There's something inside you, its hard to explain

Christmas in our family is usually a fairly quiet one. We spend Christmas morning running around catching up with all of our extended family before we all separate off to our own houses for Christmas dinner; when I'm left with just my Mum and Dad for the rest of the day. I love our little family Christmas day- we play a lot of scrabble, eat far too much food and see who's first to fall asleep in front of the telly, but as soon as Christmas Day is out of the way we need a bit of something to escape the house (and keep us away from the Quality Street for a few hours). 

And so, yesterday we ended up at Chester Zoo. Its somewhere I go quite often when I'm at home as its only a few miles away, and I could never ever get bored of it. This time, the tiger cubs were the main attraction- we watched the two of them fighting over a bone and tricking each other into letting go of it... its great to see that family arguments come as standard at Christmas across the whole of the animal kingdom!

Believe it or not, this was one of the cubs... slightly bigger than your average kitten!

We had a great little time, and it was nice to get out of the house and have a bit of a wander about to clear the cobwebs before returning to our scrabble board and tins of chocolate in the evening. Tis the season and all that!

Nightcall- London Grammar

Throw your arms around the world at Christmas time

In the spirit of all things festive, I decided to get myself in the Christmas spirit by indulging in a spot of baking for this month's 'winter wonderland' themed Iron Cupcake competition. Usually I don't bake for the competition as I help out a lot with the running of the evening but this time I decided to challenge myself and take a break from helping. I spent ages trying to come up with a fun idea that wouldn't be too difficult (I'm not the most confident of bakers when it comes to all things technical!) and it all paid off as I ended up winning the prize for the cake that best fit the theme! I'm a bit too proud of myself now!

If you fancy having a go at making my reindeer cupcakes yourself then you're in luck- I'm going to share the recipe with you lovely people. 

Reindeer cupcakes
(Makes about 15)

For the sponge:

140g unsalted butter
200g light brown sugar
60g treacle
60g golden syrup
3 large eggs
300g self raising flour
1tsp ground ginger
1tsp ground nutmeg
1tsp salt
240ml milk (warmed)

For the salted caramel buttercream:

400g icing sugar
200g butter
1/2 tbsp golden syrup
1/2 tbsp treacle

Preheat oven to 190C and line baking trays with about 15 paper cases

Beat the butter and sugar together until light and creamy. Add the treacle, syrup and eggs and mix again until the mixture is all combined.

Sift the flour, spices and salt and then add half of this to the bowl with the other ingredients, mixing well. Then add half of the warm milk and mix again. Repeat until all of the flour and milk has been incorporated into the mixture.

Add the mixture into baking cases and bake for about 20-25 minutes. When cooked, remove the cakes from the oven and leave to cool on a wire rack.

To make the buttercream, sift the icing sugar into a mixing bowl, add the butter, syrup, treacle and salt and mix well. (You may want to taste a little at this point and check it has the right amount of salt in for you- I added a little more to make sure the flavour really came through!)

Pipe the icing and decorate the cakes with pretzels, smarties and icing to turn them into reindeer!

Enjoy!

They're really not too difficult to make at all (believe me, if I can do it anybody can!) and they taste lovely and Christmassy. Let me know if you give them a try yourself!

Do They Know It's Christmas- Band Aid 20

Everyone at work judged me for saying I prefer this version to the original... but I just love the fact that I recognise everybody in the video (hello Busted!) and it reminds me of being 14 again)

A beautiful sight, we're happy tonight

dress, top (underneath), jumper: Topshop

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! Mine was a quiet affair but still very enjoyable and full of food (naturally...) so I'm currently finding that 90% of the clothes I brought home with me are currently redundant- not sure what possessed me to bring home a load of body con and tight fitted clothes to wear over Christmas. Madness. 

Here's a few quick snaps of my Christmas Day dress courtesy of Mama T (does anybody else have a little family tradition of a new outfit for Christmas too?). I love the speckled fabric on this dress, and being me I've teamed it with my trusty collared top (I do own alternatives, honest, but never seem to bother to photograph those!) and the old favourite burgundy jumper even made an appearance when it came to braving the great outdoors for a post-dinner walk/waddle.

I've been on a few pretty muddy wanders with my family over the last week, but silly Kaz has had a few camera related incidents of late- forgotten memory card, no battery, forgotten to take the camera out altogether- so I didn't get to capture any of the lovely wintery days, instead being able to give my full attention to not falling over in the muddy swamps my Dad insisted on us wading through.

Our cheeks are nice and rosy, and comfy and cosy are we

On Friday, after what felt like the longest week in all eternity, I finally got to skip out of work shouting "ITS CHRISTMAAAAAAAS" in a Noddy Holder fashion. After one traumatic walk to the station whilst carrying about a zillion bags filled with my clothes and Christmas presents, followed by two hours sat next to the moaniest girl I've ever had the displeasure of sharing a train table with, then a quick run around Liverpool with Papa Smurf to pick up some Christmas presents for my Mum, I was finally home for the holidays. 

I'd mentioned to my Mum before I got home that I wanted to make some mince pies to stuff my face with give out to a few people, and explained that last year I'd made the mincemeat from scratch so would like to do the same again. My Mum, being a very tidy and house proud sort of person cowers in fear whenever she hears that I want to set foot in the kitchen as I can be a bit of a whirlwind (I'm not sure she's ever quite forgotten the time when my friend and I were about 16, drank loads of rum and then decided to bake... the result was a big sloppy pile of cake mixture all over my Mum's floor. And walls. And cupboards.). so I arrived home to find a little jar of mincemeat waiting on the kitchen counter. Clearly she had visions of raisins dotting the ceiling and orange peel covering the floor and decided she didn't want to be subjected to that kind of mess. I was a bit gutted as I'd wanted to try this mincemeat recipe  that Rachael posted on her lovely blog, Made up of little things but they still turned out pretty well in the end. I'll just have to make sure I get round to making some in my own kitchen next year so I can do it properly! 

If you want to cheat like me and whip up some semi-homemade mince pies whilst making a mess of somebody else's kitchen then I used this mince pie recipe from the BBC food website. Its still not too late to get some ready before Santa comes down your chimney tomorrow night!