Getting Crafty at Christmas

I'm always a fan of homemade Christmas goodies. Problem is, I'm not a particularly spectacular chef. So when a delicious and incredibly simple recipe falls into my lap, I'm all for it.

This recipe doesn't appear in a recipe book, as far as I know. I found it on, of all places, Colin Buchanan's King of Christmas DVD (see post below for link). It's so simple you can make it with your kids, but it tastes delicious, and if you don't let the cat out of the bag, people will generally think you've spent a great deal of time making them.

Mini Christmas Puddings

Ingredients
800g Dark Fruit Cake
375g Dark Chocolate Melts
250g White Chocolate Melts
Glace Cherries, to garnish

• - In a large mixing bowl, crumble the fruit cake into fine pieces
• - In Microwave, melt dark chocolate on medium heat until smooth
• - Pour melted dark chocolate over crumbled fruit cake and mix until fully combined.
• - Place a sheet of baking paper on a cookie tray.
  
• - Using a teaspoon, measure out small handfuls of mixture and roll into balls. Place balls on prepared cookie tray. When all mixture is measured out, place tray into fridge to set.
• - Chop glace cherries into very small pieces.
  
• - Melt white chocolate in microwave on medium heat.
• - Take cookie tray out of the fridge, and use a teaspoon to drizzle melted white chocolate over the mini puddings. Place two or three small cherry pieces on top of white chocolate before it sets.
• - Return puddings to the fridge to set.

For my christmas presents this year, I bought a set of pastel icecream bowls and filled them with the mini puds (see photo above). Wrapped in a sheet of clear cellophane and tied with a raffia ribbon, they really look lovely.