Dream Dress: Unconventional Party Dresses

Christmas party dresses should probably come with a fire hazard warning. They're all about the satin, sequins and feathers. As much as I like getting dressed up, it's all a little much sometimes. What if you're looking for something a little less flashy? Here are a few unconventional party dresses.

This Grecian maxi dress is divine. The long length and gold belt make it Christmassy without you looking like you've dressed up as a tree fairy. It's £49 from Topshop. That's mega cheap for so much slinking about.

There's something a little bit Erdem about this floral lace dress. It's £59.99 from Mango. It's also going to be mine.

It's not quite a festive red and I think that's why I like it. This little number is from Joy. It's £55 and you'll still be wearing it in 2013.

Yep, I'm totally suggested that you wear black leather instead of sparkles. This Mark Lupfer dress has such a gorgeous print. It's been designed exclusively as part of the ASOS Black range and it's £175.

I was all about this jester shift dress from Fever, but actually I like the other dress as well. Both absolutely perfect for parties and they look really comfy. Both dresses are in the sale - the jester dress is reduced to £41.99, the gold trim dress is £55.99. And the best thing is there's not a single sequin or ostrich feather in sight.

Sluttishly Sweet: Pina Colada Trifle

Trifle isn't just for Christmas - it's for life. I've actually never had a New Year's Eve without a trifle, and the very sight of one makes me remember what a WONDERFUL world we live in. In fact, I don't know why Louis Armstrong didn't forego all the stupid trees of green and babies crying and start sloshing sherry, custard and hundreds-and-thousands all over the place. That whole song is missing a trick.

So, you all know how a trifle goes (despite the many variations of its traditional form) and you probably know a few trifle-with-a-twists - tiramisu trifle, for instance, is epic. My all-time favourite, however, is pina colada trifle. Boozy, creamy and tropical: the perfect party pud. It also just happens to be almost shamefully simple - just make sure you allow yourself a few hours setting time.

If you have a similar New Year's Trifle tradition, you should definitely serve this with Chilean New Year cocktail Ponche a la Romana: a scoop of pineapple ice cream in a flute of sparkling wine. Why wouldn't you?

Pina Colada Trifle
Serves: One, ideally. Oh alright, about 8.

You will need:

• 1 packet trifle sponges or swiss roll
• 100ml Malibu (or cheaper supermarket alternative, hehe)
• 1 tin pineapple chunks
• 1 packet pineapple jelly*
• 3-4tbsp custard powder
• 3 tbsp granulated sugar
• 1 tin coconut milk (400ml)
• 160ml milk (full fat is best, although I used skimmed and it was fine)
• 200ml double cream
• 1 tsp vanilla essence

Make it!

• Break the trifle sponge into chunks and layer the bottle of a large glass serving bowl. Drizzle over about 70ml of the Malibu.
• Drain the pineapple chunks and layer over the sponge.
• Make up the jelly according to the instructions. When cooled, pour over the pineapple and sponge. Pop it in the fridge for a few hours/overnight to set.
• In a jug, mix together the sugar, custard powder, and about two splashes of milk until it forms a little paste.
• Give the coconut milk a good shake before you open the tin - it often has a huge solid lump at the top otherwise! Then mix the whole tin and the remainder of the milk together in a large jug and pour in the custard paste and the rest of the Malibu. Give it a good stir.
• Pop it in the microwave for two minutes at a time until it starts to thicken (it really varies, but my 850w microwave took 8-10 minutes), pausing every two minutes to stir the mixture.
• When thick enough (I'd say a teensy bit thicker than the Ambrosia stuff you get) carefully sit the jug in a washing-up bowl of cold water and stir the custard until it thickens and is nice and cool (the water just speeds up the cooling time). Spoon it over the jelly, and pop it back in the fridge for at least another couple of hours until the custard has set.
• Empty the cream into a large bowl, add the vanilla essence, and whip until firm. Spoon it over the custard, and decorate as you see fit. I've tried dried pineapple and dessicated coconut, but I prefer good old-fashioned sprinkles.

*Jelly tip! Not many supermarkets do pineapple jelly - I found mine in ASDA in the World Foods aisle. If you can't get your hands on it, mango or orange jelly is fine, or you can make your own using water, pineapple juice, sugar and gelatine leaves - but I wanted this to be cheaty to give you more time getting tipsy. If you're really feeling lazy (ahem, I've done this more than once), you can get Hartley's pineapple chunks set in pineapple jelly from the baking aisle of most supermarkets - just spoon it straight over the sponge.

Kids Christmas Gift Guide (by Emilia, aged 7)

This post was written by Emilia Alfano, aged 7 "but really very nearly 8" years old.

I asked Santa for a bike and swimming stuff and I'd like some little surprises. I like these dinosaur stamps. You could put them in your homework book if you had to write about dinosaurs or if you wanted to write a story about dinosaurs. I think everyone must like dinosaurs.

Melissa And Doug Dinosaur Stamp Set, £7.28, Amazon

I'd like a yo-yo too because you could play with it when you're bored. You can get light up ones which are really cool. You could maybe learn to do tricks and stuff with them but I'd just play with mine because I might not have time to practice tricks because I don't think my mum would let me take it to school.

Duncan Pulse light up yo-yo, £9.99, The Random Shop

I really love doing drawing and colouring and I like clothes. This is a cool thing where you can do tracing of clothes then colour them in so you sort of make your own clothes but they're not real!

Grafix Fashion Wheel, £5, The Entertainer

It'd be so cool though if you could make them real then you could buy them when you went shopping.

Info for Santa: All items are still available for delivery before Christmas at the time of writing!

The Lyric Book Company

The idea behind The Lyric Book Company is simple. They've collected the complete lyrics of some of the finest songwriters over the last 50 years and turned them into gorgeous little pocket books.

Remember when you'd get excited about a CD insert and read all of the lyrics to your favourite songs? This was probably when you discovered K.D Lang wasn't singing about gravy (to my knowledge, she has no strong feelings toward any particular sauce or condiment).



Now we just look up lyrics online, and that's not nearly as much fun (and they're often wrong). The Lyric Book Company produce such beautiful books that they're actually like little books of poetry.

I particularly love Neil Hannon's words about his book: "So there you are, the stuff in my brain, chopped up and rhymed. Enjoy." There's a strong connection with the songwriters and these editions and it's rather splendid.

Each book is just £10 and an absolute treat for the music-lover in your life. They're stocking-sized and honestly much more fun to sing along to than carols. Bugger decking the halls, get your Divine Comedy on instead.

The Iconic Cake Company

There's a Christmas bake off happening in Sluttery HQ today. I'm going up against the awesome IdeasTap chaps (with Alex E's mulled wine chocolate cake, decorated with festive chocolate dinosaurs, obviously) and the cake trash talk has already started.

Yes. Cake trash talk.

I wish I'd learnt about The Iconic Cake Company before today. Because then I'd be making the most fabulous biscuit cakes. I might not be all that impressed with Heston (yes love, it's a giant packet of crisps, you didn't need an hour of my telly time for that), but I would absolutely love a giant Jammy Dodger cake.

The moulds are silicon so they can go in the microwave, the freezer and the oven and they're all £19.99. Just pick your favourite biscuit and get your Heston hat on. (Or, make like Laura B and give her giant Jaffa Cake a bash instead).

Custard cream cake! Some please, please make this for our next edition of Just Desserts. It goes perfectly with the fighting for custardy theme.

OK, twenty quid for a ring mould is a bit of a swizz. But you can bet your ass I'm using this as party ring cake decorating inspiration.

This bourbon biscuit mould is clearly the best of the lot. It'll make the best chocolate cake ever. The best thing is that you probably won't have any cake tins this shape, you're just going to have to eat the necessary amount. For storage purposes.

Sluttishly Syrupy: Irresistably Amazing Syrup Flavours

 When I was eleven, my best friend and I worked on a non-alcoholic cocktail bar at a Christian camp (we were definitely the coolest kids in school) but it was there that I first discovered Monin syrups. Even without being on the sauce, the cocktails we made were deliciously moreish - and that had everything to do with the huge variety of syrup flavours we had to play with.

Nowadays, I still can't walk past a Starbucks without 'oohing' at their sign for eggnog lattes (even though I'm supposed to snub them for not paying enough tax - my flimsy political boycott is no match for the epicness of eggnog), but I've never really thought about bringing some of the magnificent flavours syrups can offer into my own home.

Then, I was having a browse on foodie site extraordinaire Cream Supplies, and I think my life has changed for the better. They sell pretty much all the syrup flavours you could dream of, and I literally mean hundreds. Of course they do all the fruity flavours (blueberry and apricot being two of my favourites) but it's much more exciting than that.

Firstly, seeing as 'tis the season and all that, how about some Christmas cake syrup from Malmesbury? All spicy and fruity and warming, and without any evil marzipan on it - hooray! A litre is £5.99.

If you're feeling festive you could also opt for chestnut, cranberry, gingerbread, (all £5.99 per 70cl) and of course my favourite eggnog syrup (£6.95 for a litre) for adding to coffee or drizzling over ice cream alike. Also, instead of milk and cookies, I reckon Santa would much prefer a cocktail with chocolate cookie syrup.

It's not just Christmas they're good for: I'm already planning on creating some kind of wonderful hot cross bun syrup-inspired cocktail for Easter (especially as a litre is only £5.99). I can think of 1001 uses for white chocolate syrup too (one of which being pouring it straight down my gob), although let's face it - I'm hardly going to last until April to use that one.

Herbing up a strawberry-based cocktail has never been cheatier - now I can use basil syrup. I reckon this would also be ace in a mojito, and I can also feel all fresh and healthy (ahem) in my iced teas and martinis with this cucumber syrup (both are £5.99 per 70cl). If flowers are more your thing, I'm all over the rhubarby, zingy hibiscus flower syrup which is £3.99 for 300ml.

This last one might just be my favourite: Routin's toasted marshmallow syrup. OMG. My coffee, booze and ice cream will never be bland again. Give whoever created this (Mr... Routin?) a great big medal.

The litres are generally £6.95 whereas 70cl versions are around £5.99, with postage varying depending on how much you order - it starts at £4.99. What's your dream syrup flavour?

The Just Desserts Round Up: Cinnamon

We gave you a Christmassy flavour to play with for this month's Just Desserts club: cinnamon. It's like Christmas in a jar, adding a magical festive flavour to whatever you sprinkle it over or mix it into.

Here are our favourite recipes that you blogged about, you clever, creative cooks.

Under A Glass Sky made lebkuchen, and throws in a casual reference to cinnamon vodka in her write-up. Imagine a handful of lebkuchen with a little shot of that to kickstart Christmas Day. Cor!

Love this recipe for cinnamon monkey bread from Edinburgh Eats, and not just for the line "I like big Bundts and I cannot lie". Buttery cinnamon dough balls held together with brown sugar caramel? I think we're all booked on the Edinburgh train for Christmas.

 

Bourbonnatrix Bakes made these spicy brownies, combining cinnamon with Mexican chilli powder. With a perfect fudgy centre and a thin crisp top, these would give a kick to your elevenses.

Over on Rosalilium, Elizabeth brought us a mug of cinnamon hot chocolate. Not strictly a dessert, but we wouldn't turn down a piping hot cup of this on a cold evening.

As for us, Alex gave you this bloody marvellous mulled wine chocolate cake, which helpfully leaves enough wine for you to enjoy a glass or two with a slice. And Laura B is insistent that latkes don't have to be savoury - she's sprinkled hers with cinnamon and served with a sweet sauce.

We've had a lot of love for cinnamon over the years, it turns out. This brioche, vanilla and rum pudding will warm up your evenings, or maybe you'd prefer churros dipped in chocolate? If you haven't made our chocodoodles or cinnamon whirls then you're missing a treat, and if you prefer your treats gluten-free, then try baking our carrot cake.

Our next theme is FIGHTING FOR CUSTARDY, because we love a laboured pun. Think trifles, custard pots, custard cakes, tarts, puddings... Anything you set your mind (and kitchen, and blog) to! Added incentive: there's a prize for our favourite recipe. We'll do our next round-up on 13 February.

Want to get involved? Check out the Just Desserts guidelines, and make sure you link back to this post to spread the word. Tell us when you've posted your recipe so we can share it, and use the hashtag #JustDesserts on Twitter so we can tweet your post. We're always looking for new bloggers to feature, so if you're a keen baker, why not set up a blog or dust off your old one, and get stuck in?