Christmas Bakes

Christmas is a great time for bakes. I would love to have the time to bake more for Christmas but life simply gets in the way and I am not able to bake everything that we love. Thankfully Aldi have got a deliciously tempting range of Christmas bakes this festive season. Whether you are looking for tempting sweet bakes or some savoury baked snacks you can be sure to find what you are looking for. Today I am going to show you my top Aldi finds of sweet baked products and share with you a healthier Christmas cake recipe.

Before I tell you all about the sweet treats let me tell you about a little bit of news. You may have seen in the media how this year Christmas dinner is going to cost more, that everything is more expensive, however if you shop at Aldi this is not going to be the case. Yahoo recently published an article how this year, thanks to Aldi, your Christmas dinner will be the cheapest in 8 years! The Good Housekeeping Institute have conducted a comparison survey of the main supermarket retailers and found that Aldi was the cheapest, coming in at just £22.03 to feed a family of eight! That is just £2.75 a head! This is yet another reason to go to Aldi and save money!

Now back to the sweet treats!

Here are my top sweet baked treats from Aldi this Christmas...

No Christmas is complete without a panettone and Aldi bring you their Exquisite Prosecco Panettone. This panettone is made in Tuscany by the Corsini family. Their panettone recipe has been passed down for almost 100 years so you can be guaranteed that it is going to be a special panettone. This cake has been leavened with a 'mother' dough that has been tended to for 40 years. It is no surprise that this panettone has been highly commended by BBC Good Food Magazine's Christmas taste test for 2016.

Another Christmas must have has to be mince pies. Last year I put Aldi's mince pies to the test in my mince pie taste challenge and they won hands down and I am confident that their mince pies this year will be no different. Their Exquisite Mince Pies are a frangipane treat that has been handcrafted from an age old family recipe.

Not many children like the traditional Christmas cake so this Snowman Cake will certainly keep them happy. This fun, fondant decorated snowman cake is made with a soft Madeira cake and their faces will definitely light up when they watch you cut into it and see a hidden centre of jelly beans.

Finally is a bake that I want to make but every year I fail to find the time. Aldi have made that a lot easier with their Pre Built Gingerbread House. This house has been built but comes complete with icing and sweets so that it can be decorated at home. I know that the children will love to help!

Now on to the Christmas cake. As I am on my weight loss journey with Slimming World this year I decided to make a Slimming World Christmas Cake with some fantastic mixed fruit that I found on a recent shopping trip. This is what I did...

Slimming World Christmas Cake

Ingredients

300g Aldi Foodie Market Berry Bounty

150g Aldi Foodie Market Berry Cherry Choice

50g raisins

50 - 100mls The Kraken Black Spiced Rum

175g self raising flour

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp mixed spice

50g soft light brown sugar

2 eggs

Zest of 1 orange

Method

1 - Place the dried fruit is a bowl and cover with the Kraken rum

2 - Stir the fruit ensuring that the rum is stirred in, cover and leave over night

3 - Pre heat the oven to 150C

4 - Place the self raising flour, cinnamon, mixed spice and sugar in a large mixing bowl and combine together

5 - Beat the eggs together and pour over the flour mixture and stir

6 - Add the fruit and orange zest and mix thoroughly

7 - Place the mixture in a lined and greased cake tin and place in the centre of the pre heated oven and bake for 2 hours, checking after 90 minutes and covering with foil if needed

8 - Once thoroughly baked remove from the oven and allow to cool

9 - For the glazed fruit and nuts heat together the apricot jam and the rum and mix together

10 - Brush over a layer of the apricot glaze over the top of the cake before arranging the almonds on the top

11 - Finish the cake by brushing a final glaze over the almonds and store in an air tight tin

From the video below you can see how simple it is to make this cake.

This cake make a delicious alternative to the traditional recipe. It tastes exactly the same the only difference being is that is not a dense and the syn value! This cake will serve 12 and each serving contains 10 syns, which is a lot less that a regular one, plus it is Christmas!

If you are wanting to make a regular Christmas cake check out my Whisky Christmas Cake recipe and my Sherry Christmas Cake recipe.

The Berry Bounty that I have used in this recipe is a tangy mixture of flame raisins, golden raisins and cranberries, combined with the Berry Cherry Choice that is full of yet more cranberries, golden raisins, Inca berries, cherries and blueberries give this cake a kick of added flavour. The rich The Kraken Spiced Dark Rum add a depth of richness that is perfect for this time of year!

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What are your must have baked products for Christmas?

Enjoy x

Disclosure: This is a collaborative post