Category Archives: Christmas

How to Make Marzipan: A Con Affetto Tutorial

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Sweet, creamy mountains of honey smooth marzipan with just the right crunch of almonds…mmmm! The festive season may be over (for now!) but as you can see, we are still feeling kinda marzipan-ny! Besides, it was Marzipan Day  yesterday! Marzipan, also called almond candy dough, is a paste made of almonds, sugar, corn syrup and water (it may sometimes contain egg whites as well, though this version has to be used carefully for food safety reasons).

“Niederegger Marzipan is probably the most famous marzipan in the world! It is made in the historic town of Lübeck, Germany, which is world famous for its marzipan.”

Lubeck, Germany also known as Marzipan City!

Lubeck, Germany also known as Marzipan City!

Marzipan is most commonly used to decorate cakes or confections- though we like to munch our way through it candy-like too! 😉 It can also be dyed with different colours and used to decorate cakes and desserts. Remember those adorable little animals and figurines perched atop fancy cakes? Marzipan!

Learn how to make marzipan with our step by step tutorial! Our easy to follow guide will tell you all you need to know about this handy dessert must have.

Move over Play Doh, you can’t beat marzipan when it comes to fancy cake models!

“At the Niederegger Marzipan factory in Lübeck, there is a life sized display of statues made from marzipan!”

Given its versatility and very attractive good looks ( anyone who’s fallen in love at first sight with a perfectly marzipan-ned cake knows what we’re talking about!), marzipan is a handy ingredient to have around the home baker’s kitchen. And it’s even better if it’s home made marzipan! And guess what? It’s pretty easy to make marzipan, on your own!

Learn how to make marzipan with our step by step tutorial! Our easy to follow guide will tell you all you need to know about this handy dessert must have.

Love at first sight with this gorgeously marzipan-ned cake!

“Did you know? Though Marzipan is often associated with Germany and Italy, its roots are in the Orient!”

Love your marzipan but clueless about how to whip up a batch? Worry not; just read our easy to follow tutorial on how to make marzipan below. You are guaranteed to marzipan your way into several cake loving hearts with our scrumptious marzipan recipe!

Learn how to make marzipan with our step by step tutorial! Our easy to follow guide will tell you all you need to know about this handy dessert must have.

Your home made marzipan is ready! Dig in and enjoy!

Learn how to make marzipan with our step by step tutorial! Our easy to follow guide will tell you all you need to know about this handy dessert must have.

Mmmm…..marzipan!

Loved this recipe? Have any marizpan or cake decorating recipes of your own that you’d like to share? Write to us!

 You may also like: Cake Decorating Hacks That Will BLOW Your Mind!

Con Affetto’s Traditional Christmas Bakes: Part Deux!

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If you read the first part of our series on traditional Christmas bakes, you’re probably drowning in visions of that perfect Christmas cake, baked just right, spongy and moist with the perfect bite of spice and sweet. Or maybe the alluring scent of crusty shortbread is what you’d rather have wafting from your kitchen. But before you get up close and personal- with your oven of course!- you’ll need the perfect recipe. SO! We’re back with part two of our series, just like we’d promised! A carefully curated and especially Christmassy collection of recipes for some traditional Christmas bakes you cannot afford to miss these season. Bring on that Xmas cheer already! 😀

Traditional Christmas bakes to relish this season with Con Affetto's curated Christmas recipes

Bring on the Xmas festivities with a baking bonanza!

Must try traditional Christmas bakes: the all time favourite Classic Christmas Fruitcake

There are traditional cakes and then there are festive cakes, but there will always be only one Classic Christmas Fruitcake. You’ll either love it or hate it, such is the reaction it evokes, but come Christmas you simply cannot ignore it! Why not try baking the original classic this season? Our go-to recipe when it comes to traditional Christmas cake is a Jamie Oliver classic- you can’t go wrong when it’s a Jamie!

Traditional Christmas bakes to relish this season with Con Affetto's curated Christmas recipes

Traditional Christmas Cake (Image Courtesy: www.jamieoliver.com)

Christmas Cookies! Our fave of all the traditional Christmas bakes

It’s no secret! We love all things cookie, here at Con Affetto! From gingerbread men, to sugar cookies; double chocolate sandwich cookies to biscotti, our Christmas fantasies pretty much revolve around baking bonanzas involving large batches of scummylicious cookies! We’ve treated to you our very own Easy Christmas Cookies not so long ago, now here’s another look at one of our personal favourites: the crumbly, rich, melt-in-your-mouth Shortbread Cookies. Try out this simple and superbly demonstrated recipe from Joy of Baking of the classic Shortbread Cookie recipe; you’ll be licking your fingers when you’re done, we promise!

Traditional Christmas bakes to relish this season with Con Affetto's curated Christmas recipes

Shortbread Cookies (Recipe Courtesy: www.joyofbaking.com)

A list of traditional Christmas bakes is incomplete without the Classic Mince Pie!

These bite sized, flavourful delights are a staple on the festivity menu, and we bring to you an unbelievably easy mince pie recipe to boot from GoodFood. Get this- this recipe requires no rolling! It’s so simple even a child can make it, which is actually a brilliant idea- get your kids involved while making these mince pies and turn it into a festive family affair! You’ll all be scarfing down these oh-so-easy-to-make, delicious pies packed with flavour in no time!

Traditional Christmas bakes to relish this season with Con Affetto's curated Christmas recipes

Unbelievably Easy Mince Pies (Recipe Courtesy: www.bbcgoodfood.com)

It isn’t Christmas without some traditional Christmas bread

The last on our list of traditional Christmas bakes, Christmas breads are a sure shot way to become even more popular than Santa this season– just gift some made-with-love traditional Christmas breads!- while also getting to show off your baking skills. We can’t think of a better win-win, can you? This superb festive recipe of Chocolate Cranberry Stollen will make for a fabulous gift– as long as you make sure you don’t wolf it down the second it pops out of the oven 😉

Traditional Christmas bakes to relish this season with Con Affetto's curated Christmas recipes

Chocolate Cranberry Stollen (Recipe Courtesy: breadbaking.about.com)

Do give a try to some of these festive recipes this season- and don’t forget to give us a shout out to tell us how it went! Merry Christmas and Happy Festive Baking!

Con Affetto’s Traditional Christmas Bakes: Part One

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Christmas is upon us and we’re feeling particularly festive here at Con Affetto! We lurrve all things Christmassy right from Santa with his festive troop of reindeer, beautifully decorated Christmas trees to the promise of funky Christmas gifts 😉 , but if there’s one thing that really gets our Christmas spirit soaring, it’s the traditional Christmas bakes we get to relish this season!

Traditional Christmas bakes play a key role in the festivities

The traditional Christmas dinner is quite a feast!

Food has always been a big part of Christmas with the traditional Christmas dinner of roast turkey with stuffing and gravy; mashed potatoes; cranberry sauce; steamed veggies and the ubiquitous Christmas pudding becoming popular all over the globe, but did you know that some traditional Christmas bakes are equally relished as well? Here’s a quick low-down on what you should be baking- or digging into- this season!

Lets begin our journey into traditional Christmas bakes with a look at some X’massy cakes!

Traditional Christmas bakes include the classic Christmas fruitcake with marzipan or icing

Think Christmas, think cake!

Think Xmas, think cake! Christmas cakes are truly a feast for the senses! There are myriad versions of Christmas cakes but among the more popular are the the classic fruit cake with marzipan or icing and the Scottish Dundee cake, which is a relatively 😉 lighter version. Then there’s also the ‘mincemeat cake’ which comprises of any traditional mincemeat mixed in with flour and eggs, and the fun Yule Log, which is basically a Swiss Roll coated in chocolate. But more than the cake itself, we especially dig the fun traditions surrounding Christmas cakes! One is the ‘stir up’ tradition which involves mixing some of the ingredients for the cake  (a super fun activity for the entire family, some peeps even like adding coins to their cake for good luck!). The second tradition is ‘feeding the cake’ which is when alcohol is added in small quantities to the cake over a period of time to build the flavour and keep it moist (we like!) and a third tradition is to avoid cutting the cake before dawn on Christmas eve (considered unlucky!).

You might also like: 5 Handy Cake Decorating Hacks That Will BLOW Your Mind!

Christmas Pies come next on our fun list of traditional Christmas bakes…

Traditional Christmas bakes include that all time British favourite, mince pies

An all time Xmas favourite; mince pies

The traditional Christmas Mince Pie, small pies filled with minced fruit, dry fruit and spices, is a popular inclusion on Christmas menus across the world. Although mince pies first originated in an oval shape and then went on to include a variety of shapes from stars and hearts to flowers, today they are commonly made in a round shape and eaten hot or cold. We like ours piping hot with some ice cream on the side! A custom from the Middle Ages says that if you eat a mince pie every day from Christmas to Twelfth Night (6th Jan) you will have happiness everyday for the next twelve months! (A custom worth trying, we think!) And hey, did you know that mince pies are SO popular in the UK, they have their very own Mince Pie club?!

Our personal favourite traditional Christmas bake of the season…

Traditional Christmas bakes include Christmas cookies

It’s not Christmas without the cookies and gingerbread cookies are a personal fave!

Christmas cookies! Yup, when it comes to Christmas, can cookies be far behind? 😉 Christmas feasting traditionally involves a baking bonanza (yay!) and back in the day, unlike pies or cakes, cookies could easily be shared and gifted. Our traditional Christmas cookies date back to these medieval gifts. Cut out cookies, shortbread and gingerbread cookies are some of the most well loved cookies of the season but we’re rather partial to sugar cookies and biscotti. For most people it isn’t Christmas without cookies. There are cookie plates, cookie exchanges, heck, even Santa loves his cookies! Children traditionally leave out cookies for Santa– a practice started by parents to encourage generosity in their kids-and one that is still going strong. You ain’t getting to size zero anytime soon, Santa!

Break some Christmassy bread with this traditional Christmas bake…

Traditional Christmas bakes include a wide variety of Christmas breads, which are also a lighter alternative to the rich Christmas fruitcake

Bake and break some Xmassy bread this season ;)

If you’d rather give a toss to tradition and Marie Antoinette, and bake bread instead of cake, you’re in for a treat because Christmas baking comes replete with a fabulous selection of Xmassy breads. If you like fruitcakes, you’ll LOVE these Christmas breads, traditionally made to be moist, with dried and candied fruit and nuts. From the traditional German Stollen to Julekake – a Norwegian Christmas bread, to cinnamon tea rings and pumpkin bread, these sure are some bread-y and heady alternatives to traditional fruitcake, and also make for fabulous gifting options!

Are you drooling already with visions of buttery Christmas cookies and spongy slices of Christmas cake floating before your eyes? We’re just about getting started! Watch this space for Part Deux of our traditional Christmas baking series: some funky, fabulous and mouth wateringly delicious traditional Christmas baking recipes coming your way…very soon!

Bake Cookies Day! And A Bloggy Tea Party!

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Guess what we’ve been upto? It revolves around an oven, smells divine and can create instant, edible happiness! Yes, you guessed right, we’ve been baking up a storm and crafting gorgeous edible bouquets here at Con Affetto, but we decided to hop in here for a bit to wish all of you a Very Happy Bake Cookies Day! Yup, December 18 is Bake Cookies Day all over the world and what better time to celebrate baking and cookies than a week before Christmas?

It's bake cookies day and we're celebrating cookies, baking and edible bouquets at Con Affetto

Celebrate all things Cookie on Bake Cookies Day!

If you needed just that extra nudge to get your Christmas baking done, today is a great day to put on those oven mitts 😉 It’s also a special day for us here at Con Affetto because it’s been nearly three months since we started this blog! Yes, it’s almost time for our three month bloggy birthday 😉 and what better day to commemorate the occasion than Bake Cookies day? So we’ve decided to celebrate by having our very own Con Affetto Virtual Tea Party…

It's bake cookies day and we're celebrating cookies, baking and edible bouquets at Con Affetto

It’s Bake Cookies Day and we’re having a Bloggy Tea Party!

..aaannd everyone’s invited! So come on over, pull up a chair and pour yourself a cup of tea! Or hot chocolate, whatever rocks your cup 😉

It's bake cookies day and we're celebrating cookies, baking and edible bouquets at Con Affetto

Cookies and hot chocolate; the perfect way to celebrate Bake Cookies Day :)

Comfortable? Let’s begin by telling you what we have in store for YOU on the blog. It’s been a fabulously fun journey so far, and you, our blog readers are what truly makes it rock. So while we were busy baking and crafting up some awesome edible blooms in the Con Affetto kitchen, we were also thinking up some fun stuff for the blog! Stuff that you can share! Are you ready to hear this? Help yourself to a cake pop first!

Our edible bouquets come in a wide assortment of products and flavours

Dig into a cake pop!

The thing is, we’re truly passionate about all things baking & blooming – we’re not known as the Blissed Out Bakeristas for nothing 😉– and if there’s one thing we love almost as much as baking & edible bouquets, its blogging about them! We’ve also noticed that when we’re looking for something baking related, we often have to launch into a massive web trawl to find what we’re looking for, especially in the Indian context. Which is when it struck us! We could use our little space in the sunny web to blog about what we’re passionate about while also reaching out to others like us! What we want to do is make this space a haven for those who, like us, love baking.

So whether it’s recipes; baking hacks; tips and tricks; a look at baking reviews or equipment; discussions about the latest baking trends; or even features with bakers (of the celebrity as well as the home baker kind), we plan to cover it all.


A ready reckoner of all things baking, if you will. Like it? Have a slice of cake :)

It's bake cookies day and we're celebrating cookies, baking and edible bouquets at Con Affetto

Sit back, relax and enjoy our bloggy tea party :)

And of course, because we’re all about gifting and relationships too; we do plan to keep some great blogging in that space coming your way as well, along with some really funky features about life on the Con Affetto side. Plus there’s going to be loads of fun stuff as well, so watch this space!! :) You like? Help yourself to some more chai!

It's bake cookies day and we're celebrating cookies, baking and edible bouquets at Con Affetto

Drowning in tea and buttery cookies is the best way to spend a winter afternoon :)

And then tell us, what would YOU like to hear more about from us? Recipes? More about our products? Serious baking dilemmas you want answered? Questions on where to get the best snickerdoodle cookies in Delhi? Reviews of the best bakery in Mumbai? Whatever it is, bring it on! Here’s to much more happy baking…and fabulous blogging! :)

It's bake cookies day and we're celebrating cookies, baking and edible bouquets at Con Affetto

A chai-cookie toast to baking, edible bouquets and blogging this Bake Cookies Day!

We’re going to leave you with one of our favourite cookie recipes; we really can’t think of a better gift for Bake Cookies day :) Enjoy!

It's bake cookies day and we're celebrating cookies, baking and edible bouquets at Con Affetto. Try Con Affetto's Easy Christmas Cookies recipe.

Related: How To Bake The Perfect Brownie; 8 Must Know Hacks

Con Affetto’s Incredibly Funky Christmas Gift Ideas

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It’s that time of the year when even the regular store round the corner looks a little magical with its collection of festive looking Christmas trees and X’Massy decorations. Yup, Christmas is upon us and there’s an air of festivity all around that makes you want to burst into a cheery Christmas carol! If you’re like the rest of us, it’s also the time when you start worrying about Christmas gifts. Apart from the joy of playing Santa and picking out the perfect Christmas gifts for friends and family, Christmas is also a good time to gift those you may have missed out during the rest of the year (Ooops!).  But before you start frantically Googling the best online flower and cake delivery options in your locality- STOP! Sure, Christmas is about cake, but why not banish the regular and gift something incredibly unique this Christmas? Read on for our carefully curated selection of fabulous and funky Christmas gift ideas that will make even Santa turn green with envy 😉

Fabulously Funky Christmas Gift Ideas For Him

We’re yet to meet the man who isn’t fascinated with The Game of Thrones, the medieval fantasy epic of kings, queens, thrones and dragons. Help him celebrate Christmas and his own personal fantasies 😉 with this very cool personalized Game of Thrones Flask. Perfect for long nights, favourite drinks or just making a statement!

A funky Christmas gift idea for Game of Throne lovers

A funky Christmas gift idea for dragon lovers ;)

Pair it with our Golden Moments cupcake bouquet; the perfect way to celebrate the golden moments from the year gone by.

Funky Christmas gift ideas, gift Con Affetto's edible bouquets

#giftediblebouquets Golden Moments Cupcake Bouquet

Incredibly Funky Christmas Gift Ideas For Her

Has she ever complained that your gifts aren’t meaningful enough? Surprise her this Christmas with the most meaningful gift idea ever! This customized fingerprint necklace in sterling silver, engraved with a message of your choice will ensure you (and your words) stay close to her heart forever.

A funky Christmas gift idea for the special woman in your life

A unique, meaningful gift she will surely cherish for many more Christmases! :)

Pair it with some Purple Love, our exclusive satin drenched edible bouquet of hand crafted cake truffles.

Funky Christmas gift ideas, gift Con Affetto's edible bouquets

#giftediblebouquets Con Affetto’s Purple Love Hand Crafted Cake Truffles

Unique and Funky Christmas Gift Ideas For Couples

Everyone knows at least one made for each other couple. The sort that completes each others sentences, laughs at the same jokes and even manages to have perfectly coordinated eye rolls! Celebrate their perfectly in sync love with these oh-so-cool customized couple magnets.

One of our funky Christmas gift ideas for couples, personalized couples magnets

Incredibly funky Christmas gift for the made-for-each other sort!

Pair it with our Ballerina cake pop bouquet, an ode to tender, sweet love.

Funky Christmas gift ideas, gift Con Affetto's edible bouquets

#giftediblebouquets Con Affetto’s Ballerina Cake Pop Bouquet

Unique Christmas Gift Ideas For Kids

Know a young ‘un who loves and lives Harry Potter and secretly wishes for the life of Hogwarts, Quidditch and disdainful looking down of muggles? Look no further for the perfect Christmas gift idea- a personalized Hogwarts bobblehead doll- no less :) (This one is a good bet for Harry Potter loving grown ups too- we know quite a few!)

One of our funky Christmas gift ideas for Harry Potter fans, customized Hogwarts bobblehead dolls

A funky Christmas gift for Harry Potter fans!

Pair it with a selection of our fun and fabulous cake pops and cookie wands.

Funky Christmas gift ideas, gift Con Affetto's edible bouquets

#giftediblebouquets Con Affetto’s Cookie Wands & Cake Pops

Meaningful and Unique Christmas Gift Ideas For Parents

Gifting can be tricky when it comes to the older generation but we can bet you’ll hit the sweet spot with this unique Christmas gift idea; a personalized family print that can immortalize your near and dear ones in the most incredibly fun way possible! You can even bung in a fictitious character for the fun of it 😉 – or maybe use this creatively when you want to make that happy “you’re going to be grandparents” announcement!

One of our funky Christmas gift ideas for parents, customized family prints

Charm your parents this Christmas with these personalized family prints!

Pair it with some Hello Sunshine; little pieces of sunshine crafted into a cakepop bouquet: the perfectly sun-shiny way to brighten up their sunset years :)

Funky Christmas gift ideas, gift Con Affetto's edible bouquets

#giftediblebouquets Con Affetto’s Hello Sunshine Cakepop Bouquet

We hope you’re feeling inspired by our incredibly funky Christmas gift ideas! Don’t forget to write in to us with what’s on your shopping list this season! Merry X’mas- and happy shopping!