As the Uni term drew to a rather early close, my course mates
and I found ourselves so overwhelmed by festive cheer and goodwill that some
kind of course Christmas fest seemed inevitable. Sure enough, in stepped domestic goddess
Sarah and the elf to her Mrs Santa, Olivia, and suggested a Christmas dinner. Knowing that my cooking skills are limited, I
thought the best I could offer would be a dessert. For Christmas inspiration I turned to The Hummingbird Bakery Cake Days, my new
birthday book, and found Gingerbread cupcakes.
Although they sounded a bit strange, the prospect of two desserts in one
was an offer I could not refuse and seemed in-keeping with Christmas generosity. It is, after all, the thought that counts.
It turned out that these cupcakes require a lot of
ingredients, including three types of spice, golden syrup and black treacle. The kitchen smelt like a gingerbread house,
which was delicious. Once they had
cooled, I mixed some cream cheese icing and waited for the Christmas muse to drop
by and explain to me how to use the load of red, gold and silver
edible glitter I had at my disposal. I tried a few
experiments, but the glitter was hard to control and I had no clear idea of what I was trying to do. In the end, I mixed half of the
gold into the icing and added a lot of red food dye. Just as I set down the bottle of food dye and
surveyed the 'happy red' icing, the Christmas muse suggested making snowy white snowman faces. Sigh. I carried on regardless, icing them with the
red icing and my shiny new pallet knife (such an unappreciated tool unless one is without it), before melting some white chocolate and carefully spelling out ‘Merry
Christmas’. On closer inspection, the
glitter had disappeared into the icing, suggesting that further work on the use of edible
glitter may be a future project. I put
them on a tray and braved the cold and embarrassment of carrying a tray of
cupcakes round the chilly streets.
Like fairies in a pantomime, Sarah and
Olivia produced a delicious Christmas dinner, including four kinds of meat,
homemade Yorkshire puddings (unheard of where I’m from), potato in three
different forms and enough vegetables to supply a family of rabbits throughout the
festive season. With everyone full to
bursting, it seemed that just as at my family birthday party the desserts
would go unloved. However, students are
hungrier people than proper grown-ups, and gradually the cakes began to dwindle
in numbers. They did taste like
gingerbread and the cream cheese and chocolate added a bit of sweetness. Although the food colouring meant the icing
was not as tasty as that which the Hummingbird recipe usually produces, it was not particularly noticeable. I even managed to convince
people to take them home, suggesting that the unusual combination of biscuit and cake was a success.
If you are looking for an original idea for a Christmas
dessert, these work really well. Just
make sure you consult the Christmas muse about your decoration well in advance
of adding any red food dye.
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