Christmas Cookie Bake Day

What a great way to spend a nice Sunday afternoon  - a Christmas baking day. We gathered our recipes, ingredients, wrapping, ribbons, tags and bags and got to work. This was our inaugural Christmas baking day (a new tradition we have decided) so we may have set the sights a bit high with the amount we wanted to accomplish. But we know for next year to pick just a few things to make to allow time for the packaging up at the end of the day. It was a bit of organised chaos as we mixed, kneaded, rolled, baked and then packaged.

First up was the Shortbread, followed by the Peanut Butter and Almond Cookies

 

My friend Mille is Danish so next up was a recipe from her repertoire – Vaniljekranse. 

We attempted raspberry marshmallows – and they worked beautifully! This would be great to give as a little gift along with a jar of hot chocolate with a cinnamon quill or a mini bottle of Bailey's to make it a little more indulgent.

Very rich Dark Chocolate Truffles - you only need to make very small balls of these! We added a dash of Maple extract as well. We also made Coconut and Chocolate Macaron Biscuits.

  

We ended the day by packaging up and embellishing all of our goodies to give away as presents. We thought we needed a little celebratory drink – this Maggie Beer Sparkling Ruby Cabernet makes a great non alcoholic alternative at Christmas. Happy Baking. 

Christmas - Wrapping and Packaging

I absolutely love Christmas, and tend to be one of those annoying people who start planning for it in early November. I’m going for a bit of a homemade with love theme this year, incorporating bought presents with some crafty work so my loved ones have a little extra to open.  One of my most favourite things about Christmas is deciding my wrapping theme – from the colours, tags, ribbons and all sorts of different embellishments. Anyone who shares my obsession with Pinterest will know how many hours you can spend trawling through so many crafty ideas – and there are so many boards on there that can help inspire you for all things Christmas.

So my theme this year – home made and sparkly! Brown kraft paper prettied up with sequins, glitter tags, jute, doilies and another new obsession – washi tape.  

The brown kraft bags and washi tape can be purchased from Emerald and Ella. The free printable hand made tags can be downloaded from Hey Look

Farmyard Themed 2nd Birthday

For my nephew's second birthday my sister and I decided on a farmyard theme. We held it at a local farm where they have a baby animal nursery where kids can get up close to pigs, goats, rabbits, sheep and calves. There is also tractor rides and farm shows so plenty to keep the kids entertained throughout the morning. 
 

We decided on a morning tea (since Mstr 2 would be well worn out by lunchtime!) so we kept the food quite simple with sandwiches and slices.

The letters for the bunting and number 2’s were created by purchasing a Cowboy printable paper from Etsy. The kid’s lolly bags had the first letter of their name on the front using this same font along with some raffia to resemble hay out of the top. We also made up farm yard stickers and colouring sheets to go in there along with the lollies!
 

The galvanised milk tins in the centre of the table were the Socker Vases from good old IKEA and the cow print balloons can be purchased from Spotlight. 
 

 

The animal cupcakes were another creation of my friend from Charlie’s Yarra valley Cakes
 

Ladies Lunch

A great friend of mine decided to hold a ladies lunch to get together four of her close friends. As we all came from different circles she found she never had the opportunity for her friends to meet each other so what better way than to have a long leisurely Sunday lunch for the ladies. The table was set with beautiful Royal Copenhagen dinnerware, gorgeous vintage napkins and fresh flowers.

We enjoyed an absolute feast which included a beautiful Charcuterie platter with two varieties of terrine, prosciutto and cheese, a very bright and fresh Orange and Blood Orange salad with pine nuts, pea shoots and a balsamic glaze, Hummus, Chicken and Thyme pate, Beetroot Carpaccio with tarragon dressing, mint and feta, and last but not least an amazing home cured Salmon Gravlax with dainty edible flowers.

 

Dessert was a Vanilla Bean Panna Cotta with a Rhubarb, Ginger and Basil coulis on top which was delicious.

-->My friend did an amazing job especially considering she had gluten intolerant and pregnancy dietary restrictions to deal with. From the beautiful table setting, food and great company she created a truly relaxing and stunning Sunday afternoon lunch

Pea in a Pod Themed Baby Shower

One of my great friends is due to have her first baby in August and I was really excited to be asked to help throw her a baby shower along with her sister in law.  As the gender is a surprise we wanted a nuetral theme and after much deliberation the theme 'Pea in a Pod' was decided on. Once this was decided this set the tone for the colour and decorating.

Pastel green and white were the colours so we based the decorations around the central food table

The bunting flag and food cards were all made out of printable graphic paper which was purchased from DXPI Design on Etsy

We served a selection of savoury items such as finger sandwiches, spinach and ricotta triangles and a pea and mint dip on crostini. For the sweet table we had Lemon Slice, Pea in a Pod Cupcakes, Iced Cookies (The Baby Iced Cookie toppers were made by Charlie's Yarra Valley Cakes)Meringues, Milk Bottle Lollies and Pistachio Macaroon's.

The favours were made from recycled envelopes with the printed paper and labels wrapped around them, tied together with jute. Inside were sweet pea seeds for the guests to plant in their own garden and watch grow

Slider's and Cider's for 4th July

Any excuse for a themed dinner party we decided to throw a US styled affair to celebrate 4^th July . The idea more so came from a cool little restaurant in Adelaide that served four sliders and a jug of cider together. Sliders are basically miniture burgers which you can fill with traditional burger type fair or get creative with alternative options such as lamb and tzatiki and chicken with coriander mayonnaise.

For starters we had a bucket of deep fried chicken wings with garlic mayonaise. Love love love Panko breadcrumbs - they make everything lovely and crispy. For the Sliders we made our own Brioche slider buns. We decided to go with two fillings - one was a beef burger with cheese, caramalised onion, mustard and tomatoe sauce and the other one was a slow cooked pulled pork with winter slaw. Just in case the deep fried chicken wasn’t enough we went with chunky cut chips with paprika mayonaise on the side.

 

Christmas Ideas

I love Christmas, but Christmas in July just doesn't do it for me. It does however remind me to start thinking about what I am going to do at Christmas, for wrapping, food, parties and table settings. I know it's only July but these things take time!


Last year I ordered my wrapping paper from The Wrapping Paper Co. From here you can order bulk wrapping paper for Christmas as well as all other types, ribbon, jute, gift labels and bags. I went with black and white - one design was music sheets and the other a bird design. I just made the labels and gift tags using various Christmas pictures and the font 'Travelling Type writer'.

To tie the table setting in with the wrapping and Christmas tree, I used the same wrapping paper and jute to make my Bon Bons. They are really easy to make just using empty toilet roll holders and bon bon inserts that you can buy from Spotlight, Riot etc. This way you can fill them with more exciting items like mini perfumes and your own jokes. Although apparently my jokes were not that funny. I liked them.



For the table I found a great twig (trust me it's not that easy to find the one just the right shape on the side of the road). I hung this from the ceiling using removable hooks and fishing wire. I then used jute to hang the baubles at various lengths.