Caramel spiced rum + hot chocolate mix = perfect gift

The tree’s up – the traditional red baubles and white lights, despite my attempt to trick the flatmates into allowing wonderfully tacky coloured lights and my lusting over the pink and white baubles from Junk and Glitter – the first glass(es) of mulled wine have been drunk, and the “What do you want for Christmas?” texts have both arrived and been sent. So naturally, it’s time to think about the food and drink. You’ll notice I say that as if “thinking about food” isn’t my permanent state.

An evening at Harrods, for the launch of their hampers, showed how decadent Christmas food can be – any present with big quantities of cheese and booze is good in my book, and there were plenty of options that weren’t more than my monthly income – and this month’s list is no different.

• The cutest Christmas pudding macarons
• Caramel spiced rum makes an ace gift that sounds way more fancy than it is
• Go back to the 1800s with plum pudding, and a lesson on its origins
• Massively here for roast beetroot with red onion, maple, and chestnuts
• I’d very happily receive some sea salt vanilla caramels
• These two-cheese biscuits are easy and make-ahead-able
• Heart-eyes emoji forever for mulled pear and ginger
• Caroline is doing recipe advent over on Instagram
• Cranberry orange gin fudge? Yes, as long as it’s on a ‘one for you, one for me’ basis
• Last year’s huuuuge round-up featured mandrake celeriac, red cabbage, and a whole load of other Christmas goodies
• A cardamom and chocolate braid sounds like a perfect festive breakfast
• The only thing that can improve mince pies? Making them giant, like this mincemeat and frangipane tart 
• Flick made mulled wine syrup and mixed it with prosecco, which sounds like peak Christmas 2016, really (steps 2 and 3 of that recipe)
• December is the last month of butternut squash season (*sob*), so it’s the final opportunity to cook up a stash of squash and Stilton sauce for future use

Find more Christmas food recipes here!