My birdcage shaped, gluten free Christmas Cake

This Christmas I am planning on a making a birdcage-decorated cake to sit on my Winter Wonderland dessert table. To get the shape I need, I have baked two 15cm (6") round cakes and half a 15cm (6") ball cake. Below you will find my recipe for a rich fruit cake that is gluten free.

Fruit cakes are ideally made at least a month before you need to decorate and eat it. They should be fed regularly and left to ripen. I feed mine every week.

Gluten free Christmas cake (makes one 15cm (6") round cake)

Ingredients
225g (8 oz) currants
90g (3.5 oz) sultanas
90g (3.5 oz) raisins
650g (2.5 oz) chopped glace cherries
50g (2 oz) cut mixed peel
3 tbsp cream sherry
50g (2 oz) chopped almonds
175g (6 oz) plain gluten-free flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp mixed spice
pinch of salt
150g (5 ounces) unsalted butter, softened
150g (5 ounces) soft brown sugar
3 medium eggs
grated zest of half a lemon
grated zest of half a orange
3 tbsp brandy

Cooking instructions

1. Place all dried fruit and mixed peel in a bowl, pour in sherry and mix well. Cover with a clean cloth. Leave for 12 hours or overnight so fruit can absorb the sherry
2. Preheat oven to 150 deg C (300 deg F)
3. Grease and line tin with baking parchment
4. Wrap newspaper/brown paper around tin and secure with baker's twine
5. Beat butter and sugar with an electric mixer on high speed until the mixture turns a pale colour
6. Beat in eggs slowly on medium speed
7. Sieve flour, salt and spices into the mixture and mix slowly on low speed
8. Fold in soaked fruit, almonds, lemon & orange zest until well mixed
9. Pour mixture into tin, level with spatula
10. Place sheet of grease proof paper on top, and make sure to leave a small circle missing from centre
11. Bake for 3 hours and 15 minutes on middle shelf
12. Place cake on a wire rack to cool
13. When cake is completely cool, remove cake from tin
14. Pierce cake several times with skewer
15. Pour 3 tsp of brandy over the top of the cake (feeding)
16. Wrap in baking parchment
17. Wrap in foil or store in an airtight container
18. Feed at regular intervals over the next few weeks

Cake tins are available in my store on page 2.

After at least a few weeks comes the fun part - decorating it!

In case you missed it, here's last year's Winter Woodland Christmas cake with full instructions on how you can create it yourself.




Have a sweet day!

Hand-made cool mint lip balm

On Tuesday I showed you the sparkly strawberry lip balms I made for my Christmas cracker gifts. They'd be great for the gals, but I also needed something for the lads so I made cool mint lip balms with a white leaf atop.

Christmas gift : Cool mint lip balm
Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons of white beeswax pellets (1/2 tsp for leaves)
• 4 tablespoons sunflower oil (1/2 tsp for leaves)
• Few drops of cool mint flavour oil
• Teal food colouring

Packaging

• 6 small acrylic pots
• P1 address labels
• Self adhesive clear film
• Aqua washi tape

Equipment

• Mini leaf mould
• Pipettes
• Microwavable glass jug
• Microwavable small glass jar
• Metal spoon
• Scissors
• Sharp knife

Cool mint lip balm, How-to step by step


Start by placing the beeswax pellets and oil in a glass jug and heating in the microwave on low to medium power until the beeswax pellets have melted. Remove jug from microwave and stir with a metal spoon. Using a pipette, add a few drops of mint oil. Add a tiny amount of food colouring to jug of liquid. Stir mixture with metal spoon and continue adding colouring till you achieve desired shade and colour is even. Using a clean pipette, transfer lip balm to pots.

In a small glass pot, melt half a teaspoon of beeswax with a teaspoon of oil in the microwave until beeswax pellets have melted. Add a drop of cool mint oil and stir with a metal spoon. Then using a clean pipette, fill leaf mould with lip balm. As soon as the lip balm turns white, use a sharp knife to remove excess from back. Wait a minute then turn out leaf on to top of aqua cool mint lip balm. Repeat until all cool mint lip balms have a white leaf atop. Leave to set for one hour.

Wrap washi tape around each jar to secure lids. Double click on the artwork above, which will open it up in a new page, and print onto a sheet of P1 address label. Cut a rectangle of self adhesive film large enough to cover all the labels and adhere to printed labels. Carefully, using a sharp pair of scissors, cut around edge of labels then remove backing paper from the labels and attach to bottom of cool mint lip balm jars.

See hand-made strawberry lip balm here, with fully illustrated photos.




Have a sweet day!

Camel & Yak Winter 2011

Today on shops I love, I bring you the latest gorgeous goodies from one of my favourite stores, Camel & Yak. A great place to find fabulously bright and colourful gifts like the bird hooks, melamine cups in an array of colours and gorgeous tins of bunting.

Have a sweet day!

Hand-made sparkly strawberry lip balm

This year I want to make my own hand-made Christmas crackers to match my Winter Wonderland colour palette and theme. This got me thinking it would be nice to fill them with hand made gifts. The gifts would have to be small enough to fit inside the crackers and ideally match the theme. So, I decided to make pink coloured strawberry lip balm with a smattering of pink glitter. To fit in with my theme, I added a vanilla flavoured mini deer shaped lip balm piece which I placed on top of the strawberry lip balm. I finished them off with a pretty printed label I designed that I covered in clear film to protect and to make it shiny. The jars were sealed by wrapping them in pink washi tape.

Christmas gift : Sparkly strawberry lip balm
Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons of white beeswax pellets (plus 1/2 tsp for the deer toppers)
• 4 tablespoons sunflower oil (1/2 tsp for deer)
• Few drops of strawberry flavour oil
• Edible pink glitter
• Lipstick shavings

Packaging

• 6 small acrylic pots
• P1 address labels
• pink washi tape
• Self adhesive clear film

Equipment

• Mini deer mould
• Pipettes
• Microwavable glass jug
• Microwavable small glass jar
• Metal spoons
• Scissors
• Sharp knife

Sparkly strawberry lip balm, How-to step by step

Start by placing the beeswax pellets and oil in a glass jug in the microwave. Heat on low to medium power until the beeswax pellets have melted. Remove jug from microwave and stir with a metal spoon. Using a pipette, add a few drops of strawberry oil.



Gradually add lipstick shavings to the jug of liquid. Stir mixture with metal spoon and continue adding lipstick shavings until you achieve desired shade and the colour is even. Using a clean pipette, transfer lip balm to pots.



In a small glass pot, melt half a teaspoon of beeswax with a teaspoon of oil in the microwave until beeswax pellets have melted. Add a drop of strawberry oil and stir with a metal spoon. Using a clean pipette, fill deer mould with lip balm. As soon as the lip balm cools and turns white, use a sharp knife to remove excess from back. Wait a minute then turn out deer on to top of pink strawberry lip balm. Repeat until all strawberry lip balms have a white deer atop. Leave to set for one hour.



Wrap washi tape around each jar to secure lids.



Double click on the artwork, which will open it up in a new page, and print onto a sheet of P1 address label. Cut a rectangle of self adhesive film large enough to cover all the labels and adhere to printed labels. Carefully using a sharp pair of scissors cut around edge of labels then remove backing paper from the labels and attach to bottom of strawberry lip balm jars.

Have a sweet day!

Pink and Turq Christmas decor

Over the past few weeks I have been sharing with you my inspirational pins for a Winter Wonderland Christmas. Today, its all about pink and turquoise Christmas decor. To see more inspirational pins for a Winter Wonderland Christmas, check out my board on Pinterest.

• Christmas paper wreath by Homelife
• Christmas decorating by Fabulous Fifi
• Pretty in pink Christmas decorations, Christmas wall decor ideas, Loving letters by BHG
• Modern glamour by Southern Living

Have a sweet day!

Beautifully Wrapped

This week on Flickr Faves Sunday, I bring you some beautiful packages in lovely neutrals from some of the most creative people on Flickr. I can't wait to start wrapping my gifts!

Some beautiful shots from my Flickr favourites (clockwise from top left):

• The flower in Compai's {earth friendly} gift wrapping ideas by Justine Blakeney
• The chunky wood tag in LEH Project by Iro {Ivy style33}
  
• The pretty stickers in Gift wrapping... by Iro {Ivy style33}
• The ever so pretty garland in Paper Lace Gift Wrap Set by 3GIRLS+ a goat

Have a sweet day!

Original gift - Vintage Playing Cards

Looking for an original, design conscious gift? Look no further!

I had been looking for a gift for my sister, who is the proud mum to my adorable nephew Samuel. When the sweet folks at Vintage Playing Cards offered me the opportunity to review one of their creations, I jumped at the chance and asked for the word "SAMUEL". I love it and my sister was delighted with her stylish gift, hanging it in Samuel's new room.

The name is spelled out in individual cards sourced from a 1930s spelling game. The cards are double mounted with cream and black, and presented in a stylish black wooden box frame. I love how it is very sleek and timeless and I am sure Samuel will love it when he is older. A real conversation piece that had 'Gramps' telling us all how the 1930s game was played! So, today I am sharing it with you as a great gift.

As well as bespoke names, they also do vintage playing cards framed clocks that spell out ‘time’ and ‘tick tock’ and a VPC teatime range of stylish clocks made from vintage china. They also have a vast collection of stylish greeting cards that feature vintage playing cards. My favourite for Christmas is the Deers under the Tree greeting card made from an original art deco playing card depicting deers under a tree.




Have a sweet day!