For today’s post, I have put together a little round-up of Blogmas At Home 2023. This has been my first time participating in Blogmas and I’ve really loved it! It has definitely been a lot of work and there have been a few stressful moments, but, on the whole, it was much less crazy than I expected it to be. In fairness, I spent a good long time preparing for it in the months leading up to December. It was a lot of work, but fun work, you know?

So, here’s what’s been happening over the last 24 days on the blog…

Table of Contents

• Blogmas At Home 2023: In Summary
  • General Christmassy Posts
  • Bullet Journal
  • Away From Home
  • Baking
  • Crochet
  • Knitting
  • Hand Sewing
• What I’ve learned…
• Big Milestones

Blogmas At Home 2023: In Summary

24 days of posting meant 24 separate posts in December and I really let my creativity run WILD. As well as several slightly less-crafty (but just as Christmassy) posts, I also posted in each of the following categories:

• Bullet Journal
• Away from Home
• Baking
• Crochet
• Knitting
• Hand Sewing

So, without further ado, here are the 24 posts of Blogmas At Home (not including this one, though, so I suppose this is really only a summary of 23 of the posts…?), grouped by type for super-easy navigation:

General Christmassy Posts

I tried my hand at gift guides this year and I had so much fun deciding what to put into each one- I definitely think this is something I’d like to keep going every year. I ended up making 3 this year, one for each of the main craft-types on the blog:

2023 Bullet Journal Gift Guide

2023 Knit & Crochet Gift Guide

2023 Baking Gift Guide

I also included a couple of posts that were really just a bit of festive fun:

Christmas Cookbook Collection

Christmas Eve Traditions

Bullet Journal

I included 4 bullet journal posts (though it was originally meant to be 6- more on that later!). Two of those posts were setups from my everyday journal…

Bullet Journal Setup: December 2023

Bullet Journal Setup: 2023 Review Spreads

… While the other two were focused on the initial setup of two different journals- one for myself (the reading journal) and one as a present for my mum (the knitting journal):

2024 Reading Journal Setup

2024 Knitting Journal Setup

Away From Home

I don’t post very often in my Away From Home category (I am very rarely away from home), but the first week of Blogmas At Home included 2 WHOLE outings:

Christmas at Blenheim Palace 2023

Christmas Tree Farm Visit

Baking

There’s been a lot of baking on the blog over the past 24 days. Of course, I made a post on our annual gingerbread house:

Gingerbread House Tour

I’ve also been posting the recipes for my own, super festive takes on some classic bakes:

Almond, Rosemary and White Chocolate Yule Log

Christmas Pudding Macarons

Reindeer Macarons

4-Ingredient Iced Star Biscuits

Perhaps even more excitingly, though, I also launched a new series on the blog, Baking Around The World, with two festive cookie recipes from Italy and Germany:

Sicilian Pizzicotti

German Mandelhörnchen

Finally, I also threw in an easy, last-minute, edible gift idea:

Toffee Popcorn

Crochet

Despite crochet being my favourite yarny crafty, I only posted one crochet post- I can’t believe it! On the bright side, it was something super special- my first EVER original pattern:

Santa Baby Blanket Pattern

Knitting

I shared 2 knitting-based posts this month (that’s double my crochet output!). The first was the third instalment in my Project Knitwear series, which follows my attempts to learn how to make my own clothes. This time around, I tackled socks:

Snowy Nights Socks (Project Knitwear #3)

The second was another original pattern release, which made a great debut on Ravelry! I am particularly proud of this one- it’s perfect for using up scraps and oddments of fingering yarn:

Embroidery Hoop Ornament Pattern

Hand Sewing

One of my posts included a craft that I have never previously posted about: hand sewing. It also inspired me to make a new section on my blog for ‘Other Crafts’- these are crafts I don’t do quite as often as my usual ones, but that I do dabble in, or want to try out. This post was all about a fun, festive birthday gift for my mum:

Starry Garland Tutorial

And that is a little glimpse at all of the posts I have shared over the past 24 days! There’s been a real mix of crafts, ideas and adventures and I’m super proud of each and every one of my posts.

What I’ve learned…

Doing this challenge has taught me a lot about the process of blogging and my own creativity. I thought I’d shared some of the lessons that I have learned throughout this process:

• Start your bullet journal setup for the next year MUCH earlier than you think you need to!

Remember how I said I had planned to include 6 bullet journal posts in my Blogmas At Home schedule? Yeah… The reason they aren’t there is because I simply ran out of time. It’s a shame, because that means my 2024 and January setups are still on my to-do list and I’ll have to post them much later than intended. It’s not the end of the world, though! I’ll be able to do a much better job of them because I have allowed myself the extra time to finish them properly. I always mean to start my yearly set up so early, and I never do, so maybe this time, the lesson will finally stick and I’ll be more prepared next year!

• Writing a post doesn’t need to take that much time.

Okay, admittedly, I tend to write loooonnnnggg posts. What can I say? I love to waffle. But before Blogmas At Home, writing a post felt like such a big job. Writing a single post in one day was either not feasible, or, if I managed it, it took all of my energy to do so. Because of the added time limit and constant output of Blogmas, I got much faster at writing posts. In fact, one day, I even wrote 3 and a half posts! I feel like I have proved to myself that I can do it quickly, which will give me a lot of confidence coming into the new year.

• The ‘photo stage’ is not the insurmountable task you think it is!

I always feel very overwhelmed by the prospect of taking and editing photos- mainly because I have absolutely no prior experience in it, so I used to procrastinate the photo stage as much as possible, which, inevitably, made me dread it even more. Because I’ve had to take so many photos over the past month or so, I think I’ve really gotten into the swing of it and it doesn’t feel so unmanageable now- I’m already procrastinating the ‘photo stage’ a lot less!

• Start preparing for Blogmas EARLY (as in, like… maybe even January?)

Blogmas is a lot of work. While it was more manageable than I expected it to be, I still think I could make it even easier for myself and put myself in a position to provide even better content. I’m thinking that I could do some little bits and pieces throughout the year, so that, when December comes around, I can provide high-quality content, but still have lots of time to enjoy my holiday season. Plus, I just feel that testing out these new recipes and projects and ideas at December is not exactly conducive to minimising the holiday stresses- if I were to do my testing throughout the year, I could just have fun with my Christmas projects at Christmastime (and maybe even take a little bit more time off!).

• Don’t be afraid to try new things.

I was terrified by the prospect of sharing a pattern to Ravelry. I didn’t think I had enough experience, ability, or understanding of the community for it, and I had such a fear of receiving bad feedback. However, my two pattern releases ended up being the most rewarding (and, incidentally, successful) posts of Blogmas At Home for me. The fact that I was so scared made me even prouder when I actually pressed the button to publish that first pattern, and it made me appreciate all the positive feedback I received even more! I have been lucky so far, because all of the responses I have received have been so overwhelmingly kind and uplifting, but I am not dreading the inevitable negative feedback quite so much as I was before. I wonder, is this… growing up?

Big Milestones

Over the past 24 days, I have produced a lot of content. As a result, I’ve experienced a lot of big milestones, so I thought it would be fun to share them! During Blogmas At Home 2023, I:

• Shared my first ever crochet pattern (on here and on Ravelry!)
• Shared my first ever knitting pattern (again, on here and on Ravelry)
• Launched a new series on the blog (Baking Around the World)
• Made my first pair of colourwork socks
• Made a Yule Log/Swiss roll (successfully) for the first time

So, a lot of firsts! I’ve never been the best at trying new things, but I have (rather surprisingly) enjoyed all of the challenges that have come with participating in Blogmas this year.

And that’s a wrap (pun absolutely intended) on Blogmas At Home 2023! I hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as I have, and that you have the merriest, happiest Christmas tomorrow.

Stay holly and jolly,

Gemma

xxx

I think traditions, particularly the ones surrounding this time of year, provide us with such a sense of nostalgia, joy and comfort. I have never spent a Christmas away from home, so all of our family traditions are deeply entrenched in my idea of what Christmas means and entails. I wouldn’t have it any other way though- I know that one day, Christmas will morph and change into something else for me, new traditions will be made and different experiences will be had, but, for now, there is something so peaceful about the idea of experiencing that familiar magic all over again.

In honour of Christmas Eve being tomorrow, I thought today I’d pay homage to the idea of traditions, and write a little bit about our Christmas Eve ones. Perhaps this post will help get you into the mood for the next few days of festivities, encourage you to remember your own Christmas Eve traditions over the years, or even just remind you, as we rush headlong into the festive frenzy, that Christmas is more than the stress and the turkey-basting and the family-wrangling. It’s memories and magic- a reminder that it’s okay for things to change, because that’s how the best traditions are made.

Table of Contents

• Last-Minute Wrapping
• Christmas Eve Ham
• Christmas Films
• Christmas Cookie Decorating
• Hanging the Stockings
• The Night Before Christmas
• Final Thoughts

Last-Minute Wrapping

This one isn’t strictly a tradition (or at least one any of us wants to be a tradition), but despite all of our best intentions, there always seems to be some last-minute wrapping left to do on Christmas Eve!

In fact, when I was little, my parents used to wrap most of our stocking presents after we went to bed on the 24th, which always ended up being quite late. This made for quite a funny chain of events when they were just a little bit tipsy after some particularly strong mulled wine one year! They were perhaps not quite as stealthy as they thought they were…

Christmas Eve Ham

On Christmas Day, we usually have a turkey for dinner (though I do remember a few years when we had a goose instead). On Christmas Eve, though, we have ham. In particular, we have Nigella Lawson’s Ham in Coca Cola. Honestly, we have converted SO many people to this ham- it is truly delicious. I know that it sounds kind of weird (and also kind of gross?) to boil a ham in Coca Cola- honestly, it probably is, but oh my, does it taste good. I’m not the biggest fan of turkey, so I end up eating lots of the leftovers from the ham on Christmas Day, and it makes me so happy.

We tend to serve the ham with Dauphinoise potatoes- which we, inevitably, have problems with. I think we’ve found a recipe that works for us now, but there were a good few years there where we just could NOT get the potatoes cooked. It was always a whole thing.

Christmas Films

We always save our favourite Christmas films for Christmas Eve. For a good long time now, the film of choice has been Arthur Christmas. However, more recently, we’ve all become obsessed with both the 2018 version of The Grinch and the film Klaus (which served as inspiration for my December bullet journal setup this year!). Watching Arthur Christmas on Christmas Eve is a given, but as time has gone on, we’ve also been known to throw the other two films into the mix as well, for extra festive cheer (and time relaxing before the big day!).

Christmas Cookie Decorating

This one is definitely a more recent tradition, to the point where I’m not even really sure if it counts as a tradition yet, but it is something that we sometimes do on Christmas Eve, in the evening. Having said that, we don’t do it every year, so maybe it hasn’t quite reached ‘tradition’ status yet! Basically, my mum and I make a batch of cookies, which we cut out into all sorts of shapes: either Finnish Spiced Biscuits, classic gingerbread (though I’m still looking around for a perfect recipe), or the plain butter dough I used for the 5-Ingredient Iced Star Biscuits from yesterday’s post.

We put on some Christmas songs and make some glacé icing, then I bring out my extensive collection of sprinkles and all of the leftover sweets from making the gingerbread house, and we let everyone loose on the cookies. We end up with all sorts- while I tend to gravitate towards reindeers, my brother has been known to turn a snowman cookie into a lightbulb and a snowflake into an atom. Very festive, no?

Hanging the Stockings

I feel this is probably a pretty universal Christmas Eve tradition, but we always hang our stockings up on Christmas Eve. There’s always a last-minute scuffle when we can’t find the stockings, but we always seem to locate them eventually! We don’t actually hang them over a fireplace, or at the foot of our beds, but on the chest of drawers on our landing. We have these decorative golden hooks that spell out ‘NOEL’ (+ a Christmas tree, because there are 5 of us!)- they sit on the edge of the dresser and we hang our stockings on them. We also have a little tree that sits on top of the chest of drawers all season long, which lights up with rainbow colours and is so pretty and festive.

My mum made our stockings back when we were young. Neither she nor my dad ever had one though, so one year I knitted one for my mum (of course!) and sewed one for my dad. Their stockings have become part of the tradition now, which is lovely. We open the stockings on Christmas morning, while we eat pastries and drink coffee (followed by a Buck’s Fizz) for breakfast.

The Night Before Christmas

After we’ve hung the stockings on the landing, we all go into my parents’ room to read The Night Before Christmas. We actually have two versions that we read: the first is the classic story (we have a very old and battered, but much-loved, edition from Sainsbury’s) and the second is the Carol Ann Duffy poem, ‘Another Night Before Christmas’. The latter has always been my favourite- I love the poem, but I love the illustrations even more. It’s can be tricky to locate the edition we have (we got it a long time ago!), but I did find it on Amazon– whether it stays available for long, I can’t be sure!

I can’t be trusted to read the original one, because some of the drawings make me laugh so much that I can’t get my words out. Every time, I think to myself, I’m going to do it right this year, and every time I am felled by this particular image:

Final Thoughts

So those are our Christmas Eve traditions. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about them, and I hope they help to get you into that Christmas Eve mindset ahead of tomorrow. I think the best part about traditions is that there are inevitably hiccups along the way- something always goes wrong, whether that’s losing the stockings, or even some mulled-wine induced chaos. The great thing, though, is that those hiccups are what make the best stories, which preserve the magic of those traditions when they are told over and over again every year. I’ve always had a rather unhealthy dose of perfectionism, but, when it comes to traditions, I almost enjoy a little mishap here and there.

What are some of your Christmas Eve traditions? I’d love to hear about them in the comments below!

Gemma

xxx

Today’s post is the final recipe of Blogmas At Home 2023, which is kind of sad, but also not that sad, because these Iced Star Biscuits are the dreamiest, easiest Christmas Cookies ever. I’ve been making these biscuits in all shapes and sizes for YEARS because they are so simple (I mean, they only require 5 ingredients, one of those ingredients is literally WATER and the dough is made in the food processor!), but they are also so delicious. In the original recipe, they are called ‘Birthday Biscuits’, so we still call them that, but I’m making these star shaped ones for Christmas- they’re really a year-round cookie! Also, the possibilities for decorating them are ENDLESS. I’ve just done plain, white glacé icing on these, to keep things simple, but you could use royal icing, fondant, chocolate, buttercream, literally ANYTHING. It’s such a versatile recipe!

Table of Contents

• Ingredients
• Making the Biscuit Dough
• Cutting out the Cookies
• Baking the Cookies
• Decorating the Cookies
• Storing the Cookies
• Recipe

Ingredients

As you might have guessed from the title of this post, these cookies only require 5 ingredients:

• Plain flour

Don’t use self-raising flour, because this will cause the biscuits to puff up, rather than bake into nice even biscuits- not what you want!

• Caster sugar

I use golden caster sugar, because it gives the cookies a lovely depth of flavour, but you can use white caster sugar, if that’s what you have.

• Unsalted butter

The butter needs to be cubed and at room temperature, so that it incorporates into the other ingredients properly.

• Icing sugar

You only need icing sugar and water to make glacé icing, which is what I used to decorate these biscuits.

• Water

Does water even count as an ingredient? I have no idea, but my brother threw a fit when he heard I was calling these ‘4-Ingredient Iced Star Biscuits’ and I was guilted into changing the name. I’ll forgive him, because 5-Ingredient sounds better anyway.

You will also need a star-shaped cookie cutter. The one I used was 5.5cm across. You can use any size/shape cutter you would like, but be aware this will affect the quantity of cookies this recipe makes, as well as the baking time.

Making the Biscuit Dough

Start by preheating the oven to 180°C (as usual, I am using a conventional oven) and line 3 baking trays with baking paper, then set aside.

To make the dough, put the flour, sugar and softened, cubed butter into the bowl of a food processor.

Blitz the mixture until it forms crumbs…

…then pulse until it comes together in a ball. That’s it! That’s the dough! Bring it together with your hands (after removing the food processor blade, of course), then it’s ready to roll- no chilling necessary.

Cutting out the Cookies

Lightly dust a clean work surface with flour and tip the dough onto it. Dust both the surface of the dough and a rolling pin with a little more flour, then roll the dough out until it is about 5mm thick.

Cut out the cookies using the star cutter, carefully transferring them to the lined baking trays as you go. Re-roll the dough as needed.

Baking the Cookies

Once all of the dough has been used up, bake the cookies. They will need about 10 minutes in the preheated oven and should be a pale, golden colour when they are ready.

Allow the cookies to cool for about 5 minutes on the trays, then carefully transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely, before decorating.

Decorating the Cookies

First, make the glacé icing. Sift the icing sugar into a bowl (this is important to get rid of any lumps), then add 2 tbsp of the water and stir to combine. Sometimes it can be a little tricky to get the perfect consistency of glacé icing, so it’s best to start with some of the water, then gradually add more until the perfect consistency is achieved. You want it to be thick enough that it doesn’t all slide off the cookies, but not so thick that it doesn’t have a smooth, shiny finish.

Once you have made the icing, spoon it onto the cookies and spread it out, so that it fills the star shape. Place the cookies back onto the wire rack to set- glacé icing will never set completely solid, like royal icing does, but it will form a delicate crust after about 20 minutes.

Storing the Cookies

Store the cookies in an airtight container, at room temperature. Like this, they will keep for 2-3 days. Ideally, store them in a single layer, to prevent the delicate icing from being smushed (or, you know, be like me and completely disregard that suggestion…).

I hope you’ve enjoyed this recipe- these cookies really are the simplest treatsntil your desired consistency is achieved- to make, but they are completely delicious, so really it’s a win-win! Let me know if you try this out- I’d love to hear what you think!

Gemma

xxx

Recipe

Print

5-Ingredient Iced Star Biscuits

You only need 5 ingredients to make these simple and delicious festive biscuits (and one of them is water!). While these are perfect as Christmas cookies, they can be made in any shape and decorated in a multitude of different ways to fit any occasion year round!

Course Dessert, Snack

Keyword 5 ingredient, Cookie, glacé icing

Prep Time 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes minutes

Setting time 20 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour

Servings 50 cookies

Equipment

• 1 5.5cm star cookie cutter

Ingredients

For the cookie dough:

• 250 g plain flour
• 85 g golden caster sugar
• 175 g unsalted butter, cubed and at room temperature.

For the icing:

• 250 g icing sugar, sifted.
• 3-4 tbsp water

Instructions

Make the cookies:

• Preheat the oven to 180°C (conventional). Line 2 baking trays with baking paper and set aside.
• Place all of the cookie dough ingredients into the bowl of a food processor. Blitz until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs, then pulse until it forms a ball.
• Lightly dust a clean work surface with flour. Tip the dough onto the work surface and bring it together into a smooth ball with your hands. Dust both the dough and a rolling pin with a little more flour, then roll out the dough, until it is about 5mm thick.
• Use the star cutter to stamp out as many cookies as possible from the rolled-out dough, then re-roll and stamp again, carefully transferring the cookies to the lined baking trays as you go.
• Once you have used up all of the dough, bake the cookies in the preheated oven for 10-12 minutes, until pale golden. Once baked, allow the cookies to cool on the trays for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before decorating.

Make the icing:

• When the cookies are cool, make the icing. Place the sifted icing sugar into a bowl. Add 2 tbsp of water and mix to combine. If needed, add more of the water until the desired consistency is achieved- the icing should be thick enough that it will not run off the cookies, but not so thick that it does not look smooth and shiny.

Decorate the cookies:

• As soon as the icing is ready, start decorating the cookies. Spoon a small amount of icing onto a cookie, then use the back of the spoon to spread it out over the surface, so that the whole star shape is filled. Repeat for the remaining cookies, setting them back onto the wire rack to sit while the icing firms up. This icing won't set as hard as royal icing, but it should form a delicate crust after about 20 minutes or so (if they last that long!).
• Store the cookies in an airtight container, ideally in a single layer, to prevent the icing from smushing, at room temperature. Like this, they will keep for 2-3 days (or longer, if they are left un-iced). Once kept for 24 hours, the icing will be significantly firmer and less likely to smush (though it will still not be as hard as royal icing).

Notes

 

Recipe adapted from BBC Good Food.

Today’s post is something a little bit new to the blog- it’s still fun and crafty, but it’s not a craft that I am super well-versed in. In this post, I’ll be showing you how I made this hand sewn, wool felt garland for my mum’s birthday present.

Let me be honest, I have NO idea where the inspiration for this project came from. I feel that there must have been something that made me want to make it, but I truly have no idea what. Oh, well. Maybe I just dream in craft projects. I also don’t know what made me make this for my mum, because while it’s… kind of her style? It could also very much not be her style. I think I just designed and made it with her in mind. How bespoke! Anyway, by the time you’re reading this, I guess I’ll know one way or the other! Fingers crossed. (Update: she likes it! What a relief!).

Table of Contents

• Equipment + Supplies
• Making the Felt Stars
• Stringing the Garland
  • Troubleshooting
• Final Thoughts

Equipment + Supplies

To make this Starry Garland, you will need:

• Felt

My mum loves all things wool, so I decided to use real wool felt for this project. I bought mine from SuesCountryCreations on Etsy. There is such a good selection of colours that you can pick and choose from- I purchased 6 sheets and chose the colours Ruby, Fox, Gold, Moss, Petrol Blue and Mulberry (I was going for a kind of deep-toned rainbow). You don’t need loads of each colour, so you can use any leftovers for another project.

• Felt balls

I decided to use plain, ivory felt balls for this, because, even though I was using lots of colours of felt, I still wanted the garland to look kind of… elegant and intentionally mismatched- both mismatched and matched, all at once, I suppose. I purchased this 20-pack from PocketCraftSupplies (also on Etsy) and ended up using 19 balls in the finished garland.

• Twine

I was a while deciding what I wanted to string my felt components onto and I eventually settled on using twine. It did make threading them a little trickier (because the twine is thicker than typical thread/string), but I did develop a successful stringing technique along the way (more on that later!). This twine was actually from Wilko’s, years ago, but I’m sure you can find a similar product online.

My finished garland was about 340cm long, but I started with a length of twine that was about 400cm, to account for the knots/loops (plus, it’s better to have too much than not enough!).

• Star template

I just printed off an outline of a star (about 8cm wide) on some paper for this. I then cut around it and used it as a guide for cutting out all of the felt stars for the garland.

• Handsewing needles

Yep- you’ll need two for this garland. A standard one for sewing the felt stars together with the sewing thread and a longer one, with a larger eye, for threading the garland together. The larger eye is necessary because the twine is much thicker than sewing thread, while the length just makes it easier to guide it through the felt stars/balls.

• Pliers

At first, I could NOT find a way to thread the twine through the felt balls- it was just too thick at the eye of the needle, where it is also doubled. Eventually, I discovered that if you push the needle as far as you can through the felt ball, you can use the pliers to grip the needle more firmly and pull it through the rest of the way. Just make sure your needle is sturdy enough to withhold the force!

• Pins + pin cushion

To cut out the star shapes from the felt, I pinned the template to the felt, then drew around it with a pen.- I found this was the easiest and most accurate method. The pin cushion will come in handy for storing the pins, but also for keeping track of your needles while sewing/threading the final garland! I also used a pin to distribute the stuffing within the finished stars more evenly.

• Sewing thread

This is for sewing the felt stars together, so, ideally, you want to have a matching thread for each of your colours of felt. Alternatively, you could embrace the contrast and use one contrasting thread for all of them- perhaps white?.

• Stuffing

I added a small amount of stuffing to the centre of each of my felt stars, just to give them a little bit of ✨poof✨.

• Sharp sewing scissors

To cut the felt and the thread. Using sharp scissors will make sure all of your cuts are nice and clean, which will make your finished felt stars look super neat. In the photo above, you can see my round-tipped scissors- I very quickly gave up on these and switched to a pair with a sharp tip, which made cutting out the star shapes much easier.

• Pen

As I mentioned, I found that the best way to cut out the star shapes from the felt was to pin the template to the felt and trace around it with a pen. If you’re using a particularly dark colour of felt, you might find it easier to use a white pen.

Making the Felt Stars

For the garland pictured, I made 3 felt stars in each colour of felt, for a total of 18 stars. You will need to cut out 2 star shapes from the felt for each finished star, so, in total, I cut 6 from each colour.

As I mentioned earlier, I found that the best way to cut out the stars was to pin the template onto the felt with a pin. I then traced around the secured template with a ballpoint pen, before removing the template and cutting around the shape. This gave the most accurate results.

Pair up the stars and place them wrong sides together (in this case, the wrong side is the one with the pen markings on it. By sandwiching the pen in the centre of the star, you hide it from view in the finished stars).

Take the sewing thread that matches your felt, cut a long length of it and tie a knot in the end. If you aren’t super confident at hand sewing, start with a shorter length of thread. You will need to fasten off and rejoin a new thread part of the way around the star, but you will be much less likely to get in a tangle (if your thread does get knotted, try not to pull it too much as this will tighten the knot- I find that you can usually untangle the thread by inserting the tip of the needle into the knot and gently tugging the various threads around it until it comes loose. This won’t always work though, especially if the knot is super tight!).

With the two stars lined up together, hide the knot on the inside (between the two layers), then blanket stitch around the perimeter, leaving one of the points unstitched for stuffing (but do not cut the thread).

Once you have stitched around 4 of the points, lightly stuff the centre of the shape. Once stuffed, finish stitching the final point, then secure the thread and fasten it off.

At this point, I used a pin to distribute the stuffing into the points a little more, just to even everything out, but this is optional.

Once you are happy with your star, repeat this process for all of your colours of felt, until you have a mound of plushy rainbow stars.

Stringing the Garland

Once you have all of your stars, you need to string them into a garland. Cut a length of twine- for this garland, I used about 400cm, then make a loop in one end. I am useless at knots, so I just followed this tutorial and it seemed to work fine!

It’s up to you how far apart you want to space out each element of the garland. I went for a 5cm gap between the felt stars/balls, but you can do whatever you want, as long as you’re consistent!

To thread the felt elements, tie a knot where you want the first element to start (I made mine 5cm from the knotted part of the loop). Thread the element on, until it hits that knot, then tie another knot after the element, to lock it in place. Measure another 5cm from that second knot and tie another one for the next element to sit against, and so on.

Once you have used up all of your elements (I used 18 stars and 19 felt balls), cut off some of the excess twine, then measure 5cm and tie another loop for the other end. With that, your garland is finished! Hang it by the loops at either end, and/or use command hooks to place it exactly where you want it.

Troubleshooting

Because this process can feel a little tricky, I have put together some tips and tricks for the garland-stringing process:

• To prevent getting into a tangle with the long length of twine:

You need a long length of twine to make this garland, which means there’s a high chance of it getting tangled. To prevent this, keep the twine threaded on your needle at all times (and preferably, stick the needle into a pin cushion when you’re not holding it, so you don’t lose it!). If you’re working at a desk, let the threaded end of the garland hang down on one side of you, and the non-threaded parts on the other. When threading, pull a length of twine through, then let it fall on the side with the non-threaded parts. Keep doing this, keeping the lengths long and tossing them in that direction, so they don’t get tangled.

• To tie knots in specific places:

It can be a little tricky to tie a knot in a specific location. I found the easiest way to do it was to lay a ruler flat on the desk in front of me. When I tied the knot, I would line the previous knot up on the zero mark, then slowly tighten the new knot, manoeuvring it towards the 5cm mark as I went. You don’t have to be too perfect, but using the ruler as a guide will help your garland to look more even.

• To tie the knots without getting into a tangle:

When tying the knots, hold the thread closest to the intended location between the thumb and fourth/little finger of your non-dominant hand and hold the needle in your dominant hand.

Loop your needle over the thread, bring it under it (above where you are holding it with your non-dominant hand),then bring it out between the ‘loop’ of twine you have created to form the knot (see above image).

When pulling the long length of twine through to tighten the knot, hook your index finger under the twine from the needle (as pictured) and, as you pull, allow the thread to ‘run’ over that finger. This will help you keep it in place and stop it from tangling.

• Threading the felt balls:

As I mentioned earlier, I found that I needed to use pliers to thread the felt balls. To do this, I pushed the needle (threaded with the twine) into the ball, being careful to stay as close to the centre as possible, so the ball sits evenly. The needle should come out on the other side of the ball, but will be prevented from going all the way through by the added thickness of the doubled-over twine/eye. At this point, grasp the pointy end of the needle with the pliers and pull the needle through like that. The extra grip and strength will make the process so much easier!

• Threading the felt stars:

Thread the stars through one inner corner and one outer corner, as pictured. This will make sure they sit evenly on the twine. I found it easiest to find the inner corner with the largest gap between the stitches, insert the needle there, then gathered the felt over the needle until it comes out on the opposite point.

Final Thoughts

I’m so happy with how this garland turned out! It was a little bit of a random project, but I really just followed my ✨vision✨ and I was very lucky that everything worked out. It was a little bit of a labour of love- I mean, the stringing process only took a few hours, but sewing all of the stars together definitely took a while.

I realise this tutorial might seem a bit overwhelming at first, but I have tried to include as many photos as possible to help illustrate all of my ramblings! I’d love to hear if you give this Starry Garland tutorial a go- let me know in the comments below!

Gemma

xxx

Today’s post is a recipe for homemade toffee popcorn. It would be perfect as a last minute gift or just as a super tasty snack to get you through the stresses of the build up to Christmas Day!

I used to have a go-to recipe for toffee popcorn that was SO reliable- it was great! However, I think there’s been some sort of toffee popcorn apocalypse- over the last year or so, all the recipes online seem to have been updated to include baking soda, which I am sure the recipe that I initially used did not contain. To make matters worse, I just can’t get the baking soda recipes to work for me, so there’s been a toffee popcorn-shaped hole in my life for a while now. I know, I know, why didn’t I write down the recipe I used at the time? All I can say is that I was a fool. Nevertheless, we must move forward, so, of course, I have spent the last month or so trying to figure out how I made that original recipe. After multiple failed attempts, I think I might just have cracked it. In fact, I think it might be even better than the original…

Table of Contents

• Some Thoughts on Baking Soda
• Equipment
• Ingredients
• Making the Toffee Popcorn
• Storing the Toffee Popcorn
• Final Thoughts
• Recipe

Some Thoughts on Baking Soda

As I mentioned in the introduction, I haven’t been able to make any of the online recipes I have tried for toffee/caramel popcorn work. The finished popcorn always ends up super matte and grainy, which is not at all what I wanted- I wanted my toffee popcorn to be shiny, smooth and crunchy.

The updated recipes all seem to include baking soda in their popcorn recipes- apparently, this is to help the toffee coat the popcorn, but I have seen other people say it helps the popcorn to forma fine, crispy coating, and even that it actually helps it to become shiny and glossy. I… disagree. After a good number of attempts using it, I just feel that the texture it creates (the toffee bubbles up like honeycomb when it is added) is not what I’m looking for- in all of my attempts, it has reduced that shiny look and smooth mouthfeel significantly. Perhaps it is a sacrilegious thing to do in this day and age, but I have not included any baking soda in this recipe and, honestly, I think it’s better for it!

Equipment

• A large, heavy-bottomed pan (with a lid!).

In the spirit of honesty (because at Christmas you tell the truth), I always use two large heavy-bottomed pans for this recipe, because I am much too lazy to be washing and drying up the pan mid-bake. You can totally get away with one though- just make the popcorn in it first, then allow the pan to cool before washing it out. Dry the pan thoroughly, then make the toffee in it. Heavy-bottomed pans are best for sugar work, because they help everything to melt evenly.

• Silicone spatula

For stirring the toffee and tossing the popcorn (though at the stage, I actually find it using a fish slice as well, for maximum tossing action!). I like to use a silicone spatula, because they can withstand the high heat of the toffee AND they make it super easy to scrape the toffee out of the pan.

• A large, rimmed baking tray (fully lined with foil and greased!)

You need to bake the toffee popcorn to help cover it in the toffee and so that it get crispy, so you need to have a prepped baking tray at the ready for this. Because the toffee popcorn is so sugary (read: sticky), I like to line the tray completely with foil, then grease it generously with oil, to stop the popcorn from sticking. Make sure to use a rimmed baking tray to prevent any sticky sugar spillages in your oven!

Ingredients

• Popcorn kernels

I make homemade popcorn on the stove for this recipe. All you need for this is popcorn kernels and oil- it’s really simple!

• Oil

You need oil to make popcorn on the stovetop. Use a light, flavourless oil like sunflower oil or groudnut oil for best results (though, obviously, do not give this popcorn to anyone with a nut allergy, if you opt for groundnut oil!). You’ll also need a little extra oil to grease the foil-lined baking tray.

• Unsalted butter

I prefer to use unsalted butter to make the toffee coating, because then I can control the level of salt in the finished popcorn. If you only have salted butter, just leave out the sea salt.

• Light brown soft sugar

Using brown sugar gives you that caramel-y, toffee-y taste with much less effort. I wouldn’t substitute caster sugar/granulated sugar for this, because it will affect both the texture and the taste.

• Golden syrup

Toffee typically contains some form of inverted sugar, which helps to give it the right texture and to prevent the sugar from crystallising. I’ve used golden syrup here, because it’s readily accessible in the UK and really adds to the caramel-y flavour of the popcorn, but you could use glucose syrup or corn syrup (if you’re in the US), if you prefer. Just be aware that your toffee popcorn will probably end up a little paler in colour if you use one of these substitutions.

• Flaky sea salt

I like to use flaky sea salt for this recipe because I think it has a better flavour. After measuring the salt, I crush it between my fingers before adding it to the hot toffee- that way, it disperses more evenly throughout the popcorn. If you would prefer to use regular table salt, I would halve the amount of salt listed.

• Vanilla extract

Just to flavour the toffee- it doesn’t necessarily end up tasting of vanilla, but the extract really helps to draw out all of the other flavours and make this popcorn super moreish.

Making the Toffee Popcorn

Start by preheating the oven to 150°C. Set the foil-lined, greased baking tray nearby, for later.

Start by making the popcorn. Add the oil to a large, heavy-based saucepan over medium-high heat. Drop a few kernels of popcorn in and cover with the lid.

Gently shake the pan as you wait for those kernels to pop. Once they do, lift the lid and tip in the rest of the kernels. Cover with the lid immediately and shake the pan every now and then to coat all of the kernels in the oil and stop them from burning.

Once the popcorn starts popping, shake the pan more vigorously, to prevent the popped kernels from burning. Keep the pan over the heat, shaking frequently, until the popping slows to a few seconds between pops. At this point, remove the pan from the heat and tip the popcorn out onto the greased and foil-lined baking tray.

Once the popcorn has cooled slightly, go through and pick out any un-popped kernels now to save your teeth later on! These can be discarded.

Now you can make the toffee. Place the butter, brown sugar and golden syrup into a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan, then put the pan over medium heat.

Stir frequently while the butter melts into the sugar.

Once melted, increase the heat to medium-high to bring the mixture to the boil. Once the mixture has come to a boil, turn the heat down to low and allow to bubble, undisturbed, for 10 minutes.

When the toffee has 3 minutes of cooking time remaining, place the baking tray (with the popcorn) into the preheated oven to warm up. This will prevent the toffee from cooling too quickly, making it easier to cover the popcorn.

After 10 minutes, the toffee should be a deep amber colour. At this point, remove the pan from the heat and stir through the flaky sea salt and vanilla extract.

Remove the tray with the popcorn from the oven, and pour over all of the toffee mixture. Working quickly, use two spatulas (or, in my case, a spatula and a fish slice) to toss the popcorn and toffee together- try to coat the kernels as much as possible, but don’t worry too much- you will be tossing the popcorn more later. The toffee will start to cool down very quickly, so, when it gets difficult to toss, stop and put the tray back into the oven.

Bake the popcorn for 20 minutes, removing the tray from the oven to toss the popcorn in the toffee every 5 minutes or so. The warmth of the oven will remelt the toffee, making it easier to toss it together with the kernels.

Once the toffee popcorn has finished baking, it should be a deep golden colour with an even coating of toffee. Allow it cool slightly on the tray before eating/storing. I find it easier to break the popcorn up when it is still ever so slightly warm. As it cools, it will start to stick to the foil- you can still get it off, but it requires a bit more prising!

Storing the Toffee Popcorn

Toffee popcorn keeps for much longer than regular popcorn, because the outer layer toffee protects the popcorn underneath. You still need to store it in an airtight container though, to keep it fresh for as long as possible. Stored in a cool, dry place, the popcorn will last for about a week.

If you want to give the popcorn as a gift, I would recommend packaging it up into bags on the same day that you plan to give it and making sure the bags are tightly sealed with a twist tie. Alternatively, you could fill an old jam jar with some of the popcorn, which would keep it fresher for longer.

Final Thoughts

It was a bit of a trial working out the recipe, but I’m so glad I put in the work- I really think it’s perfect now! The finished popcorn is so moreish- it has the perfect balance of sweet and salty and it looks jsut how I wanted: shiny andgolden sheen makes it feel so festive.

Let me know if you try this recipe in the comments below- I’d love to hear about it!

Gemma

xxx

Recipe

Print

Toffee Popcorn

Sweet and salty, this homemade toffee popcorn makes a perfect last-minute Christmas gift, but it is also great as a tasty snack, alongside a Christmas film!

Course Snack

Keyword Caramel, Popcorn, Toffee

Prep Time 40 minutes minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour

Servings 10

Ingredients

For the popcorn:

• 1 tbsp flavourless oil, such as sunflower or groundnut, plus extra for greasing.
• 80 g popcorn kernels

For the toffee:

• 100 g unsalted butter
• 220 g brown sugar
• 160 g golden syrup
• 1/4 tsp flaky sea salt
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

• Line a large, rimmed baking tray with foil and grease well with oil. Preheat the oven to 150°C.

Make the popcorn:

• Place the 1 tbsp of oil into a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium-high heat. Add 3 popcorn kernels, then cover with a lid and wait, shaking gently every now and then, until all three of the kernels have popped. At this point, quickly add the rest of the kernels, replace the lid and shake frequently as the popcorn begins to pop. When the popping slows to several seconds between pops, remove the pan from the heat. Tip the popcorn onto the baking tray and spread out into an even layer. Once cool, pick out and discard any un-popped kernels, then set the tray aside while you make the toffee.

Make the toffee:

• Place the butter, brown sugar and golden syrup into a large saucepan over medium heat. Stir frequently until the butter has melted, then increase the heat and bring the mixture up to a boil. Turn the heat down to low and allow the toffee to simmer undisturbed for 10 minutes, until it is a deep golden colour.
• When the toffee has 3 minutes left of cooking time, place the baking tray, with the popcorn still on it, into the oven to warm up. This will make tossing the popcorn and the toffee together easier.
• When the toffee is ready, remove the pan from the heat and add the flaky sea salt and vanilla, stirring to incorporate. Be careful, because the mixture will bubble up a little- keep stirring until the bubbles subside and a smooth mixture forms. Remove the tray of popcorn from the oven and pour the toffee over the top. Toss quickly with two spatulas to coat the popcorn.
• Place the popcorn into the preheated oven and bake for 20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes to ensure the popcorn is evenly coated. Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly before breaking up the popcorn with your hands (this is easiest when the popcorn is still ever so slightly warm). Stored in an airtight container at room temperature, the toffee popcorn will keep for about a week.

Last year, I went all out with my gingerbread construction and made a Gingerbread Christmas Market, complete with a kransekake Christmas tree and little stalls selling different goods. It was my magnum opus. I won’t lie though… it was INTENSE. I ended up covered in icing and very worn out, so, this year, I went back to basics (well, almost).

For as long as I can remember, the gingerbread house in our family has been the ‘Finnish fairy-tale house’ from the December 2002 issue of BBC Good Food magazine, which was a recipe shared by a woman called Mira Paren. We always use that recipe for our gingerbread dough, and, when I’m not running away with some crazy gingerbread Christmas market concept, we typically follow the basic construction for the house too. This year, we went for that traditional house again, but with a few extra decorations to make it super special.

While this post is not a recipe, nor a tutorial, I thought I would show you around the gingerbread house that my mum and I made together this year- kind of a ‘Hey MTV, welcome to my (gingerbread) crib’ situation. Let’s get into the House Tour, shall we?

Table of Contents

• The Basic Construction
• The Decorations
  • The Roof
  • The Chimney
  • The Fence
  • The Paving Stones
  • The Windows
  • The Chimney Breast
  • The Front Door
  • The People, Animals + Tree
• Final Thoughts

The Basic Construction

As I mentioned, we use the same recipe for our gingerbread house dough every year. I actually posted that recipe on the blog last year- you can find it here. It’s not technically gingerbread (it doesn’t actually even contain ginger) but it is DELICIOUS and super sturdy, so it’s great for building with. Also, side note at this point: I never knew there were people who made gingerbread houses with no intention of eating them…? I am BAFFLED- why would you go to all that trouble just to throw it away?! I’ve seen this trend at the moment of using hot glue to assemble it and I just… it breaks my sugar-loving heart. We always eat our gingerbread house and it is always delicious and I absolutely would not have it any other way. We used royal icing to stick this house together and it worked perfectly.

When cutting out all of the gingerbread pieces, we always do the building pieces first, then the people/figures/trees and then, finally, all of the scraps and remaining dough is kneaded together and rolled into one big base piece.

The structure of this gingerbread house is pretty simple: it is just 2 square(-ish) walls, 2 end walls (with gables)and 2 rectangular roof pieces. It also has a chimney (4x little rectangle pieces, 2 of them with triangles cut out at the bottom, so that the chimney can sit flush against the ridge of the roof).

In terms of people/figures, we opted to keep it simple this year and just do one man and one woman (nominally my mum and dad), as opposed to the whole family that we usually do! There’s not tons of space around the house, so we tried to keep the figures to a minimum. We did also include our dog though (but I had to cut her out freehand because we don’t have a dog-shaped cutter, so she’s a little bit squiffy). Around the back, we have a tree and a reindeer, because, after all, it is Christmas.

The Decorations

The Roof

We always use Smarties for the roof tiles, which is what the original recipe did. I think it makes the whole thing look so cheerful (plus it makes the roof pieces super tasty to eat).

The Chimney

To decorate the chimney, we just covered it in royal icing. Whenever I’m left unsupervised for more than a second, I always end up filling the chimney with Jelly Tots. I have no explanation for this other than I think it looks funny.

Also, side note: have Jelly Tots changed shape? Last I remember they were flatter, with only a slight dome, whereas now they just resemble slightly smaller American Hard Gums?!

The Fence

The marshmallow fence is another design feature that came from the original recipe. They probably wouldn’t keep any intruders out, but they taste good so we’ll let it slide.

The Paving Stones

Again, from the original recipe- we stick a few giant chocolate buttons leading up to the front door to act as little paving stones. I had actually planned to use Cadbury Twisted buttons for this, but they ended up looking a little bit too much, so we just went with the classic plain ones.

The Windows

This was one of my new ideas for this year: After Eight shutters. I sometimes find that, in the midst of all of the other decorations, the windows get a little neglected and end up looking a bit lacklustre, compared to the rest of the house- I thought that adding some dark shutters for contrast might help to liven them up a little bit. I didn’t want to bother with tempering dark chocolate or anything, so I had the idea to use chopped up After Eights (which are mint chocolate thins). I cut a single After Eight into quarters, then cut two of the quarters in half to make 4 little shutters (2 for each window). I snacked on the leftovers, obviously.

For the windows themselves, I just piped them on using the royal icing- I know lots of gingerbread houses have boiled sweet/gelatine sheet windows, but I think that’s a little beyond my capabilities at the moment!

The Chimney Breast

Okay, the chimney breast is another of my slightly rogue ideas- but I’ve actually been doing it for a couple of years now because I like it so much! I use a Curly Wurly as a ‘chimney breast’- I just trim it to the size of the back wall (closest to the chimney, because, obviously, we’re all about realism here) and stick it on with royal icing.

For the little stones on the chimney breast, I used these mini jazzies from Waitrose. I just piped some royal icing into each of the holes in the Curly Curly and pressed the mini jazzies onto those splodges. I used to use Jelly Tots for this, but they are the wrong shape now (see my earlier Jelly Tot rant), so I had to use these- honestly, I think I like them even better!

The Front Door

Like the windows, the front door is often a bit of an afterthought on our gingerbread houses. This year, I was determined to give it some love and attention. Admittedly, my initial plan did not work out- I tried to create a little door canopy using two After Eights and some trimmed candy canes, but it wasn’t sturdy enough. In the end, we used two (different) After Eights to make a kind of ‘farmhouse’ style Dutch door (side note: I just googled what those were called and it never occurred to me that that was why the bullet journalling community calls cutting away some of the paper a Dutch door! The more you know…). I also stuck a mini M&M on as the handle.

To decorate around the door, we stuck two candy canes (my mum trimmed these down to remove the curved part- she actually used some secateurs to do this and it was much easier than trying to chop them with a knife) on either side and made a little evergreen garland above it. To do that, I just piped on a good amount of royal icing, then used tweezers to stick these holly sprinkles (also from Waitrose) into the icing.

The People, Animals + Tree

It suddenly occurred to me, as I was sticking the people into the icing beside the house, that giving the gingerbread man fancy little buttons and the gingerbread woman an apron was… problematic. In my defence, my mum and I were both wearing aprons at the time (though, then again, my dad was not wearing a shirt…). It’s just what we’ve always done, but I’ve never thought about the questionable gender roles at play before! Maybe next year I’ll give the gingerbread woman a little power suit to remind her that the world is her oyster. Then again, I spend half my time in an apron, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, so maybe I’ll just give the gingerbread man an apron too! Yeah, I think that’s the vibe.

Anyway, I just used royal icing to decorate the people (and the dog). I kept things simple (no faces) because I didn’t want to tempt fate. For the reindeer, I used royal icing for the eye, then used a little more icing to stick on a red mini M&M for the nose. For the tree, I did little swoops of icing as garlands and then I stuck on some Jelly Tots as the decorations.

Final Thoughts

I think this might just be… my favourite gingerbread house we’ve ever had! It’s fun and it’s covered in sweets and it’s cute and I KNOW it will be tasty- I’m very proud of this one. It’s giving… Hansel and Gretel, without the prospect of being baked alive. Good times.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my Gingerbread House Tour. Do you make a gingerbread house at Christmastime? Let me know in the comments below!

Gemma

xxx

A few days ago, I shared my recipe for Christmas Pudding Macarons: chocolate macarons, filled with dark chocolate ganache and decorated to look like mini Christmas puddings. But! What you don’t know is that, when I made those macarons, I also made another (equally festive) version. Let me introduce you, then, to my Reindeer Macarons.

Fear not, just like the Christmas Pudding Macarons, which contained no actual Christmas pudding, these Reindeer Macarons contain no actual reindeer. They are, however, decorated to look like cute little Rudolph faces. They’re fun, they’re festive and they’re oh-so tasty.

To keep things simple, I’m not going to do a full post here about how to make the macaron shells and ganache filling. The full recipe is down below, but you can find the more in-depth walkthrough, with photos and all of my tips and tricks for perfect macaron-making, on the Christmas Pudding Macaron post. For today, let’s just focus on how to make those cute little reindeer faces!

Table of Contents

• Ingredients
• To Decorate the Macaron Shells:
• To Assemble the Reindeer Macarons
• To Store the Reindeer Macarons
• Recipe

Ingredients

First of all, you will need:

• Baked and cooled (but unfilled) chocolate macaron shells. You can find my tutorial for these here.
• Chilled dark chocolate ganache, for filling. You can find my tutorial for this here too!

To decorate the macarons, you will need:

• Melted dark chocolate

You only need a tiny bit- just to stick the sweets onto the macaron shells and make the pupils. For ease, I recommend putting this into a piping bag, fitted with a fine, round tip (though you could just use a cocktail stick to ‘dot’ it on, if you prefer).

If you can’t be bothered with the chocolate, you could always just use a small amount of the ganache filling. The decorations won’t be stuck on quite so securely, but they will still look good.If you do this, I would recommend remelting a small amount of ganache and using the cocktail stick ‘dotting’ method- the chilled ganache will be too stiff to go through the fine piping nozzle, but the warmed stuff will be too oozy!

• Red Jelly Tots

Any small/medium red sweet like this will work- I like Jelly Tots because they kind of make it look like the noses are lit up, but red Smarties or M&M’s would also look great.

• White chocolate chips

These are for the reindeers’ eyes. Try to get the flatter chips if you can- the ones with the little point at the top will still work, but they might be a bit more… stare-y? You could also buy pre-made eye sprinkles, if you want to make your life a bit easier.

• Salted pretzels

Please, please, for the love of all things Christmas, make sure you get plain, salted pretzels (not sour cream and chive). The saltiness really compliments the chocolate-y macaron. While the pretzels are a different shape to an antler, they still somehow give that antler-y vibe!

To Decorate the Macaron Shells:

To start off, you want to pair up your macarons. I like to do this before I start decorating, so I know which shells to decorate and don’t get caught out at the end with a tiny shell and a huge shell having to be sandwiched together somehow! Aim to match the shells as closely as possible, both in terms of size and shape.

Once you have your macarons paired up, you’ll need to decorate half of them (one from each pair). To do this, use the dark chocolate to ‘glue’ the sweets onto the domed surface of each shell. For each shell, you will need one Jelly Tot nose and two white chocolate chip eyes. Once the features have been attached, add the pupils to the eyes by adding a small dot of chocolate to the centre of each chocolate chip.

Set the decorated shells aside at room temperature for the chocolate to harden- this will secure the sweets and make the shells easier to handle.

To Assemble the Reindeer Macarons

Once the chocolate has hardened, you can assemble the macarons. I like to pipe the ganache filling, for more precision, but you can also spoon/spread it onto the shells, if you prefer.

Pipe a dollop of ganache onto the underside of an undecorated macaron. Press two pretzels into the ganache, so that they both poke out the top a little, to act as the antlers. Pipe another, larger dollop of ganache on top, then press the decorated shell on top. The antlers should now be sandwiched in between the shells and two layers of ganache- this will help to keep them secure. Repeat this process for the remaining macarons and you’re done!

To Store the Reindeer Macarons

Filled macarons are best kept in an airtight container and stored in the fridge, where they will keep for about 5 days, but they can be stored at room temperature for 2-3 days, if needed. 

Unfilled macaron shells can be kept in an airtight container for 5 days, but will start becoming more brittle and less chewy if left for too long.

…And that’s how to make these super cute Reindeer Macarons. As I mentioned, you can find a more detailed walkthrough for making the macaron shells and the ganache on the Christmas Pudding Macaron post. Let me know if you try out this recipe- I’d love to hear about it!

Gemma

xxx

Recipe

Print

Reindeer Macarons

Chocolate Italian macarons, filled with dark chocolate ganache and decorated to look like little reindeer faces 🦌✨

Course Dessert, Snack

Keyword Chocolate, chocolate ganache, Chocolate macaron, Italian macarons, macaron, Reindeer

Prep Time 2 hours hours

Cook Time 11 minutes minutes

12 hours hours

Servings 15 macarons

Ingredients

For the dark chocolate ganache:

• 120 g dark chocolate
• 180 ml double cream

For the chocolate macarons:

• 85 g ground almonds
• 80 g icing sugar
• 23 g cocoa powder
• 72 g egg whites, split into 2x36g portions.
• 105 g caster sugar
• 30 ml water

To decorate:

• 20 g dark chocolate, melted (see Note 1).
• 15 red Jelly Tots (see Note 2).
• 30 white chocolate chips
• 30 salted pretzels

Instructions

Make the dark chocolate ganache:

• Finely chop the chocolate and put it into a small, heatproof bowl.
• Place the cream into a small saucepan over medium heat. Stirring frequently, allow it to come to just below a simmer (you will see small bubbles start to form around the edge of the pan), before pouring it over the chopped chocolate.
• Allow to stand for 1-2 minutes, then stir until the chocolate has completely melted and you have a smooth mixture. Cover the surface directly with clingfilm (to prevent the ganache from forming a skin), then allow to cool slightly before putting into the fridge to set overnight.

Make the chocolate macarons:

• Line 2 baking trays with baking paper. Fit a piping bag with a medium-sized round nozzle and set aside.
• Place the ground almonds, icing sugar and cocoa powder into a food processor. Pulse 10 times, then sift into a large bowl, discarding any large lumps. Repeat this process once more, so that you are left with a very fine powder.
• Add one of the 36g portions of egg white to the dry ingredients. Mix well to form a paste, then set aside.
• Place the remaining 36g of egg white into the clean, metal bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment. Set aside while you make the sugar syrup.
• Place the caster sugar into a small saucepan with the 30ml of water. Place over a medium heat and bring to a boil. Do not stir- swirl gently if necessary. Allow the syrup to continue bubbling, monitoring the temperature with a digital sugar thermometer.
• When the syrup has reached 114°C, turn the stand mixer to high speed and begin to whip the egg whites to soft peaks. Keep the syrup over the heat.
• When the sugar syrup has reached 118°C and the egg whites have reached soft peaks, with the mixer still on high, pour the syrup down the side of the bowl in a slow, steady stream. Once all of the syrup has been added, turn the mixer up to full speed and beat for 5 minutes, or until stiff peaks are achieved and the metal bowl has come to room temperature.
• When the meringue is ready, add 1/3 of it to the cocoa and almond mixture. Mix vigorously to combine the two mixtures and loosen the thick paste.
• Add the rest of the meringue and fold it in, using a figure of eight motion, until the mixture is cohesive and comes off the spatula in ribbons- if you leave those ribbons for 30 seconds, they should level themselves out into the rest of the mixture.
• Transfer the macaron batter to the prepared piping bag. Holding the bag vertically to the baking tray, apply gentle pressure to pipe circular 'blobs' that are about 4cm in diameter.
• Once the macarons are piped, lift the whole tray and drop it down onto the work surface a few times to bring any air bubbles to the surface. Use a sharp knife/cocktail stick to burst any remaining bubbles, letting the mixture fall back on itself.
• Set the macarons aside at room temperature to form a skin- on a relatively dry day, this should take about 30-40 minutes, but can take less time on drier, warmer days and more time on cold, humid days. Check on the macarons every 10-15 minutes or so, if unsure. The macarons will be ready when you can gently touch their surfaces without any batter coming off on your finger.
• When the macarons are almost ready, preheat the oven to 165°C fan. Bake the macarons in the centre of the oven, one tray at a time, for 11 minutes. To check if they are done, place a finger on top of the shells and wiggle gently. When done, the tops of the macarons should not wobble. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely on the tray.

To decorate:

• Once the macaron shells are cool, pair them up, so that each pair is evenly matched in terms of size and shape. You will be decorating half of the shells, one from each pair.
• Place the melted chocolate into a piping bag, fitted with a fine, round tip. Use the chocolate as 'glue' to stick one red Jelly Tot (as the reindeer's nose) and two white chocolate chips (as the eyes) onto the shells as pictured. Then, pipe two small dots of chocolate in the centre of each chocolate chip, for the pupils. Leave the shells to sit at room temperature until the chocolate has hardened.

To assemble:

• Once the chocolate on the shells has hardened, transfer the chilled ganache to a piping bag, fitted with a medium round nozzle. Add a dollop of ganache to the underside of one of undecorated macaron shells then press two pretzels into it, so that they poke up over the edge. This will help to keep the pretzel 'antlers' in place.
• Add another dollop of ganache in the centre, then sandwich the decorated shell on top. Repeat for the remaining macaron pairs.
• The macarons are best eaten immediately, but can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days, or at room temperature for 2-3 days. You can also keep the unfilled macaron shells in an airtight container, at room temperature for about 5 days, before filling.

Notes

1. If you don’t need the decoration on your macarons to be super secure (i.e. if you aren’t transporting them anywhere) you can just use some of the dark chocolate ganache to stick the eyes/nose on and add the pupils. I would recommend, remelting a small amount of the ganache and dipping a cocktail stick into it to ‘dot’ the ganache onto the macaron as glue/white chocolate chips for the pupils.
2. I like the look of red Jelly Tots for the noses, because I think they make it look like the noses are lit up, but you could use any small red sweet- red Smarties or M&Ms would also work well. 

Today’s post is something completely new to the blog: a knitting journal setup for the whole of 2024. This journal is not actually for me, but for my mum, who knits a lot. I first made a knitting journal for my mum last year and she ended up really loving it. She uses the journal alongside Ravelry (a sort of social media/project tracking platform for knitters and crocheters).

She requested another journal for her Christmas present this year, so I have set up a full year’s worth of spreads in a brand new journal for her. Today, I’ll go through the journal so that you can see the spreads she has requested and how I went about actually setting the up. Even if you’re not a knitter, you might find some bullet journalling/design ideas to inspire you!

Also, Mum, if you’re reading this- look away now!

Table of Contents

• Concept
• Journal
• Equipment + Supplies
• Initial Pages: General Info
  • Cover Page
  • Future Projects
  • Project Ideas
  • Wool Notes
  • Measurements
  • Scrap-Sorting and Stash-Busting
  • Present Ideas + Plans
• Monthly Spreads
  • Dashboard + Cover Page
  • Blank page + Project Pages
  • December-Specific Pages
    • Christmas Gift + Card Trackers
    • Christmas Food + 2025 Plans
• Final Thoughts

Concept

Because I knew that I would be setting up a large number of spreads all at once, I wanted to make sure that the decoration and theming for this journal was super simple and quick to set up. Last year, I used a different colour for each month and my mum found it very helpful for navigating her way through the journal- so much so that she requested that again this year. I opted to use an extended rainbow of 11 Crayola SuperTips (+ 1 gold pen) and used one colour for each month, in rainbow order, as you can see above. This was great, because it took out all of the hassle of deciding which month was which colour- I had my order and I stuck to it. For the opening section of the journal, I just used all of the colours, to distinguish those more ‘general’ pages from the month-specific ones. You’ll see what I mean later on!

While the gold pen was technically December’s colour, I did add little sparkle doodles throughout all of the spreads, just to add a touch of cheer and to tie all of the spreads together. My love of sparkle cannot be contained!

Journal

Mum chose this ‘Sun Solstice’ journal from Notebook Therapy for her knitting journal this year. It is a bright teal colour and comes with this gold sun paperclip, which is fun. As always with my journal setups, I’m using the A5 notebook size. This journal is currently sold out, and it was limited edition, so I’m not sure if it will be back, but Notebook Therapy has plenty of other journal options to pick from.

Equipment + Supplies

I tried to keep the different equipment I used to a minimum for this setup. For the whole setup, I only used:

• Muji 0.38mm pen, black.
• 11 rainbow shade of Crayola SuperTips (the exact pens that I used are from a combination of this pastel pack and this assorted pack).
• STAEDTLER metallic marker pen, gold.
• Tombow ABT Dual Brush pens: Warm Grey 1 (N89), Lamp Black (N25) and Light Sand (990).
• Thin washi tape (I used a dark reddy-pink, but you could use any rainbow colour).
• Ruler.
• Scissors.
• Pencil.
• Eraser.

Initial Pages: General Info

Cover Page

For the Cover Page, I drew wavy lines across the spread in each of my 11 shades of Crayola SuperTips, in rainbow order. Over the top, I drew a variety of golden sparkle doodles, scattering them over the stripes, with my STAEDTLER gold pen.

On the right-hand page, I wrote ‘2024’ above the rainbow stripes in a simple, sans-serif font. I wrote ‘knitting journal’ below the stripes, using a more cursive-style font. For both of these, I used the fine tip of my Tombow N25 pen.

On the left-hand page, I added in a little doodle of an in-joke I have with my mum, just to make her laugh. I’d explain, but, inevitably, it won’t sound nearly as funny and I will look like a fool. You’ll just have to stay confused- sorry!

Future Projects

Last year, I made a Future Log (i.e. a yearly calendar) for the knitting journal, but my mum did not end up using that very much. This year, I converted it to a ‘Future Projects’ page- a space for her to map out when she plans to make particular projects throughout the year.

For this spread, I placed the header in the centre and highlighted the area with my Tombow N89. I then wrote on top of that section with my Muji pen (though it doesn’t stand out very well- if I were to do it again, I would probably use my Tombow N25 for this). I then divided both the space above and the space below the header into 6- so there were 12 boxes in total, one for each month of the year. I drew the boxes with my Muji pen, then used a different colour of Crayola SuperTips (in rainbow order) to create a header for each one, over which I wrote the first 3 letters of each month, using my Tombow N25. The colours here correspond to the colour that I used for the individual pages for each month, to keep things cohesive and easy to use.

Project Ideas

This next spread is a place to store any project ideas or patterns my mum might like to try. I’ve separated them out by category- there’s tops (though I feel I probably should have included a separate section for jumpers…), bottoms, accessories, home, baby and other.

To make this spread, I divided each page into quarters. I assigned 6 of the quarters to a category, then used that remaining two for the heading. For the heading, I essentially replicated the cover page, but wrote ‘Project Ideas’, instead.

Wool Notes

This section is essentially a kind of Wool Wishlist/Rating hybrid. It’s a place for my mum to jot down yarns she would like to try, as well as any notes on her favourites (just realising now that it should probably be called Yarn Notes…? Ah, well.). I have split this section into different weights of yarn- so there’s one for fingering, one for double knitting and one for worsted (which are the yarns my mum tends to use the most). I’ve also included a section for miscellaneous other yarn weights, because last year she did end up making a few notes on lace weight and chunky yarns.

I opted to use a Dutch door for this spread, to make sure that there was plenty of room for all of the sections and to keep everything organised. To make that, I used two double-page spreads and cut away the top of the central page. You have to be a bit careful when you do this, because if you cut too close to the middle of the page, it can affect the binding and make some of your pages fall out! I really don’t like the look of the little paper strip that you have to leave behind for this reason, though. My solution was to stick a piece of thin washi tape over it, to hold it in place and ✨disguise✨ the ugliness. Honestly, I think it looked pretty well- I know it looks a little out of place, but it is definitely the lesser of two evils.

After that, I used my Tombow N89 to draw across the top of each of the 4 pages, at the height of the Dutch door. I then assigned one yarn weight to each of the 4 pages. I used the brush tip of the same Tombow pen to draw a wavy line down the outside edge, on top of which I used my Tombow N25 to write the yarn weight in block capitals. I then used the fine tip of the N89 pen to draw 2 dashed line boxes, each taking up half of the remaining space, on each page. I created the headers for each box using a variety of rainbow Crayola colours. For each yarn weight, the top box is for Yarns To Try and the bottom box is for notes on any Favourites.

I used the blank space at the top for the header. I wrote ‘Wool Notes’ in block capitals, using the Crayola SuperTips, the added some sunburst decorations using the Tombow N25 and some sparkle doodles using the STAEDTLER gold pen.

Measurements

For the Measurements spread, my mum requested that they be organised by person (so, for example, all of my measurements for socks, jumpers etc. would be kept together, rather than all of the sock measurements).

I wrote the header along the top in a style that I ended up using throughout the rest of this setup- I first drew a wavy line in a highlight colour (for this page, that was my Tombow N89), then I wrote over that in block capitals using my Tombow N25. I also added some gold sparkle doodles (for good measure).

For the individual boxes, I divided the remaining space on each page into 6, to give me 12 boxes overall. I drew the same, very simple boxes, using my Muji pen and used a different colour of Crayola SuperTips for the header (where my mum can write the name of a person) of each box.

Scrap-Sorting and Stash-Busting

These spreads are super simple, because I left them as close to blank as possible to leave lots of space for notes and planning! I devoted the left-hand page to Scrap-Sorting and the right-hand page to Stash-Busting. Each page is comprised of a dashed outline, made using my Tombow N89, with a different colour header- I went for pink and orange- which I then wrote over the top of with my Muji pen.

Present Ideas + Plans

I guess this is essentially a kind of Present Tracker? It’s basically just a table to write in potential presents/keep track of any gifts that my mum might be knitting for others. This spread spans two pages, but both pages are exactly the same- the table just repeats. In the table, the first column is for the recipients name (and the occasion), then there’s a column for the project and a column for when the gift needs to be completed by. The final 3 columns are just tick boxes- there’s one for when the project has been finished, one for when it has been wrapped and one for when it has been sent.

I went for the same header as the Measurements page for this spread. I drew both of the tables with my Muji pen, then scribbled little patches of colour (in rainbow order, of course) above them, for the column headers.

Monthly Spreads

As I mentioned earlier, I allotted a single colour to each month (in rainbow order) to make this journal super easy to use. This was also helpful because each month (bar December) follows the exact same format, so it would have been a bit confusing if there was nothing to distinguish one month from the other! In general, each month has the following pages:

Dashboard + Cover Page

The Dashboard is a space for my mum to organise her knitting projects for the month. I divided this page into 4, with the bottom left quadrant being used for the page title and the other three quadrants for jotting down Ongoing projects, projects To Start and miscellaneous Notes.

I followed the same design style that I used in the initial pages: the wavy/block capital headers, the sparkle doodles and the simple boxes with colour block headers. The only thing a little different here is the border down the left-hand side. I made this by drawing a thick line with the brush tip of my Tombow N89, then a thinner line beside it with that month’s colour. This is so that the tab (which is cut out of the Cover Page) stands out when the page is turned.

The Cover Page is mainly taken up by a small calendar. I drew the grid with my Muji pen, then added little dots of the month’s colour for the dates. I also used that same colour to draw a bar at the top for the days of the week and a wavy line for the monthly header.

I also cut a small tab out of each Cover Page, to make it even easier for my mum to navigate through this journal. I just used scissors to cut out 3×2 tab, with slightly rounded corners, which I coloured in the corresponding colour, then wrote the initial of the month over the top.

Blank page + Project Pages

I like to include a blank page each month for my mum to store any notes that don’t otherwise fall in to a specific category, or to set up another spread if needed.

I couldn’t help myself from adding a little decoration- I just coloured in the back of the tab in the same colour as the other side, then drew a wavy line across the bottom left-hand corner, which I filled in with golden sparkles.

These Project Pages are probably the simplest in this setup, but they are actually the spreads that my mum uses the most. When she’s planning a project, she make lots of notes on yarn ideas, measurements, sizing, yardage- the whole shebang. With these spreads, she can easily keep all the notes for a project together, in one, easily-accessible place. I’ve put 3 boxes on each page and included 3 pages’ worth of this spread in each monthly section, so she will have space for planning 9 projects a month (which is a lot, I realise, but better to have too many than too few!).

To create these pages, I just divided the page into thirds and drew a dashed outline around each third with my Tombow N89. I used the month’s colour to create a little subheading for each box. I did also include the borders on the far-left and right edges.

December-Specific Pages

While the initial pages of the December section are exactly the same as all of the other months (just made using a combination of my STAEDTLER gold pen and Tombow N89, because the gold pen is a little harder to write over than the Crayola SuperTips), I did include a few Christmas spreads. It’s not strictly knitting, but my mum doesn’t have a regular bullet journal, so I like to add this stuff into her knitting one.

Christmas Gift + Card Trackers

This is very similar to the Present Ideas + Plans spread at the start of the journal. It’s essentially just a table for my mum to keep track of the Christmas presents she is sending to her friends. There are 5 columns: one for the recipient’s name, one for the present and then 3 tick boxes for when the present has been bought (or made), wrapped and sent. At the bottom of this spread, I also added a space for my mum to keep track of any December birthdays (and gifts) that also need to be considered this month.

I stuck with the completely gold colour scheme of the December section for this spread, so I used the gold pen to scribble patches of colour for the headings.

The Christmas Card Tracker is very similar, in that it is just a table made for tracking purposes. The columns this time are for the recipient’s name and address, then the tick boxes are for when the card has been a) written and b) sent.

Christmas Food + 2025 Plans

This spread is for any notes on meal-planning for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day. It’s set out very similarly to the monthly Dashboard pages, but each of the three boxes corresponds to one of the three days, instead of project types/notes.

The 2025 Plans page is the last spread in this setup and is just a space for my mum to write down any projects she might like to try out next year or any ideas that she has. This setup was very simple to create- just another dashed outline made with the Tombow N89 and a heading written in the gold pen (with even more sparkles).

Final Thoughts

Phew! That was a bit of a bumper post- kudos to you if you made it to the end! It was a whole year’s worth of knitting journal content crammed into a single post though, so I guess it’s only to be expected.

Because this setup was much more minimal (in terms of different spreads) than the ones I make in my own journal, I only ended up using about half of the Notebook Therapy journal that I used for this project. That means I should be able to use the second half of the journal for next year’s setup- win!

Anyway, I hope you found this knitting journal setup interesting- it’s a little niche, I know, but I think it’s nice to show how flexible bullet journals can be- they really can be tailored to any hobby, personality or requirement.

Thank you for reading this post- I hope you’re having the merriest and brightest day.

Gemma

xxx

Today’s post is another pattern release, but we’re switching crafts for this one! While my Santa Baby Blanket was a crochet pattern, these embroidery hoop ornaments are knitted. I’ve actually been knitting longer than I have been crocheting, but I am much less confident when it comes to playing around with it and creating new designs! Luckily, these embroidery hoop ornaments are SO simple to make that they barely even warrant a pattern. You know those patterns that are so easy to remember you can keep them in your head? Yep, this is one of those.

Today, then, I bring you the pattern for my…

🪡🧶EMBROIDERY HOOP ORNAMENTS🧶🪡

These embroidery hoop ornaments are really easy to make- you essentially just knit a piece of fabric that you stretch into a 3-inch embroidery hoop, just like you would regular fabric. Then, you gather the edges of the fabric to pull them in and use sewing thread to stitch a small felt circle to the back, to cover the back. I like to add a small amount of stuffing into the ornament, to help the felt sit more evenly (and to make the ornament more plushy!). Once you have the bauble made, you can just thread a ribbon through the top, ready to hang it! It’s super quick, simple and easy.

To go to the Ravelry pattern page for this design, click here.

The great thing about these embroidery hoop ornaments is that they use sock yarn- so they’re perfect for using up the little oddments of yarn that are inevitably leftover when you finish a pair of socks. You only need a small amount of yarn for each bauble, so it’s a great stash-busting project.

There are also plenty of ways to personalise these ornaments: I’ve left mine plain, but you could add colourwork designs to the initial piece of knitting, or you could embroider onto the fabric using a small amount of contrasting yarn. If you wanted something more subtle, you could even embroider onto the felt backing. The world is, quite literally, your oyster!

In terms of difficulty, these hoops are super easy to make. For the knitted section, once you know how to cast on/off, work in stocking stitch, knit/purl front and back and, finally, knit/purl two together, you’ll be fine. You will also need to have some basic hand sewing skills, to attach the felt back.

Table of Contents

• Materials and Tools
• Pattern Notes
• Abbreviations
• Pattern
  • For the knitted fabric:
• To assemble the hoops:
• To hang the ornament:
• Final Thoughts

Materials and Tools

For the knitted piece, you will need:

• 8-10g of any 4-ply/fingering yarn.
• 2.25mm needles.
• Darning needle.
• Scissors.

To assemble the ornament, you will also need:

• 3-inch embroidery hoop.
• Felt, for the backing.
• Sewing thread (in a matching colour to your felt).
• Toy stuffing.
• Hand sewing needle.
• Ribbon, for hanging.

Pattern Notes

• Notes on gauge:

Your gauge will vary slightly based on the specific sock yarn you use. Therefore, I haven’t listed an exact gauge- you just want to make sure that the knitted fabric is dense enough that it will not be too see-through when it is stretched across the hoop. Use whatever needle size you need to achieve this.

Abbreviations

• St(s) = Stitch(es)
• St-st = Stocking stitch
• KFB = Knit front and back into the same stitch (increasing one stitch)
• PFB = Purl front and back into the same stitch (increasing one stitch)
• K2tog = Knit 2 together
• P2tog = Purl 2 together

Pattern

For the knitted fabric:

Cast on 15 stitches.

Row 1: KFB, knit until 1 stitch remains, KFB (17 sts)

Row 2: PFB, purl until 1 stitch remains, PFB (19 sts)

Repeat rows 1-2 five more times (39 sts)

Row 13: KFB, knit to end of row (40 sts)

Row 14: PFB, purl to end of row (41 sts)

Repeat Rows 13-14 five more times (51 sts)

Work in st-st for 12 rows (51 sts)

Row 37: K2tog, knit to end of row (50 sts)

Row 38: P2tog, purl to end of row (49 sts)

Repeat rows 37-38 five more times (39 sts)

Row 49: K2tog, knit until 2 stitches remain, K2tog (37 sts)

Row 50: P2tog, purl until 2 stitches remain, P2tog (35 sts)

Repeat rows 49-50 five more times (15 sts).

Cast off, leaving a 45cm tail for gathering the fabric.

To assemble the hoops:

Start by drawing around the inside of the embroidery hoop onto some felt.

Cut out the circle, using the pen line as a guide. Set aside.

Loosen the embroidery hoop. Lay your knitted fabric, right side facing up, on top of the inner circle of the hoop.

Place the outer circle of the hoop on top, making sure that the stitches are running horizontally. Press the outer hoop down over the knitted fabric and the inner hoop.

Tighten the hoop a little (you might find it helpful to use pliers for this), then start to pull the edges of the fabric to stretch it across the hoop. It will never be as taut as a typical embroidery fabric, because the yarn has more stretch to it, so you just want to get it smooth and even. Be firm, but gentle- the outer hoop may pop off if you are too forceful (not much of a problem, but it does mean you’ll have to do the stretching all over again).

Once you’re happy with the fabric, tighten the hoop as much as possible (again, you’ll probably want to use pliers at this stage). This will keep everything neat and secure.

Now you need to gather the edges of the knitted fabric, to ‘hide’ them away. Thread a darning needle with the 45cm end from the cast off edge and stitch a loose running stitch around the perimeter of the fabric, close to the edge. You don’t need to be too perfect here!

Once you’ve stitched the whole way around, pull the thread to gather the fabric as much as possible. Once it is fully gathered, work a stitch or two to secure the gathers. You don’t need to bother sewing in the cast on/off ends, because they will be hidden beneath the felt backing, anyway, so just tuck them into the space between the front fabric and the gathers to keep them out of the way.

Now, it’s time to add the felt backing.

Cut a length of sewing thread (about 50cm) and tie a knot in the end. Use a hand sewing needle and the thread to stitch the felt circle to the back of the knitted fabric. I’m not the best hand sewer, so I’m sure there’s a professional way to do this, but I just made little stitches, perpendicular to the edge, all around the circumference of the felt, alternating between running the needle under the knitted fabric…

… and running the needle under the felt.

Honestly, you can do it however works for you- the matching thread will conceal a multitude of sewing-related sins! Once you’re about 4/5 of the way around the circle, add some stuffing underneath the felt.

This will help the felt to sit nicely, but it will also make the ornament extra soft and plushy!

Once your ornament is stuffed and backed with felt, you can fasten off the thread and cut off any excess.

To hang the ornament:

Now you need to add a ribbon to hang your ornament from! To do this, cut about 30cm of ribbon and fold it in half. Thread the doubled ribbon through the space at the top of the ornament, so that the loop is at the front and the two ends are at the back.

Bring each end around to the front, guiding them underneath the metal part on each side.

Holding the loop to keep it at the right length, tie the two ends together at the front of the ornament.

Bring each end around to the back of the ornament and flip the whole thing over, so that you are working from the back.

Tie the ends in a double knot, pulling the second knot as tight as possible to secure it, before cutting both ends off, close to the knot.

And there you have it, a hanging ribbon to hang your ornament up by!

Final Thoughts

And there you have it- my super-easy Embroidery Hoop Ornaments. The knitting part is really simple (and easy to remember- everything happens in groups of 12 rows!). If you’re not overly confident with hand sewing, assembling the bauble might seem a little daunting, but it’s really not bad at all when you get the hang of it. Plus, it’s the front of the baubles that really matters, so go easy on yourself with the stitching!

I hope you’ve enjoyed my second pattern (and first ever knitting pattern!). As I mentioned earlier, you can also find this pattern on Ravelry. I’d love to hear if you give it a try- let me know in the comments down below!

Gemma

xxx

Full disclosure: these Christmas Pudding Macarons have absolutely NO Christmas Pudding in them- sorry, is that false advertising? They’re actually just plain old chocolate macarons, decorated to look like mini Christmas Puddings. Then again, I cannot in good conscience apologise for anything to do with these macarons because they are THAT delicious, so consider my previous apology revoked.

I’ve already posted a recipe for plain macarons, filled with milk chocolate ganache, on the blog- you can find that here. hile these may be chocolate macarons, the process is super similar, so you might notice a lot of overlap from that post. No matter though, chocolate macarons are next LEVEL, so chocolate macarons I must show you how to make.

I always make Italian Macarons (no, I STILL have not managed to conquer the elusive French Macaron…), which involve making a sugar syrup. This sounds scary, but I find it SO much easier to achieve successful macarons with this method. You can read more about the difference between the macaron types on that previous post.

Here we go!

Table of Contents

• Christmas Pudding Macarons: Explained
• Ingredients
• How to Make Dark Chocolate Ganache
• How to Make Chocolate Macarons
• How to Decorate the Macarons
• How to Assemble the Macarons
• Macaron-Making 101: Tips and Tricks for Perfect Macarons
• How to Store Macarons
• Recipe

Christmas Pudding Macarons: Explained

Like I said, these macarons are just basic chocolate macarons. Making chocolate macarons is super easy- they just need one extra ingredient: cocoa powder.

To make the macarons look like Christmas puddings, you decorate half of the baked and cooled macaron shells with white chocolate and festive sprinkles. Totally doable, right?

I opted to fill these macarons with dark chocolate ganache, as opposed to my preferred milk chocolate ganache. The main reason for this was the layer of white chocolate on top- I figured the bitter dark chocolate would contrast nicely with the sweet decoration. Let me tell you, I’m not a big dark chocolate person- it’s typically much too bitter for me, but, somehow, in the middle of these macarons, it’s absolutely delicious! Don’t get me wrong- I’m still a milk chocolate ganache girl through AND through, but honestly, I like the dark chocolate ganache-filled macarons too (and, more importantly, I could eat them without coughing and spluttering from the bitterness, so take from that what you will).

Ingredients

To make these Christmas Pudding macarons, you will need:

• Dark chocolate

This is for the ganache. You can use milk chocolate, if you prefer, but you would need to use 150g of chocolate and 150ml of cream, to make the same amount (and same consistency) of ganache.

• Double cream

Also for the ganache. If you are in the US, use heavy cream.

• Ground almonds

Macarons are, at heart, an almond cookie, so almonds you must have.

• Icing sugar

One of the two types of sugar in this recipe- this icing sugar will be mixed with the almonds, cocoa powder and half of the egg whites to form a paste.

• Cocoa powder

The ingredient that makes these macarons chocolate-y. Use a good quality cocoa powder (not a drinking chocolate- they aren’t the same thing!).

• Egg whites

You don’t need the yolks for this recipe, so save them for another bake. For the amount listed in this recipe, I typically need just under 2 eggs’ worth of white.

I know the measurements for the egg whites sound super weird and specific, but it’s really important that the ingredient ratios for this recipe are correct, because macarons are notoriously finicky. I find that the best way to weight out egg whites is to crack (and separate, at the same time) the egg directly into a bowl that is set over a digital scale- that way, you can weigh the white as it drips out and don’t have to mess around with trying to scoop some out afterwards. Make sure you don’t get any yolk in the white at this stage, because this will prevent the whites from whipping up properly.

• Caster sugar

The second of the two sugars- the caster sugar is made into a sugar syrup and added to the egg whites to form a meringue.

• Water

I nearly didn’t mention this here because, well, it’s water, but it’s an important part of the recipe, so I didn’t want to risk anyone skipping over it! Perhaps I am just projecting- I have a tendency to forget water when it is added to recipes. The water is added to the caster sugar to make the syrup.

You will also need the following, for decorating the macaron shells:

• White chocolate

You don’t need a lot, so make sure you use a good quality one for maximum flavour.

• Holly leaf & berry sprinkles

This one is niche, I know, but it makes decorating these macarons SO much easier. I found mine at Waitrose, but you could also use some icing or extra chocolate, dyed red/green, or even red/green writing icing (which I have used before) to pipe little berries and leaves, if you cannot find any similar sprinkles.

How to Make Dark Chocolate Ganache

Make the ganache filling the day before you plan to assemble the macarons, so that it has time to firm up in the fridge. Start by finely chopping the dark chocolate and placing it into a heatproof bowl.

Place the cream into a small saucepan over medium heat, and allow to come to just below a simmer- you will see small bubbles starting to form around the edge of the pan. When the cream is hot, pour it over the chopped chocolate.

Allow to stand for a minute or two, then stir until all of the chocolate has melted and a smooth, homogenous ganache has formed. It’s important to let the ingredients stand, unstirred, for a couple of minutes before stirring, otherwise the cream will cool down too quickly and not melt the chocolate properly. If this does happen, gently heat the ganache, stirring frequently, until it is smooth.

Cover the ganache with cling film, pressing it directly onto the surface so a skin does not form. Allow the ganache to cool slightly before putting it into the fridge to chill and firm up overnight.

How to Make Chocolate Macarons

Start out by lining 2 baking trays with baking paper. You don’t need to preheat the oven yet, because the macarons will need to sit for a while to form a skin before they can be baked.

Next up, you need to weigh out your egg whites. As I said, I know it seems a bit extra to have to weigh out such specific measurements of egg white, but macarons require extra attention! It’s super important that all of the ratios are spot on, to get the perfect bake. This recipe calls for 72g of egg whites, separated into two equal portions of 36g each- if you measure the white out as you separate the egg, using a bowl set on a digital scale, you can measure it exactly.

Transfer one of the 36g portions of egg white into the metal bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with a whisk attachment. A metal bowl will help your whites whip up fully, but it will also conduct heat, unlike a glass or ceramic bowl. Because you’ll be using the temperature of the bowl to identify when the meringue is ready, a metal bowl is preferable. Leave the egg white in the bowl while you get on with the other ingredients.

Place the ground almonds, icing sugar and cocoa powder into the bowl of a food processor. Pulse 10 times and sift into a large bowl, discarding any big pieces of almond that do not easily pass through the sieve. Repeat the whole process once more, to get the dry ingredients super fine. This will a) make sure your macarons bake up properly and b) make the tops of your macarons super smooth. Just don’t blitz the ingredients anymore than this, or the almonds will start to release their oils, which will ruin your macarons.

Add the remaining 36g portion of egg white to the sifted dry ingredients and mix, using a strong utensil, into a paste. It will be quite stiff- this is how it is supposed to be! Set this aside while you make the sugar syrup.

Place the sugar and water into a small saucepan (preferably with a spout, for easy pouring later) over medium heat. Allow to melt, swirling occasionally if needed, until the sugar has dissolved. Bring to the boil, and allow it to bubble until it reaches 118°C.

Meanwhile, when the sugar syrup has reached 112-114°C, start whipping the egg whites in the stand mixer bowl on high speed. This will give them enough time to whip up into soft peaks before the sugar syrup is ready- exactly what you are looking for.

When the sugar syrup has reached 118°C and the egg whites have reached soft peaks, you can add the syrup to the mixer. With the mixer still on high, pour the syrup down the side of the bowl in a slow, steady stream, until you have added the whole lot. Then, turn the mixer up to full speed and whip the meringue for about 5 minutes, until stiff peaks are achieved and the bowl has come down to room temperature.

When the meringue is ready, it’s time to add it to the chocolate and almond paste. Start by adding about a third of the meringue to the paste and mixing it in vigorously, until it is completely incorporated. At this stage, you’re just trying to loosen up the mixture.

Once the first lot of meringue has been incorporated, you can add the rest of the meringue. Use a rubber spatula to fold the mixture together using a figure of eight motion, until it is cohesive and there are no visible streaks. Keep folding until the batter falls off the spatula in ribbons, which settle back into the rest of the batter when left for 30 seconds. This process is called ‘macaronage’ and is notoriously finicky, but you’ll get used to it!

When the batter is ready, transfer it to a piping bag, fitted with a medium round nozzle. Holding the piping bag vertically to the tray, pipe a macaron onto the lined baking trays by applying gentle pressure in one spot, until the macaron is about 4cm in diameter. Repeat this process for the rest of the batter.

Once the macarons are all piped, tap the trays firmly on the work surface a few times to bring any air bubbles to the surface. Then, using a cocktail stick, skewer or sharp knife, pop the bubbles, allowing the macaron batter to fall back on itself as you do, giving you perfectly smooth shells. 

Leave the macarons to rest at room temperature for about 30-40 minutes, until they form a skin. That skin is what ultimately leads to the macarons developing their iconic ‘feet’. Macarons will form a skin more quickly on hot, dry days, but will take much longer on humid, rainy or cold days. If you can, it’s best to make macarons on dry days, but, obviously, that isn’t always possible. I have had success making macarons from this recipe on rainy days, but they did take a lot longer to form a skin. You’ll know the macarons are ready to bake when you can lightly touch the surfaces without any batter sticking to your finger. 

When the macarons are almost ready, set the oven to 160°C (fan- I don’t usually use a fan oven, but I do for these. Like I said, macarons are finicky). When the macarons are ready and the oven is up to temperature, bake one tray at time for 11 minutes. When they are ready, you should be able to gently wiggle the top of a macaron shell with your finger and it shouldn’t wobble.

Using a fan oven usually means you can bake more than one tray at a time. Alas, macarons are high-maintenance and, any time I have tried to do this, the lower tray always seems to bake unevenly, erupt into tiny almond-y volcanoes or crack along the top. Save yourself the inevitable distress and allow for an extra 11 minutes to bake that second tray. 

Once the macarons have baked, allow them to cool on the trays completely before filling.

How to Decorate the Macarons

Pair up the cooled macaron shells- try to put shells of a similar size together for a more even look.

Melt the white chocolate and transfer it to a piping bag, fitted with a fine round nozzle. Pipe the outline of some icing onto one of the macaron shells.

Add a little more chocolate within the outline, then use a cocktail stick/small sharp knife to ‘wiggle’ the chocolate around and smooth it out.

You can also gently tap the macaron on a surface to even out the layer.

Add a few holly sprinkles to the top of the white chocolate before it sets. It might be helpful to use a pair of tweezers to pick up the small sprinkles!

Repeat this process for half of the macaron shells (these will be the tops of each filled macaron), then allow them to set for about an hour before filling.

How to Assemble the Macarons

To assemble the macarons, place some chilled dark chocolate ganache onto the bottom shell of each macaron pair. You can use a piping bag, fitted with a medium/large piping tip for a polished look, or simply spoon/spread some ganache on freehand! Carefully press the top macaron shell (with the Christmas pudding decoration) on top, and the macarons are ready to serve!

Macaron-Making 101: Tips and Tricks for Perfect Macarons

In my last macaron post, I provided a full list of tips and tricks for making perfect macarons. It was… extensive, and I don’t want you to feel overwhelmed by it, so I’ve cut it down for this post. I’ve only included the things that aren’t otherwise referred to in the method sections above. If you would like to see the full list, check out the other post!

• Make sure both your bowl and the whisk attachment for your mixer are completely clean. Any traces of fat/residue will prevent your egg whites from whipping up. Wipe out both the whisk attachment and the bowl with a little white wine vinegar to ensure there are no traces of grease.
• Use a digital scale. Macarons require very specific measurements of ingredients- mechanical scales are not accurate enough for this purpose.
• Use an accurate (digital) sugar thermometer. You need to bring the sugar syrup up to 118°C, which is a very specific (but very necessary!) value- having to eyeball this will make your job so much harder and the success of your macarons so much less certain. 
• Use a macaron template. Making identical macaron shells is one of the biggest challenges of making macarons at home- using a template as a guide can make the process much easier. To make a template, take a sheet of A3 paper, and draw circles at intervals across the whole sheet- I like my macarons to be about 4cm in diameter, but you can make your macarons any size (just be aware that making smaller/larger shells will affect the number of macarons this recipe makes/the cooking time). Place this template under the baking paper on your baking tray and pipe into the circle guides. Remember to carefully slide out the template before baking, then store it away for when you next make macarons!

How to Store Macarons

Filled macarons are best kept in an airtight container and stored in the fridge, where they will keep for about 5 days, but they can be stored at room temperature for 2-3 days, if needed.

Unfilled macaron shells can be kept in an airtight container for about 5 days, but will start becoming more brittle and less chewy if left for too long.

Recipe

Print

Christmas Pudding Macarons

Chocolate Italian macarons, filled with dark chocolate ganache and decorated to look like little Christmas puddings 🎄

Course Dessert, Snack

Keyword Chocolate, chocolate ganache, Chocolate macaron, Christmas pudding, Italian macarons, macaron

Prep Time 2 hours hours

Cook Time 11 minutes minutes

Setting time 12 hours hours

Servings 15 macarons

Ingredients

For the dark chocolate ganache:

• 120 g dark chocolate
• 180 ml double cream

For the chocolate macarons:

• 85 g ground almonds
• 80 g icing sugar
• 23 g cocoa powder
• 72 g egg whites, split into 2x36g portions.
• 105 g caster sugar
• 30 ml water

To decorate:

• 80 g white chocolate
• Holly sprinkles (see Note 1).

Instructions

Make the dark chocolate ganache:

• Finely chop the chocolate and put it into a small, heatproof bowl.
• Place the cream into a small saucepan over medium heat. Stirring frequently, allow it to come to just below a simmer (you will see small bubbles start to form around the edge of the pan), before pouring it over the chopped chocolate.
• Allow to stand for 1-2 minutes, then stir until the chocolate has completely melted and you have a smooth mixture. Cover the surface directly with clingfilm (to prevent the ganache from forming a skin), then allow to cool slightly before putting into the fridge to set overnight.

Make the chocolate macarons:

• Line 2 baking trays with baking paper. Fit a piping bag with a medium-sized, round nozzle and set aside.
• Place the ground almonds, icing sugar and cocoa powder into a food processor. Pulse 10 times, then sift into a large bowl, discarding any large lumps. Repeat this process once more, so that you are left with a very fine powder.
• Add one of the 36g portions of egg white to the dry ingredients. Mix well to form a paste, then set aside.
• Place the remaining 36g of egg white into the clean, metal bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment. Set aside while you make the sugar syrup.
• Place the caster sugar into a small saucepan with the 30ml of water. Place over a medium heat and bring to a boil. Do not stir- swirl gently if necessary. Allow the syrup to continue bubbling, monitoring the temperature with a digital sugar thermometer.
• When the syrup has reached 114°C, turn the stand mixer to high speed and begin to whip the egg whites to soft peaks. Keep the syrup over the heat.
• When the sugar syrup has reached 118°C and the egg whites have reached soft peaks, with the mixer still on high, pour the syrup down the side of the bowl in a slow, steady stream. Once all of the syrup has been added, turn the mixer up to full speed and beat for 5 minutes, or until stiff peaks are achieved and the metal bowl has come to room temperature.
• When the meringue is ready, add 1/3 of it to the cocoa and almond mixture. Mix vigorously to combine the two mixtures and loosen the thick paste.
• Add the rest of the meringue and fold it in, using a figure of eight motion, until the mixture is cohesive and comes off the spatula in ribbons- if you leave those ribbons for 30 seconds, they should level themselves out into the rest of the mixture.
• Transfer the macaron batter to the prepared piping bag. Holding the bag vertically to the baking tray, apply gentle pressure to pipe circular 'blobs' that are about 4cm in diameter.
• Once the macarons are piped, lift the whole tray and drop it down onto the work surface a few times to bring any air bubbles to the surface. Use a sharp knife/cocktail stick to burst any remaining bubbles, letting the mixture fall back on itself.
• Set the macarons aside at room temperature to form a skin- on a relatively dry day, this should take about 30-40 minutes, but can take less time on drier, warmer days and more time on cold, humid days. Check on the macarons every 10-15 minutes or so, if unsure. The macarons will be ready when you can gently touch their surfaces without any batter coming off on your finger.
• When the macarons are almost ready, preheat the oven to 165°C fan. Bake the macarons in the centre of the oven, one tray at a time, for 11 minutes. To check if they are done, place a finger on top of the shells and wiggle gently. When done, the tops of the macarons should not wobble. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely on the tray.

To decorate:

• Once the macarons shells are cool, melt the white chocolate and place it into a piping bag, fitted with a fine round nozzle. Pipe the outline of some icing onto one shell, then add some more chocolate within that outline and spread it out, using a sharp knife/cocktail stick, so that you have a thin, even coating of chocolate. Add a couple of holly sprinkles to the top edge, to decorate. Repeat this process for half of the macaron shells.

To assemble:

• Place the chilled ganache into a piping bag, fitted with a large round tip.
• Pipe a dollop of ganache onto the underside of each of the undecorated macarons. Place a decorated macaron shell on top of each one and gently press the two halves together. The macarons are best eaten immediately, but can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days, or at room temperature for 2-3 days. You can also keep the unfilled macaron shells in an airtight container, at room temperature for about 5 days, before filling.

Notes

1. I found these holly leaf & berry sprinkles at Waitrose, which made making these Christmas Pudding Macarons super easy. If you can’t find sprinkles, you could also use coloured icing/chocolate, or even tubes of red and green writing icing, to draw little leaves and berries.