CHRISTMAS GINGERBREAD

As much as we love a classic gingerbread man, we've been experimenting with the decoration this year. A star shaped cutter isn't just for stars - use white icing in symmetrical patterns to create snowflakes. We also made reindeers: use a gingerbread man cutter, then turn it upside down to decorate. The legs become antlers, the arms become ears and the head is the nose. Use chocolate for the antlers and fur, red fondant icing for the nose, and some smarties for eyes.  A few of these in a bag with ribbon would make a fab gift (check out our other ideas here)... but we're not sure they'll survive long enough to be given away! 

Another Christmas gift idea, and this one is one of our faves so far. There's nothing better on a cold December evening than a steaming mug of mulled wine. This instant mix looks pretty, and is insanely quick to make.  INSTANT MULLED WINE 

You will need:

a bottle of red wine

an orange

85g demerara sugar

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp mixed spice

1/2 tsp cinnamon

cloves

a cinnamon stick

The next in our series of Christmas tutorials and we're making decorations! 

You will need:

a square piece of paper

scissors

glue

thread (for hanging)

1. Fold your paper in half diagonally (corner to corner), and then in half again. 2. Now you need to cut. Make sure you have the paper the right way: you need to cut through the open edge, and not the central crease. 3. Cut up in parallel lines - you can cut as many as you want, the fewer the cuts the more simple your decoration will look. 4. Don't cut all the way through - stop about 1cm from the central crease. 5. Open up your paper. Start at the centre - add a little glue to the corner of the central triangle, then roll it over and stick it to the one on the other side.  6. Turn your decoration over and do the same to the next layer. Repeat this - glue, stick, turn over - until you've finished! Yay!