What’s on your Christmas baking list?
18 December, 2020
Home baked treats are the perfect festive touch
2020 has been the year of home baking. Whether it was sourdough or sponge cakes, soul satisfying casseroles or curries simmering on your stove, many people expanded their cooking repertoires (and their waistlines) whilst in self isolation.
Now, before we have to commit to our New Years’ Resolutions, this Christmas we will celebrate getting through one of the most challenging years in living history for many of us. If that’s not a reason to get your bake on, we don’t know what is.
Fruit cake – you’re nuts!
If you’re reading this and you haven’t baked your fruitcake yet STOP. Go immediately to your local supermarket or dry goods store, stock up on all the spices, dried fruit, nuts and glacé cherries your shopping baskets can handle, then scoot yourself into the kitchen. Your Christmas cake will be better the longer it matures after baking, especially if you douse it in a little port or whiskey every week or so. The same goes for the pièce de résistance of the Christmas meal, the traditional pudding.
Of course, you can always buy a fruitcake at Woollies – no one will know, shhhh! Actually, you can get the whole pavlova, berries and whipped cream solution at the same time and you will look like a star with absolutely zero effort.
Yuletide baking with the kids
Nothing says Christmas like the smell of gingerbread wafting around the kitchen. Kids, even the big ones, go mad for the lolly extravaganza that is the gingerbread house. You can buy a pre-made kit, but spend a few extra minutes rolling out dough and your kids can design, build and decorate a masterpiece to sit in the centre of your Christmas dessert table.
For something a little simpler, try these chocolate gingerbread trees or a super cute trifle decorated with tiny gingerbread men. For the class Christmas party, some reindeer cupcakes will go down a treat. Spiced biscuits or Florentines made as Christmas decorations to hang on the tree or to give as gifts are also fun and easy to make.
Silly season drinks
We don’t have to serve up the egg nog every year during the silly season. When it’s super hot in the southern hemisphere, we have so many options when it comes to a seasonal spritz. Cocktails and mocktails can be made to look incredibly swish by the addition of fresh flowers, citrus rind and served up in fun drinkware. Check out Zap Variety for tableware, glassware and decorating ideas that will add a bit of pizzazz to the drinks table.
Sweet sensations
The best thing about Christmas is being able to indulge in our favourite sweet treats. Shortbread sprinkled with sugar, cookies loaded with chocolate chips, fruit mince pies, truffles, bundt cakes, panforte, panettone pudding and any rich dessert which includes whiskey and cream, like a burnt butter, whisky and raisin trifle or a prune and dark chocolate pudding.
Where to find baking equipment in Chatswood
If you’re in need of baking trays, bundt cake tins, scrapers, piping bags for icing, cookie cutters, or any other special baking equipment head to Zap Variety or Woolworths at Chatswood Interchange. They also have a great range of seasonal decorations.
