Easy ways to make your bakes Christmassy

Add an instant burst of warming Christmas flavours with a sprinkling of our festive spice recipe. Stir a little into your morning latte, sprinkle some into a classic biscuit dough like our honey & spice cookies, or add to a rich Christmas spice buttercream icing.

To give your drinks a Christmas kick, try stirring in a drizzle of our spiced apple syrup with clementine & cloves.

Switch up a classic chocolate cake by adding some orange or peppermint flavours for a seasonal twist. Bake one of our chocolate orange cakes for a dessert showstopper, or turn the humble chocolate sponge into a thing of beauty with our chocolate mint loaf cake, complete with indulgent chocolate-mint icing.

Create a Christmas hybrid

Don't be afraid to fuse a standard bake with Christmas flavours and ingredients. Our mince pie brownies are a mouth-watering mash-up everyone will love. Mix up your favourite fudgy treats with our top 10 Christmas brownie recipes, from hazelnut to beautiful Black Forest. Try combining even more Christmas classics with a slab of our Christmas pudding cheesecake, or our delectable mincemeat cookies.

Put the dusty jar at the back of the cupboard to good use with our 10 new ways with mincemeat.

Make some boozy bakes

Add a splash of booze to desserts to get into the festive spirit. Try making buttercream laced with an indulgent liqueur, stir something a little stronger directly into the batter, or soak sponges with a special syrup. Grown-up guests will love a batch of our melt-in-the-middle espresso martini brownies served with a spoonful of creamy sauce. Turn everyone's favourite mugful into an after-dinner delight with our mulled wine brownies, or take a trip across the pond with our eggnog trifle.

Get into the drinks cabinet and turn those obscure bottles into bakes for special occasions with our best ever boozy cake recipes.

Decadent decorations

A scattering of edible fake snow here and a gingerbread person there can transform a bake in seconds. Make full use of desiccated coconut, edible glitter and all manner or colourful sweets to take your recipes to the next level. Not only is our gingerbread cake slathered in smooth caramel icing, it's also sprinkled with coconut snow and edible glitter, and topped with gingerbread shapes.

Sit a gingerbread person or two atop your cake for an extra dose of festivity, or go all out with our colourful striped meringue kisses and icicles. Stack your biscuits sky-high to make our gingerbread star tree – it will be the crowning glory of your Christmas cake.

Try our quick icing sugar hack

Cut out a few stars from some paper, place on top of a cake or tart, then dust with icing sugar. Remove the paper stars to reveal a festive decoration.

Discover how to decorate a Christmas cake with our handy video tutorial, or perfect your icing skills and learn how to ice a cake with buttercream.

Enjoyed these festive bakes? Get even more expert decorating tips...

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What's your favourite Christmas baking recipe? Leave a comment below...