C is for Christmas and for Cake

This weekend we had the Christmas 'get together' for the pile of relatives we can't fit round the table on Christmas day.  So presents were wrapped and my old ...sorry should I say, "Vintage" fairy was looking as lovely as always.

And this year, much to the amazement of my guests, I baked Cakes!!!

With lots of tips from the brilliant Pink Whisk Blog , I tried my hand at individual, 'mini -ish' Christmas Cakes. Well, as Iceland tell us ....You can party like a celebrity with mini food.  I started with the Delia Smith Christmas cake kit from Waitrose.

Then with the help of the  Paper cup Christmas Cakes Post by Ruth Clemens of the Pink Whisk, I cooked the mixture in paper cups.  Ruth even provided a handy template to use to line the cups.

Let's just say my cake decorating skills are very much in their infancy, I did manage to cover the cakes with marzipan and icing but finished them off with little sugar decorations I bought from John Lewis.  This is cheating a little I know but, there's always next year.....

Decorating skills aside, they tasted gorgeous.

I also made vanilla and chocolate cupcakes for the mini guests (see we're still partying like celebrities).  This meant having another attempt at using a piping bag. Again I have a lot to learn in this this department but who cares, it is a lot of fun !

Finally I made a carrot cake.  This is only my second attempt at making a 'sandwich' type cake. My cream cheese frosting and chopped walnuts covered a multitude of sins.

But it seemed to go down very well with my guests.