I love Christmas, and since I now have my own flat, I thought I would use the opportunity to have a little get-together with some of my favourite people to catch-up, listen to Christmas songs, and eat - of course!
I made most of the food myself, so thought a blog post on it was in order incase anyone is throwing a party and looking for ideas.
I of course started the prep with mulled wine. I use my slow cooker for this (only thing I use it for currently - must go on the New Years Resolutions list!) as you can put it on in the morning and let it warm away. It creates the most amazing smell, and I think the slow cooker really lets the flavours work their magic. I was a bit lazy and bought bottled mulled wine, but then added sliced fresh oranges and lemons, cinnamon sticks and star anise to make sure it looked and tasted amazing. The other benefit of putting this on first is that you can help yourself to some while you work on the rest...
In terms of food, in addition to the usual crisps, dips, nuts etc, I decided to try my hand at some blinis. I would highly recommend these as they went down a storm, were really easy and cheap to assemble and I think they look pretty impressive too. You can top them with whatever you want - I went for smoked salmon and cream cheese, tomato and soured cream, and olives and guacamole. They were all delicious and every single one was eaten.
As you all know though, baking is my thing. I decided to do chocolate cupcakes with vanilla icing and a good old-fashioned Christmas cake. For the cupcakes I used the Primrose Bakery recipe which I thought worked pretty well, and tried to put to use my knew icing skills!
I personally don't really like fruit cake, but I baked three huge Christmas cakes this year to give as presents, which worked out really well. I made them back in October and have been 'feeding' them with brandy ever since. I also iced them using brandy marzipan, so it was quite a boozy affair but the recipients seemed rather pleased!
And here are some mince pies, but I didn't bake them (shhhh - it's on my list for next year!)
I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and filled yourself to the brim with delicious food and drink - I know I did!
