I can't say that we like herrings the most out of all sweet things, because we like great desserts, yummy cakes and ice creams. But most people love herrings. Only my son is an exception. We like all dishes with herrings: herrings in oil, in vinegar, fried, with onion, plums and cream sauce. Our last hit was a lightly seasoned herring sandwich with crunchy vegetables in a fresh roll.

Today I would like to share with you the recipe for herrings in a mustard sauce. Maybe somebody will be interested and will make it for Christmas Eve supper. Prepare this dish the day before, because you should leave it to rest in the fridge before serving. However, it tastes excellent if you eat it immediately after preparing it.

Ingredients:
400g of herring pieces
3 tablespoons of French mustard
3 tablespoons of Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons of mayonnaise
2 tablespoons of 18% cream
3 tablespoons of maple syrup
half an onion
half a chili pepper

Every year just after All Saints' Day, Christmas decorations appear in the shops and the salespeople try to convince us that we should start buying gifts immediately. I think that every year this Christmas fever begins a bit earlier. Regardless of the shopping madness, the nearer we get to Christmas the more we want noodles with cabbage and mushrooms, herrings or poppyseed cake.

In December my kitchen smells of spicy seasoning. I often make dishes with cranberries. I often prepare sweet and sour kissel or I add fruit mousse to desserts. Today I would like to share with you the recipe for a swift cake with cranberries. It is excellent, has a mild flavour, and my children asked me to prepare it again soon.

Ingredients
200g of flour
100g of potato flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder
half a teaspoon of baking soda
250g of butter
150g of brown sugar
3 eggs
150g of cranberries

December is the pre-holiday time when, as well as buying gifts, cooking and scouring our houses, we should spend some time with the family and friends. Christmas decorations and music are a little cheesy for some people, but even if we don't want them to, they make us feel kind of different. Unless we are like the Grinch, but I hope that there aren't many such people among us.

A lot of us in December get touching invitations to the school Christmas party. Sometimes we prepare Christmas goodies to make the difficulties of our little actors a bit sweeter. I have participated in such events and I think that sometimes the treat is the most important part of the Christmas party. Today I would like to share with you the recipe for very showy cake pops in the form of small Christmas trees. They don't need much preparation and I assure you that the children will be delighted.

Ingredients
dough
220g of flour
3 tablespoons of cocoa
150g of brown sugar
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 teaspoon of vinegar
1 teaspoon of spices
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
5 tablespoons of oil
250ml of milk

I can't get rid of the Christmas atmosphere. Cinnamon is so warming and smells so homely that it is difficult to resist. To mark the end of the Christmas holiday I quickly prepared some final gingerbread cookies. Today the cookies weren't for cutting out and decorating but were something like small gingerbread pillows – crunchy outside and soft inside. They weren't too sweet and the lemon icing perfectly suited them.

Fortunately, I prepared 50 cookies from one portion of dough, because before I took the second portion out of the oven the first one was almost gone.

The recipe comes from https://gotuj-sie-do-gotowania.blogspot.com.

Ingredients:
150g of brown sugar
1 egg
1 tablespoon of cocoa
2 teaspoons of spices
2 teaspoons of cinnamon
260g of flour
150g of 18% cream
half a teaspoon of baking soda
peel from one lemon
peel from half an orange

Truly strong spices should consist of star anise, cardamom, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves and allspices. After being crushed in a mortar, they impart a warm Christmas flavour to cakes and winter hot drinks. I can't imagine Christmas cakes and crunchy aromatic cookies without spices.

Today I prepared Christmas ginger cake with spices. I found the recipe for this excellent cake at www.cynamonowypyl.blox.pl. It intrigued me with its easy preparation. You know I like this kind of recipe. Plum stew is an interesting ingredient for ginger cake. In this cake the plum stew doesn't serve as a custard but as an ingredient of the cake. Thanks to this the ginger cake is moist and has an inimitably fabulous taste.

Ingredients (25cm cake tin)
300g of flour
50g of caster sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
3 teaspoons of cocoa
2 tablespoons of spices
1 tablespoon of cinnamon
1 teaspoon of baking soda
2 tablespoons of honey
220ml of milk
170g of plum stew
100g of melted butter
2 big eggs
50g of raisins
150g of dark chocolate