Christmas is here.....Turn on the carols and spread good cheer with homemade festive treats....
The tree is up, the presents are wrapped, and now it’s time to have some fun. Sitting down to Christmas lunch surrounded by a family is one of life’s greatest pleasure.There is nothing more satisfying than baking your own cakes and cookies for Christmas.
Around this time of the year I am in my kitchen a little bit more than usual, baking tons and tons of gingerbread cookies. This year I baked a healthy yet healthy Christmas cake. This cake is absolutely moist and dense cake with a high ratio of fruit and that adds enough sweetness to the cake. Honestly there is no need to add extra sugar. Well I had added only 1/4 cup brown sugar but still found it sweet. This Christmas cake is only made of almond meal and that makes the cake delicious and moist.
Coming to these gorgeous ginger bread cookies, I have been baking these beauties for a long time and I have couple of foolproof recipes that can be with eggs or without. The eggless version is found here. I have baked linzer cookies too.
HOW TO MAKE CHOCOLATE GINGERBREAD COOKIES
125 g butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup golden syrup
1 Egg
2 3/4 cups plain flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 tsp soda bi carb
2 tsp ginger powder
1 tsp cardamom powder
1 tsp cinnamon powder
Melt butter, golden syrup and sugar in a microwavable bowl for one minute or until the sugar is dissolved. Let it cool down. Whisk an egg to the mixture. Shift flour, cocoa and baking soda. Gently mix them to the wet mixture. Add spices and use your hands to bring the dough together. Turn on to a lightly floured surface and gently knead until smooth. Cover with plastic wrap and place it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to 3 mm thick. Use your favourite cutter to out the shapes. Bake them on a lined tray for 10 to 12 minutes.
Set aside on the trays to cool. I have used store brought royal icing sugar to pipe out the designs.
HEALTHY CHRISTMAS CAKE
Adapted from thehealthychef
Healthy Christmas Cake
- 600 g mixed dried fruit
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground cardamom
- 1 tsp ground cloves
- 1 tsp ginger powder
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- zest and juice from 1 orange
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 4 eggs
- 1/4 cup brown sugar ( optional )
- 200 g (2 cups) ground almonds
Preheat your oven to 160 C fan forced. Line a 20cm baking tin. Combine dried fruit, spice, orange zest + juice, olive oil and eggs. Add the almonds and mix through. Pour Christmas Cake batter into your baking tin.
Bake for 1 hour and 30 minutes. Check with a skewer to see if it comes out clean.
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