Your own 'Red Cup' Christmas coffee

I don't know about anyone else, but in December it's not actually Christmas presents that seem to bankrupt me. I love to make a lot of my presents, so while it's time consuming, it doesn't actually cost that much. The thing that puts me in December debt is the Starbucks 'Red Cup' Christmas coffee. I can't get enough of them! I look forward to it all year- they are so yummy. However, you can easily find yourself paying up to £3.50 for a single coffee. 'WTF!' I hear you say, 'That's insane!'. Well you are right.

I'm usually really good at taking my own coffee with me in the morning, but with the Christmas coffee my travel mug just can't compete. Until now!

I been racking my brain trying to come up with a quick, fun DIY coffee idea for my favourite holiday and here's what I've come up with-

VINTAGE ELLE'S RED CUP CHRISTMAS COFFEE.

It's so simple to make yourself and smells so Christmassy. Here's everything you need.

A cafetiere, ground coffee, cinnamon, nutmeg, milk, red food colouring and a kettle.

Also, please note that these instructions are for a medium sized cafetiere.

Step 1) Fill your cafetiere with 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg and 3 tablespoons of ground coffee. Fill with boiling water and leave to brew for 7 minutes or to taste.

Step 2) Once your coffee is the strength you like it, pour into a mug and add milk. I used an old jam jar for mine as I wanted to make it feel different and special. Plus a glass mug is great so you can see and appreciate the colour of your coffee!

Step 3) Add the red food colouring until it reaches the desired colour. It should be about 3 drops.

Step 4) Drink and enjoy it with a homemade cookie and a good book.

(You can add a bit of sugar as well if you like)

Easy Homemade White Chocolate and Nutella Snowball Truffles

 Well it is December afterall. Everyone needs to have at least 1 indulgent chocolatey treat over the Christmas period. So here is mine- Snowball truffles with hidden Nutella for extra yumminess! (Is yumminess a word? Probably not...) Mark my words; these are absolutely divine and so unbelievably  easy to make.

Ingredients:

200 grams of Dark Chocolate

200 grams of White Chocolate

About 1 tablespoon of butter

60ml Double Cream

100g of Nutella

tub of Cocoa Powder

vegetable oil

Greaseproof paper

a pretty plate!

 

Step 1) Put all the dark chocolate, butter, cream and Nutella into a glass bowl. Melt over a pan of water on the hob until it's all blended together and there are no lumps. Put the bowl into the fridge for about an hour until it's hardened to the consistancy of Playdough. If it goes too hard just leave it out for a while until it softens.

 

Step 2) Once your mixture is a doughy consistancy, roll it into truffle sized balls and put them on a plate. This can be a bit sticky so I recommend using some cocoa powder on your fingers to stop everything sticking together. My mixture made about 18 truffles. Put your plate into the freezer for about 10 minutes to harden a little bit more.

 

Step 3) While the chocolate balls are in the freezer, it's time to start melting your white chocolate coating. You can do this over the hob again. However, my bowl was still covered in chocolatey Nutella mix. I found the best way was to break the white chocolate into small pieces and put into a microwave safe bowl. Add 1 tablespoon of oil. Heat in the microwave, making sure to stir it every 30 seconds until it's smooth and completely melted. I should also mention that I used white crunch chocolate because I love it. The crunchy bits went really well with the creaminess of the truffles.

 

Step 4) Get your balls out of the freezer. Dip each one in the melted white chocolate and roll around, until it is completely covered, and place it down on the greaseproof paper. Repeat this with all the balls.

 

Step 5) Now this step is optional. I know they were meant to be snowy truffles, but when I'm in the kitchen I can get a bit carried away with random creativity. I just saw my tub of cocoa powder and couldn't resist sprinkling some over, while the white chocolate was still wet. Then I dripped my leftover chocolate over the truffles just to be fancy.

 

Step 6) Now they are almost finished! Leave them over night to set, or if you are like me, and can't wait that long to eat them, pop them back in the freezer for about 30 mins until the chocolate has hardened.

 

Step 7) Eat them or be really good and share them with friends.

 

See they couldn't be easier! I hope you enjoy making these as much as I did.