Inspiration Friday

The celebration of Christmas is a joyful mix of friends, family, food and festive cheer and most of us have our traditions and favourite fares to be enjoyed at this time of year. My girls and I do a lot of baking in these last couple of weeks leading up to Christmas. . . it’s what we’ve always done. . . I did it with my mother and I hope my girls will go on to do it with their children one day. We like to make edible gifts for our neighbours and friends, plus lots of decadent sweet treats to share with friends and family for all those festive catch-ups.

This year we’ve put a different spin on an old family favourite. . . White Christmas

Can you guess what the surprise ingredient is?

Yes. . . gone are the glace cherries and dried fruit and in their place is Turkish Delight!!

This is my recipe for White Christmas bars, which are great for a neighbour or teacher gift. Recipe makes 7 – 8 large bars or 14 small bars.

White Christmas ~ with a twist

Preparation time: 15 mins, plus 3 hours chilling time.

• 250g Copha, chopped
• 3 cups puffed-rice cereal
• 1 cup desiccated coconut
• 1 cup icing sugar
• 1 cup powdered milk
• 300g Turkish Delight, chopped (I used a mix of rose and lemon flavoured)
• 1/2 cup toasted flaked almonds.

1. Line base and sides of a lamington tin with baking paper. Put copha in a small heavy based pan over a low heat until melted. Remove from heat and stand until lukewarm. Combine cereal, coconut, icing sugar and powdered milk in a large mixing bowl. Add Turkish delight and almonds and stir to combine.

2. Make a well in the centre, add lukewarm Copha and stir until mixture is uniformly moist and coated in Copha. Spoon into prepared tin and pack down with the back of a spoon. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 – 3 hours or until firm.

3. Using the bake paper, lift White Christmas from tin and cut into bars. I’ve wrapped these bars in baking paper and tied with red and white twine. An alternative which I’ve also done before is to spoon the mixture into Christmas patty cases before chilling.

Congratulations to Kirsty from New Zealand who won Christy’s giveaway last week

Today is of course Inspiration Friday where we get to share what we are making, baking and creating for Christmas.

Thank you to everyone who linked up last week. . . wasn’t there some wonderful inspiration there!!

Here’s my picks. . . I adore the The Cottage Market’s white doily ornaments

. . . and what about this coffee filter light from Fleur Cottage

. . . another favourite of mine which turned out to also be the most viewed link were these vintage paper trees from Keeping up with the times

Okay. . . time now to get inspired. Linking up is super easy

Simply add a link to your blog post (not your main URL) in the linky tool below. . .

and link back to the Shabby Art Boutique with http://shabbyartboutique.blogspot.com so others can join in too.

Make sure you are following so you’ll see who gets featured next week!

Now all that’s left to do is pop around and visit a few of these creative blogs for inspiration ~ don’t forget to leave a comment for them!!