How to Make a Christmas Grazing Board

Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan160°C/gas 4 and grease the Christmas Tree tin with cake release.

Melt together the butter, sugar, and treacle, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Remove from the heat and stir in the milk. Set aside to cool until lukewarm, then beat in the eggs.

Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda, spices and a pinch of salt into a large bowl, then make a well in the centre. Pour in the milk mixture and stir to make a smooth batter.

Pour the batter into the tin, then bake for 45-50 minutes until a skewer comes out clean. Don’t open the door before 40 minutes has passed as your cake will almost certainly sink in the centre.

Leave to cool in the tin, then turn out. Fit a piping bag with a large round nozzle and fill the bag with your choice of frosting, fresh whipped cream or maybe a lemon buttercream. Pipe all over the surface of the cake.

Melt the sugar, golden syrup, and butter in a saucepan until well combined and smooth. Leave to cool for 10 mins. Tip the flour, bicarbonate of soda and spices into a large bowl. Add the warm syrup mixture and the egg and stir together. Gently knead in the bowl until the dough comes together in a smooth ball. Wrap in cling film and chill for 30 minutes.

Heat the oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Remove the dough from the fridge and roll out to the thickness of a £1 coin. Use a variety of cutters to cut out your shapes. Put these on a non-stick baking tray and bake for 8-12 minutes (dependent on size). Cool the biscuits on a wire rack. Decorate with royal icing in a piping bag fitted with a small writing nozzle.

Once set, add to your cake grazing board.

Heat oven to 120C/100C fan/gas ½. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment. Whisk the egg whites in a stand mixer or with an electric whisk until they are foamy and doubled in size. Add the sugar, a spoon at a time, while you continue to whisk. The meringue will become thick and glossy and should hold up in stiff peaks on the beaters when it is ready.

Fit a disposable piping bag with a small round or star nozzle. Hold it vertically to the baking sheet and gently squeeze, pulling the bag up and away to make a peak. Add sprinkles to the meringues if desired before putting them in the oven.

To make striped meringue kisses – mix a spoonful of meringue in a bowl with a little food colouring. Daub the coloured meringue in 2 or 3 stripes from the nozzle up the inside of a clean piping bag. Fill as normal with uncoloured meringue and pipe the peaks onto the prepared baking tray.

Put the meringues in the oven for 1 hour, then switch off the oven and leave them inside until completely cold.

Melt the chocolate in a microwave or heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water.

Dip the pretzels half into the chocolate and lay them on greaseproof paper.

Scatter with sprinkles, then leave to set.

Decorate the iced cake with a selection of fruit and the yummy goodies you've baked!