ScrapWest Christmas!

Tonight's theme for ScrapWest is "Christmas" and a perfect opportunity to scrap the photos I took of myself and my DD baking Gingerbread Cookies on Monday.

I used Daisy D's Snowflakes and Holly papers and Telling the Story Rubons with some Bazzill Pomegranate Cardstock for the handcut title. I used a sheet of Making Memories die-cut paper as the template for the shape on the right of the layout. The background is a sheet of Scenic Route background cardstock.


If you haven't checked out the ScrapWest blog yet, why not have a look now. Each week the team try to inspire you with a new theme and we love it if you join in a leave a link to your layouts and cards with your comments.

Gingerbread Cookie Recipe

Decided to do something non-paper crafty today and baked a batch of Gingerbread cookies.



If you fancy making some all you'll need is the ingredients listed below, cookie cutters and some flat baking trays:

Christmas Gingerbread Biscuits – Makes 25

Ingredients

1lb/450g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
2 and a half teaspoons ground ginger
1 and a half teaspoons ground mixed spice
2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
4oz/115g butter, plus extra for greasing the tin
3 and a half ounces/100g golden syrup
4oz/115g light muscovado sugar
1 beaten egg

Preheat oven to 160°C/325°F/Gas Mark 3. Grease 3 large baking sheets and put to one side. Into a large bowl, sift the flour, ginger, mixed spice and bicarbonate of soda. Put the butter, syrup and muscovado sugar in a saucepan over a low heat and stir until melted. Pour onto the flour misture and add the egg. Mix together to make a dough. The dough will be sticky to start with, but will become firmer as it cools.

Knead the dough and then roll it out on a lightly floured work surface to about 3mm thickness. Cut out about 25 gingerbread shapes using shaped cutters. Transfer to the prepared baking sheets.

Bake the biscuits in the preheated oven for 15-20 minutes, or until they become firm and slightly browned.

Leave to cool on the baking sheets for a few minutes and then transfer to wire racks and leave to cool completely. Decorate with icing, chocolate buttons, smarties, raisins, glace cherries or whatever you have to hand.

If you want to hang them on the tree piece a hole in the top of each biscuit with a skewer as soon as you remove them from the oven. Then thread a ribbon through the hole. Make a cup of coffee/tea and pour a few glasses of milk for the children, sit back and enjoy.