Christmas Yule Log

Christmas Yule Log

So this week I have decided to start trying out a few Christmas recipes in time to perfect them in time for our flurry of guests throughout the coming month.

First on the list was my personal favourite festive treat; The Chocolate Yule Log. Needless to say it went down a storm with Nick and the in-laws, and Bella even sat still long enough to watch me from her high chair (enjoying a rusk)... which goes to show how quick and easy it is.

You will need

• 3 eggs
• 75g Caster Sugar
• 75g Self Raising Flour
• 200g Icing Sugar
• 35g Green and Blacks Cocoa ( you can use any cocoa but G&B's is the best!!)
• 200g Softened butter
• 1 tablespoon Cocoa
• 1 tsp milk

Preheat oven to 200 C

Line a long thin baking tray with baking parchment and grease around the outside also.

Whisk together your sugar and butter in a large bowl using an electric whisk.

Sieve in your flour and fold in to the mixture.  Then do the same with your cocoa.

Spread over your baking parchment and bake for 10 mins.

Remove from oven, allow sponge to cool and tip out onto a tea towel on your kitchen surface. Trim off any crispy edges.

Next prepare your butter-cream icing by mixing together your butter, icing sugar and milk together in a bowl until smooth. If you want the inside of your yule log to be chocolatey, add the tablespoon of cocoa powder too.

Spread a very thin layer of your butter-cream icing over the sponge and simply roll over until you make your log shape.

Using a pallet knife, cover the log in the remaining butter-cream (if you left the cocoa powder out above, you can add it in here) and once the whole thing is covered, flick the topping up with a fork to add some hedgehog spikes and then dust a small amount of icing sugar over the top using a sieve.

Et Voila... Tempting and chocolatey and ready for you to decorate with holly, berries and fluffy Christmas robins!

The Glamorous Christmas List

The Glamorous Christmas Gift List

  98UGMV63ECRW

Our 20 Best Buys 

With Christmas just around the corner, time is running out to load your loved ones with pressies. Have a look at some of our amazing gifts below and get shopping before Santa beats you to it!

 

An Extra Special Treat for Mum

Spoil her with this little gem and you'll definitely get extra roast potatoes at the Christmas dinner table!
Anya Hindmarch Bag Belvedere Small

£650.00

 

 

Perfect for the Best Friend, Sister or Sneaky Treat for Yourself

Okay, it's a bit pricey but we absolutely love this Miquella Bracelet

£95.00

 

 

For a Less Extravagant Best-Buddy-Buy

This Personalised Mini Gem And Star Bracelet by Lisa Angel is great for any occasion. You can customise with a hand-stamped initial and it comes in a variety of colours with a choice of silver or gold stars

£12

For the Wine Lover 

This Drink O'Clock Cushion Cover means its wine o'clock at every hour!

by Iredale Towers

£29

The Patriotic One

A Victoria Eggs English Dinner Tea Towel sums up all things British about food! Also comes in Scottish 'Haggis and Neeps' version too!

£11.50

 

Finding the Chef in the Family 

Includes 2 beef fillet steaks, 2 lamb noisette steaks, 2 picanha roasting steaks, 4 pork escalopes, 4 flat iron steaks, 2 porterhouse steaks, and 2 pork T Bone steaks, this Steak Lover's Hamper is the perfect luxe gift!

by Farmison

£99.45

For the Sports Fanatic

Why not get them a permanent reminder of their favourite football match, rugby game or tennis tournament with this Personalised Sporting Event Print

by Wallspice

£59

A Smart Gift for your City Slicker

Protect his pride and joy in a sophisticated Brown Leather Ipad Case

by Freeload Accessories

£59

 

Match it with Some Wrist Bling

These Paul Smith Spider Cufflinks also come in a buzzing wasp design if the below are a bit too creepy crawly for you...

£75.00

 

Make Dad Beam

If Mum's getting the Anya Hindmarch, then treat Dad with this 'There's Nothing My Dad Can't Fix' Print perfect for a present to Dad from a little one

by Open Box Design

£20

And if Dad's not the 'fixing type' 

This Personalised Dad's Wooden Bottle Box should do the trick! Personalise it with a selection of Dad's favourite pastimes.

by Sophia Victoria Joy

£29.95

The Chatterbox

The J.Crew printed back-up battery for their iPhone will have you on their Christmas Card list forever! Comes in a variety of prints- match it to their personality.
£33

Personalised Message Biscuits  - do they need any explanation?

by Les Quatre

£26

The 'Kevin and Perry' Nephew

He doesn't even need to grunt a response with this say-no-more 'Not Awake' T Shirt

by Sarah J Miller

£21

 

Keeping the Kids Happy

Perfect for little fingers... Chocolate Do It Yourself Funny Faces

by Cocoapod Chocolates

£19.75

Buying for Babies

What Christmas is all about! How irresistible is the new Elephant Collection from The White Company? From nursery goods to PJs have a look and take your pick!

Prices start at £18

Almost Too Pretty to Eat

A gift for granny, or a ballet fanatic? We don't care who you buy them for, but they're too pretty to ignore!

Nutcracker Christmas Biscuit Tin

by The Biscuiteers

£30

A Pressie for the Tree

A forever keepsake in this truly British Tinker Tailor Hanging Union Jack Crown

£15.00

For the Guy or Gal that has Everything

Artisan du Chocolat is definitely in the running for my fave chocolate company. Their couture boxes of individual chocolates vary from 4 pieces at £4.50 or 99 pieces for £70 and they are absolutely melt-in-your-mouth delicious! Not only do they taste amazing but each individual chocolate is adorned with its own piece of artwork. 

Starting at £4.50

The Most Important Member of the Family

Make sure the mutt is in his Sunday Best for the big day with Emily Bond's Dog Neckerchiefs

by Mutts & Hounds

£15

A Sunday at Embankment

Tea, Cocktails and Wedding Venues

As Chief Bridesmaid and Usher, our dear friends Annie and Nick are subject to certain privileges (or chores as some may see them) prior to the wedding.

One of these was a sneak preview of our wedding venue last weekend. Robbie and I dragged the other happy couple up to Embankment for a guided tour around the venue of choice - One Whitehall Place.

Of course, no afternoon in London is complete without afternoon tea, and feeling slightly worse-for-wear courtesy of the previous evening, we opted for the traditional menu at The Royal Horseguards Hotel, and forwent the Champagne ...did those words just come out of my mouth?!? (or fingers should I say).

The tea consisted of the expected but also included a couple of little surprises such as this rather delicious egg mayonnaise choux pastry

 After 'unlimited refills' of sandwiches... cucumber, smoked salmon and cream cheese, coronation chicken, beef and horseradish... we moved onto our scones - obviously smothered with a healthy dose of cream and jam, and then onto the tantalising puds...

Amazing flavours: Earl-Grey-chocolate-melt-in-the-middle-bomb-lollipop

Bitter sweet: sharp fruit topping over a delicious creamy base

And of course, a mini cupcake

Somehow managing to heave ourselves out of the bed-like armchairs and away from the delicate strings of the harp we made our way across the hall to the wedding venue.

I'll save the wedding venue pics till after the big day next year... but you can see some of the function rooms here.

Still feeling full, we took a stroll along the River to the church where we will be having the ceremony - The Queen's Chapel of the Savoy. Unfortunately - as expected - the chapel was closed, but we managed to get a peak of the newly landscaped courtyard area.

Having not eaten or drunk anything for the last hour, we were all starting to fade away and so had no option but to nip into the nearest watering hole to recharge. Luckily this happened to be one of Annie and my favourite bars at The Savoy Hotel.

Just before the bar there is a 'mini museum' with some interesting little additions such as this framed coin that was the first taken by the hotel in 1889... (and happened to be for a bottle of Champagne!)

After studying the extensive menu, soft drinks definitely seemed like a cop-out and hangovers were forgotten as we tucked into cocktails accompanied by the live pianist... (in the very dark bar area)

Being the Bond Season, this was the specialty offering:

So of course we had to sample. It was a refreshing mix of gin, vodka, wines, syrup and Japanese Yuzu juice, which we could have sat drinking all night!

As well as the Skyfall, we also sampled the Piano Man; another refreshing mix that even included cucumber... the perfect cocktail to get you back into the swing of things!

Hot Hazelnut Chocolate

Hot Hazelnut Chocolate

This certainly does not qualify as a 'recipe' but is so good I had to share it with you! ...It's my latest discovery and just in time for the cold season.

Whenever Bella is having her afternoon nap I like to indulge in a hot mug of this and the next chapter of Fifty... Bliss!!

You need just these 2 things:-

• Green and Blacks Hot Chocolate
• Alpro Soya Hazelnut Drink

Put 4 teaspoons of your hot chocolate in a mug and fill up with Hazelnut milk pop in the microwave for 1 min 30 and stir well when finished.

Sit back and enjoy with Christian Grey!!

Millionaires Shortcake

This has to be one of my favourite puds and with the girls coming over for a little dinner party I shrugged my shoulders and headed off to Tesco deciding to give it a go. Needless to say the girls were suitably impressed and I beamed a little inside at my handiwork!




I have to say it was very easy to make but looked as though I could have been slaving away at it for hours which was exactly what I was hoping for. So for those of you who like myself enjoy 'moonlighting' as a domestic goddess I thoroughly recommend you try this!

This is what you will need ...

• 250g plain flour
• 75g Caster Sugar
• 175g Butter softened
• 1 tin carnation caramel
• 200g plain chocolate
• 80g white chocolate 

To make the shortbread base, mix the flour and caster sugar in a bowl. Rub in the butter with your hands until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Knead the mixture together until it forms a dough, then press into the base of the prepared tin. Prick the shortbread lightly with a fork and bake in the pre-heated oven for about 20 min or until firm to the touch and very lightly browned. Cool in the tin.




After the base is cool (and this is the hard bit) open your tin of carnation caramel and using a spoon spread over the shortbread. Once this is done suck spoon to efficiently remove all traces of caramel (this part is essential to show thanks to the caramel god)








For the topping, melt the chocolate slowly in a bowl over a pan of hot water. Pour over the cold caramel and leave to set.




Finally melt down your white choc using the same method as before and then drizzle randomly all over cake to create a lovely Jackson pollock type effect!

Leave to set for at least an hour before your guests arrive, serve with ice cream and sit back and enjoy the praise!

BB Bakery County Hall

Naughty but Nice

On strolling through London in the sun, we happened (by chance) to stumble across a little sanctuary that has definitely been added to my Little Black Book!

The BB Bakery, County Hall. Where every cake / biscuit / chocolate / tart / pastry lover's fantasy can be a reality!

The bakery itself is a little haven of quaint tables and chairs, cake stands, amazing macaroon towers, Baroque photo frames and much more besides - the majority of which (you'll be delighted to know) are for sale. But the true delights are in the edible treats!

After umm-ing and ahh-ing over the homemade pizzas, pastries, foot long baguettes and other savoury snacks, we ventured over to the cake counter and spent about 20 minutes trying to decide which piece of art took our fancy. Reluctantly, we managed to keep to one each:

Lemon Meringue Tart - the husband-to-be's and I didn't get a look in!

A piece of art - Apricot Jelly, White Chocolate Mousse, Brownie Base and a Macaroon Topper! Delicious

Traditional Chocolate Eclair - with the added surprise of a chocolate cream inside

Red Velvet - with one hell of a topping! (Not that ANYONE was complaining)

As we were in a bit of a rush we had our cakes boxed and bagged and took them home to devour over a cup of tea. Bliss!

Break-up Brownies

Break-up Brownies

These brownies were made for break ups!

Warmer, richer and sweeter than Channing Tatum's thigh!

When a friend is in crisis and nothing but the filthiest, chocolatiest, melt in the middle naughtiness will do.... Look no further, this recipe is The One. The best thing about these bad boys is that is you can bake them in 40mins thanks to our dear friend Betty Crocker.


All you need is:

• 1 box of Betty's finest choc chip cookie mix
• One Betty's Brownie mix (I like choc fudge but sticky choc, chewy choc or whatever floats your boat will do)
• 6 regular sized mars Bars

So here goes..

1. Line chosen baking dish with baking paper
2. Make cookies according to Betty's instructions and pour into paper lined dish.
3. Place Mars bars in a row on top of cookie mixture.
4. Make brownies (again following easy peasy instructions) and then pour mixture on top of your cookie mars bar yumminess and pop in the oven for 30 mins.
5. Wait for aroma to fill the room whilst staring at oven wishing time would pass more quickly!

Et Voila.... The most handsome filthiest brownie you will ever come across (better than any man)

Best served warm with lashings of Vanilla Haagen Dazs

If for some obscure reason you have any brownies left they will keep for a week in an air tight container (keep well hidden).

These brownies are not strictly for break ups, they can be used in any times of crisis!