Christmas Bakes to order
CHRISTMAS BAKERY 2021
Following on from the success of last year’s inaugural Christmas Bakery, I thought I would run it again this year, albeit in a slightly scaled down version, to enable me to do it alongside my other catering. This time I am offering 6 different items so please scroll down to find out what they are and read a small description of each. I can deliver throughout December, except from the 20th to the 23rd, and postal orders are also possible (please enquire for prices).
Truffles
The runaway winner from last year’s offerings just had to feature again, but this time I am doing rum truffles. If you are partial to a warming egg nog at Christmas, then this could be the truffle for you: creamy, warmly spiced and with a lovely backnote of spiced rum, finished with a coating of grated white chocolate – mm hmm. The egg nog truffles are partnered with a more classic dark chocolate rum truffle for those times when you want to reign in the sweetness and be a little more grown-up and sophisticated. I am putting 5 of each truffle in the cellophane gift bag, as they look so nice together.
10 truffles – £7

Mixed chocolate truffles
Lebkuchen
I can’t resist some sort of German biscuit at Christmastime, so this year I am doing an absolute classic: Lebkuchen. Soft and slightly chewy mounds of spiced, sweet nuttiness with a delicious sugar icing or chocolate glaze and studded with flaked almonds for decoration, extra flavour and texture. Baked on edible wafer paper, so you can eat that too! The Lebkuchen come in cellophane bags of 12: 6 chocolate and 6 sugar-glazed.
12 Lebkuchen – £10
Chocolate salami
This was a late addition to last year’s offerings once I had come to my senses and realised that I couldn’t post the Yule Log and expect it to arrive intact. Those people who had ordered a postal Yule Log were instead offered this delectable offering. This is not some odd concoction of spiced cured pork and cocoa. Think more along the lines of a fridge cake or tiffin, but it looks just like something that would be hanging from the ceiling in a rather good deli. This is packed with dried fruits and nuts so I’m sure it would qualify as one of your 5 a day, and now I come to think of it, the chocolate comes from a bean too, making this salami basically a health food. This can also be prepared to a vegan recipe if desired.
Large chocolate salami (a good 12 generous slices) – £16
Small chocolate salami, more of a chocolate Pepperami really (10 to 12 small slices) – £8

The chocolate salami all strung up and ready for delivery
Christmas cake
Earlier this year I was asked to make a Genoa cake for a couple celebrating their golden wedding anniversary, as it was the cake they had on their wedding day. It was a new one on me and I decided at the time that I would offer it as this year’s Christmas cake. This is not the traditional dense, rich, boozy, heavily fruited cake we know and love, but a much lighter, moister, softer fruitcake altogether. For me anyway, this has the distinct advantage of being easier to eat and I can therefore have bigger slices – yay! It doesn’t keep for months like the classic version, but I’m confident that it won’t need to, because it still keeps well for 2 to 3 weeks or so, and you’ll have eaten it long before then. Topped off with mixed dried fruits and nuts before cooking and then finished with a glaze of apricot jam and tied with a festive ribbon.
9″/23cm round Christmas Genoa cake with glazed fruits and nuts – £25
Amaretti
I love amaretti. The consistency should be crunchy on the outside and chewy in the middle with a really heady almond taste (which comes from a large amount of ground almonds and some Amaretto just to make sure). They’re great just as they are, perhaps served on the side of a coffee if you want to be a bit fancy. They also make an amazing base for a trifle if that’s your thing; just add a slosh more Amaretto to soften them up and away you go. These come in bags of 10, which is a good amount for one trifle if you’re going down that route, or a good amount to eat in your chosen way. Basically, whichever way you slice it, it’s a good amount.
10 amaretti – £8
Christmas nougat
Something a bit different for my last item. I always thought I would hate nougat, right up until my early 40s (I know, shameful) when I actually tried it and realised what I’d been missing. Slightly sticky, quite firm, but a little bit yielding too and then wonderfully textured and flavoured with cranberries, pistachios and almonds. Rather like the Lebkuchen, the nougat is on edible paper but it also has a layer of edible paper on the top so that you don’t get sticky fingers (how thoughtful is that?). The nougat is cut into bitesize squares so that you can eke out the pleasure.
12 squares of nougat – £10