Holiday Almanac December 11: Wrapping Gifts & Gingerbread Pumpkin Cupcakes

For more information on the Holiday Almanac, go here. Or to see what I've been up to on past Holiday Almanac days, check out this page.

Gingerbread pumpkin cupcake with vanilla buttercream, garnished with a sugared cranberry. 

I love wrapping gifts. I get really sad when I buy something for someone that needs to be put in a bag, or if I can't find a box that fits the thing that I bought, because I seriously enjoy wrapping gifts, especially if I have a whole lot to do. (Fun fact: the first year we were married, I made stocking for Judson and myself. I filled them both and presented them as though Santa had left them... and I was so excited about the goodies inside that I wrapped every single thing in the stockings. Christmas took a long time that year.) Anyway, I find wrapping gifts very zen and I love doing them up in simple papers and then stacking them up under the tree, so I was excited that today, my last vacation day off before Christmas, I would be able to get a jump on that task. (And seriously: it's a good thing I'm putting a dent in our gift wrap stash-- after spending last winter working at a stationery store, we have a lot of gift wrap, ribbons, tags, and tissue, and it feels good to put it to use.)

Decorate with white chocolate stars, Candied cherries, sliced almonds & currants, or sugared cranberries.

The gifts I've bought are now wrapped up and nestled under the tree, and I'm rapidly checking things off my Christmas to-do list, which is a great feeling... but nothing beats the smell of warm gingerbread and spices that's currently wafting through the house from the kitchen. I know, I know: cupcakes are played out and boring these days, but if you think so, it's only because you haven't had these ones. I whipped up the gingerbread pumpkin cupcakes today from a 'from-scratch' recipe in the box (called, mysteriously, Colonial Gingerbread) because I couldn't find any gingerbread cake mix at the shops. But if you can, then you're welcome to make this with cake mix, as Ms. Crocker originally intended. However, this colonial gingerbread recipe requires only one bowl, cooks in 20 minutes, and is so delicious I'd really encourage you to make it. From the quantities below, you'll get about 9 cupcakes or 2 small loaves of gingerbread-- note that this cake is delicious by itself and you could serve them as muffins without frosting, or feel free to frost them up as per the below if you're looking for something a little more festive.

The verdict:

5 spoons out of five. Pumpkin is incredibly hard to find in the UK and insanely expensive in cans when you do find it, so I don't like to waste it on recipes I'm not sure will be good. But these cupcakes did not disappoint and were totally worth cracking open my last can of pumpkin purée for. These are a perfect party food and honestly I wish I had made them for our party last week, but alas, I didn't know about them then. Oh well, here we are and they taste delicious. Enjoy!

The recipe:

Colonial Gingerbread Pumpkin Cupcakes

the directions:

Preheat oven to 165C/325F.
Line a muffin tin with paper liners.
Into large bowl, combine all ingredients.
Beat well until blended but not completely smooth (a few lumps will help it rise).
Fill muffin cups 2/3 full with batter and bake 20 minutes or until a pick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Cool and frost with vanilla buttercream frosting and decorate as you wish.

the ingredients:

1 c flour
½ c black treacle or molasses
¼ c + 2 tbsp buttermilk
¼ c sugar
Heaping ¼ c pumpkin
½ tsp baking soda
1 ½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp ginger
½ tsp cinnamon
½ tsp nutmeg
½ tsp ground cloves
¼ tsp salt
1 batch vanilla buttercream frosting (I used this one)

Holiday Almanac December 10: Shopping & Answer Cake

For more information on the Holiday Almanac, go here. Or to see what I've been up to on past Holiday Almanac days, check out this page.

this is (part of) the christmas section at the shop around the corner from our flat. things i don't understand on this shelf include: all of the things.

Today's Almanac has me going to the shops 'early in the afternoon to avoid crowds' and stocking up on all the necessary groceries I'll need for the rest of the baking that this month still has in store (someone help me). It's a work day, so I made a quick pit stop at the supermarket on my lunch break to pick up a few needed things, but if I'm being honest, it was more because the Almanac told me I had to than because I actually needed any of the groceries. Shopping in a city where you don't own a car is always a bit different than shopping with a car, because you can't buy as many things and you have to go to the grocery a lot more often, but I make it work... and when we need a big batch of heavy staples like flour, sugar, olive oil and wine, Judson just goes instead.

And although I hate going to the grocery store when it's crowded, there's something exciting about going to a British supermarket this time of year. I've lived in Scotland long enough to know all the 'new-to-me' things that the shop has to offer year-round, but this is only my third Christmas here, and every year I find another strange new Christmas food I'm dying to try (this year's is brandy butter and pourable custard. WHAT DO YOU DO WITH THEM??). Our first Christmas here I discovered how Scots associate Stilton with Christmas and it is still odd to me. Like, this time of year in the average supermarket, you can buy a dinner-plate-sized wheel of Stilton for £3, which, although I love cheese, still seems a bit excessive. When I asked a friend about this recently, her response was 'I don't know why it's so much more popular now. I mean, I personally don't feel the need to swap out my cheeses based on the season, as I love all cheeses no matter the season, but maybe for some people it's important?' So there you go. If I can find a use for brandy butter, I'll let you know!

The other instructions for the day were to make an 'Answer Cake,' some kind of cake that involved a cake mix, frosting, and the pan all in one box. Obviously I couldn't find one of those, so I whipped up a quick half-recipe of  this cake and it wasn't half-bad.

File christmas puds under the list of british Christmas foods i don't understand, they look like this, but this is not a real christmas pud, just an ornament made to look like one hanging on our tree.

So consider this one done. I got the things I needed for tomorrow's treat (one I'm pretty excited about, if I do say so!), and even if I still have to hit the grocery store twice more before the end of the weekend, it still helped get things a little bit more done today.

The verdict:

4 spoons out of five. I hate going to the grocery at Christmas time because it's always so crowded and busy, but doing it early in the day really does help... if only my work schedule allowed that more often! And as for the 'Answer Cake,' it really wasn't too shabby, either. 

Holiday Almanac December 9: Decorating & Appetiser Puffs

For more information on the Holiday Almanac, go here. Or to see what I've been up to on past Holiday Almanac days, check out this page.

In Eleanor's family, the Christmas tree was never decorated until Christmas Eve, after the kids went to bed, and it was a silver aluminum tree with a coloured wheel underneath that spun to turn the tree different colours.

But when I was a little kid, we lived a few hours away from both sets of my grandparents, and so we always spent Christmas in St. Pete with them. Because of this, my parents would celebrate Christmas early with us as a family before we traveled, so every year a few days before Christmas we would bake a 'Happy Birthday, Jesus!' cake, open all of our gifts to each other, and then drive late at night to Eleanor's house, where we would stay for the duration of the Christmas holidays. Consequently, we always put our tree up a lot earlier than Eleanor, but never before December 1, as my parents always thought that was tacky.

Judson and I have largely stuck with the 'after December 1' rule for our tree trimming (and I'm proud to say we've had a real live tree every year that we've been married except for our first year in Scotland, when we had no money and no ornaments to put on one), but this year we broke the rule and put the tree up two days after Thanksgiving... oops.

Anyway, decorating is one of my favourite Christmas traditions with Judson-- we light a bunch of wintry candles, put on old-timey Christmas music, and then hang ornaments (and make fun of the ugly ones we each treasure) and put out our wee Christmas village... and afterward we drink mulled wine and watch Christmas Vacation for the millionth time. It's always fun and it's rapidly becoming my favourite part of December.

2010.

2015.

So since today's directions have me 'replacing broken [ornaments] and checking tree lights,' here are some photos of this year's decorations... and since the Almanac asked me to make 'Appetiser Puffs' but did not include directions on how to do so, here are some photos of something we'll just call Appetiser Puffs (mushroom filling wrapped in puff pastry dough) which I made over the weekend for our party. My dad devised the original recipe for these, and this is the umpteen millionth time I've made these mushroom turnovers-- ahem, Appetiser Puffs-- and they always turn out delicious. In fact, I even have a photo of Judson brushing egg wash over a batch of these to take to a holiday party on Christmas in 2010, ages before we got engaged back when neither of us had any idea how to cook and we were just such babies.

However, I can't find my dad's recipe anywhere, so I used  this recipe with the following modifications: shallots instead of onions, olive oil instead of butter, a splash of vermouth, fresh thyme instead of dried, 4 sliced garlic cloves, and a lot less sour cream. They were great! 

The verdict:

5 spoons out of five. I love decorating for Christmas, and these mushroom turnovers are one of my favourite parts of Christmas. Make yourself some mushroom turnovers and get those Christmas ornaments out!