If you have some presents still to wrap or want to get ahead with preparing Christmas dinner then take a look at these easy recipes that will keep the children occupied.
Christmas is ridiculously exciting when you’re a kid, especially when you get to be involved in the festivities and make some treats for the day.
If you have some last minute presents to wrap or want to get started on Christmas dinner then these baking recipes are a good way to keep the kids occupied and help contribute towards some of the sweet treats on the day… if they last that long.
Courtesy of Rowse Honey, Graham’s The Family Dairy and Little Cooks Co, take a look at the sweet treats below and have your little bakers don their aprons.
Christmas tree honey and spice cookies
(Serves 4)
Ingredients
- 250g plain flour
- 3 tbsp honey
- 150g butter
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 50g icing sugar and a few drops of water
- A few edible icing bees to decorate
Method
- Gently heat the honey and butter together, then leave to cool slightly.
- In a bowl, add the rest of the ingredients mixing thoroughly.
- Roll the dough out on a flour dusted surface and cut out cookies with a cookie cutter.
- Bake for around 10 minutes at 180°C – watching until the cookies start to go slightly golden. Leave to cool.
- Make the icing by mixing the icing sugar and water to form a thick paste runny enough to drizzle and get icing. Finish with some icing bees to decorate.
Recipe courtesy of Rowse Honey.
Last-minute Christmassy cake
(Serves 5)
Ingredients
- 225g Graham’s slightly salted butter, soft
- 225g caster sugar
- 4 eggs
- 200g plain flour
- 3 tsp baking powder
- 2 tsp mixed spice (cinnamon will do if you have it)
- 225g carrots (peeled and grated weight)
- The grated zest of one orange
- 100g raisins
- Icing sugar, to dust
Method
- Preheat your oven to 170°C/Fan 150°C/325°F/Gas Mark 3. Line the bottom of a 9-inch tin with baking paper and grease the sides (there’s no point lining the sides if they’re well greased).
- Peel and (coarsely) grate your carrots and set them aside.
In a large bowl, beat together your soft butter and caster sugar. Keep going until it is totally smooth, light and near white in colour. This can take a while; you cannot overmix at this stage. - Whisk in your eggs, one at a time, making sure each is well incorporated. It doesn’t matter if your mix curdles. Add in your flour, baking powder and mixed spice and fold in gently using a large (preferably metal) spoon – you only want to just bring it together. The mix should still be lumpy.
- Add your raisins and zest to your carrots, mix together with your hands and finally add this in to your cake mix. Using your big spoon, fold gently until the carrots are evenly distributed.
- Transfer to your cake tin and bake for 35-45 minutes, or until a golden brown colour, springy to touch and the edges are coming away from the sides.
- Once done, cool inside or outside the tin – it doesn’t matter. You don’t need a cooling rack. Once cool, dust with plenty of icing sugar.
- To get the same effect as me, just draw and cut out a shape on an A4 bit of paper and place it on top before dusting.
Recipe by James Morton for Graham’s the Family Dairy.
Tasty truffles
(Makes 50-60 truffles)
Ingredients
- 180g dates
- 80g cacao powder (or cocoa)
- 80g butter or coconut oil
- 30g cacao nibs (or chocolate chips)
- 20ml milk (or dairy free alternative)
- 2 tsp vanilla essence
- 1 large orange
Coating options:
- Hazelnuts
- Beetroot powder
- Spirulina
- Cacao/cocoa powder
- Freeze-dried strawberry pieces
Method
- Pop the dates in a bowl and cover with hot water – leave to one side to soften.
Melt the butter/coconut oil in a saucepan - Grate the zest of your orange over some kitchen roll and then cut the orange in half and squeeze the juice out into a small bowl (removing all pips).
- Strain the dates and add them to a blender with the melted butter/coconut oil, vanilla essence, milk and 20ml of orange juice.
- Whizz until smooth – add a little more orange juice if the mix is too thick to blend.
- Use a spatula to scrape the mixture into a mixing bowl and then mix in the cacao powder and nibs until fully combined.
- Line a dinner plate or tray with baking paper and spread the mixture out until it is around 1cm thick – place it in the freezer for 15 minutes.
- Prepare your toppings!
- Bash hazelnuts with a rolling pin until they are broken into small pieces and then scatter them on a small plate.
- Spread cacao powder or any other toppings you are using on small plates.
- Sprinkle orange zest into the toppings to give a lovely chocolate orange flavour!
- When the truffle mix is ready use a teaspoon to scrape small amounts of the mixture off and use your hands to roll it into balls about the size of a 20p coin (it should make around 50-60 truffles)
- Roll the balls in your toppings and then pop in the fridge for another 15 minutes before gobbling!
- Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week.
Recipe from Little Cooks Co.
More Christmas recipes…
Fancy rustling up a succulent Christmas cake? Try Aunt Kate’s recipe from the 1930s