Merry Christmas Ya Filthy Animals!

Like many people, I absolutely love this time of year. The Christmas season is a fantastic excuse to be merry and cheery, and see my extended family a few weekends in a row.

This Christmas whilst out shopping for everyones presents, I slipped into Harvey Nichols Christmas Pop-Up Food Market and purchased some glorious edible glitter. And today I sprinkled it onto my freshly baked gingerbread trees and stars. The glitter is 'silver hologram' by Rainbow Dust and sparkles every colour in the spectrum.

So Christmassy! I'm also very pleased with the gingerbread recipe I used, it has the crunch of a biscuit but still has a lovely soft texture, and it has an extra bit of spice to make it extra Christmassy. Ooooh lovely! Here's the recipe for those who would like their own:

400g of plain flour

2 tsp of baking powder

3 tsp of ground ginger

1 tsp of cinnamon

1 tsp of mixed spice

100g of golden syrup (You can use treacle instead if you don't want your biscuits to be too sweet)

100g of soft brown sugar

2 tbsp milk (I used skimmed, but it won't matter which you use)

1. Sieve the flour, baking powder and spices into a bowl.

2. Make extra sure there aren't any blobs of brown sugar, then add it to the flour mix.

3. Chop the butter into little pieces and rub into the flour mix, until the mixture is like breadcrumbs.

4. In a separate bowl, combine the golden syrup with the milk.

5. Make a well in the breadcrumbs and pour in the golden syrup mixture.

6. Mix in initially with a wooden spoon, then transfer onto a clean solid surface to knead into a dough.

7. Place the dough into a bowl and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

8. Remove the dough from the fridge and preheat the oven to 180°c.

9.  Break off a handful of dough and roll it out to 5mm thick

10. Cut out shapes with a cookie cutter or knife

11. Place onto baking sheets with a little room for them to spread.

12. Combine the trimmings with another handful and repeat the process.

13. For each baking tray full of gingerbread.. shapes, bake for 8-10 minutes in the oven.

14. Allow to cool slightly then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe modified (and improved!) from CookIt!