Cake nineteen - 2013 edition

Santa's House 

This is the house I've made with some help from my children for this Christmas. It takes about three days and we need a lot of patience and care in the details. But it's now part of our Christmas tradition. 

Every year we like to change it a little bit: this year we've experimented a new material for the house logs, different shutters, a bigger wreath on the facade and we've closed the front door. Don't forget to give a look at the sleigh and the reindeers... They're my favourite! There are the reins too...

Song: Happy Christmas 

A Merry Christmas to all of us

Cake eighteen

Gingerbread  Decorations

Does it ever happen to you to do something the others consider useless? Something you like which isn’t of great importance, of course,  you think it can really make the difference and what's more it’s fun for you? It does to me... and this is one example!

  I do love all Christmas decorations including the ones for the table, I think they help you feel the magic of Christmas. I like my table to look special and not only for the food we eat. This year I've made some gingerbread cookies and decorated the lamp over the table - a kind of Christmas Night scene with trees, snow flakes, reindeers, stars and, of course, Santa Claus and his sleigh - the Xmas tree and the front door wreath. It took me some time but, in the end, I was well satisfied. 

Song: Happy Christmas 
No better tune for Christmas time...

see recipe:
http://time-for-cake-making.blogspot.it/2013/01/cake-eighteen-gingerbread-decorations.html

Cake seventeen

Christmas Fruit Cake

There are mixed feelings about Christmas and some of us don’t like  it for several reasons. I can see their point but I personally love it! I think there’s some kind of magic in it which, unconsciously, takes you back to the fancy world of your childhood and you shouldn’t loose. I love everything about Xmas, from the preparations for Xmas Day to the lightings in towns. 

I like to decorate my house, to buy and put up my Xmas tree and make the crib with the help of my children even though they’re grown up now. I like the smell of a real tree, of the wet moss in the crib and of the gingerbread cookies decorations. I might be a dreamer but I believe it’s a time we all stop for a while and consider our family bondings and real values. 

It’s also my favourite time for baking as I can set my fancy free. 

I start well in advance, mid November making the Xmas Fruit Cake and an Advent Chocolate Calendar and then continue until Christmas making Father Xmas House, cookies and cookie decorations.

Song: Happy Christmas 

Xmas Day’s over but I think it’s always time to wish each other a Merry Xmas, a message of peace and love

see recipe:
http://time-for-cake-making.blogspot.it/2012/12/cake-seventeen-christmas-fruit-cake.html