Baking bonanza...

This weekend we had fun creating some new Christmas designs and also managed to fit in an unexpected spot of baking.  We have a couple of sure-fire recipes that everyone in the family loves and, since we were all at home this weekend, we made a batch of each.

Many years ago we were given a flapjack recipe by a family friend and it has proved to be consistently reliable and a firm favourite.  Flapjacks are especially good for younger kids to attempt as they are so straightforward but on this occasion I was assisted by my teenage son, Jazz.  You can just see his hand stirring the mixture in the photograph!

If you would like to try them yourself, here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

• 100g / 4oz butter
• 50g / 2oz brown sugar
• 2tbsp golden syrup
• 125g / 5oz porridge oats
• 25g / 1oz plain flour
• Milk and white chocolate to decorate, if required

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 180°C (160°C for fan assisted) / gas mark 4 and grease tin.  We also lined the tin with buttered greaseproof paper to make it easier to remove the flapjacks once they were baked.
• Place the butter, sugar and golden syrup in a saucepan over a low heat, stirring until fully melted and well mixed.  Remove from the heat.
• Mix the porridge oats and flour together in a separate bowl.  Add the cooled syrup mixture and stir together until completely combined.
• Pour the mixture into the prepared tin, smoothing flat with the back of a spoon.  Then bake for 15-20 minutes until golden brown.  Leave to cool before removing from the tin.
• If you would like to decorate the flapjacks with chocolate as we did, melt the chocolates in separate bowls in the microwave (try 10 seconds at a time, stirring between, and stop when it has fully melted).  Dip a fork into the melted chocolate and use it to drizzle across the cooled brownies.  When the chocolate has set, cut into squares.

We also made a batch of raspberry and white chocolate chunk cookies.  These do require a hunt around the shops for a tube of Carnation evaporated milk but it is well worth the effort!  The recipe is found here.

All this delicious baking gave us the fuel we needed to start work on our Christmas range.  Here is a sneak preview of a couple of designs we had fun making this weekend!

These fabric covered festive badges come in a rang of sizes and will be available on our Etsy shop nearer to the Yuletide season, so watch this space!  For all those who, like us, are a bit partial to gingerbread men at Christmas, we have developed a kit that contains all the bits and bobs you need to decorate three cardboard gingerbread folk - they make great decorations or extra large gift tags!

We hope you had a great weekend too!  LouLou & Will x