Christmas pudding balls ~ recipe
Complete Christmas pudding balls – they didn’t last long on the plate in our house!
I came across a recipe for dough balls which looked yummy and adjusted it for taste and to make it more Christmassy.
It is easy to make, doesn’t need to be cooked, and could be a nice snack to leave out for Santa, or on a plate to take to a function. I’m finding these quite handy to send along to the kids’ Christmas parties at school and scouts because they are quick and easy and kids love them!
I don’t think they quite fit the nice gift category but that could just be me 🙂 Try the recipe and let me know if you’d give them as a gift…
Christmas pudding balls
100g unsalted butter (room temperature or almost melt it in the microwave to make it really soft if kids are helping you cook!)
3/4 cup raw sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1/2 teaspoons red food colouring
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons of mini chocolate chips
3/4 cup fruit mince (or dried mixed fruit plus 1-2 tablespoon of liquid*)
1 cup plain flour
125g white chocolate
1/2 teaspoon green food colouring
An easy recipe for little people to help with – although you may get a bit of flour splatter around the kitchen!
How to make Christmas pudding balls
Cream the butter and sugar.
Mix in the essence, red food colouring, cinnamon and flour.
Stir in choc chips and fruit mince.
Form balls of dough. I found it needed some moisture to really hold together and be able to roll it – dry fruit alone will be fairly crumbly and impossible to roll (forming shapes is ok) thus fruit mince or some liquid is required.
Put them in the fridge to harden – I left them for a few hours but half an hour or so is probably enough. Note they taste much better at this stage now when just mixed 🙂
Melt the while chocolate until liquid. Then add green food colour.
It’s not easy to make neat balls with this mix, so be comfortable with a rustic effect!
Dip each ball into the green chocolate and place on a tray.
Put back in the fridge for the chocolate to set, and for storage. Enjoy!
* You could use a liqueur or some orange or cranberry juice
Christmas 2013 is almost here!
Santa is just finishing up at the North Pole in preparation for his big trip Down Under (and elsewhere in the world!)
The excitement is certainly building in our house, street and community (especially as all the end of school year things are underway, too. Are you feeling excited or are you still caught up in the busyness leading up to Christmas?
Love Santa letters
Of course, Australia Post is very busy at this time of year which means we can’t be sure how long letters will take to reach children now. So letter orders will soon be closing – and we suggest not ordering personalised letters for anywhere with longer delivery times.
Deliveries to Melbourne and Sydney – close Thursday 19th December
For orders to children in Melbourne, we can accept these on Friday 20th December but do not promise delivery before 24th December. Please contact us if you would like us to try.
Deliveries to other capital cities and Victoria – suggested deadline is Wednesday 18th December
Deliveries to other rural areas – suggested deadline is Tuesday 17th December or sooner
If you have not ordered letters by those deadlines, you can order an emailed version instead. These letters are on the same backgrounds and professionally written but are not personalised and obviously come without the physical surprise and are emailed rather than mailed.
Double Christmas treats ~ recipe
These Double Christmas Treats are made of two layers and taste absolutely divine, ad are surprisingly moist, too.
Looking through Pinterest a few weeks ago, I came across an image which I really liked the look of. It had two layers but looked like a cupcake/muffin – something a bit different, I thought, plus two parts meant I could get my two littlies involved a different stages…
Unfortunately, the image was not linked to a recipe but a sales page for the most over-priced cake mix I’ve ever come across.
So I created my own version, adding Christmassy touches and I am very pleased with the results of this one!
Double Christmas treats
These do take a bit of time, especially if you have little helpers, but are SO worth it!
It would make a lovely Christmas Eve activity with the kids – there’s plenty to sample and still have a nice snack to leave out for Santa 🙂
My three year old calls herself a ‘good egger’ and enjoyed making these treats…
First layer in some muffin cases, ready for cooking
Cover the lower layer with the biscuit mix – this photo shows the top layer on the back row and lower layer only in the front row.
Double Christmas treats fresh out of the oven – a light brown top is what you are after.
Putting up the tree
On the first of December, my 3 siblings, mum and dad and I put up the Christmas tree, we spent about an hour together, watching the kids’ laugh and feel the magic of Christmas.
Each decoration that Mum handed the little 2 they would ask her “Is this mine”?
They are taking Christmas tree decorating seriously – it’s lovely to see children working together.
After the tree was up, my oldest younger sister and I were mucking about, and joked that the kids were the same size as their stocking’ so we put the little two ones into them and they were walking around the place in theses big red stockings nearly their height.
Probably the most fun we have all had in a while 🙂 Can’t wait for next year!!
Love Santa letters at the last minute
The lead up to Christmas can be mighty busy so it’s easy to see how you could leave ordering a Santa letter a bit late!
But if you have a tradition of Santa letters or just want the excitement and delight for a child in your life, it can be very disappointing or even upsetting to realise it’s too late for a letter to be delivered.
Or maybe you don’t want to use the wrong details in a personalised letter and feel safer with something simpler.
Either way, we want to help!
Love Santa letters in a scrapbook make a lovely reminder of childhood
We have prepared a non-personalised Love Santa letter for Aussie and Kiwi children that you can print off for them – pop it in an envelope in the letter box, hang it from the Christmas tree or have it sticking out of a stocking hung by the chimney.
Like our personalised letters, these are professionally written, include a craft and a snack for Santa recipe and have an Australian feel. And each year has a different look and different words (but we’ve updated the year on last year’s as well if you want two different letters – contact us for more than two!)
To get a 2013 non-personalised letter is easy – just click on the button below and follow the instructions 🙂 Have a very Merry Christmas!
Gumnut wreaths – craft for kids
Red and gold glitter on gumnuts and gum leaves – a beautiful Christmas display!
I just had to share this craft idea! Being so Australian I thought it would fit beautifully on this site, too!
I helped at my children’s kinder the other day and all the children were busily making some Christmas wreaths, and loving it. I was impressed with the great results but also that they were so very Aussie, well within the children’s abilities and also so much fun to make.
Although be warned if you try this at home because it took me ages to vacuum up all the glitter afterwards!
Making gumnut wreaths
I didn’t see this bit, but the kids were given cardboard rings which they stuck together, with a loop of ribbon sticking out one end. I think they are double to be stronger, and it makes attaching the ribbon neater.
They painted this double ring green and left it to dry.
I then was there to watch them stick on gum nuts of various sizes, along with gum leaves and even sticks if they wished.
They also had some red felt leaves (which does add colour on the green background) but I think I prefer just the gumnuts, leaves and glitter – or is that just me?
Once they were happy with their arrangement, they sprinkled glitter over the top – first letting it stick to the excess glue already on the wreaths, then adding dobs of glue where they felt more glitter was needed.
Some of the gumnut wreaths made by kinder children – aren’t they beautiful?
As they dried, I got some photos – I think they are beautiful Christmas wreathes, don’t you?
Once they come home from kinder, there will be one hanging with pride on our front door!
Kinder children writing to Santa
I helped at my son’s kinder this morning and was given the very appropriate job of helping the children write their letters to Santa 🙂
Each child wrote “To Santa Love from {name}” from pre-written cards to help them know the letters to use.
In between the to and from bits, we also wrote a request for a gift. Some of the children did this themselves (once I wrote out the words on scrap paper for them) while others needed my help writing those bits (they are only 4 or 5 years old!)
Kinder children writing letters to Santa with care and pride – lovely to watch.
The children worked hard on their letters and it was a delight to watch them, and participate with them. One child was so pleased with his letter he kept coming back to get it, fly it around the room and show it to everyone he could get to stand still and look!
Letters are being sent to Santa – and copies kept as part of the collection of work being given to parents at the end of the year. I for one am pleased to know we will have a permanent record of what my son wrote!
Have you ever received (or at least seen) letters your children have written to Santa at kinder or school?
If your child is yet to write to Santa, don’t forget we have a template to help them get started and write a nice letter to Santa.
Whip up a delicious Christmas trifle ~ recipe
One of my husband’s favourite desserts is trifle so I played around with it and made a more Christmassy version. It seemed to work – there was nothing left in the bowl afterwards anyway!
So here’s my recipe…
Love Santa’s Christmas Trifle
My Christmas trifle, all ready to be served and enjoyed…
- 1 cake – make it or buy it as suits your time and tastes. Plain, lemon and orange are nice but I used a cinnamon cake to get the Christmas scents involved
- about a cup of cherries – halve them to remove the pits
- 4 kiwi fruit – cut into chunks about 2cm cubed
- a punnet of strawberries – hull and quarter them
- half a honey-dew melon – cut into chunks of about 3 cm cubed
- 1 litre of custard – make it brandy custard if you like. It adds to the Christmas flavour and is pretty low alcohol but it’s not for everyone
- 500 ml (one packet) of set red jelly
- 500 ml (one packet) of set green jelly
- 1/3 cup cranberries (dried or halved fresh ones) for garnish
- 1/3 cup of pistachios for garnish (adds a nice green tinge to the top)
Christmas trifle recipe
1. Cut the cake into pieces – 3 – 4 cm cubes fits nicely on spoons but it can all be rough. A sprinkling of a liqueur over the cake is nice (especially if you use a stale cake like the traditional recipes call for) but optional – brandy, Frangelico or Cointreau are the most Christmassy choices.
2.
Trifle is made in layers – my beautiful glass bowl doesn’t photograph so well though unfortunately…
Put about half the cake in the bottom of a glass bowl. Does it have to be a glass bowl? Technically, no, it will taste just the same in any type of serving dish but the visual impact will be lost if you can’t see the layers before you serve.
3. Break up the green jelly and put about half of it on top of the cake. Sprinkle half of the fruit over the jelly.
4. Break up the red jelly and put about half of it over the fruit.
5. Pour half the custard over the jelly.
6. Repeat – cake, green jelly, fruit, red jelly, custard.
7. You could top it all with whipped cream (I didn’t as I don’t like it!)
Garnish with pistachios and cranberries. Or make the top layer pieces of jelly as in my photo below – very quick and easy.
Serve immediately or the next day, but keep it in the fridge.
Red and green jelly on top of the custard is a simple presentation option
Other Christmas trifles
Do you have any other Christmas trifle recipes? Or do you just stick to the traditional type of trifle, whatever the occasion or season?
I came across another recipe, which uses egg nog and glace cherries. Their additional of banana and pineapple would give it a summery taste, I think.
Ribbons on a Christmas tree
Liz also supplied us with a photo of the ribbon-decked tree – I think it looks great!
We have small Christmas trees in the kids’ rooms, which they love:)
This year, a bit of ahead of me getting out the usual decorations, my daughter decided to decorate the trees.
She grabbed out some school sports ribbons and other sashes to use instead of tinsel. It actually looked quite effective and is a nice acknowledgement of her sporting achievements over the year (she was just after the colour and instant gratification, but I liked the display of her achievements!)
December and summer have arrived!
The first of December – that means summer is here and Christmas is not too far away now (unless you’re an excited three year old anyway!)
What do you do to celebrate the start of December?
We put our tree up as a family, while listening to carols of course. And being such a beautiful evening today in Melbourne, we went outside and looked at Christmas lights in our street before the kids went to bed (a bit late!)
Some local Christmas lights that we enjoy watching each year
Cheerful and quick salad
Last night we had one of those ‘hmm, what shall we have for dinner?’ nights so I ended up making up a new salad. And it turned out really well – refreshing and tasty, and even Christmas themed!
I just love this salad and plan on taking it to some upcoming BBQs and Christmas functions as it suits the theme (red and green being Christmas colours!), is easy, appeals to many and is very healthy. It’s also nice and moist (without a dressing) which was lovely with our grilled chicken last night.
My kids were fighting over the last serve of it, too…
Colourful, healthy and even the kids will eat this salad!
Easy Christmas salad
chunk of watermelon
1 cucumber
1 stick of celery
2 tomatoes
Chop celery into small pieces.
Chop everything else into chunks.
Mix in a bowl.
Optional – garnish with some chopped mint.
Serve!
Quick Christmas Royal Puddings Recipe
These cute little Christmas Royals look like teeny-tiny Christmas puddings and they are the perfect take-along party plate for busy Mums. They’re a similar concept to the Christmas Anzacs I made last year, but a bit more decadent and fancy-looking.
You can get these made in ten minutes, and they are the sort of ingredients you can have in the cupboard for a while so you can make them at the last minute.
Or let the kids work on them – it will take longer obviously but it’s an easy snack for them to make for Santa.
Christmas Royals
Ingredients:
2x 200g Arnott’s Royals Biscuits
200g white chocolate
1 x 180g Smarties
1 x resealable or freezer bag
spearmint leaves, cut into about 6 slices
Method:
Take the biscuits out of the packet and lay them on board or plate. You can put them straight onto a serving plate if you trust you won’t make a mess (and that could depend on whether you have any little helpers or not!)
Melt white chocolate – over a pan of water will work but takes time and isn’t suitable with young children. So I just pop them into the microwave for about 70 seconds – test then repeat for 20 second bursts until they are nicely melted.
Pour the melted chocolate into the plastic bag. Snip off the corner of the bag. Of course, if you have a piping bag, just use that! You can drizzle the chocolate from a spoon but it does tend to get messy and takes longer so the chocolate will start to set.
Pipe (or drizzle) chocolate onto the top of each biscuit.
Pop a red smartie on top of the chocolate. Arrange two or three pieces of spearmint leave to be the holly leaves.
Let the chocolate set and serve 🙂
Sprinkle some halved spearmint leaves around the Christmas Royals for a pretty presentation.
Sometimes you can get Royals with a pink centre, too, and they are even better when it comes to making a Christmassy treat!
If you can’t get Royals, other chocolate biscuits can work (mint slices are an obvious option) but they don’t stand up as high to look like little Christmas puddings.
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