Annual preparation for Christmas is coming to order. The Advent Calendar, gingerbread cookies, mushrooms, dumplings, herrings and Christmas tree; everything has its proper time, even cleaning the apartment and pre-Christmas window cleaning. Some people say that even if the windows are dirty, Christmas will still happen, and that's true. But I like to spend Christmas time in a clean home. Thanks to these activities, little by little, we make the magic of Christmas.

Today I would like to share with you the recipe for chocolate Christmas tree cake. I fill it with cream made with mascarpone cheese, white chocolate and cherry confiture. Add some colourful Christmas confectionery decorations and the Christmas table is complete. If you decide to make this cake, bake it one day before. It is easier to cut and decorate it.

Ingredients:
dough
110g of flour
100ml of oil
1 banana
1 tablespoon of peanut butter
100g of brown sugar
1 tablespoon of cocoa
150ml of natural yoghurt
1 teaspoon of baking powder
a pinch of salt
100g of chocolate drops

We like herrings. Everybody except for my son, but he basically doesn't like anything so I don't care about it. We like traditional herrings with onion the most, but every year for Christmas Eve I try to prepare a new herring dish. This year, thanks to www.igraszkilosu.pl we had orange-cranberry herrings with chili pepper and rosemary on our table. Preparing this meal only takes a little while. The most difficult thing is waiting. You have to leave the herrings in the fridge for the whole night. I have to say it is worth the wait. The herrings are gentle but definitely smell nice and are tasty with the orange and slightly sour cranberries. A smattering of chili pepper, which isn't in the original recipe, spices them up nicely.

Ingredients:
4 pieces of herring in oil
100g of fresh cranberries
orange peel
juice of 2 oranges
2 tablespoons of brown sugar
1 red onion
1 chili pepper
125ml of oil
1 twig of rosemary

Today I would like to share with you the recipe for a classical Christmas cake. I recommend gingerbread, which takes exactly as much time to prepare as you need to heat the oven. Nobody needs to know about it except you, because the cake looks and tastes like it was professionally made. It is an excellent idea for rushed and busy people, so that they too can enjoy the taste and aroma of a homemade Christmas cake.

You can cut your cake and spread it with chocolate cream and plum stew and decorate it with chocolate icing. You could also just do nothing, and feast on the fragrant gingerbread just after baking.

The recipe for this cake comes from www.ilovebake.pl

Ingredients:
300g of flour
350 ml of milk
100ml of oil
2 tablespoons of plum stew
125g of sugar
2 tablespoons of cocoa
2 tablespoons of spices
1 teaspoon of baking powder
½ teaspoon of baking soda
plum stew to spread on the cake
chocolate cream to spread on the cake
chocolate icing for decoration

We spend the time before Christmas rushing, looking for things, cleaning and cooking. Sometimes, even though we really don't want it to be, it can be irritating and unpleasant. But when the emotions subside, we just need to relax, rest and drink in the Christmas atmosphere. We like then to light up the fireplace and some candles and drink spicy mulled wine. It is so nice to sit back in an armchair and warm our hands with a warm, aromatic cup of wine. Mulled wine is an obligatory element of our Christmas menu. Sometimes we prepare it also when the autumn-winter weather takes its toll.

Ingredients
750l of dry red wine
a piece of cinnamon
a couple of cardamoms
a couple of cloves
2 star anises
50ml of ginger syrup
50ml or raspberry syrup
a couple of orange slices
2-3 tablespoons of maple syrup (optional)

Today I would like to share with you the recipe for something that is mega easy but extraordinary at the same time. I prepared this Christmas tree with French pastry for my children on 6 December. Santa Claus provided the presents and I prepared something sweet for afternoon tea. I'm sure that before Christmas I will make it more than once. If you decide to prepare it for Christmas, your guests will be delighted.

You really only need a few common ingredients and after half an hour you can enjoy a yummy and fairly sweet Christmas dessert. You may prepare the stuffing with chocolate and nuts, and this is the version I chose. Poppy seed or fruit stuffing would also be excellent.

Ingredients
2 packs of chilled French pastry
60g of chocolate
2 fistfuls of chopped nuts
2 tablespoons of brown sugar
3 tablespoons of milk