White Chocolate Christmas Cake + New Year Biscuits

I normally post on Sundays or Mondays but since this year those days were New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, I'm posting today instead. :)

For Christmas I made a white chocolate Wonderland cake. The recipe is from British blogger and YouTuber Tanya Burr's book Tanya's Christmas. The recipe was featured in OK! magazine. I can't actually find the recipe online but here are a couple of other white chocolate cake ones:

http://www.olivemagazine.com/recipes/easiest-ever-white-chocolate-fudge-cake/

 http://www.bakewithstork.com/recipes/white-chocolate-cake-with-strawberries

The Wonderland cake has white chocolate in the sponge but not in the icing itself, that's just buttercream. I think the second recipe is a bit more similar to it than the first one. The recipe has white chocolate stars on top but I just grated some on top and added hundreds and thousands. It was quite nice, although I think it got better a couple of days later. I baked it on Christmas Eve and did the icing on Christmas Day. Here's a picture:

Yule 2017

It was Yule last Thursday (21st Dec). As I said in my Yule Celebrations Ideas post, I had a chocolate Yule log. It was from Sainsbury's this year and was nicer than it was the last time I had it. Last year's was from Asda. Here's a picture:

Yule Celebration ideas

For Samhain last year I started a series of posts of sabbat celebration ideas. I thought I'd done one for Yule but it seems I haven't! Never mind, since Yule is coming up on Thursday (21st Dec) I'll do one this year. :) In 2016 I included some information about the origins of  Father Christmas in my Yule post. You can read that here: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2016/12/yule-2016-origins-of-father-christmas.html

Yule aka the Winter Solstice or Midwinter comes during the "dark time" of the year but it's also a turning point, because after the shortest day and longest night on Yule itself, the days gradually get longer and lighter again. (We won't see much of a difference for a few weeks though). Solstice literally means "Sun stands still". It's about the rebirth of light and is a fire festival. Its counterpoint is Litha aka the Summer Solstice or Midsummer and if you're in the Southern Hemisphere, your Litha is coming up. In that case you might like this post on Litha celebration ideas: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2017/06/baking-no-yeast-dinner-rolls-and.html

Getting Ready for Winter

We're now moving out of autumn and into winter. Although winter doesn't "officially" begin until Yule/the Winter Solstice around 22nd December (it's the 21st this year) the seasons do run together and it's starting to feel more wintry. It's definitely gone colder, especially at night and some parts of the UK have had snow. (None in Sussex yet!). It was 9 degrees Celsius (48F) here today and at the end of the week and next weekend it's supposed to drop to 1 and 0 degrees at night. It gets a bit confusing though because 1st December is thought of as "meteorological winter" while around 21st Dec is called "astronomical winter". You can read more here: https://www.eveningexpress.co.uk/news/is-december-1-the-first-day-of-winter/

Update 3/12/21: New link here: https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/life/1529625/when-is-first-day-winter-met-office-evg

Bonfire Night Parkin + Fireworks

The weekend before last was Bonfire Night (Sunday 5th November) and as I mentioned in my Hallowe'en/Samhain 2017 post I was planning to make parkin. It's a traditional Bonfire Night/Guy Fawkes Night recipe (it's more popular in the north of England) and I'd been intending to make it for several years! lol. I used a recipe that I normally pin on my Pinterest Seasonal board at this time of year. Here's the link: https://www.chocolateandbeyond.co.uk/2012/10/yorkshire-parkin.html

It's a vegan recipe so doesn't have any eggs. (I'm not vegan but I thought this recipe was good, so used it). I only remembered the day before about making this on Bonfire Night itself and luckily I already had all the ingredients in, so didn't have to rush out and get any, lol. I used ordinary milk instead of soya, so my version is not actually vegan. Here's a pic:

Hallowe'en/Samhain 2017

For Hallowe'en/Samhain last Tuesday (31st Oct) I celebrated by making some food and drink. I did my usual Demon's Blood drink and the potato salad I've made the past two years (the recipe is from The Kitchen Witch book by Soraya but I did it with chives and spring onion instead of rosemary). I also made a Mexican milk drink called horchata, the recipe is from my Llewellyn Sabbats Almanac book.

I had a pumpkin, some pumpkin candles, the pumpkin container/lantern with a tealight in from other years and knitted ghost decorations. There were also orange and green candles and I lit a white one for my girl cat who died in January. (A Samhain tradition you can do is light a candle for any relatives, friends or pets that have passed away in the past year). :) Here's a picture of the pumpkin:

This year's pumpkin.

More Hallowe'en/Samhain Celebration Ideas

A year ago I started a series on posts on the sabbats. I started with Samhain which was fitting because it's one of my favourites (along with Lammas) and also it's considered the Witches' New Year. Other Samhain themes are ancestors returning since this is one of one of the two times of the year when the veil between the worlds is said to be thin (the other is Beltane), honouring your ancestors and those you've lost, and shadow work. It's also the 3rd and last harvest (after Lammas and Madron), so you can think about what you've harvested in the past year and/or season. Read last year's celebration post here: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2016/10/halloweensamhain-celebration-ideas.html

Note: If you're in the Southern Hemisphere it's Beltane so you might enjoy this post on ideas for celebrating: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2017/04/beltane-celebration-ideas.html


This year I'm posting about more Samhain celebration ideas. First of all here are a few links with information about Samhain and Hallowe'en (since they are closely linked):

Samhain- The Precursor to Halloween: https://www.stneotsmuseum.org.uk/articles/samhain-the-precursor-to-halloween/

10 Folk Beliefs about Samhain/Halloween: https://tesswhitehurst.com/10_folk_beliefs_about_samhain_halloween/

The Herbs and Astrology of Samhain: http://www.wortsandcunning.com/blog/the-herbs-and-astrology-of-samhain