Double Christmas treats ~ recipe
These Double Christmas Treats are made of two layers and taste absolutely divine, ad are surprisingly moist, too.
Looking through Pinterest a few weeks ago, I came across an image which I really liked the look of. It had two layers but looked like a cupcake/muffin – something a bit different, I thought, plus two parts meant I could get my two littlies involved a different stages…
Unfortunately, the image was not linked to a recipe but a sales page for the most over-priced cake mix I’ve ever come across.
So I created my own version, adding Christmassy touches and I am very pleased with the results of this one!
Double Christmas treats
These do take a bit of time, especially if you have little helpers, but are SO worth it!
It would make a lovely Christmas Eve activity with the kids – there’s plenty to sample and still have a nice snack to leave out for Santa 🙂
My three year old calls herself a ‘good egger’ and enjoyed making these treats…
First layer in some muffin cases, ready for cooking
Cover the lower layer with the biscuit mix – this photo shows the top layer on the back row and lower layer only in the front row.
Double Christmas treats fresh out of the oven – a light brown top is what you are after.
Putting up the tree
On the first of December, my 3 siblings, mum and dad and I put up the Christmas tree, we spent about an hour together, watching the kids’ laugh and feel the magic of Christmas.
Each decoration that Mum handed the little 2 they would ask her “Is this mine”?
They are taking Christmas tree decorating seriously – it’s lovely to see children working together.
After the tree was up, my oldest younger sister and I were mucking about, and joked that the kids were the same size as their stocking’ so we put the little two ones into them and they were walking around the place in theses big red stockings nearly their height.
Probably the most fun we have all had in a while 🙂 Can’t wait for next year!!
Love Santa letters at the last minute
The lead up to Christmas can be mighty busy so it’s easy to see how you could leave ordering a Santa letter a bit late!
But if you have a tradition of Santa letters or just want the excitement and delight for a child in your life, it can be very disappointing or even upsetting to realise it’s too late for a letter to be delivered.
Or maybe you don’t want to use the wrong details in a personalised letter and feel safer with something simpler.
Either way, we want to help!
Love Santa letters in a scrapbook make a lovely reminder of childhood
We have prepared a non-personalised Love Santa letter for Aussie and Kiwi children that you can print off for them – pop it in an envelope in the letter box, hang it from the Christmas tree or have it sticking out of a stocking hung by the chimney.
Like our personalised letters, these are professionally written, include a craft and a snack for Santa recipe and have an Australian feel. And each year has a different look and different words (but we’ve updated the year on last year’s as well if you want two different letters – contact us for more than two!)
To get a 2013 non-personalised letter is easy – just click on the button below and follow the instructions 🙂 Have a very Merry Christmas!
Gumnut wreaths – craft for kids
Red and gold glitter on gumnuts and gum leaves – a beautiful Christmas display!
I just had to share this craft idea! Being so Australian I thought it would fit beautifully on this site, too!
I helped at my children’s kinder the other day and all the children were busily making some Christmas wreaths, and loving it. I was impressed with the great results but also that they were so very Aussie, well within the children’s abilities and also so much fun to make.
Although be warned if you try this at home because it took me ages to vacuum up all the glitter afterwards!
Making gumnut wreaths
I didn’t see this bit, but the kids were given cardboard rings which they stuck together, with a loop of ribbon sticking out one end. I think they are double to be stronger, and it makes attaching the ribbon neater.
They painted this double ring green and left it to dry.
I then was there to watch them stick on gum nuts of various sizes, along with gum leaves and even sticks if they wished.
They also had some red felt leaves (which does add colour on the green background) but I think I prefer just the gumnuts, leaves and glitter – or is that just me?
Once they were happy with their arrangement, they sprinkled glitter over the top – first letting it stick to the excess glue already on the wreaths, then adding dobs of glue where they felt more glitter was needed.
Some of the gumnut wreaths made by kinder children – aren’t they beautiful?
As they dried, I got some photos – I think they are beautiful Christmas wreathes, don’t you?
Once they come home from kinder, there will be one hanging with pride on our front door!
Kinder children writing to Santa
I helped at my son’s kinder this morning and was given the very appropriate job of helping the children write their letters to Santa 🙂
Each child wrote “To Santa Love from {name}” from pre-written cards to help them know the letters to use.
In between the to and from bits, we also wrote a request for a gift. Some of the children did this themselves (once I wrote out the words on scrap paper for them) while others needed my help writing those bits (they are only 4 or 5 years old!)
Kinder children writing letters to Santa with care and pride – lovely to watch.
The children worked hard on their letters and it was a delight to watch them, and participate with them. One child was so pleased with his letter he kept coming back to get it, fly it around the room and show it to everyone he could get to stand still and look!
Letters are being sent to Santa – and copies kept as part of the collection of work being given to parents at the end of the year. I for one am pleased to know we will have a permanent record of what my son wrote!
Have you ever received (or at least seen) letters your children have written to Santa at kinder or school?
If your child is yet to write to Santa, don’t forget we have a template to help them get started and write a nice letter to Santa.
Whip up a delicious Christmas trifle ~ recipe
One of my husband’s favourite desserts is trifle so I played around with it and made a more Christmassy version. It seemed to work – there was nothing left in the bowl afterwards anyway!
So here’s my recipe…
Love Santa’s Christmas Trifle
My Christmas trifle, all ready to be served and enjoyed…
- 1 cake – make it or buy it as suits your time and tastes. Plain, lemon and orange are nice but I used a cinnamon cake to get the Christmas scents involved
- about a cup of cherries – halve them to remove the pits
- 4 kiwi fruit – cut into chunks about 2cm cubed
- a punnet of strawberries – hull and quarter them
- half a honey-dew melon – cut into chunks of about 3 cm cubed
- 1 litre of custard – make it brandy custard if you like. It adds to the Christmas flavour and is pretty low alcohol but it’s not for everyone
- 500 ml (one packet) of set red jelly
- 500 ml (one packet) of set green jelly
- 1/3 cup cranberries (dried or halved fresh ones) for garnish
- 1/3 cup of pistachios for garnish (adds a nice green tinge to the top)
Christmas trifle recipe
1. Cut the cake into pieces – 3 – 4 cm cubes fits nicely on spoons but it can all be rough. A sprinkling of a liqueur over the cake is nice (especially if you use a stale cake like the traditional recipes call for) but optional – brandy, Frangelico or Cointreau are the most Christmassy choices.
2.
Trifle is made in layers – my beautiful glass bowl doesn’t photograph so well though unfortunately…
Put about half the cake in the bottom of a glass bowl. Does it have to be a glass bowl? Technically, no, it will taste just the same in any type of serving dish but the visual impact will be lost if you can’t see the layers before you serve.
3. Break up the green jelly and put about half of it on top of the cake. Sprinkle half of the fruit over the jelly.
4. Break up the red jelly and put about half of it over the fruit.
5. Pour half the custard over the jelly.
6. Repeat – cake, green jelly, fruit, red jelly, custard.
7. You could top it all with whipped cream (I didn’t as I don’t like it!)
Garnish with pistachios and cranberries. Or make the top layer pieces of jelly as in my photo below – very quick and easy.
Serve immediately or the next day, but keep it in the fridge.
Red and green jelly on top of the custard is a simple presentation option
Other Christmas trifles
Do you have any other Christmas trifle recipes? Or do you just stick to the traditional type of trifle, whatever the occasion or season?
I came across another recipe, which uses egg nog and glace cherries. Their additional of banana and pineapple would give it a summery taste, I think.
Ribbons on a Christmas tree
Liz also supplied us with a photo of the ribbon-decked tree – I think it looks great!
We have small Christmas trees in the kids’ rooms, which they love:)
This year, a bit of ahead of me getting out the usual decorations, my daughter decided to decorate the trees.
She grabbed out some school sports ribbons and other sashes to use instead of tinsel. It actually looked quite effective and is a nice acknowledgement of her sporting achievements over the year (she was just after the colour and instant gratification, but I liked the display of her achievements!)
December and summer have arrived!
The first of December – that means summer is here and Christmas is not too far away now (unless you’re an excited three year old anyway!)
What do you do to celebrate the start of December?
We put our tree up as a family, while listening to carols of course. And being such a beautiful evening today in Melbourne, we went outside and looked at Christmas lights in our street before the kids went to bed (a bit late!)
Some local Christmas lights that we enjoy watching each year
Cheerful and quick salad
Last night we had one of those ‘hmm, what shall we have for dinner?’ nights so I ended up making up a new salad. And it turned out really well – refreshing and tasty, and even Christmas themed!
I just love this salad and plan on taking it to some upcoming BBQs and Christmas functions as it suits the theme (red and green being Christmas colours!), is easy, appeals to many and is very healthy. It’s also nice and moist (without a dressing) which was lovely with our grilled chicken last night.
My kids were fighting over the last serve of it, too…
Colourful, healthy and even the kids will eat this salad!
Easy Christmas salad
chunk of watermelon
1 cucumber
1 stick of celery
2 tomatoes
Chop celery into small pieces.
Chop everything else into chunks.
Mix in a bowl.
Optional – garnish with some chopped mint.
Serve!
Quick Christmas Royal Puddings Recipe
These cute little Christmas Royals look like teeny-tiny Christmas puddings and they are the perfect take-along party plate for busy Mums. They’re a similar concept to the Christmas Anzacs I made last year, but a bit more decadent and fancy-looking.
You can get these made in ten minutes, and they are the sort of ingredients you can have in the cupboard for a while so you can make them at the last minute.
Or let the kids work on them – it will take longer obviously but it’s an easy snack for them to make for Santa.
Christmas Royals
Ingredients:
2x 200g Arnott’s Royals Biscuits
200g white chocolate
1 x 180g Smarties
1 x resealable or freezer bag
spearmint leaves, cut into about 6 slices
Method:
Take the biscuits out of the packet and lay them on board or plate. You can put them straight onto a serving plate if you trust you won’t make a mess (and that could depend on whether you have any little helpers or not!)
Melt white chocolate – over a pan of water will work but takes time and isn’t suitable with young children. So I just pop them into the microwave for about 70 seconds – test then repeat for 20 second bursts until they are nicely melted.
Pour the melted chocolate into the plastic bag. Snip off the corner of the bag. Of course, if you have a piping bag, just use that! You can drizzle the chocolate from a spoon but it does tend to get messy and takes longer so the chocolate will start to set.
Pipe (or drizzle) chocolate onto the top of each biscuit.
Pop a red smartie on top of the chocolate. Arrange two or three pieces of spearmint leave to be the holly leaves.
Let the chocolate set and serve 🙂
Sprinkle some halved spearmint leaves around the Christmas Royals for a pretty presentation.
Sometimes you can get Royals with a pink centre, too, and they are even better when it comes to making a Christmassy treat!
If you can’t get Royals, other chocolate biscuits can work (mint slices are an obvious option) but they don’t stand up as high to look like little Christmas puddings.
Stepping stones
stepping stones- i remember when i was a little girl i made unique stepping stones for my grand parents. Dad poured the cemet in to a frame him and mum made and my older sis and i put pebbles and stuff on top. I still some times see it at my grandmums house on her wonky path!
Christmas banana cake – to eat or gift!
As much as my family loves bananas, we seem to get soft black bananas sitting in the fruit bowl way too often. So a good banana cake recipe is a must!
This recipe is a mix of some other recipes with my own Christmassy touches.
Simple but effective presentation of a yummy Christmas gift!
It takes a while to cook but is moist and yummy, and suitable for making into gifts, serving for Santa or simply eating!
Making it as small loaves and wrapping it in red and/or green cellophane is a nice gift idea for hostesses, teachers, leaders and others you want to say thanks to. You can also make it as muffins and roughly half the cooking time, but I don’t think muffins look quite as nice as a gift.
Love Santa’s Christmas Banana Cake Recipe
3 eggs
5 large bananas – the riper the better!
3/4 cup of vegetable oil
2 cups white self-raising flour
1 cup wholemeal self-raising flour
1.5 cups raw sugar (I use 1 cup smart raw sugar to reduce the GI)
0.5 teaspoon of nutmeg
1.5 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/4 cup chopped almonds
1 cup cherries (I use jarred cherries but you could use a tin) – cut in halves
4 tablespoons cherry juice (from the jar! Otherwise use cranberry or orange juice)
My son loves making sure the mixture is evenly spread out in the pan!
Beat the eggs together
Add the bananas – many recipes will tell you to add the mashed bananas but to save myself washing an extra dish and because the kids find it fun this way, I put pieces of banana in with the egg and mash in that bowl.
Mix in the oil and juice.
Add flours, spices and sugar and make sure everything is well mixed.
Stir in the fruit and nuts
Pour into your greased cooking pan(s).
Cook for about an hour at 160°C
Cool on a tray and voila!
Moist cherry pieces add a nice surprise to this Christmas banana cake.
A couple of notes…
You can use any nuts you like – 3/4 cup chopped nuts of any type will work. I just happened on the almond/pecan mix because it’s all I had in the cupboard one day when I made this cake! Pistachios could be an interesting alternative I think – or chestnuts may add an authentic Christmas taste for people in the Northern hemisphere!
If you don’t have wholemeal self-raising flour, you can use white. I prefer to use a mixture because it is healthier to have wholemeal but gets too heavy if you didn’t use some white flour.
If cooking with young kids, I strongly suggest chopping the nuts and cherries before you call them into the kitchen – they get bored if they have to wait!
BROWSE BY CATEGORY
- About Love Santa
- Baby’s first Christmas
- Children’s craft
- Christmas activities
- Christmas books
- Christmas cooking
- Christmas crafts
- Christmas gifts
- Christmas humour
- Christmas Lights/Decorations
- Christmas Memories
- Christmas spirit
- Christmas today
- Easter
- Green Christmas
- Happy kindness
- International Christmas
- Santa letters
- Santa Memories
- Santa’s snacks
- Christmas elf fun
- Uncategorized
Start your Christmas kit gifts
Order Cut Off Dates
Please note that Love Santa letters need to be ordered before December 18 to be delivered before Christmas!
Order now to be sure of delivery before Christmas. Keep an eye on our blog for final ordering days as we get close to Christmas Eve.
Privacy Policy
Under no circumstances, not even under threat of having to fill in for Santa on Christmas Eve, will your details of any kind be given, sold or lent to any other party.