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What To Do With Leftover Mince Pies & Other Christmas Treats

December 27, 2018

Is there such a thing as leftovers when it comes to Christmas goodies? I guess this is possible if you are a generous soul who wants to make sure none of your guests get even the slightest bit peckish, never mind go hungry, and over cater with the mince pies, cake and other delicious festive treats. In the interests of being environmentally friendly and trying to reduce food waste, we here at Crafty Bug have rounded up some great ideas you could try out if you have any sweet treats “going spare”.

Here are some quick and dirty ideas that should work with pretty much any of your Christmas leftover items (mainly sweet rather than savoury):

chop up and fold into softened ice cream and then freeze to harden (Christmas pudding, mince pies, panettone, brioche, fresh fruit, crystallized fruit);
turn into a tasty trifle by laying with custard (tinned or from a carton would work well) and cream. For panettone or brioche, you could drizzle with either a fruit juice or alcohol of choice (amaretto, baileys, sherry, port for starters);
use as a filling for croissants for a breakfast treat. Why not try chopped Christmas cake with a dollop of brandy cream?
stir chopped up cake or mince pies through quark for a breakfast or pudding which is a little less sweet;
my grandmother was very fond of cutting a slice of cold Christmas Pudding and frying in butter for breakfast on Boxing Day. A knob of clotted cream would add an extra indulgent feel.

Mince Pies

Mince pies are definitely seasonal. Not sure why you can’t eat them all year round – may be it’s to do with the spicing and the sheer pastryness of it that makes it a festive treat. Anyway, I think it is possible to have too many mince pies. A Crafty Bug friend has been involved in taste testing (informally) a whole range of mince pies where she works. Each day, someone brings in a different supermarket’s offering and everyone has to rank them so she’s definitely getting to the end of her mince pie capacity.

Why might you need to think of what to do with leftover mince pies? This could be because you don’t particularly like a certain brand or you bought a huge stash to hand out to visitors who all turned out to be dieting! Rather than just crumble them up for the birds, here are a few creative things if you want to make the most of your stockpile!

I like this pretty straightforward no cook recipe from Katie Byrson recipe where the nearest to cooking is melting the chocolate. If you wanted to put a spin on it, you could always used a chocolate orange (just in case you have chocolate going spare) and add a dash of Cointreau to the chopped mince pie mix. It might also work with a digestive biscuit or two added.

Melt half the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water or in short bursts in the microwave. 2. Pour the melted chocolate into the bottom of the tin and spread out evenly. Put in the fridge until set. 3. Melt the remaining chocolate and add the mince pies, orange zest and nuts, stirring gently to thoroughly combine but without turning it all to mush. 4. Pour over the set layer of chocolate, pressing down to form an even surface and then pop back in the fridge to chill until firm. 5. Turn out onto a chopping board with the chocolate layer on top and cut into 12 squares. Via goodfood.uktv.co.uk

For some more quick and easy ideas, you might like to take a look at the ideas Anna Spurling and blogger Gourmet Girlfriend came up with when they put their heads together. One you might like to try:

Chop up your mince pies into tiny pieces, mix into softened vanilla ice cream and whack it back into the freezer, ready for your next sweet craving. Via fiveofthebest.com

A small splash of brandy would add that something extra but don’t add too much as alcohol doesn’t help the ice cream freeze well.

Panettone

Panettone instead of a traditional Christmas cake has become very popular in the UK over recent years. It’s easy to see why with it’s light, moreish texture, panettone is very easy to eat and doesn’t feel as heavy or stodgy as the more traditional iced fruit cake. The only thing is: these cakes are rarely small in size and so it is quite easy to end up with leftover panettone. Well, there are lots of things that can be done should you and your family have tired of eating it in its unadulterated state.

One tried and tested way of making good use of your panettone bread pudding in the style of a traditional “bread and butter” pudding. There are many different ways of doing this from simply substituting panettone for bread in your usual recipe, to adding a layer of lemon curd to add extra citrusy zing. Great for lemon fans!

Light dawns on Marblehead! Lemon curd. Now I was inspired. I quickly found my recipe for Easy Microwave Lemon Curd (ready in under 10 minutes), and made a half batch. As it cooled and thickened, I soaked cubes of panettone in custard. Bread and custard were scooped into a loaf pan, followed by dollops of lemon curd; more bread and custard, then coarse sparkling sugar on top. Forty-five minutes in the oven, 30 minutes to set and cool, and delizioso! Panettone Bread Pudding with Lemon Filling was born. Via blog.kingarthurflour.com

Another way to use up leftover panettone is this recipe by David Lebovitz which adds caramelization and sounds rather scrumptious! The addition of ice cream to serve melting over the top is surely a winner. David says:

It’s that time of the year, when you may be gifted one too many panettoni. And while you might not think it’s possible to have too much panettone, this is a welcome reprieve from French toast or panettone ice cream, if you do find yourself with an overload of loaves. With a base of panettone, this caramelized bread pudding is a great way to use the fruit-studded Italian bread. Delicious with ice cream or on its own! Via davidlebovitz.com

One final (for now!) “what to make with leftover panettone” is Gennaro Contaldo’s Panettone Zucotto Christmas Pudding! I think this is one I will need to try this year. Having bought myself a panettone for the first time ever, I then received a second, identical one, as a gift! Which was, of course, rather lovely and will afford me the opportunity to try out some of these yummy panettone recipes. This Zucotto pudding is a bit like an Italian version of summer pudding, made with ricotta rather than fruit and panettone rather than bread. But it looks pretty easy to make and would make a alternative dessert to Christmas pudding when something lighter is needed.

If you have been gifted with some Stollen, and haven’t managed to finish it up in its natural state, the above panettone ideas and recipes should work equally well with Stollen.

Mincemeat

It’s possible that you may find you haven’t needed to make as many mince pies as you thought you would be making and so have a jar or two of leftover mincemeat that could usefully be turned into something other than mince pies. After all, you’ve done mince pies for the season and fancy something different.

This tutorial for mincemeat shortbread bars is a little longer at nearly 14 minutes than some video demonstrations but you are taken through all the steps needed to make these delicious bars in a well guided manner.

Of course, mincemeat is great in baked apples: simply core a cooking apple, stuff with mincemeat, dot with butter, sprinkle with sugar and bake! It also goes well in a bread and butter pudding: when layering the bread (or brioche), add in a layer of mincemeat making sure you finish with a bread layer.

Christmas Pudding

Christmas pudding does, of course, keep well for a long while. In fact, it’s always best made well in advance. In our family, when I was growing up, my mother would always make her Christmas puddings in the run up to Christmas, with everyone in the family have a stir and a wish. But these were for the following year as we had one for Christmas Day that was at least a year old. Well matured!

Here’s my first idea for how to use up Christmas pudding leftovers, spotted on BBC GoodFood. As this recipe calls for a couple of tablespoonfuls of Baileys, it’s also a great way to use up any of this liqueur should you be finding it difficult to work your way down the bottle. This strudel would be delicious served with ice cream, cream or custard. Possibly a dollop of brandy cream would work well here:

Give your Christmas pud leftovers a second life with this easy strudel recipe. Mix the pudding, mascarpone and Baileys. Lay out a sheet of filo on a large flat baking tray, brush with some melted butter and lay another sheet on top. Repeat with more butter and filo until you have 4 layers. Via bbcgoodfood.com

This next recipe sounds like a definite win! Who doesn’t love anything made with chocolate and cornflakes? Most people have a packet of cornflakes in the cupboard which should make these Chocolate Cornflake Christmas Pudding Cakes easy to make without having to buy any special ingredients. Not one to rustle up immediately as it will need chilling time but other than that, a straight forward make.

Note that if you are buying the cornflakes and chocolate specifically for preparing this recipe, there is no need to buy brand names or expensive cooking chocolate. Supermarket cornflakes and a chocolate flavoured coating (at less than half the price) were used in this instance. Via delishably.com

Using up leftovers works best when you can simply open the kitchen cupboards, fish out a few storecupboard items and use them to work with your particular leftover item to create a dish that’s tasty and, ideally, quick and easy. This flapjack recipe does just that: it uses regular staples such as oats, golden syrup, dried fruits and nuts. And you’re bound to have an apple sitting in a bowl just waiting for its moment of glory!

I always end up with leftover Christmas pudding … but I have not made flapjacks before. Having made mincemeat flapjacks to use up my leftover … jar of mincemeat, I was confident that leftover Christmas pudding would work just as well inside a flapjack. I added some extra ingredients such as grated apple, sultanas, cranberries and some roasted hazelnuts to make these flapjacks full of flavour and to ensure they were moist too. Plus everything I used were all in my kitchen cupboards and leftover from making my Christmas puddings, so this recipe is a great way of using up leftovers in more ways than one. Via mummymishaps.co.uk

Cookies or Biscuits

At Christmas, we all like to make sure we have plenty of food in the cupboard not only for family but for visitors, expected or unexpected and biscuits or cookies make a great standby for such occasions. And of course, tins of shortbread or tubes of chocolate chip cookies make excellent gifts so don’t be surprised if you receive some in your Christmas stocking!

Should you find yourself oversupplied with cookies, here are some quick ideas as a way to eat them up without having to dunk them in your tea!

use them to make an ice cream sandwich by slotting a block of ice cream between them;
crumble up and use as an impromptu crumble topping for cooked fruit;
add into any fridge cake type recipe you may have.

This idea below, for turning leftover cookies (particularly if they’ve gone a bit stale) into a sweet version of a crouton, is a great idea and worth trying:

Christmas is over and we’ve entered a bleak time of year full of gifts being returned, dried-out Christmas trees at the curb, and the saddest story of all, the Christmas cookies gone stale. But because I believe that cookies deserve at least the same courtesy given to stale bread, I humbly present the leftover Christmas cookie crouton.

Though they follow the same general idea as savory croutons—baking and flavoring dried-out carbohydrates to give them a second wind—this version is composed entirely of sweet ingredients. The applications for these crunchy, sweet little nuggets are virtually endless—they can be used as an ice cream topping, a rich eggnog or hot chocolate garnish, or as a buttery delight all their own. Via seriouseats.com

Marzipan

So, what to do with leftover marzipan? Just in case you have any marzipan spare from icing the Christmas cake, here are some thoughts on how to use up those last scraps. Personally, I very much doubt I would ever be in this position as I do rather love the stuff and would simply pick bits off and nibble away until there’s only the empty packet left!

You could get creative, fish out the food colouring and make some marzipan fruits – either for you and your family or these would make a super last minute gift. Assuming the recipient doesn’t have a nut allergy of course.

I’ve found this video below which shows you how to make marzipan apples, pears and oranges. It only takes around 3 1/2 minutes to watch and demonstrates the process really well. In fact, it all looks so straightforward, I may even be tempted to have a go myself. Most challenging bit: “painting” the colour onto the shaped fruits so this would very much suit someone with an artistic bent (although to be honest, how wrong can you go with putting a bit of yellow on a pear?); standout moment for me: how to get the textured dimples on the oranges by using a cheesegrater – who knew?

If you have made your own mince pies you could always use some crumbled marzipan as a topping instead of pastry. Or to jazz up shop bought ones, simply remove the pastry lids (the birds would welcome these as festive treat I’m sure) and top with the marzipan.

Christmas Cake / Fruit Cake

A traditional fruit based Christmas Cake is great to have as part of the festive offerings. But there are some people who aren’t quite so keen on fruit cakes and, to be honest, they can be quite filling on top of other Christmas goodies, so it’s not unusual to find such cakes take a while to be eaten up. It’s not a bad thing, to have a couple of ideas up your sleeve for transforming leftover cake into something everyone will want!

It’s rare to find anyone who doesn’t like chocolate so these Boozy Christmas Cake Truffles are bound to be a winner.

Easy and resourceful – two things you may not want to be referred to as in the same breath. But, these truffles certainly are. Left over Christmas cake is splashed with Port (or brandy), rolled into balls and dipped into a clever mixture of equal parts 70% couveture and white chocolate. This ensures the chocolate isn’t too harsh and bitter a partner, but not sickly sweet either. However, the point is to use up left overs, so please use whatever you have at hand. Also, this is a nice way to use up Christmas cake that could ordinarily be thrown away or left in the freezer to collect freezer whiffs for months to come. Via foodandthefabulous.com

You could turn the above truffles into cake pops too as a different way of serving them.

Many of the recipe ideas already mentioned above would work well with a Christmas fruit cake. Trifles, bread and butter puddings, fridge cake, even a crumble are other ways of using up leftover fruit cake.

Fruit & Nuts

Christmas is a time when people tend to buy fruit either in a bid to temper the general overindulgence or because they always have! For example, some people traditionally buy dates and dried figs but don’t really eat these routinely and end up with packets left over once the guests have gone home. We always had a selection of nuts in their shells and often these didn’t get eaten up. I think the brazil nuts often lasted until Easter! Some thoughts on helping to reduce any leftovers:

I like chopped nuts mixed with seeds as a topping for plain yoghurt as a weekday breakfast;
Toasting pecans and hazelnuts adds extra flavour and crunch. I tend to use a non-stick frying pan on a fairly high heat – don’t take your eye off them, though as they will burn as soon as you look away!
Chopped dates or figs are also great with yoghurt or a tasty topping for porridge;
Dried fruit such as dates, prunes or apricots can be sprinkled over panettone or stollen when making a leftovers trifle;
Take a handful of nuts to work as a healthy snack to stave off visits to the chocolate machine!
I like adding a couple of dates to a smoothie to add sweetness instead of using honey or syrup. And they add extra fibre too. Simply blitz together almond milk, a couple of tablespoonfuls of almond butter, 2 tablespoonfuls of oats with some frozen blueberries and you have instant breakfast.

If you have ended up with some leftover cakes, mince pies or similar after the festive period, I hope you find something here to tempt you into making something tasty to empty out your larder or free up space on your cupboard shelves.

Needlefelt your Christmas Ornaments

December 15, 2018

If you’ve already had a go at needlefelting, you might like to try producing some needlefelted ornaments for Christmas. With this type of project, you can enjoy making the items in the run up to Christmas, or perhaps tackle them over the festive holiday when you are really feeling Christmassy. Either way, you will end up with some lovely things to go in your box of Christmas decorations to be brought out year after year. If you haven’t tried needle felting before, our Needlefelting Projects for Beginners will give you an introduction to this fascinating and increasingly popular craft.

It’s all very well making yummy cakes or biscuits but, strange to say, these tend to get eaten and aren’t around for the long term. There’s a great deal of satisfaction to be gained from making your own festive decorations and trimming the tree with personal, rather than commercial ornaments.

If you would like to make a bauble for your tree (or anywhere around the house) that’s really easy to do and, in my view, extremely effective, then I recommend you take a look at this tutorial below. To be honest, there’s not a huge amount of needlefelting needed so it’s ideal for anyone starting out in this craft. You will need a polystyrene ball as your base, then some wool roving of whichever colour takes your fancy or fits your decorative theme (we like this Christmas assortment). A good needlefelting tool is also required along with standard items such as scissors, glue and pins. And some sequin trim to add the sparkle!

This video takes fewer than 3 minutes to watch so isn’t going to eat into your day. And once you’ve got the basic idea, it would be pretty simple to add extra bling with more sequins, glitter or whatever takes your fancy.

This next video runs to just under 5 minutes and shows you how to make simple, needlefelted Christmas trees. These are pretty straightforward to make so are very suitable for the complete novice. Or, being pretty quick to make, you can produce several of these to hang on your tree or even add to a garland or wreath for extra texture. And, of course, you don’t have to use “traditional” Christmas tree colours: you could jazz them up to match your decorative scheme.

I hope you take inspiration from these ideas for needlefelting your own Christmas decorations. There’s a lot of scope here, to choose your own colours (so can match a decorative scheme), or to add embellishments at a level anywhere from subtle to extreme bling! And then you can use them on Christmas trees, add to wreaths, garlands or just put on the mantelpiece or the dinner Christmas table. These would also make great gifts with that personal touch: Christmas stocking fillers, presents for colleagues and even ideal for school Christmas fairs.

Do share with us here at Crafty Bug pictures of your own creations. We would also love to hear how you have used them in your preparation and decorations for Christmas.

Christmas Gift Ideas for the Baker

December 13, 2018

If you know someone who has always had a yen to start baking and perhaps have a go at cake decorating, then here are some Christmas gift suggestions. You never know, these might just give them the impetus to dive in and you never know, might even get to reap the rewards should a cake taster is needed!

Cake Star Writing Icing Bundle

Five different colours (red, black, white, pink and blue) in handy squeezy tubes just ready for someone to get creative! These edible writing icing tubes can be used to write messages on cakes and biscuits, add in decorative lines or create a design on a special cake. Ideal for someone who has never tried writing in icing before or the more experienced cake decorator alike. And if you make a mistake – you can always eat the evidence!

Colour Splash Cake Decorating Airbrush Kit

This kit is great for someone who really want to experiment. You can create professional looking finishes to celebration cakes with this Airbrush Kit. It’s easy to use so would suit both the novice as well as the experienced cake decorator. You can get seriously creative with this bit of kit. You can use it for stencilling or other fine detail work as well as for full cake coverage. A brilliant way to wow friends and family.

Wilton Master Piping Nozzles Set

This Master Piping Nozzle set includes 55 different piping nozzles. This would really inspire someone to experiment with different piping and decorating techniques with the range of tips included in this handy storage case. There are tips for pretty much any occasion you can think of – basketweave, grass, hair, petals, leaves, ruffles and more!

Cake Decorating Turntable

A turntable is the starting point of being able to create beautifully and creatively iced cakes. It’s so time consuming to have to move your cake round without a turntable as you ice it and fraught with error – a turntable is an absolute must for anyone wanting to produce a great looking cake. It enables the cake to stay still and with non-slip feet, this turntable won’t wander around your work surface. Different sizes are also available.

Electric Chocolate Melting Pot

This Electric Chocolate Melting Pot comes with 3 melting pots which is a must when using more than one colour of chocolate. It is perfect for melting chocolate when needed for cake decoration or for pouring into moulds. It is also great for melting candy when making cake pops. A full instruction manual including details for making cake pops and moulded chocolates comes as part of the kit.

Chocolate Mould Multipack

For anyone who either makes homemade chocolates or would love to have a go, this Chocolate Mould Multipack would be a real asset. The pack includes six reusable, non-stick and easy to turn out, moulds in a variety of shapes and sizes. As well as the standard “chocolate box” type of square and domed shapes, there are also moulds for producing snowflakes, candy canes and bows – ideal for Christmas gifts!

Non-Traditional Christmas Cakes

December 7, 2018

Christmas cake recipes tend to be handed down as part of the family tradition and the same cake mixture and decorative scheme produced year on year. And that’s a great part of Christmas: tradition. After all, if your granny or other family member hit upon a perfect recipe that works time after time, why change things?

The thing is, there are some rather fabulous looking cakes being created and shared across the internet via You Tube. So today’s post rounds up some of the amazing designs for your delectation and delight – and you never know, you might just be inspired to follow the tutorial and have a go at something just that bit different this year!

The first tutorial I’m going to share with you is for a cake in the design of a penguin. The end result is a super cute cake that must prove extremely difficult to cut into. After all that hard work, you’ll really need to take lots of photos before wielding the knife. Although I love this design, personally, I cannot stand desiccated coconut and as this is a key ingredient, this won’t be a cake I’ll be tackling myself. The tutorial does not cover how to make the actual cake or chocolate ganache but explains how to create the penguin shape and design. In total, it’s just over 10 minutes long.

Another stunning looking design is this Christmas Wreath cake. In terms of practicality, the wreath shape will work well when you come to slice it up to share with friends and family. You’ll be able to slice it into smaller pieces for anyone who’s trying to hold back from over indulgence at this festive time, but still wants a “taste”. If you want to have go at making this cake yourself, you will need a grass tip for the green frosting.

For me, chocolate is not a traditional Christmas cake flavour or ingredient. Dried fruit, nuts, alcohol: yes, chocolate: not so much. However, that’s not to say that I’m not open to new ideas. And this cake from Steve’s Kitchen could just persuade me that chocolate is the way to go!

I think this is an innovative idea – creating a round cake that resembles a Christmas pudding is a good idea of itself. But to then cover it in Maltesers (and who doesn’t love them) is just brilliant. With this video, you get step by step instructions on how to make the cake, as well as how to produce the fabulous decoration. Now, I haven’t tried this cake but my thoughts are that there’s rather a lot of cake in each slice and there might be some merit in slicing through each half and adding some additional frosting, perhaps a layer of buttercream? Anyway, you decide!

This next video is a tutorial showing how to make a “Christmas Tree” cake. One of the things I like about this video is that the instructions appear as subtitles so it’s easy to see what the next step is and what equipment you need without the danger of missing anything spoken. And, of course, it’s easy to press “pause” if needs be.

As this cake is made from several layers, you need some form of dowelling to provide the strength for to help support the weight of the cake above. You will need a cake dummy for the base or, if using real edible cake, additional dowels or supports will be required.

This is a fun cake to make and would look very special on the big day. You can always change the decorating scheme and choose your own design. For some reason, whilst drifting off to sleep last night, I imagined it with a pink and silver theme – you know, pink frosting instead of the green – which might just look very winter wonderland. It’s up to you! It doesn’t require any special skills to make so why not give it a go? Do feel free to share any pics with us here at Crafty Bug if you do make a Christmas Tree cake.

Now if you fancy a bright cake that will really cheer up the dark and drab days of deepest winter, I commend the following to you! Definitely not a traditional fruit cake with royal icing, it’s a bright and breezy festive green and red with oodles of buttercream frosting. The tutorial doesn’t cover making the actual cake batter but starts with the assumption you have already done this. It focuses on how to get the fabulous stripy effect and I think the method of layering the different coloured batters in the baking tins seems straightforward to do. Not too time consuming but a really striking result at the end. And of course, you could always add your own flavouring as well as the colourings to either or both the cake batters and frosting. It might be fun to choose a flavouring which no-one would expect from the colour scheme. Lemon for example. Or even a festive almond and amaretto taste!

Using Buttons on Handmade Christmas Cards

December 6, 2018

Previously, we looked at some of the interesting ways you can use buttons in the design of your homemade greetings cards. Here, we take a look at using them in Christmas card design and feature some ideas to help get you started or to give you inspiration for your own projects.

In our earlier post we looked before at using buttons to represent balloons on your designs. This, obviously, translates really well into using them as Christmas baubles as these are not dissimilar to balloons in terms of shape.

Cute Season's Greetings Card with Buttons! More

Here we have a good example of this, which should be pretty quick and easy to do:

Image source & instructions: click here.

This listing is for one lovely button christmas card with the saying Ho Ho Ho included. The card is made using a luxury cut of 300gsm card

This card design is completely pared back and easy to make your own. The letters can be handwritten (unless you are me!) and three buttons used as you can see below. You could always use different sized buttons of the same colour to give some perspective to the design or just use three different bright colours to “up” the jollity level. Sometimes it’s good to have a quick to execute design up your sleeve when you want to make several cards. The more intricate and time consuming the design, the more the card will be a “one off” for a special person.

Image source: click here.

Handmade Button Snowman Card Personalised Mum Dad by GurdGifts, £2.80

This design I’ve spotted is another one which looks quite pared back yet is very effective. The use of a darker coloured cardstock really helps the snowman image stand out. It would be a great starting point from which to make this design your own.

Image source: click here.

Here’s a quick and easy tutorial on how to make an effective but simple card using just one button. The video only takes a couple of minutes to watch but you’ll see that the end result is an on trend card which involved very little in the way of materials. Instead of using an old folder as Becca does (you may have one or two lying around the house), you can find some great cardstock here.

Button Tree Kids craft/activity - attach buttons, but leave them to weave ribbon/thread etc between them to decorate the tree!

Christmas trees make a fab picture on a greetings card and buttons can be used to great effect to create a myriad of tree shapes and colours. And of course buttons come in very many sizes and shapes which adds to the variety you can put into your designs.

I have seen this design (right) on Pinterest and although the instructions are actually for a gift bag, I think it would translate really well into a card design. Just a matter of scale. It looks elegant and uncluttered which I think adds to its attractiveness. The trick here, is to choose the right sized buttons so that you achieve the correct balance throughout the design.

Image source & instructions: click here.

Cross Stitch Christmas Gift Ideas for Adults

December 1, 2018

For the grown up crafter in your life, there are many ideas for that special Christmas gift. One really good idea is to buy a cross stitch kit that will enable them to have fun and interest while working the design, resulting in a beautiful picture which can be framed once all the work has been done. Obviously, different people have their own individual tastes and ideas of what they like to create and so we can only make some suggestions here which might resonate with what you know about your gift recipient. We’ve selected some designs that we at Crafty Bug love and hope you do too!

As prices can easily change on the retailers’ websites (November 2018), I have grouped these ideas into price ranges based on the published prices at the time of writing. To find the actual purchase price, simply follow the link through to the product details.

Price Range £30 – £45

RIOLIS Counted Cross Stitch Kit Russian Winter

This is a traditional winter scene. All snowy and seasonal. It’s always challenging working cross stitch with shades which are so close to each other but I think this would really be worth the effort.

Although it’s not Christmas scene as such, this Russian Winter cross stitch kit would make a great Christmas gift that could be worked on over the festive season and then, perhaps, brought out each year to add to the scene setting when decorating the house. May be even a focal point to be decorated with tinsel!

Design Works Counted Cross Stitch Kit Christmas ABC Sampler

I am a great fan of the cross stitch sampler for a variety of reasons. I hate to admit it, but it is possible to get a little bit bored (might just be me) when working a large picture design. It really can feel like you are getting nowhere at times. With a sampler, such as this Christmas ABC Sampler Kit, you can complete the work on any given section and feel that you have achieved something. Also, I rather like the “traditional” feel of a sampler.

This Christmas Sampler Kit would make a good gift for someone who is a bit of a Christmas fan. It could perhaps be worked on over the festive season resulting in a finished product ready or display at each and every future Christmas time.

Price Range £20 – £30

Luca-S Counted Cross Stitch Kit Three Puppies

This Three Puppies Cross Stitch Kit would make a great gift for the experienced cross stitcher who is fond of cute puppy pictures! It will be a little challenging to complete as the colours of the embroidery silks will be so close to each other in shade, in order to achieve the appearance of texture of the fur. Working with silks only a shade or so apart can make it hard to know exactly where you are in the design but then it’s good to be challenged occasionally. And the cuteness of these pups looking at you out of the canvas will make it all worthwhile.

Luca-S Counted Cross Stitch Kit Poppies

Flower designs always make an acceptable gift for the majority of keen cross stitchers and this beautiful Poppy design would be warmly received, I’m sure.

It consists of just some red poppies and their foliage without any background distraction leading to a very “clean” design – I love it for its simplicity. And it’s nice to have a design in portrait layout for a change.

Anchor Cross Stitch Kit

This is, I think, a really striking design. In many ways, quite simple given the main subject matter is depicted in silhouette, but also challenging given the more limited colour range and the shade gradations of the pinks and oranges. A great gift for someone who likes to tackle something a bit different from the more usual “chocolate box” designs. I also feel it is a rather restful, calming picture.

Luca-S Counted Cross Stitch Kit Retro Beetle

A picture of a car is perhaps a less than usual cross stitch project but this Retro Beetle Cross Stitch Kit has a certain appeal. Ideal for the car lover in your life, it would perhaps make a fun project to do with the finished article being gifted to someone keen on old vehicles. Or of course, you may know someone who not only loves cars but doing a spot of cross stitch too. I rather like the almost two-tone effect of this design and think it makes for a great picture which has interest but isn’t at all “fussy”.

Price Range under £15

There are many cross stitch kits which, once completed, produce cute or funny pictures suitable to adorn children’s rooms or to give as a gift. We have selected some of our favourites below and these might make great gifts for grandparents. Something for them to have the fun of making and then the pleasure of giving the finished article to their grandchildren. And not just for grandparents – these would make great presents for anyone who loves a spot of cross stitch and has children they regularly give presents to.

I hope this has helped provide you with inspiration for gift ideas this Christmas either for friends and family who already love to cross stitch or perhaps as a new craft idea for others.. To buy a cross stitch kit for oneself often feels like a bit of an indulgence so to receive one as a present is always welcome.

Christmas Cake Decoration Ideas

November 30, 2018

It’s that time of year, in the run up to Christmas, when Christmas cakes are baked and iced ready for the festive season. And then there is the question of “how to decorate the cake?”. Do you have a family tradition that’s followed unfailingly year on year? Or do you do something different each time – perhaps update the look or try different techniques? I know my mother had a tried and tested formula. The cake was always traditionally iced with Royal Icing, the sides smoothed beautifully ready for the red ribbon, scalloped piping for the edges and “frosting” for the top. You know, the one where you use the flat of your knife blade to pull the wet icing up into peaks. And then, of course, there were the traditional decorations of the fir trees and carol singers to be placed amongst the snow!

Here at Crafty Bug HQ, we thought we’d have a look at some of the ideas around and about and share our favourites with you. Sometimes you can’t improve on tradition – but sometimes you might just be able to jazz things up a little!

This first selection (more later!) are all great looking cakes but not too difficult or ones which will take too much time to do.

Our first offering is this brilliant Santa face cake. The icing is all buttercream but once finished, it really looks like fondant icing has been used. This would be a great way of decorating your cake if you don’t have too much time as Royal icing can be trickier to work with. And being buttercream, the decoration could be done very last minute. There are many buttercream recipes / ideas out there you could use but our standard one here at Crafty Bug is to use twice as much icing sugar as unsalted butter and then add in any flavourings required (lemon, orange, vanilla and so on).

The video below shows you how to produce an exquisite looking cake design. It’s a longish video, coming in at a little over 10 minutes but it’s pretty compelling viewing. There isn’t a commentary so it’s perfect for watching when you can’t play sound but the techniques are clearly demonstrated. I am absolutely fascinated by the way in which the pine cones are produced and plan to give this a go in the not too distant future. The piping techniques here are definitely more advanced than in the Santa cake above and a steady hand is needed. But I think the result is pretty amazing!

For those of you who like your fondant icing and perhaps don’t have the steadiest of piping bag hands, this next video is for you. Minimal piping is required, just cutting out shapes and decorating them.

This next offering is for a more traditional square cake. Round cakes seem to be much more popular at the moment but I think there’s a lot to be said for the square cake. It certainly cuts up into a greater number of pieces if you have a large gathering, and is easier to cut a small (or large!) slice for someone who just wants “a taste”. The video below is in 2 parts: the first demonstrates how to marzipan and ice your cake and then the second part shows you how to make the decorative stars. This is from the kitchen of Woman’s Weekly which has been showing readers how to bake and cook for many years!

I hope you have found this selection of Christmas cake decoration ideas interesting and inspiring. Do share your own efforts with us as we love to see what fabulous ideas are out there!

If you are just getting into baking and cake decorating, you might like this starter bundle. Ideal for beginners, containing a turntable and a range of tools, it would also make a great gift.

Easter Cakes

March 28, 2018

Easter is traditionally a time for families to get together so what better way to add to the fun and festive occasion than by baking an eye-catching yummy Easter cake? To get you inspired and heading for your cake tins, we’ve pulled together some great ideas for you below.

Our first offering is a bright, colourful Easter egg shaped cake that’s super easy to decorate. Covered in brightly coloured buttercream, it is then piped with flowers, wiggly lines, loops and curvy lines to give it that traditional Easter egg appearance. In this particular example, the colours are what could be described as “bold spring colours”, using the traditional yellows, greens and pinks but more intense rather than pastel versions. Of course, if you wanted to take this idea as inspiration, you can choose whichever colours you fancy. I think the bolder colours would work well with children whereas adults might prefer more pastel shades.

This next video we’ve found features a layered chocolate cake decorated with buttercream grass, mini Easter eggs and a homemade “bunny butt”! Yes, it is an American presenter using American measures and terminology but the result looks so good, we just had to include it. I just know you are asking “so what exactly is a bunny butt?” Well, essentially it is fondant icing modelled into a shape reminiscent of a rabbit’s rear end such that it looks like the bunny has stated disappearing into a burrow in the cake, just leaving his tail end and hind paws on show! It looks pretty straightforward to make and I can see that the modelling techniques used here can be transferred to other occasions when you might want bunny or similar paws for a cake. I’m also pretty impressed with the demonstration of removing the cake from the tin – wonder if it would work for me?

At Crafty Bug HQ we are suckers for pretty pastel colours. Which is why our next offering really jumped out at us. This cake is just so pretty, it is almost a shame to eat it! And if you love Cadbury’s mini eggs, then this really is the cake for you. While this cake looks absolutely splendid, in practice, you may want to make it just a bit smaller as there is a phenomenal number of Cadbury’s mini eggs used to decorate this cake and not everyone’s budgets will run to this. How about if you made a couple of mini sized versions? That might keep the cost within reasonable boundaries but give the joy of making and eating this cake. Or why not just go all out if you are having family and friends over this Easter? They cannot fail to be impressed if you serve this beautiful cake to them.

Our final video for this feature on Easter cakes is “how to make an Easter Kit Kat cake”. This is a very straightforward way to make a fun and yummy cake for your Easter festivities. If you do not like Kit Kats, then this is not the cake for you. But if you are rather fond of this particular chocolate confection, then read and watch on! The idea of affixing fingers of Kit Kats to the outside of your cake is a great one. No extra baking, blending, colouring or piping involved. Just cover your cake in the butter and cream cheese frosting, then simply stick your Kit Kats on the outside.

To cover the top of the cake with a grass effect, Todd uses desiccated coconut which he has dyed green. Quite quick and easy to do. However, if like me, you don’t actually like desiccated coconut (love the flavour, hate the texture), you could always colour some extra frosting green and pipe the grass using a Grass Piping nozzle.

You can make the flavour of the cakes themselves anything you like, but chocolate might be a good idea if you fancy the full on chocolate experience.

Should you decide to have a go at making one of the above gorgeous looking cakes for your own Easter celebrations, we hope it turns out brilliantly and your family and friends are awestruck at your amazing baking. Happy Easter!

Dyed Easter Eggs

March 24, 2018

One of the most popular ways of creating decorative Easter eggs is that of dying them, primarily with food colouring. In most cases, you’ll need large white shelled eggs, food colouring and white vinegar. Oh and we would recommend protective gloves as the point of the exercise is to end up with some gorgeous looking eggs either for the table or an egg hunt, and not multi-coloured hands!

Using dyes in various ways can produce some extremely pretty, eye attracting results. And as you’ll see from the videos and instructions below, the process isn’t all that hard. Only a few easily obtainable tools are needed to make these eggs and the only time consuming part is waiting for the dye to take!

In this video below, you are taken through all the steps needed in order to create some stunning dyed Easter Eggs. The colours used here give a very pretty effect and the patterning is created by using rubber bands (easily available of course) and several different colours of dye. The whole video only lasts a couple of minutes so well worth taking a peek. Oh and I learned something new about boiled eggs – just watch the video and you’ll see what I mean.

This next offering is somewhat messy. And so it would almost certainly appeal to children or to any adults who like to get stuck in. This video shows how you can use shaving cream to help you achieve multi coloured dyed eggs. The advantages here are that shaving cream is pretty cheap to buy and you can have great fun swirling the drops of dye together to make a multi-hued pattern.

For me, I think the disadvantage lies in the mess created when the shaving cream covered eggs are wiped off to reveal the outcome of the process. Although this is done “off camera”, I can just imagine how much kitchen roll this step may take! However, it looks like a fun way to get messy with kids or an adult could, no doubt, keep it the process well contained. The eggs emerging from the foam at the end are certainly very pretty and it’s a fairly straightforward way of achieving those decorated eggs.

The next video shows a simple, inexpensive way in which to dye your Easter eggs. These come out a uniform colour rather than patterned ones in our examples above. It also shows you how to apply pin pricks to your eggs so that you can remove the contents by blowing them. And, of course, as a by product you have the means to make a mean omelette for lunch!

Our final video on dying Easter eggs shows a really simple tie dye process. This uses little equipment with the tie dye effect being produced by adding drops of the food colouring to hard boiled eggs which have been wrapped in clean coffee filter papers. What I really like about this method, is that only parts of the shells are dyed leaving areas of clear white which gives a very fresh and subtle look. Take a look and see what you think.

We hope you have found the above of interest and have helped you to choose a method for creating beautiful eggs for that all important Easter egg hunt. As ever, we’d love to see your results, so do get in touch and we can feature photos of your brilliant creations.

Simnel Cakes for Easter

March 22, 2018

I’m sure you have heard of Simnel Cakes being associated with Easter. But you may not know why, what a Simnel Cake actually is or, indeed, how to make one. Here at Crafty Bug HQ, we have never made such a cake before so thought a bit of research wouldn’t go amiss. So here we have put together some information on the history and tradition of the Simnel Cake along with some links to recipes you might like to try.

Essentially, a Simnel Cake is a light fruit cake, in some ways like a Christmas cake, albeit much lighter and less rich . It has two layers of fruit cake along with two layers of almond paste or marzipan, one of which is used as the filling between the two cake layers, and one as decoration on top.

History

Although, today, we very much associate the Simnel Cake with the Easter festival, this is not, in fact, its history. Originally it was a gift for Mothering Sunday. Girls (and boys) in service were given a day’s holiday in which to go and visit their mothers and they took with them a Simnel Cake they had baked especially for the occasion. Timetravel Britain explains:

Simnel cakes have been baked since the middle ages and it is believed that the word Simnel comes from the Latin ‘Simila,’ which meant very fine flour made from wheat. Simnel cakes were difficult to make, but if made properly they would keep for a few weeks. Thus the baking of a Simnel cake for Mothering Sunday was not only a gift from a girl to her mother, but also a test of the girl’s cooking skills. The cake would not be eaten until Easter Sunday, and the whole family would be anxious to see if the cake was still moist.

With the demise of service after the First World War, the Simnel cake began to be treated as an Easter cake in its own right. The cake is decorated with eleven marzipan balls, representing Jesus’ disciples minus Judas the traitor. Originally it was also decorated with fresh flowers, but sugar flowers are often used today. Via timetravel-britain.com

Although today, there seems to be a fairly standard recipe, cake shape and familiar decorations, apparently

Different towns had their own recipes and shapes of the Simnel cake. Bury, Devizes and Shrewsbury produced large numbers to their own recipes, but it is the Shrewsbury version that became most popular and well known. Via en.wikipedia.org

How to Make a Simnel Cake

The video below shows you, step by step, how to make a Simnel Cake. Not only does Paul Hollywood demonstrate each step but as he has a small group of students working alongside, the questions and answers flow very naturally. It isn’t simply a video of “do this”, now “do that”; there is plenty of interaction with the students and you learn lots of hints and tips as they chat about what they are doing. It doesn’t include the actual recipe quantities (which can be found here) but provides a really useful visual and audio (subtitles are available) guide to the process.

For a different take on the Simnel Cake recipe, this one by Edd Kimber uses ground almonds instead of the traditional flour, which gives the cake a much lighter texture. He also suggests soaking the dried fruit in brandy (or orange juice if you don’t want to use alcohol) a couple of hours before you want to make the cake, to swell the fruit and let them take on that richer flavour.

This version of the cake also includes the classic “burnt” look to the marzipan topping by either briefly putting the cake under the grill or by using a cook’s blow torch. The choice is yours!

If you like marzipan (I am definitely a fan!), then you may like the following version. This is one of Delia’s – so guaranteed to work! What I like about this particular recipe is the fact that she includes squares of the marzipan in the cake mixture itself, thus add an extra, almost oozy element to the finished product. The other appealing aspect is the fact that she roasts the almonds prior to adding them to the cake batter. I have to say, I’m quite a fan of roasted nuts as I think roasting really improves the flavour and texture. So if you fancy giving Delia’s recipe a go, just follow the link below and get baking!

First of all, when the oven is pre-heated you need to roast the almonds, just spread them out on a tray and pop them into the oven near the centre for 8 minutes – use a timer to help you remember.

Then cut the marzipan into 1cm cubes and then toss them in 2 level tablespoons of flour (taken from the measured amount above). Now sift the remaining flour, the baking powder and spice into a roomy mixing bowl, holding the sieve quite high to give the flour a good airing as it goes down, then add the butter, caster sugar and eggs. Via deliaonline.com

So if you fancy having a go at making a Simnel Cake for this Easter, I hope you find the above ideas inspiring.

Thumbnail credit deliaonline.com