Festive Chocolate Orange Traybake

I'm back with ANOTHER chocolate orange recipe...I know, I know....I cant help but get obsessed with the chocolate orange flavour at this time of the year, it's pretty addictive isn't it? I also got to collaborate with Cake Angels* on this recipe, they kindly gifted me some of their sprinkles and royal icing decorations and I think they look so cute and festive sprinkled on top of this traybake. 

Terry's Chocolate Orange Loaf Cake Recipe

Who's ready for things to get a bit festive around these parts? I know I am, and what better way to kick start the super festive recipes than with a Terry's Chocolate Orange Loaf Cake! Chocolate orange is one of my favourite flavours, and lets face it a Terry's Chocolate Orange is a Christmas essential, their so festive and I think all of us receive one in our Christmas stockings don't we?! This recipe is based off of my Halloween layer cake I made back in October but the quantities are slightly different, so if you fancy giving this one a go just scroll down for the recipe!

Easy and Affordable Gingerbread Truffles

 Hey beaut's!

If your having any festive get together's, dinner parties or you just want something sweet but picky to add to your Christmas Day table then I have the perfect bite size sweet treat for you - Gingerbread Truffles covered in white chocolate, oh my! These cost me around £2.50 to make and don't require much effort either, there so easy but so effective!

What You Will Need

1 packet of ginger-nut biscuits
2-3 tablespoons of cream cheese
2 bars of white chocolate
Sprinkles to decorate (optional)

How To
* Blitz the entire packet of ginger biscuits in a food processor, once the biscuits are blitzed pop 2 tablespoons of cream cheese into a bowl and whack in the ginger biscuit crumbs and mix until you get a wet sand like consistency!
* Once thoroughly combined, mould the mixture into little balls and pop into the fridge for an hour to set, if your in a rush just whack them in the freezer! If you find your mixture is too dry and you cant roll them into balls add in a third tablespoon of cream cheese and that will help bring everything together!
* Once your balls are firm and set (oh wow that sounds interesting doesn't it LOL) melt your white chocolate a coat the balls evenly and decorate whilst their still wet! I had some Christmas sprinkles in my baking cupboard so I used them on a few of my truffles, I was also using a block of milk chocolate that day for another recipe so I grated some milk chocolate on some and drizzled some melted milk chocolate on some others, you could literally use whatever you like to decorate them really!
* Once decorated pop them back in the fridge until your ready to serve them and voila! The truffles will stay good in the fridge for 4-5 days then you'll need to whip up another batch he he!

Will you be giving these a whirl beaut's? Or have you already tried them? I'd love to know!

Gingerbread Christmas Light Cupcakes Recipe

Hey beaut's!

Finally I've found some time to do one of my favourite things....festive baking! I love baking at Christmas time, you can include all those yummy spices within your recipes and have fun with decorations, and lets face it - we all love naughty treats at this time of the year don't we! Today I decided to whip up a batch of yummy gingerbread cupcakes with some simple vanilla buttercream, but what makes these fun is how cute the Christmas light decoration is, I saw this idea on Pinterest so I just had to give it a go for myself and I actually loved going to town whilst decorating these! 

What You Will Need For The Cupcakes

75g unsalted butter, softened

100g caster sugar 125ml black treacle 1 large egg 1 large egg yolk 175g self-raising flour 1tbsp cocoa powder 2tsp ground ginger 1tsp ground cinnamon 1/2tsp ground allspice 1/2tsp ground nutmeg 1/4tsp salt 3/4 tbsp milk

What You Will Need For The Buttercream
200g unsalted butter
450g icing sugar
1tsp vanilla extract
A splash of milk
M&M's and melted chocolate for decorating

How To - Cupcakes
* Pre-heat your oven to gas mark 4 /180 and line a muffin tin with your cupcake cases.
* In a large mixing bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until smooth then add in the treacle and eggs and mix again until well combined!
* Once the wet ingredients are well mixed add in all of your dry ingredients and mix again, you'll find the mixture goes quite thick so you'll need to add in some milk a tablespoon at a time until you get a nice whippy cupcake batter consistency, mine took around 4 tablespoons of milk.
*Once your mixture is completely smooth pop a heaped tablespoon of the cupcake batter into each cupcake case and bake in the oven for around 15 minutes or until the top of the cupcakes are springy to the touch, then transfer onto a wire rack to cool.

How To - Buttercream
* In a large bowl, beat the butter until it becomes super whippy, then start adding the icing sugar slowly to avoid the dreaded icing sugar cloud and mix until combined. As usual if the buttercream is too stiff then pop in some milk until you get your desired constancy. 
* Pipe the icing on top of the cupcakes and then go to town on the 'Cristmas Light' effect decoration, I melted some milk chocolate and popped it into a piping bag and created little swirly lines around my cupcakes to act as the Christmas light cable, I then stuck M&Ms vertically into the side of the cupcakes onto my little make-shift cable. 

And there you have it, 12 super yummy and super festive cupcakes that are really fun to make, I feel like kids would love the decorating process of these too. You could also use other things to act as the cables like those gummy strawberry laces or you could colour some buttercream black and pipe that on with a tiny round pipping nozzle, what ever you find easiest really!

Will you be doing any baking over the festivities beaut's? What will you be making? I'd love to know!