an apero or two).
Here is the recipe for my Christmas Cupcakes if you would like to try them (sorry it's all metric but there are, as I'm sure you know, conversion tables available online):-
Ingredients
90g butter – softened
100g brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tbsp of orange marmalade
500g finely chopped mixed dried fruit
100g plain flour
½ teaspoon of baking powder
1 tsp of mixed spice
2 tbsp of cognac
Ingredients for
frosting
45g soft butter
100g icing sugar
100g cream cheese
Method
- Preheat your oven to 160°C
- Line a 12 cupcake pan with cupcake cases
- Using an electric whisk, beat the butter, sugar and eggs until just combined
- Stir in the mixed fruit and marmalade. Mix until well combined
- Sift the flour,baking powder and spice. Add to the mixture
- Add the cognac and mix well
- Spoon the mixture into the cupcake cases – dividing evenly
- Bake for about 30 minutes
- Remove from the oven and pour a little cognac over the top of each cake
- Immediately after this cover all the cakes with foil
- Allow to cook before removing the foil and removing them from the pan
Beat together the soft butter
with the icing sugar, then beat in the cream cheese. Pipe on the top with a swirl!
I think that if you try them you will enjoy them as much as we do and I really hope that you 'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas' too.
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