The Christmas That Was & 2014 All Wrapped Up...

Hey there guys and gals, a bit of a long time-no see! How was everybody's festivities?! As the usual life/blog balance went a bit astray over December and this post has even come pretty darn late, I thought we'd have a wrap up of Christmas and New Years Eve all in one. I'll show off my snazzy time and you can all "ooh" and "ahhh" at the generic festive photos, ok? Deal. 

*All photos were taken on my phone because I was too busy having a good time to grab my camera. That's a good thing though isn't it?

The three stages of a staff Christmas party. 1) Looking a little creepy but relatively put together *and promising
myself not to drink because I need to bake 9 cakes the next day. 2) Someone gives me a unicorn style crown
and almost immediately plan 1) goes out the window. 3) "I'm a drunk, sparkly unicorn- take a photo of me dazzling
whilst I can't stand still."

Christmas snowballed quicker then expected, just like every year and with lots of baking promised to my nearest and dearest it meant a very hungover Sophie crawling around the kitchen and emerging no less than FIVE hours later in a cloud of icing sugar. Luckily I'd had my annual Christmas lunch with Stacie (honestly it was disgusting how much food we ate) to keep me going. Working full time, I wasn't off much over Christmas, I'd always rather that people with little-uns have that time together. Besides a few drinks on a work night with friends that are home for the holidays is what it's all about?But soon it arrived- Christmas Eve. 

1) Christmas dinner traditions with my bestest- both hungover as every year. 2) Hours later than planned and with a much bigger hangover than planned-BAKING COMPLETE. 3)Bimble on Christmas eve with my Text Santa hat! 4) More Christmas gift giving with my brother and sister in law.

I finished work at 2pm and headed over to my parents to wait for my brother and sister in law to arrive. We sat chuckling and opening gifts and had a generally splendid time, before I headed home to Harps/Batman, festive films and too much chocolate...

1) A wonderfully creative melted snowman bauble from my sister in law. 2) Batman receives gifts from his pet friends. 3) Harps marvelling at how long his beard is. 4) Christmas lunch table.

We make a point of alternating who's house we spend Christmas lunch at (we're far too lazy to host it ourselves) and this year it landed at my parents house. We headed over to see Harps's grandparents in the morning (honestly they're just incredible at holding Christmas!) and opened lots of lovely gifts- including some generous funds for our wedding and a few treats for Batman! Can we just take a second to shout "OUR WEDDING IS NEXT YEAR PEOPLE!"

A few festive selfies...and some spaniel selfies obviously.

Let the dinner commence!

Christmas dinner began and we all tucked into portions that were enough to feed a small colony. Mother had downloaded some kind of Downtown Abbey Christmas album which meant Bimble and I  singing the operatic parts as loud as we could, interrupting whatever kind of 'traditional, quiet, family Christmas' anyone might have been expecting.

Bellies full, none of us could leave the table for more than 37 seconds and settled down for a few games of Kerplunk. A game I was sheltered from as a child *scowls at mother* and with a few glasses bottles of wine down my competitive side came out. Luckily my mother has the worst luck in pretty much anything she plays so I only lost once and Bimble teamed up with Harps which is a pretty unfair advantage- I think they won the most. 

Traditional family Christmas photo.

Hours later, still barely able to move, Harps and I took the decision to begin the pilgrimage home (it's about a 10 minute walk). We still had a few more gifts to open, we make a point of dragging them out all day, does anyone else do this? 

 Some of the amazing gifts that we opened included a hilarious book about crappy children's art, a cute art print, some baking goodies, lots of lovely bits to learn to crochet with and Cookin with Coolio recipe book which is both brilliant and delicious looking. 

And so New Years eve drew in and as usual we visited Harp's cousin who was turning 16! After gorging on buffet and playing with their Christmas presents, we ventured home for a night of drinking and playing with Batman. I decided to learn the basics of crochet and after popping an expensive bottle of champagne, I'm surprised I did as well as I did! Batman fell in love with his Christmas present from us, a giant Batman 3 Level castle that he seems to enjoy jumping in and out of the middle windows in a way only Batman would!

Happy New Year to all of you. I've grown very fond of all you little blogging lot and have made a few lasting friends that I couldn't be without. This year I intend to use Twitter a little bit more, I'm pretty scared of it but it's the best place to talk to you all! May 2015 bring you all great health, lovely memories and fun adventures. Lastly, let us not forget...I GET MARRIED NEXT YEAR!

Love Sophie Xx

Festive Planning: Gift Wrap and Cards.

Feeling better, the festivities are setting in. Sitting down to write my christmas cards, I ended up with quite the selection this year after falling madly in love with the Caroline Gardner ones on offer in TKMaxx! How awesome are these Batman themed ones? Batman just wasn't at all impressed. There's something really lovely about christmas card writing, a time to thank someone you love for the year you've spent together, maybe a chance to catch up with family, a tradition that makes people smile. I'm not one of those for writing the same old thing in each card (well, mostly) but I like to sit and take a little time on wishing my friends and family happy holidays.

I also really love wrapping presents. Well, saying that, it's probably more that I love theming my papers and ribbons and tags etc etc. This year I wanted red, white and brown in tying with the theme of my tree. Intentions were good, I planned to hand dot the brown parcel paper with white ink but delays and busy christmas planning, not to mention being ill means that my brown paper is dotty-less.     The spotted wrapping paper that I do have and matching pretty ribbons are from Wilko and I'll definitely be heading back there again before it's all over! 

When it comes to the actual wrapping part, I get really impatient. I just want my odd-shaped gifts to look like the perfect parcels under the tree but every year I forget to save up cardboard and boxes to make it easier on myself. Batman's pretty fond of wrapping presents though and every time he hears me getting the papers out, he comes running over (usually to nibble on the corners) but hey, the thought's there! 

How are you all with writing christmas cards? Are you the sort of person with the same one-liners or do you take a little more time over it? And tell me all about your wrapping themes, I'd love to compare! 

Love Sophie and Batman Xx

Thankful Thursday: A Cosy Home This Christmas.

Thursday is here my thankful friends, and despite missing the last couple of weeks posts, I've come to the conclusion that I don't really put my heart into these as much as I'd like to. I panic on a Thursday evening that I haven't written that when I do, they become disjointed and lacking in depth. After seeing that my gal, Leona, has quite probably been on the same wavelength as me, recently changed her Happy Things Thursday to a monthly thing, and in the spirit of not regurgitating the same old shit about how I'm thankful for wooly hats (duh-I always am), I'll be saving up all the real life loveliness for a monthly post!

Something that of course I'm grateful for at this time of year is precious hours with my friends and family, I thought I'd share with you all a few official christmas decorating photos! Batman helped of course! Actually he mainly got himself covered in glitter and chewed the ribbons on 4 out of 9 of my new decorations. *shakes fists*

Every year Harps does the lights...

Whilst I made some delicious hot chocolates! Seriously amazing!

Traditional and homemade is this years theme- red, white, green
and a little brown.

I love this 3d snowflake from Wilko. 

Batman busy jingling some balls..and chewing the ribbons...

Ahh this time of year makes my little heart swell with joy. How is everybody? Feeling stressed or full of festive cheer? I was pretty stressed a couple of days ago! Have you all decorated the house yet? I've made some more paper chains but haven't started on my snowflakes, to the scissors I go!

Love Sophie (and a sparkly Batman) Xx

Festive Planning: Greedy Fat Piggy Chocolate Cake Recipe.

Feeds: 8-10 
Time to make: 45 mins
Time to bake: 35 mins

Ingredients: 

For Cake: 140g plain chocolate, 100ml milk, 2tbsp cocoa powder, 140g unsalted butter (extra for greasing), 140g light muscovado sugar, 3 eggs separated, 4tbsp of soured cream/creme fraiche, 200g plain flour, 1tsp bicarb soda.

For Icing: 140g plain chocolate, 40g cocoa powder, 4tbsp soured cream/creme fraiche, 1tbsp golden syrup, 40g unsalted butter, 4tbsp water, 200g icing sugar.

I would recommend that all chocolate used in this be at least 50% cocoa solids.-It is christmas after all!

1) Preheat oven to 160c/325f/gasmark 3- Grease and line 2 20cm sandwich tins.

2) Break up the chocolate and place with the milk and cocoa powder in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of hot water. Heat gently, stirring, until melted and smooth. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

3) Meanwhile, in a large bowl- beat together the butter and muscovado sugar until pale and fluffy. Beat in the egg yolks, then add the sour cream/creme fraiche and melted chocolate mixture. Sift in the flour and bicarb, the fold slowly and evenly. 

4) In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until stiff enough to hold firm peaks. Fold into the entire mixture lightly. 

5) Divide the mixture between the prepared cake tins and smooth the surfaces. Bake in the oven on the middle shelf for about 35 minutes- until risen and firm to the touch. 

6) Cool in the tins for 10 minutes, then turn on a wire rack to cool completely. 

7) Whilst cooling, you can get the frosting ready (and start on that mountain of washing up) by placing the chocolate, cocoa powder, soured cream/creme fraiche, golden syrup, butter and water into a saucepan and heat gently until melted. 

8) Remove from the heat and sift in the icing sugar, stirring until smooth and glossy. Leave to cool, stirring occasionally until it thickens and holds its shape ala festive chocolate mountain. 

9) Split the cakes in half horizontally with a sharp knife until you have 4 even layers (make sure your cake is completely cooled). Sandwich the layers together with about a third of the icing. Spread the remainder over the top of your fancy cake and if you like, around the sides. 



10) Dust with icing sugar for that festive feeling and pop on a pretty plate! Dig in!

Love Sophie Xx

Festive Planning: The Most Delicious Mince Pie Recipe...

Feeds:

The recipe says 20 but I made 12 LARGE ones.

Takes to Make:

45 minutes.

Takes to Bake:

20 minutes. 200c/400f/GM6.

You'll Need:
For the pastry
350g (12oz) plain flour
225g (8oz) butter, chilled and cut into cubes, plus more for greasing the tin
100g (3½oz) icing-sugar
finely grated zest of ½ orange
1 tbsp double cream (you may need a drop more) 

For the filling
75g (2¾oz) fresh cranberries (I chucked a couple of blueberries in there too!)
1 tbsp orange juice
275g (9¾oz) good-quality mincemeat
finely grated zest of ½ orange
1 tbsp whisky
2 tbsp soft light-brown sugar (you may use less)

1) Make the pastry a little while ahead to give it a chance to rest. Preheat the oven. Mix the flour and cubes of butter until breadcrumby, add the icing sugar and the zest and with COLD hands begin to form a ball. Add the cream a little at a time and be careful not to overwork the dough.

2) Take the dough out and carefully work into a flat disc, cover with clingfilm and leave to chill.

3) Meanwhile, cook the cranberries, orange juice, 1tsp brown sugar, the whisky, and zest on a medium heat until the cranberries soften. Help them along by crushing them with the back of a spoon. Keep cooking until the liquid thickens and turn up onto a high heat for the last couple of minutes, cooking off most of the liquid.

4) Add to the mincemeat and add sugar to taste. Pop it all in the fridge until ready to use.

5) Butter your pan well (or use two pans!) and take the pastry out of the fridge. Allow to soften, but remember not to let it get warm! 

6) Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface to the thickness of a pound coin (mine were a little thicker!) Cut out 12-20 circles slightly larger than your tin, gently press the circles into the holes, making sure there aren't any gaps!

7) Fill up your little pies about 3/4 way with your mincemeat/fruity filling and cut out 12-20 stars that are about the same size (if not a little larger) than your circles were.

8) Using one small egg, give the little treats a wash and pop in the oven for about 20 minutes- Keep an eye on the though, they'll pretty quickly go from delicious golden brown to dirt colour...

9) Remove everything from the oven and leave to cool for a few minutes (not too long though!) Using a knife, carefully prise them out of their tins, give them a magical dust with icing sugar and leave to cool fully.

10) Once no longer burning temperature, pour on a little cream, snuggle down and enjoy.

Love Sophie Xx