Christmas Cooking
 

Does everyone do Christmas cooking? Rich fruit cakes, Cherry cakes, Plum puddings, Almond bread and Gingerbread have been long standing favourites in our families for generations and I still keep up with these traditions. I have made a Rich fruit cake and Cherry cake and plum pudding for my daughter and gingerbread for my little grandsons. I finished icing the rich fruit cakes and gingerbread today. Very quick and plain, I am only a self taught cake decorator and a bit out of practice. We are going to our daughters for Christmas and then they will come to us for New Year.

I also gave a gift tray of a small Cherry Cake, small plum pudding, a bag of a almond bread and a bag of apricot balls and run balls to my two best friends.

Yowzers! What gorgeous baking! Shortbread and maybe a few bars is the extent of my Christmas Baking... although I do enjoy baking.

Wow! Amazing, nothing like that will ever come out of my kitchen!

Your cakes look lovely.

My family is from the British Isles a few generations ago, but I find I am drawn to different Christmas treats now.

I purchase Shortbread, as my son does not care for it, I do not entertain very much and a local bakery makes lovely all butter shortbread.

I do make fudge, Nanaimo Bars, Butter Tarts, Mince Tarts (not this year as I ran out of the homemade mincemeat), Almond Rocha.

I buy Stollen and Panettone from two other bakeries. I like that they are lighter than traditional fruitcake.

In the past I would make 12 plus different types of cookies and about 5 different candy/Chocolates, but I do not eat much myself and once I am through exams in mid December I am looking forward to a break, not more work.

December was a big month at work for me when our children were home, so I did meat and cheese, chips and dips which we seldom had around. They still prefer that. My rule is bake 3 things and only 3. I might dress up the tray with foil covered candies. I usually make a batch of cut outs, I try one new item and the 3rd item is something from a previous year.

Oh these are so beautiful!!! I love to see others baking traditions. We do Christmas cookies here of various types. I'm trying to avoid chocolate right now so I've been digging out old family recipes that have butter and nuts! :)

My husband's heritage is German, but it's been several generations since his family line has been in the United States. I wish I had a good recipe to make Lebkuchen, but we usually end up buying it in packages.

Betty, your bking is as delicious looking as your quilty gifts are. Everything looks so delicious.Those cookies are a dream. you decorated the cookies and cakes like a pro!

Your cakes look like they came from the best bakery in town! Lucky family and friends you have!

Your baking looks wonderful! I used to bake quite a lot, including fruitcake using my Mother's traditional recipe. However, as a family, we decided that we did not need all of those calories and things we shouldn't have in our diets. We are happy to have fewer 'treats'. If we do have any treats they are made at home and never purchased. I confess, I am a food purist.