'Twas the night before the night before Christmas...

...And all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.

Except that there seemed to be a lot of activity going on in the kitchen...

It feels as though I haven’t been more than 10 feet from the cooker in the past couple of days. I’ve been overcome by the need to bake.

You see the thing is I quite enjoy the making bit (kitchen disasters and mess aside) and the feeling that you’ve produced something but then I’m never that fussed about eating any of the produce.

I’m a savoury girl and my heart lies in a packet of crisps. Cakes and buns and muffins I can take or leave.

However, the rest of my work colleagues are most definitely in the ‘take’ category and I was ordered to produce sweet things for the little Christmas Eve party we’re going to have tomorrow at lunchtime. I had a recipe for Christmas morning muffins that I got from who knows where. On the internet somewhere is all I can tell you. I thought these would be lovely and festive with cinnamon and nutmeg and cranberries and orange zest all thrown in there.

“They sound nice,” said my colleagues. “but also you should make those Marshmallow ones again.”

“But they’re not really festive” I said

“MAKE THEM” came the reply.

So the electric whisk and my crummy scales have never been busier. I have obeyed my orders and made more marshmallow cupcakes. Only 6 though, they are quite frankly the most fiddly buggers I’ve ever made and I don’t enjoy gluing my fingers together with melted marshmallow – they can fight over them between themselves. But I also made the Christmas morning muffins because I wanted to make those.

Then I had to make some more Mincemeat cake. I made this at the beginning of the year with an old jar of leftover mincemeat when I’d just started getting in to baking. It didn’t quite come out like Maria’s seemed to but it was very tasty. I made some at the weekend and it was an unexpected hit with the boyfriend and work people snaffling most of it, leaving me with only 1 slice to savour. This cake is so good with a cup of tea and I’m looking forward to indulging tomorrow afternoon when I finally get to leave work and come home for Christmas.

Then my rooting around in the cupboards unearthed my Christmas tree cookie cutter. How had I forgotten about him?! Clearly I had to use him so out came the books again as I searched for a quick cookie recipe. The Hummingbird Bakery book obliged me and I set about covering the kitchen in a thin film of flour. And then came the fun bit – the decorating!!

And now it’s time for this little baking fairy to put away her muffin trays and her baking trays and her mixing bowls. She can clean the kitchen properly tomorrow afternoon, right now she can’t bear to face the devastation that she has wreaked in there. Or maybe, just maybe, the baking fairy’s boyfriend will clean it all up during the day seeing as he’s not in work. She just has to close her eyes and wish as hard as can be...