Christmas section

In the Christmas section we find delicious recipes for sweets

Sunflower and Rosemary Fudge

	100g (4oz) white chocolate
	approx. 550g (20oz) icing sugar
	100g (4oz) sunflower margarine
	4 tablespoons evaporated milk
	half - level teaspoon ground rosemary
	2 tablespoons sunflower seeds

Melt the broken chocolate and margarine over a low heat. Stir in the evaporated milk and ground rosemary thoroughly. Add the sieved icing sugar gradually, stirring all the time and when the mixture starts to thicken add the sunflower seeds.

The remainder of the icing sugar will now bring the mixture to a stiff paste which can be pressed into a lined, shallow tin to set. Place in the fridge for about 20 minutes before cutting into squares. Store in an airtight tin or sealed box in a cool place.

Christmas decorations

Among the decorations are many fragrant ideas, including filling cubes of Christmas fabric with spiced lavender to hang on the tree. Made in minutes, they will soon become a regular part of your Christmas decorations. You will need:

	one quarter metre or yard of Christmas fabric with a squared pattern
	1metre or yard of thick gold thread or narrow Christmas trim
	herb filling:-lavender with a quarter teaspoon of ground clove and 1 drop of essential oil of mandarin or frankincense. Needle and thread, pinking shears.

For each cube, you will need to cut an elongated cross shape which is 4 squares long and 3 squares across on your patterned material. Before you cut, however, add on a seam allowance of 0.5-1.25cm a quarter to half an inch to the outside edges of the cross shape. To make up, bring the side arms of the cross to meet the top square, right sides together as in the diagram. Stitch, following the straight line of the outside of the square on the pattern. This will give you an open box. Turn this right side out and fill with the lavender mixture, packing it down tightly to maintain the shape.

With the cube almost filled, sew the two ends of a 7.5cm (3in) length of trim or strong gold thread into one corner of the cube. Turn the seam allowance inside as you work and stitch the cube closed, adding a little lavender when you reach the last open side to make the shape symmetrical. When finished, the cubes can be hung from the branches of a Christmas tree, inside wreaths, from swags, or amongst other decorations.