The Cuckoo's been a busy bird!

Here's a bit of our Christmassy stuff, makes and bakes.

I love how Mini is waving at me in this photograph. Shame it's blurry.

Photographing Christmas trees is a bit tricky isn't it! I really must learn how to use a camera properly. 

Thank you to Bunny Mummy for sending me this owl to cheer me up when I was blue.
What a delight! Love it.

I made these decorations years ago, this one needs crutches.

Of course I had to make a set of these stockings

I realised last year that I have a love / hate opinion of tinsel. 

I think it is tacky and cheap yet I
L:O:V:E
the twinklyness of it and how it transports me back to the happy Christmases of my childhood.

So this year we have tinsel and I am enjoying it. To hell with bad taste!!!

One poorly baby who should have been in bed hours ago!

Polar express

Nativity scene

The Shepards and the Kings have little lit up lanterns

The details in this Nativity set that Granny gave us are amazing.

I have wrapped a trillion presents

I made a last minute Christmas cake as I thought my Cousin in Law was doing one again this year. She made a really sweet one with marzipan penguins on it last year.

Can you see the two eggs at the bottom are a deeper yellow?
They are from my Yicks

All wrapped up and ready to be baked and then fed booze in a binge drinking style.

I had fun decorating the cake. Just as I finished it I went on a cheeky blog surf and saw that my bloddie Ashley had decorated hers in much the same way! Great minds hey?

The bunting came from the lovely Jooles of Sew Sweet Violet fame. She has a wonderful Etsy shop but it is now closed for Christmas.

So the Christmas cake DID look nice for a few hours.......but.........two naughty little urchins decided to pick off some of the sparkly holly leaves and gobble them up!

Little devils. I have a bit of repair work to undertake now. Not that I'm stressing too much. I didn't get the royal icing to the perfect piping consistency and I am out of practice so my piped lines are a bit wibbly. Therefore I'm not overly worried about the damage. So long as the cake tastes nice.

Little Cuckoo made Christmas tree biscuits to give to his preschool teachers. I helped him a bit but for the most part he did them all himself and worked really hard. Especially so for Licola (Nicola) who is his bestest favourite.

Mini helped us by rubbing all the icing into the floor.

I felt like Little Red Riding Hood with my basket full of baked goodies
to take to Preschool

Now I must thank pinterest for the following ideas, the Christmas tree cookies, the beribboned plate and the melted snowman biscuits.

The pink trees sold really quickly at the School Fayre but the melted snowman ones didn't do very well at the prescool party.

English coconut macaroons for the Knit Club party in my bon bon dish
 which was a gift for me when Mini was born.

AND NOW FOR THE FATHER CHRISTMAS LEG CAKES!!! which I mentioned in a previous post and a few of you asked for more info.

I was certain the idea cake from Bakerella but I can't find the actual post and now I'm wondering if
I saw them elswhere.

Who would like a quick, ill photographed tutorial?

You would?

OK here you go.

You will need fondant icing in red, white and black with some tylo powder or gum tragacanth mixed in to set the icing hard. A little royal icing. A knife and a spoon and a pair of hands.

Roll out a long thin sausage and chop it up into lengths about 3cm long

Roll a blob of white icing into a flattened ball to stick on to the leg
with some royal icing

Now roll out a larger black ball for the boot

Shape it into a flat oval

Press your spoon in to the the black icing about a third of the way in.
I used my babies weaning spoon as it had a thick curven edge
that worked nicely.

Stick the boot on with a dollop of royal icing

Make 48 and be warned you will end up with a numb brain.

My top tip is to allow the legs to harden before sticking the white cuff and the boot on.

The pipe butter cream onto your cupcake and stick the legs in at jaunty angles. Then sprinkle with sugar or coconut and edible glitter (of course).

Take them to the fayre where they will sell swiftly and make up for the fact that the melted snowman biscuits didn't sell well at all (oh the prickling shame!)

Little got the baking bug and so he and his elder brother made "Jam hearts". I have told him they are tarts but he still calls them hearts. It's sweet, so I'll correct him no more.

The best bit for them is playing with the off cuts of pastry.

I made some mince pies to take to WI which I then couldn't go to. So I did the honourable thing and ate them all up myself. What a pig.

I was making these sugar stars as a gift but they were a real faff and I gave up with only half a kilner jar full.

Little and I also made a huge batch of coconut ice which I managed to eat most of without even noticing. I swear I'll need dentures in the new year.

Did you spot a bit of crochet there?

I got on the band wagon and made eight jar cosies as gifts for Big's teachers and for a couple of my friends. I first saw them here and obviously had to copy. There seems to be little that Vanessa does that doesn't give me the making urge and turn me into a blatant copy cat. 

Yes, I have been busy, I'll show you the rest after Christmas once the handmade gifts have been received. I'll leave you now with this photograph of the glorious sunset we had the other day. I couldn't capture it properly as it wasn't just how it looked it was how it smelt and felt. There was a feeling of sheer peace and I could smell wood smoke and hear the church bells.

Merry Christmas to all of you!

xxx