Frosted Shortbread Christmas Cookies

by Michelle @ A Tipsy Giraffe // December 20, 2014 // 24 Comments

These Frosted Shortbread Christmas Cookies are buttery and sweet, and so easy to make. They’re the perfect cookies to make with the kids and leave out for Santa!

These buttery, melt in your mouth Gluten Free Shortbread Cookies with Cinnamon & Clementine are the perfect Christmas cookies - Christmas tree and gingerbread men shaped cookies on snow with christmas baubles, square cropped

If you want your shortbread Gluten Free – check out my cut out GF Shortbread Cookies!

It’s already day six of my Countdown ’til Christmas, Santa is going to be here before we know it! So today I bring you these yummy frosted shortbread Christmas cookies – perfect to leave out for Santa on Christmas Eve. For Countdown ’til Christmas I’ve been posting a festive recipe a day up until Christmas Eve. Day 1 was Spiced Caramel, Day 2 was a Chocolate Peppermint Milkshake, Day 3 was Peppermint Puppy Chow, Day 4 was Mince Pies and Day 5 was Christmas Spiced Chocolate Cake.

Do you have many Christmas traditions with your family? My traditions these days involve splitting my Christmases between the UK and the US, which is nice but it’s always sad to be away from people you care about at Christmas which I inevitably am! Leaving cookies out for Santa is a simple tradition, but I think it’s one a lot of people like to do with their kids. And of course you can’t forget about the glass of milk to wash these Frosted Shortbread Cookies down with and some carrots for the hard working reindeer – who, fun fact, are actually all female if the countless drawings, displays, movies and stories are to be believed! Female reindeer keep their antlers during the winter but males shed them.

As well as the fun of leaving a little gift for Santa and his reindeer, actually making these Frosted Shortbread Christmas Cookies with your kids can be a lot of fun and a great tradition to pass down. And these cookies are great for that, because they’re nice and easy to make and can be decorate however you like! I kept it simple with festive coloured frostings and sprinkles, but the possibilities are endless! You can even add some festive flavours, like cinnamon or orange.

They’re so yummy too, so saving some for Santa might require hiding a couple away until everybody is going to bed! You, of course, then get to do the fun part of pretending to be Santa and eating up the cookies! One of the perks of being a parent, I’m sure! Not that I’m saying Santa isn’t real….

Of course, you don’t have to share these Frosted Shortbread Cookies with Santa! You can make them for your family, for your Christmas party or to give as gifts (I would only give these ones as gifts that you can hand deliver, they won’t ship well). This is my first time making frosted cookies and I’m definitely a convert, shortbread is my favourite type of cookie hands down and I didn’t think they needed anything else, they shine on their own! But I decided to frost them to make them more festive looking and I’m glad they did, while they still shine beautifully on their own the frosting is just a yummy addition!

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Frosted Shortbread Christmas Cookies

2014-12-19 22:59:50

Yields 16

Yummy, buttery shortbread cookies with buttercream frosting and festive sprinkles! Santa will love them!

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For the shortbread

250g unsalted butter, softened but not melted
60g Icing sugar (confectioners sugar)
300g plain flour (all purpose flour)
50g cornflour (cornstarch)

For the buttercream

100g unsalted butter, room temperature
200g icing sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
Red and green food colourings, preferably gel colourings
Sprinkles

Instructions

Put all the shortbread ingredients in a bowl and beat together until all combined and smooth. You may need to use your hands to gently need it into a dough towards to end.
Roll the dough into a large ball and flatten into a thick disk, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes
Preheat oven to 190C/375F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
Roll out the dough until about 1/2 inch thick. Cut out cookies with a round cookie cutter, use whatever size you want your cookies they won't spread. Obviously the smaller the cookies the more you'll get and vice versa
Transfer cookies to the cookie sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes until edges are light golden brown and the cookies are set to touch.
Cool on tray for 5 minutes and then carefully transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. The cookies are very delicate when warm, so be careful not to break them.
To make the frosting, add the butter, sugar and vanilla to a bowl and beat together. If using an electric or stand mixer, start off on a slow speed so your kitchen doesn't end up covered in a fine layer of icing sugar! Beat until combined, then increase speed and beat until light and fluffy.
Separate the frosting into three bowls. Add green dye to one bowl and red to another, leaving the last bowl white. Gel food dye is best for this as you'll need to use much less dye, add a little at a time until you have your desired colour.
Spread the frosting on the cooled cookies using an offset spatula or the back side of a spoon. The cookies are much more sturdy once they're cooled, but they're still pretty delicate so use a gentle hand.
Add sprinkles and any other desired decorations

Notes

Store in airtight container for up to 5 days
Add 1/4 tsp cinnamon to the shortbread mixture for a festive kick
This recipe yielded 16 cookies for me, but how many you get will depend on how thick you roll the dough and how big your cookie cutters are.
Recipe is easily doubled.

By Michelle @ Giraffes Can Bake

A Tipsy Giraffe https://www.atipsygiraffe.com/

Christmas Spiced Chocolate Cake

by Michelle @ A Tipsy Giraffe // December 19, 2014 // 37 Comments

This Christmas Spiced Chocolate Cake is full of delicious festive spices, filled with spiced caramel and topped with Kirsch Cream and Caramelised Nuts! Perfect for the holiday season.

We’re really on the final run to Christmas now, less than a week to go now! This amazing cake is day five of my Countdown til Christmas – where I’m posting a festive recipe every day up until Christmas day. The first of my Countdown til Christmas recipes, the spiced caramel, is the yummy filling in this cake! Day 2 was a Chocolate Peppermint Milkshake, Day 3 was Peppermint Puppy Chow and Day 4 was Mince Pies

This Christmas Spiced Chocolate Cake is kind of along the same vein as the mince pies in that I made it because I really don’t like traditional Christmas cake – you know, the dried fruit cake fed with brandy for weeks, don’t like it! Unlike my take on mince pies, this cake doesn’t take the same basic aspects of a Christmas cake it’s just what I want in a Christmas cake!

I start with my favourite Devil’s Food Cake recipe and make it a little more festive with spices and clementines. Then I filled it with yummy spiced caramel and topped it with Kirsch spiked whipped cream and caramelised walnuts. And I’m not going to lie to you, this is quite possibly the best cake I have ever made! I was really sad to send it off to work with my mum, but if I knew if I didn’t I would sit and eat the cake in one sitting! The cake is rich and chocolately with just enough Christmas spice to get anybody in the festive spirit, the caramel is smooth and warming and adds to that Christmassy feel, and the cream? The Kirsch spiked cream really is a must, that subtle cherry flavour combined with the festive chocolate is just to die for. And the Christmas goes all the way to the figuritive cherries on top, the walnuts are caramelised in sugar, clementine and cinnamon, so good! The actual cherries on top are just a nice little touch I think! It may not be what most people think of when they hear “Christmas Cake” but there’s no denying that this is one!

You really should bake this cake this holiday, whether you celebrate Christmas or not, you’ll blow your friends and family out of the water! And it’s not a lot of work to make, even the caramel is super easy to make! And any effort put into it is so totally worth it! I make and eat a lot of cake, but it really is hard to top this one! Bake it now, thank me later 😉

I hope those of you who celebrate Christmas are almost ready to go, and there’s not too much last minute panicking! I’m all done with m Christmas shopping, I’m just waiting for a last few things to arrive, once they’re wrapped and under the tree all I have is a couple things to bake on Christmas eve and I’m done!

I’m going to be bringing this delicious Christmas cake along to Fiesta Friday this week too, because what’s a party without lots and lots of cake? Plus, the next time we all party together Christmas will be all over with! So why not come join the party just in time for Christmas, there’s bounds to be lots of festive fun and treats, especially with the amazing Jhuls and Indu co hosting for us this week!

Come hang out with me on social media, I’d love to keep up with y’all this holiday season! You can find me on Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook

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Christmas Spiced Chocolate Cake

2014-12-19 16:11:52

A rich, delicious chocolate with christmas spices, spiced caramel, kirsch spiked whipped cream and caramelised walnuts

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For the cake

225g plain flour (all purpose flour)
375g caster sugar (super fine granulated sugar)
75g unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tbsp cornflour (cornstarch)
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground cloves
2 clementines, zest and juice
240ml buttermilk, room temperature
120ml vegetable oil
2 large eggs, room temperature
1tsp vanilla extract
~230ml freshly brewed hot strong coffee

For the cream

300ml double cream (heavy cream), cold
3 tbsp Kirsch

For the nuts

50g walnuts
1 clementine, juice
15g butter
1 tbsp caster sugar
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

Also needed

1 batch of spiced caramel, linked below

For the cake

Preheat oven to 350F/170C. Grease and line two 8″ cake pans
Sift together the flour, sugar, cocoa, cornflour, baking powder, bicarb, salt, cinnamon, cloves and clementine zest and set aside
Combine the buttermilk, oil, eggs and vanilla using a stand mixer or hand mixer then gradually add the dry ingredients with the mixer on low. Add the clementine juice to a measuring jug and fill jug up to 240ml with the coffee. Add the coffee mix. You will have a very thin, water like batter – don’t worry, it’s supposed to be like that!
Pour the batter evenly between the tins and bake for approx 25 -30mins or until your cake tester comes out clean.
Leave to cool in pan for 5 minutes, then turn out on wire rack and leave to cool completely before filling.
Spread generous amounts of spiced caramel on one half of the cake and top with the other half
For the nuts
Put the clementine juice, butter, cinnamon and sugar into a non stick frying pan and melt together. Let it gently sizzle for about 60 seconds and then add the walnuts. Stir to coat the walnuts and gently cook, moving the nuts around occasionally to stop them sticking. They're done when all the liquid has disappeared and your nuts are shiny and coated in caramel. Set aside to cool.

For the cream

Add the double cream and Kirsch to your stand mixer bowl and whip until you just have stiff peaks. Spoon generously on top of the cake.
Sprinkle the cooled walnuts on top of the cake and top with cherries if desired.

Notes

If you don't have Kirsch (cherry flavour), you could also use Grand Marnier (orange flavour) or even Baileys.
Store in the fridge, will keep for 2-3 days with cream. Without cream, will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days

By Michelle @ Giraffes Can Bake

A Tipsy Giraffe https://www.atipsygiraffe.com/

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Michelle’s Christmas Mince Pies

by Michelle @ A Tipsy Giraffe // December 18, 2014 // 33 Comments

These are Christmas Mince Pies done my way! Made with puff pastry, dried fruit, nuts and a sweet, sticky sauce! So simple to make, and the perfect festive treat! It isn’t Christmas without Mince Pies!

Happy Thursday! Only 1 week ’til Christmas and It’s day four of my Countdown ’til Christmas – I’m posting a festive recipe every day up until, and including, Christmas Eve. So far I have posted Spiced Caramel, a Chocolate Peppermint Milkshake and Peppermint Puppy Chow – today I have Mince Pies.

The title here might be a tad misleading, as it could look like I’m saying these are my famous mince pies or something – but actually, this is the first time I’ve ever made mince pies. The reason being that I don’t like mince pies, I never have – I don’t like mince meat, I can’t even put my finger on what it is I don’t like about it, I just don’t. So, I made my own version of mince meat – it has the same core flavours of mince meat but it’s not baked and it’s super yummy. I also used puff pastry as the casing, just because I thought a mince pie roll would be really cute and yummy, and I was right!

For those of you unfamiliar with mince pies, they’re a British staple at Christmas time. They’re small, individual pies filled with mincemeat – mincemeat being a sweet mixture of dried fruits, brandy, spices and beef suet (I think traditionally they contain actual beef, hence the name). Most Brits will tell you Christmas isn’t complete without lots of mince pies, so I always kind of felt like I was missing out. Which is why this year I decided to come up with my own version – mine contain lots of dried fruits, spices, almonds, spiced rum and a sweet, sticky brown sugar mixture. They were so yummy, I will definitely make it a tradition to make these every year. I’m going to make some more for Christmas day and bring a little British tradition (even if it’s not totally traditional) to the US. Although I will be making them in a pie crust casing rather than the puff pastry.

Even if you’re a big lover of mince pies, you should definitely give these ones a go if only to shake things up a bit – plus I think you’ll love them, they’re wonderfully sweet and packed full of yummy fruit. The main star in these is dried figs because I love figs, but you really can customise these to suit your own tastes.

One small confession before I get on with the recipe – I didn’t make the puff pastry for these. Making your own pastry is great and I find making puff pastry quite therapeutic but sometimes I’m just too lazy or I don’t have the time, or both. This was one of those times. They’re great either way, so you can either buy pre made puff pastry from the store or make you’re favourite recipe. I don’t have a recipe for puff pastry on my blog, but Dini @ Giramuk’s Kitchen has an awesome recipe for Rough Puff Pastry which is a quick and effective way to make puff pastry from scratch.

I’m going to bring these along to Fiesta Friday this week, bring a little British Christmas to the party! This week it’s co hosted by the amazing Indu and Jhuls, so this week is a great time to come join Angie’s party!

Want to come hang out with me on social media? I’d love to see what you guys are up to and chat with you outside of blog posts – you can find me on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook

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Michelle's Mince Pies

2014-12-17 23:35:36

Yields 12

My own take on the British classic - mince pies!

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Ingredients

320g puff pastry (homemade or store bought)
60g butter
100g brown sugar
2.5 tbsp golden syrup*
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp almond extract
1 clementine - zest and juice
140g dried figs, roughly chopped
100g dried cherries
100g raisins
50g slivered almonds, plus more for garnish

Instructions

Line a 12 hole muffin tin with circles of parchment paper. Preheat oven to 200C/390F
Add the butter, sugar and golden syrup to a medium saucepan, heat on medium until butter and sugar are melted, stirring. Bring to the boil and boil for 30 seconds, reduce heat to a low medium.
Add the spices, extracts, zest and juice and stir to combine
Add remaining ingredients and stir.
Cook for 10 minutes on a medium low heat, stirring frequently.
Remove from heat and set aside and leave to cool.
Roll out puff pastry into a large rectangle, approx 14" x 9"
Spread the cooled mincemeat mixture over the pastry, covering up to the edges - leaving a small border clear on one length side (about 1cm)
Roll the pastry up length ways (i.e. so you have one long sausage).
Cut the roll into approximately 1"-1.5" slices and place in prepared muffin hold, with spirals facing up. Sprinkle a few slivered almonds on top.
Bake for 25-30 minutes, until pastry is gold brown

Notes

*If you're in the US you can use corn syrup in place of golden syrup
You could also use muffin cases instead of the parchment paper, but personally I like the look the parchment paper gives them.
And since you're using cases, you can cool them in the pan without worrying about them sticking. However, if you want to remove the cases this is much easier to do while they're still hot, so leave to cool for 5 minutes and then carefully peel away paper.

By Michelle @ Giraffes Can Bake

A Tipsy Giraffe https://www.atipsygiraffe.com/

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Chocolate Peppermint Puppy Chow

by Michelle @ A Tipsy Giraffe // December 17, 2014 // 19 Comments

Whether you call it Puppy Chow or Muddy Buddies, this Chocolate Peppermint Puppy Chow is the perfect Christmas snack! Full of festive flavours and totally addictive!

It’s day three of my Countdown ’til Christmas – I’m posting a festive recipe every day up until, and including, Christmas Eve. Yesterday I posted this Chocolate Peppermint Milkshake, is it weird to have 2 peppermint recipes in a row? Maybe, but it’s such a festive flavour you can’t really have too much of it this time of year can you? So I bring you Peppermint Puppy Chow!

Up until I made my own I’d never had Puppy Chow, aka Muddy Buddies, before. It’s definitely an American thing, or at least not a UK thing. But man, us Brits have really been missing out. I don’t know what makes this stuff so addictive, but it’s so hard to stop eating this stuff! In the US it’s generally made using Chex Mix, I used Shreddies. Usually, puppy chow is made with chocolate and peanut butter but I wanted to be festive so peppermint it was! I also made another festive version which I’ll post soon! I’ve yet to try the traditional chocolate and peanut butter, but I’m definitely going to try it soon!

Christmas is so nearly upon us guys, 8 days to go! I’m pretty much done with my shopping, I’m mostly just waiting for things to arrive because I’m lazy and do all my Christmas shopping online! Are you guys already done with yours? If you celebrate Christmas in your house that is of course! How about Hanukkah? Anybody doing anything nice for Hanukkah? Whatever you’re celebrating this year, or if you’re not celebrating anything, I hope you have a wonderful season! This puppy chow will be great to have out to snack on throughout the day, while you wrap presents or even when you have guests round – kids especially will love it!

And the best part, of course, is how is easy it is to make. You can have this ready to go in 30 minutes, and the majority of that time is just waiting for the chocolate to set up – then it’s puppy chow city! It’s called puppy chow because apparently looks like a brand of dog food in the US, but please don’t feed this to your dogs – I’m sure you already know not to give dogs chocolate, but just in case!

Come hang out with me on social media, I’d love to share what I’m up to this holiday season and to see what you guys are doing too! You can find me on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook

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Peppermint Puppy Chow

2014-12-17 15:40:00

Cereal with chocolate and peppermint makes for the most festive and addictive holiday snack!

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Ingredients

500g Malted Wheat Cereal (such as Shreddies, Chex Wheats etc)
175g dark chocolate
75g white chocolate
1/4 - 1 tsp peppermint extract
180g Icing sugar (confectioners sugar)
5 candy canes, crushed (optional)

Instructions

Melt the chocolates separately using your preferred method, I like to do it in the microwave in 30 second blasts, stirring in between.
Add the peppermint extract to the melted dark chocolate, start with 1/4 tsp and test, add more as needed. A little peppermint goes a long way so it's always best to start off with a little and gradually add more until you get the desired taste. I used 1/2 tsp + a few drops total, you may use more or less.
Measure out the cereal into a large bowl. Pour on the melted dark chocolate with peppermint and stir to cover the cereal as best you can. Pour on the white chocolate and stir to cover
Transfer the mixture to a large container with a lid and add the icing sugar. Secure the lid and shake the container well to coat the mix in sugar.
Stir in the crushed candy canes if using.
Spread out on a lined cookie sheet to leave to cool and set.

Notes

Store in a lidded container

By Michelle @ Giraffes Can Bake

A Tipsy Giraffe https://www.atipsygiraffe.com/

Christmas Spiced Caramel

by Michelle @ A Tipsy Giraffe // December 15, 2014 // 33 Comments

This Christmas Spiced Caramel is full of delicious festive spices, drizzle it on everything and anything this holiday season! It’s so easy to make and so delicious!

Have you guys been listening to Serial? If you have, I’m only up to episode 7 so far so no spoilers please! If you haven’t, you need to start now! Right now! Okay, you can read this post and save this recipe first, but then listen! It’s a series of podcasts from NPR and you can download them for free from your podcast app (just search Serial) or you can download it here. No, I’m not being sponsored by NPR that would be weird (and awesome, I love NPR!) this is just totally worth listening to and I want to talk to y’all about it! If you’ve been living under a rock and have missed all the buzz around Serial – it’s a nonfiction story told week by week about a murder that happened 15 years ago, a young man was convicted of murdering his ex girlfriend. Nothing quite adds up though and Sarah Koenig has been digging through the case since last year trying to get to the bottom of it.

It’s really interesting, so gripping and really thought provoking. There’s so much to think about and you can go from thinking “yes he totally did it” to “there’s no way he did it” in the space of one episode. Go download it now, and you can thank me later! There’s 11 episodes so far, new episodes released every Thursday, I don’t know how many there will be total – I think they just keep going until they come to some kind of conclusion

Those who of you who have been listening to it, what do you think? Are you enjoying it? Do you think Adnan did it? If not, who do you think did? Remember, I’m only up to episode 7 so no spoilers!! Also, would be nice to keep your comments generally spoiler free for those who are behind me or haven’t started it yet! If you wanna talk to me about it in detail though, you can come chat to me on Twitter!

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