Christmas evening meal Traditions and dessert Ideas

Christmas evening meal Traditions and dessert Ideas

Christmas is my family's favorite time of year. We have many Christmas traditions that we've developed over the years.  One is that each year one of us daughters (mother and sister-in-laws) is responsible for a part of the dinner.  My favorite part to make is the Christmas desserts.

Our house is large, there are five sisters, four brothers and both parents still living. We also have a lot of wives, husbands, nieces and nephews mixed in. When we get together there are twenty seven people.  Each year one of us cooks for a distinct segment. We put the dinner segments in a hat. After dinner, after all the dishes are done and we're relaxing we choose what our dishes will be for the next year. The menu is broken up into appetizers, before and after dinner drinks (for the adults), meat, stuffing/potatoes (starch), vegetables, rolls, desserts. Two citizen are responsible for meat, two for stuffing/potatoes and two for vegetables. One for appetizers, one for before and after dinner drinks and one for desserts. And, now that there are ten of us every year one lucky girl gets a get out of jail free card, which means she doesn't have to cook the next year!

Cake Recipes

As I said earlier Christmas dessert is my favorite. I start cooking about a week in advance. I know everybody's favorites, and like to add a few new things.  I like to make lots of distinct types of desserts for the family. One of my favorites is Black lowest Cup Cakes. Someone else is Greek Almond Cookies. These are super simple. Someone else favorite is absolutely a Red Velvet Cake with Butter Cream Icing. It's my Grandmother's recipe and the house loves it. The Red Velvet Cake is the one thing we're guaranteed to have every year, regardless of who is assigned dessert duty.

I also make a Cinnamon Crumb Cake, a Chocolate Truffle with Raspberry Sauce and a Louisiana Roasted Pecan Pie.  All of these things make quite an impressive seeing Christmas dessert buffet and everybody is able to find something that they really like.

Over the years we girls have shared recipes between us.  We all love cooking, us sisters were all raised to enjoy being in the kitchen.  When a new item is introduced to the table there is also a menu card for each sister for that new item.  When I added Greek Almond Cookies to the dessert table last year everybody was amazed how easy the recipe is. I got it from an actual Greek friend, Valerie.  The Cinnamon Crumb Cake is also easy to make and goes really well with a cup of coffee after dinner.

One year when my sister-in-law picked the Christmas dessert measure of our meal I gave her a lot of advice on recipes as she really isn't comfortable baking. I went to her home two days before Christmas and helped her make the traditional Red Velvet Cake. She did it really well and is now a pro!

Perhaps if you have a large house you can do something like our house does. We all enjoy our Christmas cooking tradition.

Christmas evening meal Traditions and dessert Ideas

Christmas Cake

Christmas Cake

All over the world Christmas cakes are made in too many ways, in general cakes are variations on the fruitcake. Cakes can be spongy, light, moist, dry, heavy, dark, leavened, or unleavened.

Walnut Banana

Banana Cake

Ideal teatime cake with the goodness of whole-wheat flour.

Preparation Time : 40 minutes

Cooking Time : 50 minutes

Servings : 6

Ingredients

Whole wheat flour 1 cup

Refined flour 1 cup

Ripe bananas, mashed 3 medium

Walnut kernels, chopped half cup

Baking powder 1 and half teaspoons

Salt a pinch

Cinnamon powder half teaspoon

Nutmeg powder a pinch

Butter 300 grams

Brown sugar 2 cup

Vanilla essence 2 teaspoon

Eggs, whisked 5

Milk 4 tablespoons

Method

- Preheat oven to 200 C.

- Grease and line a nine-inch by four-inch loaf tin.

- Sieve whole wheat flour, refined flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon powder and nutmeg powder.

- Cream butter and brown sugar together in a bowl till light. Add mashed bananas, vanilla essence and mix.

- Beat eggs with a hand blender till light and fluffy.

- Add one third of the flour mixture to the banana mixture. Add one third of the beaten eggs and mix with a light hand. Again add one third of the flour and one third of the eggs and mix. Add the remaining flour, walnuts and the remaining eggs and mix.

- Add milk to literal, the consistency of the batter.

- Put the batter into the prepared tin and place it in the preheated oven. Bake at 200 C for 40 minutes.

- Check if it is done by inserting a skewer. If it comes out clean it is done. If not, keep the tin back in the oven and bake for other 10 to 15 minutes.

- Cool it before cutting into slice

Enjoy by serving this cake hot or cold.

Christmas Cake

Cupcake Decorations - Christmas Cupcake Ideas

Cupcake Decorations - Christmas Cupcake Ideas

If you love Christmas time like I do, you'll probably agree that decorations are a big part of the season. And what would Christmas be without all the goodies? For my family and me, this includes cupcake decorations. If we're honest, the tendency to over-indulge in such sweets is more prevalent colse to the holidays - and I wouldn't have it any other way! So, I hope you enjoy these imaginative and whimsical Christmas cupcake ideas - creating as well as eating them.

o Here's a real time saver - it's straightforward yet fun, and your family, friends and party guests will love them. Start with your favorite cupcake recipe, from scratch or otherwise - a dozen or more, depending on quantity needed/desired. Generously top them with white frosting, add shredded coconut, dust with powdered sugar and voila! Instant, mini-winter-wonderland in a yummy cup.

Cake Ideas

o These are great for parties year-round, and especially at Christmas time. The idea is to generate a minute Christmas present atop each cupcake. Use a variety of icing colors; red licorice works well for your ribbons and/or bows. Toss on a small estimate of sprinkles, if desired. (As with all these ideas, creativity is key.) For place setting name cards, use gift tags. Your guests will love these personalized, wonderfully edible place markers!

o Santa's face was never so yummy: Top your favorite cupcakes, each one with red frosting on one side, white on the other. Mini marshmallows separate the two colors, forming Santa's hat brim. Carefully use brown chocolate or green frosting to craft his face upon the white-iced side. Use little, round candies for Santa's facial features (eyes, nose, etc.) Thin strips of varied edible goodies (fruit roll-up cutouts, thin licorice whips) work great for the jolly old elf's smile.

o These snowman cupcakes are sure to be a hit. White icing forms the base (or, snow on the "ground.") Top that with a big marshmallow, add a minute one above that (getting the picture?) A toothpick inserted vertically, straight through both marshmallows helps hold freezing together. Use small candies (your choice) for eyes, nose, etc. - held in place with a small bit of frosting. Try a small piece of Tootsie Roll for his hat. These snowmen won't likely melt ... But they won't last long, either!

o For this one, you'll need about one and a half dozen cupcakes, and a suitably big, festive platter to hold them all. (We're "building" a Christmas tree here, made of cupcakes.) Top all but four of your cupcakes with green icing - the remainder you'll frost in brown chocolate. Simply dispose the four brown-topped cakes at one end of the plate, in the shape of your tree trunk. dispose your green cupcakes above the brown, in a triangle, forming the rest of your tree. As for decorations, have fun, and don't be shy - small chocolates (kisses, bells, and other shapes) are a must. Any and all colors of M&M's are good; minute candy canes, peppermints ... You get the idea. As always, you can't go wrong using grated coconut as snow, and red licorice makes great garland. Try tubes of gel icing, in a variety of colors, which can be found at most supermarkets (or party furnish stores.) You might want to take a few photos before they devour your "tree!"

Have fun development (and of course, eating) your Christmas cupcakes - hopefully, these will inspire you to come up with some of your own yummy, artistic creations!

Cupcake Decorations - Christmas Cupcake Ideas

traditional Jamaican Christmas Cake

traditional Jamaican Christmas Cake

Christmas fruitcakes have been baked for centuries with the oldest known recipe dating back to aged Rome. Fruitcakes were a way to keep fruits and nuts as well as a way to celebrate the harvest and seek good luck in the arrival year. Jamaicans favorite Christmas cake is dark, spongy and heavy, with rum soaked fruit and rich flavor. Eaten only at Christmas the cake is a favored gift and family tradition.

Ingredients:

Cake Recipes

* 1 lb. Raisins

* 4 oz. Cherries

* ½ lb. Chopped prunes

* 2 oz. Cranberries

* 32 oz. Dark Jamaican rum

* 4 oz. Citrus peels

* grated rind of 1 lime

* 6 oz. Or 1.5 cup flour

* 8 oz. Butter

* 8 oz. Sugar

* 4 eggs

* 1 tsp. Cinnamon

* ½ tsp. Allspice

* ½ tsp. Ground cloves

* ½ tsp. Salt

* 1 cup wine/brandy

* 1 tsp. Baking powder

* 1 tsp. Vanilla

* 2 tbsp. Browning

Directions:

Soak fruits, peels and rind in rum for two weeks before baking. In a cut off bowl whip butter, sugar and browning until creamy. combine dry ingredients in cut off bowl and mix well. In a third bowl beat eggs and brandy together until well blended.

Add egg blend to creamed butter blend and blend well. Strain and add fruits, holding rum for fruity drinks. gradually mix dry ingredients to batter and fold together.

Pour batter into a lightly buttered 9" cake pan and bake at 350F for 1-½ hours checking after 1 hour. Sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving.

traditional Jamaican Christmas Cake

Decorating Christmas Cakes

Decorating Christmas Cakes

When most habitancy think of a Christmas cake, the Yule log comes to mind. The cake is often one of many desserts spread on the dinner table after a huge family meal. Lately, Christmas cakes have more often been decorated cakes, depicting a snowy scene, Santa, or a Christmas tree.

Over the past few years, cake decorating has become a widely recognized hobby and art form. Favorite television shows have sparked increased interest in this art and have inspired habitancy to take classes and start development cakes on their own instead of buying them.

Cake Decorating

While the exterior of the typical Christmas cake has evolved with the time, the same family favorites still lie on the inside of the cake. Today's cakes, while covered in buttercream or fondant, can even be flavored with mint flavoring oil for that seasonal flair.

Your cake will come out much great if you plan out the create in advance. Draw a sketch to see how it will look and to get an idea of what colors look good together. If you have time, you can convention new cake decorating techniques in advance, but when it comes to a more complicated cake, you will need time for gum paste decorations to dry. Depending on the weather, some can take up to a week to harden. This also depends on how large your gum paste figure is.

If you don't want to get too complicated, here are a few ideas that are relatively simple. You can decorate any shape cake with Christmas presents made from gum paste. Just form a cube out of separate colors of gum paste. Cut up thin strips of contrasting colors to attach to these cubes. Using a small gum glue to adhere them, lay these strips on the cubes in a criss cross pattern. You can even form a small bow for the top of the presents. For a Christmas tree cake, you can either buy the tree cake pan or carve the cake out of a sheet cake. Frost it in green and decorate with small candies.

Another easy idea is to make a Christmas holly cake. The green and red holly contrasts nicely with a easy white cake. To make the holly, you will need gum paste and a holly leaf cutter. Tint some gum paste a dark green, roll it out thin and cut the holly leaves. For each grouping of holly, you'll need three leaves. Dry the leaves on crumpled aluminum foil to give them a more natural shape. Tint gum paste red and roll three pea sized balls for each holly grouping. When all the gum paste decorations are dry, spray them with confectioner's lacquer. Arrange 3 leaves together so they fan out and place the berries in the center. Attach your gum paste leaves and berries with gum glue. You can either place several leaf groupings around the edge or generate the whole edge of the cake out of holly.

To generate a easy wintery scene, make white chocolate snowflakes to decorate the cake. either draw or print out pictures of snowflakes, tape them down and tape plastic wrap over them. Pipe melted white chocolate using the #4 cake decorating tip and place them in the freezer for 5 minutes. Thought about peel them off the plastic. They can either lay flat on the cake or you can stick them into the icing and make them stand up.

Decorating Christmas Cakes