There’s nothing more I love about Christmas than being a little lazy… I’m not one for darting around all the shops, stressing about buying some ill thought out gift that will end up in the back of some drawer.
Oh, and food too! Food at Christmas time, especially lazy food, is always guaranteed to make me happy. Christmas basically gives me a scroll full of excuses to gobble everything that’ll fit in my mouth!
Over the last few years, I’ve really started to think of ways to make cute little treats when having special occasions (you might remember my gin and tonic waffles I created once).
Anyway, rambling aside, these are some of my favourites I’m going to be rocking up to the Christmas table with this year… (though, to be honest, I make the snowman all the time – even when it’s not Christmas 😉).
1. ) Homemade Snowman’s bubble bath
If you love hot chocolate, you’ll love this, plus it has to be the easiest and cutest little treats to prepare. Best of all, homemade hot chocolate is really easy to make (which I didn’t realise until about 2 years ago).
How to prep: Grab yourself 3 chunky marshmallows and a little chocolate sauce. Paint on a little face (trust me when I say it won’t be your best artistic work on your first attempt) and pop in either some straws or sweet breadsticks for arms and legs. If you want to make an extra special nose, just grab a little tube of orange icing and squish on a little carrot nose.
Pour yourself a cup of whole milk and heat in a pan until warm, grab yourself a good quality bar of chocolate that’s a little higher in cocoa than milk chocolate. When the milk is piping hot, keep popping in a few chunks which will melt in about 10 seconds. Keep tasting and adding chocolate to suit your chocolate desires. This is also the same with white chocolate, though it’ll take much less time to melt in the pan.
Serve: Once all poured into the cup, rest your marshmallow snowman on top of your hot chocolate and serve. The mallow will begin to melt after a few minutes so serve it fast.
2.) Sloppy snowmen sugar cookies
When I was little, I used to be fearful of my snowmen melting, to such a state that I would only make smaller snowmen that I could put in the freezer once the snow began to thaw. Thankfully, I’ve got over that fear!
How to prep: Anyway, I digress – to make the sloppy snowmen firstly you’ll need to bake some cookies (or cheat and buy some store bought plain cookies…. shhhhh, I won’t tell). Grab yourself about 350g of plain flow, a few pinches of bicarbonate of soda 250g of ‘real’ butter and about 300-330g of caster sugar, grab 1 egg and some vanilla/cinnamon or rose extract to flavour (about 1 teaspoon).
Mix all the dry ingredients together and do the same for the wet ingredients, then mix them all together and make cookie size discs to heat in an oven for about 10-12 minutes. Bake at 180-190c.
After leaving to cool for 5 minutes, buy a tube (or make) some white icing to coat the top of the cookie, once done, plonk a marshmallow on top and decorate with decorative icing tubes and in black and orange.
Serve: Whenever you want!
3.) Christmas Tree Cupcakes
Possibly one of the easiest cupcakes to decorate. Just like a real Christmas tree, you have total creative control. Go crazy with the colours or keep it super simple.
How to prep: Firstly, make your cupcakes (or again, buy some undecorated ones from a bakery). Grab 120g of butter, 120g of caster sugar, 2 eggs, vanilla, cinnamon or rose extract and 120g of self-raising flour. Add the butter and sugar into one big bowl and mix around, then pop in the eggs and the rest of the wet ingredients. Once done, start to fold in the self-raising flour and add use a spoon to test the consistency of the mixture. It should be gooey and gloopy.
Pop the mixture into paper cupcakes and throw into the oven at about 170-180c for about 12-17 minutes. After golden brown, remove from the oven and allow to cool.
For the buttercream icing, you’ll need 150g of butter, 300g of icing sugar and a tiny dash of whole milk and food colouring (green in this instance). Beat the butter in a bowl and begin to slowly add the icing sugar, 1/3 at a time – keep beating until totally smooth and bright green! Finally, grab a piping bag and a star nozzle and let your imagination go wild (no Christmas tree is ever perfect).
To decorate and serve: use edible glitter, coloured edible balls, hundreds and thousands or just keep it nice and simple. Serve whenever you want.
4.) Irish Ginger dippers
This one is solely for the adults!
How to prep: After making the hot chocolate that I mention for the snowman’s bubble bath (no. 1), you’ll want to add a few good glugs of Baileys Irish cream. Make it as strong as you see fit.
to make the gingerbread themselves, I always follow the BBC food guide on this one – it has never faulted me and it’s pretty quick (about 20 minutes).
Serve: Make sure the gingerbread is ready before your hot chocolate because as soon as it’s ready, you’ll want to serve it piping hot.
5.) Arctic Penguin Porridge
Probably one of the easiest breakfasts to make, I’ve made this quite a few times for my nephew but it’s totally for adults too – there’s no shame in loving it! After warming up your bowl of
How to prep: After warming up your bowl of porridge (with whole milk), grab yourself some blueberries and satsumas or tangerines. Place them quickly and neatly in the shape of a penguin with its little flippers on the bottom. If you want to make it sweetened, dust the top of your porridge with icing sugar to create a little snow.
If you can’t get lots of blueberries, make a Rudolph porridge instead ❤️
Serve: Whilst still hot.
6.) Ho Ho pancakes
For some reason, I always end up burning pancakes… though, Yaya is a dab hand at making them. The only thing that this means is that I’m totally at his mercy for when he feels like making them.
How to prep: I have no shame in saying that Nigella has one of the tastiest recipes for pancakes and I’ve never deviated away from it. Best of all, it can be all ready in less than 15 minutes.
How to decorate and serve: Once your pancakes are ready, slap them on a plate and make Santa’s beard out of a little (or a lot) of thick cream. Finally, chop strawberries in half and place them on the plate to make his distinctive red hat. For the best eyes, use blueberries, but you can also use the tops of the strawberries too. Serve straight away.
7.) Sippable snowmen
Less of a recipe but nonetheless really cool,
How to prep: I’ve made these snowmen with everything from glass Coca-Cola bottles, Orangina bottles and retro style milk bottles. All of them work, it just depends on what body shape you want your snowman to have.
One your bottle is ready, stick a few chocolate buttons with icing sugar to the bottle or, if you prefer, use real buttons for decoration. If you don’t have a tiny scarf to hand, head to the local supermarket and Christmas and buy yourself an Innocent Smoothie, they come with small knitted hats (for charity) and look perfect perched on top of the bottle.
Finally, prep a snowman’s head with a chunky marshmallow and decorate with tubes of coloured icing.
Serve: Pour in the milk (maybe with a little cinnamon) and Slot a straw straight through his head and serve.
8.) Strawberry Santas
A fun and really easy dessert to make. It’ll take you no time at all.
How to prep: Source a few punnets of strawberries, wash and cut them sideways so that they can still stand up (as in the picture). After cutting, grab yourself some clotted or thick cream and dollop a small spoon in between both pieces of the strawberry and a little on the very top of it. Once completed, use a seed, or a little icing to make Santa’s eyes.
Serve: Serve immediately to make a little Santa party on a plate!
9.) Turkey Curry Penguin balls
Does anyone else still make a turkey curry on Boxing Day? You know, to use up all the leftovers from the day before? Anyway, if you do, you can still make a really festive accompaniment with some cute penguin balls!
How to prep: Firstly, cook some rice and keep it nice and sticky as you’ll want to roll it after. When cooling, grab yourself some seaweed paper and cut to create a ‘half moon’ shape to make the head of the penguin. Use the leftovers of the paper to make some little eyes. Finally, chop a piece of sweetcorn in half to create the cutest little beak.
How to serve: With a bowl of turkey curry so they can dive into.
10.) Salted caramel Christmas tree crepes
Crepes are pretty easy to make and take a matter of minutes to cook. A perfect special treat on Christmas day.
How to prep: Again, the best recipes I’ve ever used for pancakes and crepes are from Nigella, Read the full ratios on what to do, and include here.
Once the crepes are golden brown, slap two on a plate and fold into triangles, layer one slightly above the top of the other to make a Christmas tree shape. Once completed chop up a green fruit like a kiwi and place all over the crepes. You can also sprinkle with a little icing sugar and finish off with a few generous streaks of salted caramel sauce. For the eyes, use a grape chopped in half and pop on some pomegranates to create baubles across the tree.
Serve: Immediately
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