Here’s the last in our little series of edible Christmas gifts. Hope you’ve enjoyed them. We’ve really loved making them. We’re so excited to give them away, we feel like the 2011 John Lewis Christmas advert little boy.

This one was an original idea we saw on Pinterest via Bakerella. We loved the idea but wanted to do it with a recipe we know and love for Christmas. So, this is an adapted version of Nigella’s Christmas Cranberry, White Chocolate and Pecan Cookies in a jar.

You’ll need 1 litre jars for this. We got them from Ikea for about £1 each.

Nigella’s Christmas Cranberry, White Chocolate and Pecan Cookies

(adapted from Nigella’s amazing Christmas book)
(you can print our labels here)

75g Rolled oats (not instant)
150g Plain flour
0.5 Teaspoon Baking powder
1 Teaspoon of cinnamon
75g Dark brown sugar
100g Caster sugar
150g White chocolate chunks (we used supermarket own brand bars and chopped it for nice big chunks)
75g Dried cranberries
50g Pecans, roughly chopped

(to make up the cookies, your recipients will need 1 egg and 125g of butter, this is explained for them on the labels.)

Layer the ingredients in the order above. That order is important! We tried various different ways and found that the best for staying in place and looking pretty too.

Press the ingredients down between each layer. We used an old spoon which we bent over to reach flat inside the jar. It did a brilliant job!

We also cut pieces of baking paper, folded them over into tiny squares and put them into the top of the jar on top of the nuts. We did this for two reasons, we realised that our non-baking friends probably wouldn’t have a drawer at home overflowing with baking paper and also it helps to keep everything squashed down and where it should be in the jar.

We then printed the labels onto paper, stuck them onto the jars with super strong Power Pritt Stick and added some ribbon. Taa darr.

These are such a lovely gift, as everyone who received them can feel like a domestic goddess without too much effort!

Love
Sarah x

There’s nothing that makes us think of Christmas more than the smell of cloves and cinnamon, and the huge spoonful we put in our hot chocolate mix made us think of another of our favourite Christmas treats… Candied Christmas Nuts!

They’re so easy to make and the aroma that fills the kitchen while they’re baking could sell a house. So let’s get started..

Candied Christmas Nuts

(adapted from the recipe here.)
(you can find our printable labels here.)

250g Mixed Nuts (things like pecans, hazelnuts, brazil nuts, almonds work best)
100g Butter
2 Tablespoons Brown Sugar
2 Tablespoons Water
3 Tablespoons Maple Syrup

100g Caster Sugar
1 1/2 Teaspoons Cinnamon
1/4 Teaspoons Allspice
1/4 Teaspoons Nutmeg
1/4 Teaspoons Ground Cloves

Line a baking sheet with baking paper (this isn’t the same as greasproof paper, it is the same as baking parchment though and means nothing will stick and it doesn’t need to be greased).

Melt the butter in a pan and add the brown sugar, water and maple syrup. Whisk and bring to the boil. Stir in the nuts and coat well.

Sprinkle over the remaining ingredients and coat well. Pour onto the baking paper.

Bake at 180C for 15 minutes, give them a good mix around and bake for another 15 minutes.

Cool and then bag up. Give away to appreciative friends who will not be able to stop munching.

Love

Jenny x

After making our hot chocolate mix and loving the floating marshmallows, we decided to make some of our own homemade marshmallows to go with the packs for friends, to really push the hot chocolate boat out.

I’ve made these before a few times and just love them. Until you make them, it’s hard to describe how much fun flipping these floppy little shapes around in a cloud of icing sugar is. Honestly, try it, you’ll be so impressed with yourself!

You do need a sugar thermometer, but honestly, this is a good investment if you even like baking a little bit as you’ll find at random times a recipe calls for it and you’ll be really pleased to have it. You can find one here to buy on Amazon if you don’t have one: Sugar Thermometer.

Marshmallows

(adapted from the recipe here.)
(you can find our printable labels here.)

2 Tablespoon icing sugar
2 Tablespoon cornflour
Vegetable oil
8 Gelatine leaves
2 Egg whites
500g Caster sugar
1 Vanilla pod

We wanted to make cute little heart mallows so we used a very shallow baking tray but if you want great big flumpy mallows use a slightly deeper tin (one for making brownies works well). Oil it and sprinkle some of the icing sugar and cornflour (sifted together) over and around the inside until it’s all covered.

In the bowl of your mixer whisk your egg whites until they hold stiff peaks.

Put the caster sugar in a saucepan with 250ml of water and stir until the sugar dissolves. Raise the heat, stop stirring and allow the syrup to gradually reach 122C on your sugar thermometer. Take the pan off the heat.

Take your gelatine leaves and soak in a little cold water for about 10 minutes.

Switch your mixer back on to start whisking the egg whites again, add the scraped inside of your vanilla pod, then gently trickle in the syrup you’ve made whilst beating and turning the mixture creamy. Take the gelatine leaves out of the water, squeeze off the excess water and add to the mixture after you’ve poured in the syrup.

Beat your mixture for around 10 minutes – it’ll get thicker and thicker. You’ll be amazed just how light and fluffy and silky it goes! Pour it into your prepared tray and leave it somewhere to cool for a couple of hours (not in the fridge). You should get 3 shallow baking trays from the mixture so lots to play with!

Dust a chopping board with LOTS of the cornflour and icing sugar, flop your giant marshmallow out and cut out shapes using dusted cutters or an oiled knife. Coat all cut surfaces in more icing sugar/cornflour mixture or it will magically rejoin before your very eyes.

We love the hearts for floating in hot chocolate! Print off our Homemade Marshmallow Labels onto card and staple bags of marshmallows shut.

These will keep for about 2 weeks in a dry airtight container.

If you have a go at making these, please tell us you loved the flippy-floppy-ness (great new word..) of cutting them too?!

Love
Jenny x

Some of you might know about our Pinterest addiction. We’ve totally fallen in love with Pinterest in 2012, it’s full of inspiring and beautiful photos, guides and tutorials. It’s encouraged all of us here in our crafty endeavors in and out of work, Jen’s sewing, Caroline’s made loads of crafty paper stuff and I’ve attempted knitting again for the first time in 10 years (that’s a whole different post..!) So, now we’re in December and feeling festive, our love of everything handmade and homemade has gone into overdrive and we’ve been busy making gifts for friends, family and customers.

We thought we’d share some of our edible gifts with you in case you fancy having a go! This is the first of the four homemade gifts we’ve been making and will tell you about over the next couple of weeks.

By the way, if you’re a member of our family you might be getting one of these for Christmas, so please look away now!

Homemade Hot Chocolate Mix

(adapted from an original recipe here)
(you can print our labels out by clicking here)

130g Good Quality Cocoa
100g Dark Chocolate (70% Cocoa)
100g Milk Chocolate
110g Caster Sugar
1.5 Tablespoons of Cinnamon
1.5 Tablespoons of Vanilla Extract
0.5 Teaspoon Ground Nutmeg
0.5 Teaspoon of Ground Cloves

Blitz everything together in a food processor, until only just blended. (It can go a bit clumpy if you over-process it.) If you don’t have a food processor you could grate the chocolate and mix with all of the other ingredients.

Portion into bags, add bags of marshmallows and print some of our labels onto card and staple together.

Give to your friends and enjoy them being amazed at your domestic goddess abilities!

Oh, and the hot chocolate it makes is AMAZING too! Who will you make yours for?!

Love
Sarah x

Edited to add.. This makes about 4 small bags!

We had a very busy first week of December here in the kitchen, preparing mixed cupcake gift boxes, gifts for business to give corporate clients and party cupcakes. You can see more of our Christmas cupcakes in our Flickr gallery.

Then we jetted off on holiday for a few weeks, we’ve come back from New Zealand and Australia with lots of new cupcake ideas to experiment with… Watch this space!