It's that time of the year that the kids just want everything they eat to have a festive theme. We are going through red and green food colouring like crazy!

Here are a few Christmas twists on some old favourites we have whipped up over the last few weeks. Stay tuned, we don't think this is the end of the baking fun. 

Christmas Tree Brownies & Reindeers

Makes 15 brownies

INGREDIENTS:
150g unsalted butter
35g cocoa powder
3 free range eggs
300g caster sugar
100g dark chocolate broken into pieces
75g plain flour

DECORATIONS
Smarties (red)
Edible eyes (or smarties)
Pretzels
Green colouring
Icing sugar
Sprinkles
Piping bag

METHOD

• Preheat oven to 190C/ 170C Fan. Line a 20x30cm baking tin with baking paper.
• Place butter and dark chocolate in microwaveable bowl and heat for approx 1 min until melted.
• Crack eggs into bowl add flour and cocoa powder followed by the melted chocolate mixture and stir until combined.
• Pour into your prepared tin and bake for approx 25-30 minutes or until the top of the brownie is firm but inside still feels soft.
• Take out of oven and cool in the tin.
• Whilst your brownies are cooling you can prepare to decorate..
• Mix 100g of icing sugar with approx 10ml of warm water.. add the water a tiny bit at a time until it becomes thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Keep one teaspoon of this white icing aside and then add your green colouring to the rest and stir until mixed in.
• Get your piping bag and add in your icing, snip 1mm off the tip and squeeze the icing down to the end until you can see a little coming out. Leave to ones side until you are ready to ice.
• Once your brownies are cool place them on a wire tray and cut them into triangles.. we used a piece of card 8x8x6cm as a template and cut around it.
• Once you have made your shapes you can get your piping bag again..twist the top to create a funnel and pipe in zig zags over half your brownies to make trees then add sprinkles on top as decorations.
• For the reindeer.. get your set aside white icing and use this to stick on the eyes, nose and antlers.

CHRISTMAS TREE PANCAKES 

 INGREDIENTS:

135g/4¾oz plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
2 tbsp caster sugar
130ml/4½fl oz milk
1 large egg, lightly beaten
2 tbsp melted butter (allowed to cool slightly) or olive oil, plus extra for cooking
Green colouring

TO SERVE
Nutella or Honey
icing sugar
Sprinkles

TOOLS REQUIRED
Different sized round cutters
Small Star cutter(optional)
Mixing bowl
Wooden spoon
Frying pan

METHOD

• Put the flour, baking powder, salt and caster sugar into a large bowl.
• Crack the eggs and add to the bowl along with the milk and whisk until mixture is smooth batter ( a fork or whisk will work for this). Any lumps will soon disappear with a little mixing.
• Add in your green colouring until you have the desired colour and mix. Let the batter stand for a few minutes.
• Heat a non-stick frying pan over a medium heat and add a knob of butter. When it's melted, add a ladle of batter and smooth with the back of a spoon until it covers the whole pan. Wait until the top of the pancake begins to bubble, then turn it over and cook until both sides are golden brown and the pancake has risen to about 1cm/½in thick.
• Repeat until all the batter is used up. You can keep the pancakes warm in a low oven, but they taste best fresh out the pan.
• Place pancakes on clean and dry surface and cut out your round shapes using the different sized cutters finishing with a star for the top.
• Start to stack your pancake - large to small adding a little Nutella or honey between each to make them stick.
• Decorate your tree as you like with sprinkles, icing sugar or even a squirt of cream as the tree topper!