Baking a Christmas Wreath!

So I don’t have any photos of the last Loaves&Fishes supper as we had to cancel because of the ice and snow. Wah! I know. Totally gutted I was.After a long week of cabin fever we were able to leave the house and get supplies (butter, milk and a Christmas Tree.) So I put up holly and ivy everywhere and lit the fire. Next on the list of cheery uppy festive things is baking. I have been baking non-stop!

I love giving food as presents. I think a hamper of handpicked food like cheeses, nice crackers, chutney and some homemade stuff thrown in like mince pies or a teabrack makes one gorgeous present. I don’t know anyone who wouldn’t be happy with that! I was at a fundraising Christmas fair yesterday and there were cute little hampers with three jars of homemade preserves and then a little hand knitted stocking full of chocolate gold coins. Such a cute idea and they were snapped up and made alot more money than if they were sold individually. Although I pity the person who receives the hamper with three jars of rhubarb chutney, I don’t know how that slipped through the net!

A good hamper should have some ‘background singers’ like poor old Michelle Williams and Kelly Rowland. These can be jars of cranberry sauce, a bottle of wine, nothing too ‘Oooooh!’ or ‘Aaaaaah!’. Just nice things. And then you need the main attraction, The Beyonce. The Beyonce of my hampers this year will be…The Festive Wreath! Tada!

All I did here was use the same recipe that I used here for the strawberry swirls but I used Nigella’s gorgeous Cranberry Studded Mincemeat and arranged all of the swirls in a circle to form a wreath. Then glazed with egg wash, and sprinkled with flaked almonds. She’s a show stopper! Dust with icing sugar and tie a ruby red ribbon around it. Beautiful! This makes a really nice present especially with a jar of brandy butter!