Guest Post - Making Delightful Christmas Treats by Sarah

It’s that time of year again, Christmas is quickly approaching and amongst all the stress of finding the right present is the added pressure of preparing the best food!

We all know that dessert is the highlight of any meal (you do know that right?) so I find that I am always searching for the perfect dessert, the best and most inventive decoration that I can make with the sweetest foods. Of course you can never go past the usual favourites like pudding and apple pie, or any of those treats that Little Bertha do, but to add a little bit of creativity to the mix, I’ve got a few fun ideas to incorporate into your dessert table, and they’re super easy!

My new favourite for this year is these Christmas chocolate crackles that look like mini chocolate puddings! Here’s how it’s done:

-          4 king size mars bars, roughly chopped

-          2 Tblsp of thin cream

-          2 tsp cocoa powder

-          3 cups of Rice Bubbles

-          Oil spray

-          100g of white chocolate

-          24 red candy chocolates of your choice, (eg, Jaffa, Smarties, m&m’s)

Simply melt the chopped Mars bars, cream and cocoa in a bowl and stir until it is smooth. In another large bowl, place the Rice Bubbles and then pour the chocolate mixture over the top and stir until well mixed. Spoon your mixture into muffin trays and press down gently so the tops can form a slightly rounded shape. You can make them as big or as small as you like, but I would recommend at least half full.

Refrigerate for around two hours before turning them out onto a tray. Melt the white chocolate and pour into a piping bag when ready, or simple spoon carefully onto the chocolate crackles. Top with a red candy and you have just created a pretty easy and cute Christmas treat.

Then of course there are gingerbread cookies. Now you may not be up for making an entire gingerbread house, and I don’t blame you because they can be real tricky! However you can make a ginger bread tree quite easily.

All you need to do is use your favourite basic gingerbread cookie recipe, like this one, and use star cookie cutters of different sizes to cut your stars. Once they have cooked and cooled, carefully stack the star on top of each other, biggest at the bottom, using a little icing between each layer to make them stick. Once it’s tall and sturdy, you can either completely decorate with icing like the one below, or you can choose a more delicate style by placing sugar balls on each star tip.

So simple, yet so effect, this years Christmas is going to be a standout!

Sarah is a food writer with a passion for cake and cookie decorating, always searching for the best ideas.