I've been off work illl for a few weeks hence my lack of blog posts.Unfortunately this has resulted in a freeze on my baking. All my Christmas plans out the window!

But now things are looking up I am hoping to make some Christmas cake pops this weekend and have been searching the net for inspiration. Here are a selection of my favourites:

Keeping in the festive spirit I just saw these adorable gingerbread houses which perch on the side of a mug. How adorable!

The tutorial looks quite fiddle, probably not the easiest intriduction to gingerbread for a novice like me but they are very impressive and the perfect complement to Christmas lattes! Next year perhaps...

I just saw this idea on The Great British Bake Off finalist Holly Bell's blog www.recipesfromanormalmum.com and had to share.

How simple but effective. Any flavour cupcakes you fancy (cinammon spiced or orange zest would be nice) in red and green paper cases topped with a swirl of buttercream (brandy buttercream anyone?) and decorated with a chocolate coin! Loving it.

I thought I would share this snap of my workstation during cake decorating.

I use this large green non stick board to roll out my icing. It is an expensive tool but invaluable. You can get smaller sizes but for rolling out large pieces this is the best size.

I have my cake up on a turntable so I can continually move it around to see it from all angles. This means there is less chance of dropping the cake!

I mixed up a variety of green sugar paste to decorate this cake and I keep the different colours wrapped in plastic so they don't dry out as I am working.

I roll the icing out using a little trex vegetable fat. This makes it easier to roll without loosing the vibrancy of he colour which happens when using icing sugar.

I used star shaped cutters on this cake and stuck them onto the cake using edible glue.

And finally hiding in the box at the back is the cake topper I made earlier! I keep them boxed up so that I don't damage them whilst making the rest of the cake.

I should point out I am only sharing this picture as i was having a tidy moment and thought I should capture it on camera! Usually my kitchen it a sea of madness with a pristine cake in the middle!