christmas is here and its time to eat drink and be merry were sure you must have picked up traditional sweets from your local bakery but if you havent done so yet heres a little help let the delicious aromas fill your home as you make pies gingerbread cookies yule log stollen sugarsprinkled cupcakes and rich xmas plum cakes since festive cooking can be daunting we suggest you start early to dish up that elaborate feastchristmas cake pops anyonepeddar roadbased home baker priyanka gandhi suggests making cake pops for xmas she says this is an idea that has become extremely popular with people over time cake pops are perfect for those who dont want to have an entire cake and also apt if you like a little variety kids especially love these the dessert is a mix of cake and ganache which is handmoulded into the desired shape the face eyes and hats are done with chocolate you can do all of the cake pops in the same flavour with chocolate ganache red velvet or vanilla or then just do an assortment the cake pops come in different shapes santa claus tiny santa hats xmas trees snowmen and reindeer instead of the usual chocolate boxes these pops make for a cuter gift package and people love cake pop bouquets with the whole red and gold theme the cake pops can last for three days without a fridgeeggless gingerbread cookieschef kairvi mehta shares how to make itingredientsrefined flour cupwhole wheat flour cupsoft butter cupbrown sugarjaggery powder cuphoney cupbaking powder tspbaking soda spice mix powdered ginger and cinnamon one tsp each clove and nutmeg tspfor the icingwhite chocolateedible food colours of choicemethodwhisk the butter with brown sugarjaggery for about five minutes add honey and whisk again add in the dry ingredients and mix well form a dough cling wrap the dough and refrigerate for an hour place the dough on a dry surface and dust it with flour roll out the dough to eightinch diameter cut it using desired gingerbread shapes using a cookie cutter place the cut shapes on a greased cookie tray in a preheated oven at 180 degrees celsius for 1215 minutes cool and keep aside melt the white chocolate add the desired colour to them and divide into piping bags decorate and design them let it set and then store in airtight serve along with some hot cocoa or eggnogdelicious plum cakethere can be no better way to get into the spirit of christmas than with a rich plum cake chef sanjeev kapoor shares a recipe thatssugarfreeingredientschopped cashewnuts almonds raisins candied peel cup eachrefined flour 1 cupsbaking powder 8gmsbutter 1 cuplowcalorie sweetener cupeggs 4vanilla essence few dropsmilk cupmethodpreheat the oven at 200 degrees celsius soak the cashew nuts almonds raisins and candied peel in rum and let it be