Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!
We have just returned from a lovely little family holiday catching up with some beautiful friends, the lads were so good despite all the planes/cars/buses they were strapped into and we were sad it came to an end. Subsequently I have been a little slack with the Christmas posts, so let's get cracking so we can move into a new year of yummy recipes!

Firstly, my Christmas Cake is delicious (still providing us with cup-o-tea treats) but it is quite crumbly to cut - it's not dry though and the flavours are beautiful. So rather than take photos of crumbly cake, I'll direct you to the recipe here... Thank you again, Donna Hay!

My other Christmas favourite was Nigella's gorgeous chocolate Christmas biscuits - they are like little glazed chocolatey eruptions, adorned with some Christmas bling! Also a great one for the big lad to help with, I roll the biscuit dough balls, he squishes them (and licks the spoon of course) and he gets to sprinkle the bling on when we're icing. Then gets to eat them shortly after... trying to get an almost three year old to understand the concept of waiting for icing to set is impossible! Who can blame him? I barely understand it myself...

Nigella's Chocolate Christmas Biscuits

Ingredients
250g butter
150g raw caster sugar
40g premium cocoa
300g plain flour
1/2 teaspoon bicarb 
1 teaspoon baking powder

Chocolate glaze:
2 tablespoons premium cocoa
175g icing sugar
60ml boiling water
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
sprinkles or bling for decorating 

Method
Pre-heat oven to 170 degrees Celsius and line two trays with baking paper. 
Cream butter and sugar until light, soft and whipped before adding the cocoa. Then add the the flour, bicarb and baking powder and mix until combined. 
The mixture will be soft and sticky, but pinch off tablespoon sized pieces and roll into balls, flattening slightly when on the tray. 
Bake for 15 minutes.

To make the icing, mix cocoa, icing sugar, water and vanilla in a small saucepan and whisk over low heat until smoothly combined. Allow to sit off the heat for 10 minutes.
When the biscuits are cool, drizzle each with the chocolate glaze before sprinkling with bling/sprinkles. Adorn as you go, as once the glaze sets, your decorations won't stick.