Festive Baking

As some of you more avid bloggers may remember, this festive time last year I made one of my usual Christmas cakes decorated with my own Christmas theme. Last year it was a Gingerbread party, complete with intoxicated Gingerbread men. This year, after another 6 hours labour my Christmas theme is... Hogsmeade in Harry Potter. Yes you heard right, a Harry Potter themed Christmas cake made entirely from scratch (of course) meaning I had to bake the cake, cover it with marzipan and icing, then make my figures, dying the white icing various colours and moulding it into shape.

Anyway, this year I think it is a pretty damn good one but let me know what you think compared to my last Christmas cake (which of course was blogged about December 2010).

This year I have also included making a Gingerbread house for the Christmas festivities... Have a look and let me know what you think... don't think it'll be eaten as that is a hell of a lot of sugar for one treat, but the gingerbread tastes good!

A Very Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year

Well another year has flown by and so I thought I will share with you all a few festive shots that I took over the Christmas holidays. For the first year in a long long time I didn't go ski-ing over the New Year but instead went down to Salcombe which made a nice change even though I love ski-ing and missed it, but instead I got some lovely family and personal shots that I hope you will all enjoy!

I wish you all the best for 2011 and am keeping my fingers crossed for myself too! New Years resolution - drink less, stay in shape and keep on snapping!

Click on images to enlarge!

Christmas Day





















Boxing Day











New Years Eve







The Morning After