We are delighted to be hosting our very first Carnival on a subject very close to our hearts – baking! We asked you to send us links to recipes for some of your favourite festive cakes, biscuits and puddings and we have had some scrumptious entries which we will definitely be trying out ourselves. And so without further ado, we are pleased to introduce:

The Mum’s The Boss 12 Bakes of Christmas!

Cranberries are synonymous with Christmas and Mum’s The Boss member Sarah Barnes from Ivy House Interiors sent us a fabulous recipe for White Chocolate and Cranberry Christmas Cheesecake – how can you possibly resist that one?!

Wendy Mallins has shared another cranberry-inspired recipe with her Festive Rocky Road Crunch Bars – they might not look pretty, says Wendy, but what they lack in looks they more than make up for in yumminess!

There is always an abundance of chocolate around at Christmas, and if you have any going spare you could always melt some down and have a go at Sam Thewlis’  recipe for Christmas Caramel Slice, which she has provided in a traditional version and also in an allergy-free version which, incredibly, is wheat, gluten, dairy, soya and egg free!

Our recipe for Chocolate Brownies is perfect at any time of the year, but can be given a festive feel with a liberal sprinkling of icing sugar (otherwise known as snow!) – and if you’re feeling really festive, how about a holly leaf and a glace cherry too. And you don’t just have to take our word for it – Insomniac Mummy wrote a poem dedicated to these brownies on her blog! 

If Christmas Cookies are more your thing, then we have 3 cookie recipes for you to choose from. Liz Jarvis from LivingwithKids posted her favourite recipe for Annabel Karmel’s angel cut-out cookies, perfect for threading with ribbon and hanging on your Christmas Tree.

Another Mum’s the Boss member Helen Lindop from Business Plus Baby is wishing everyone a Very Biscuity Christmas by sharing a simple recipe accompanied by a touching story about the true meaning of gift-giving at Christmas.

And over at Who’s The Mummy, Sally Whittle is sharing her hilarious Christmas Baking Masterclass. While the biscuit recipe itself isn’t that important, the chaotic experience of baking with your kids will be familiar to mums (and culinary dads) everywhere!

Your Spice Rack will undoubtedly provide some of your key ingredients at Christmas, particularly spices like Nutmeg, Cinnamon and Allspice. Amanda Morison from Angels and Urchins has a wonderful recipe for Christmas Spice Muffins which contains a big teaspoon of mixed spice as well as orange and lemon zest for some extra zing, and make a lovely alternative breakfast treat, fresh from the oven.

Plus Liana Stevens from Star Bakery has shared with us a multi-purpose recipe for Gingerbread dough, which can be used to make cookies or to build a magical Gingerbread House, adorned with icing and sweeties of your choice.

Christmas just wouldn’t be Christmas without a recipe for Fruit Cake and Bev Toogood from Little Sunflowers has kindly pointed us in the direction of Delicious Magazine’s How to make a Christmas Cake Guide, featuring step-by-step instructions along with the most amazing ideas for contemporary ways to decorate it.

And if you fancy trying somethng really different, how about this recipe for Baked Mincemeat Doughnuts. I am a massive fan of the BBC Good Food 101 series of cook books (I have 12 of their themed mini-sized books at the last count!) and love their magazine and website too.  So if you are ever in need of some cooking inspiration www.bbcgoodfood.com is a great place to start.

And our Twelfth Cake of Christmas was sent to us by Penny Woolf from Journey Training, and originates from one of my personal favourites, the fabulously decadent Nigella Lawson. As Penny doesn’t have a blog we have included the recipe for Chocolate Cloud Cake in it’s entirety at the end of this post, for your delectation.

So there you have it – the Mum’s The Boss 12 Bakes of Christmas. Thank you so much to everyone who has contributed a recipe and we hope you will have found at least one new recipe to try out before the 25th. All that remains for us to say is have a very merry Christmas and a calorific, cake-filled 2010!

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Chocolate Cloud Cake (Serves 8-12)

Ingredients

Cake
250g dark chocolate minimum 70% cocoa solids
125g unsalted butter, softened
6 eggs: 2 whole, 4 separated
175g caster sugar: 75g in the cake, 100g in whites
2 tbspns Cointreau (optional)
grated zest of an orange (optional)
23cm springform cake tin

Cream topping
500ml double cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbspn Cointreau (optional)
half tsp unsweetened cocoa powder for sprinkling

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/gas mark 4.

2. Line the bottom of a 23cm Springform cake tin with baking parchment. Melt the chocolate either in a double boiler or a microwave, and then let the butter melt in the warm chocolate.

3. Beat the 2 whole eggs and 4 egg yolks with 75g caster sugar, then gently add the chocolate mixture, the Cointreau and orange zest.

4. In another bowl, whisk the 4 egg whites until foamy, then gradually add the 100g of sugar and whisk until the whites are holding their shape but not too stiff. Lighten the chocolate mixture with a dollop of egg whites, and then fold in the rest of the whites. Pour into the prepared tin and bake for about 35 to 40 minutes or until the cake is risen and cracked and the centre is no longer wobbly. Cool the cake in it’s tin on a wire rack; the middle will sink as it cools.

5. When you are ready to eat, place the still tin-bound cake on a cake stand or plate for serving and carefully remove the cake from its tin. Don’t worry about cracks or rough edges: it’s the crater look we’re going for here. Whip the cream until soft and then add the vanilla and Cointreau and continue whisking until the cream is firm but not stiff. Fill the crater of the cake with the whipped cream, easing it out gently towards the edges of the cake, and dust the top lightly with cocoa powder pushed through a tea-strainer.

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