Dazzle your guests with Bake Off winner SYABIRA YUSOFF'S scrummy Christmas showstoppers

Cranberry and orange spiced cake

Full disclosure, this a challenging bake. But the flavours are divine and very festive, so it’s worth the effort. Just take your time, and tackle it step by step so you don’t get overwhelmed.

This is a challenging bake, but the taste makes the effort worthwhile. Simply take your time

FOR THE ORANGE SPONGE

4 medium eggs
100g caster sugar, plus 1 tbsp for egg yolks
120g self-raising flour
40ml vegetable oil
40ml orange juice
2 tbsp orange zest
1g salt

METHOD

Separate the egg whites and egg yolks into two bowls. Beat the egg whites with a hand mixer until bubbly. Then start adding one third of the sugar to the mixture, beating on high speed until the sugar has dissolved completely before adding any more.

Beat this meringue mixture until glossy and semi hard peaks form.

Beat the egg yolks with sugar until creamy, then fold into the meringue.

Sift the flour and fold into the meringue mixture.

In a microwave, heat the oil for 30 seconds on full power, then add orange juice, salt and orange zest and mix together.

Add the warmed mixture to a third of the meringue and mix until well incorporated.

Fold this batter gently into the remaining meringue mixture making sure it doesn’t collapse.

Transfer the mixture into a 7 in cake tin and bake in a pre-heated oven at 190c/170c fan/gas 5 for 45 minutes.

Or divide the mixture into three 7in cake tins and bake at the same temperature for 10 minutes.

FOR THE SWIS MERINGUE BUTTERCREAM

4 medium egg whites
180g granulated sugar
350g unsalted butter (cubed and left at room temperature)
2 tbsp vanilla essence or vanilla sugar

METHOD

Create a bain-marie by placing a saucepan on the stove over a medium heat, containing 4 in of simmering water. Rest a heatproof bowl on top, making sure the water doesn’t touch the bowl.

Separate the egg whites from the yolks.

Add the whites, sugar and vanilla to the bowl and stir until combined — keep stirring until the sugar has fully dissolved to avoid the egg scrambling. The mixture should be smooth to touch.

Whisk the mixture on medium to high until peaks form.

Change the whisk head on your mixer to the paddle attachment, then add a quarter of the butter to the meringue and mix on a medium speed until well combined. Don’t worry if it looks soupy at first; it takes time.

Add more butter and repeat until it has all been incorporated.

Turn the mixer to high speed and whisk for 5 -10 minutes until creamy.

Place two tablespoons each of the buttercream each into three separate bowls. Add a couple of drops of food colouring — red, green and brown — so you have one bowl in each colour. You’ll use the rest to coat the cake.

FOR THE CHOCOLATE SPICED GANACHE

100g milk chocolate
75ml double cream/whipping cream
1½ tbsp spice mix (1:1:1 ground cinnamon, ground cloves and ground star anise)

Over a bain-marie, add all the ingredients and mix until the chocolate is melted.

Cover the bowl with cling film and keep in the fridge overnight.

FOR THE CRANBERRY JAM

300g cranberries
160g granulated sugar
Juice of one orange, and some zest
1 tbsp ground cinnamon

METHOD

In a saucepan, over a medium heat, mix all ingredients together. Simmer for 10 minutes. Cool down in a small container.

Using a hand blender, blend the jam until smooth.

TO ASSEMBLE

If you made the cake in one tin, you’ll need to slice into three separate layers.

Take one of the orange cake layers and brush generously with milk.

Pipe a buttercream border, with two layers piped one on top of the other.

Pipe a layer of ganache within the border and smooth with a spatula.

Add a layer of jam, then place the next cake layer on top. Repeat the above steps, then place your final layer on top.

Coat the cake with buttercream and let it set in the fridge for 10-15 minutes.

Use your coloured buttercreams to decorate by piping a green wreath, then add brown pinecones and red poinsettias. Use the last of the red buttercream to do a snowflake in the centre. You can use cranberries for additional decoration.

Great British Bake Off winner Syabira Yousoff, pictured, has shared some of her Christmas treats with Daily Mail readers

Santa meringues

FOR THE SWISS MERINGUE (MAKES 20 SANTAS)

90g egg whites (2 large egg whites or 3 medium egg whites)
144g sugar
Black gel food colouring
Red gel food colouring
Peach/orange gel food colouring

These Santa meringues will require you to create a bain-marie using a saucepan and a heatproof bowl

EQUIPMENT

Four piping bags, with separate nozzles for the different colours. You will see I’ve put numbers after the tips below — if you have a piping kit then the numbers correspond with the tip size, 2 being the smallest and 4 the largest.

Tip 2: Black, Tip 3: White

Tip 3: Peach, Tip 4: Red

METHOD

Create a bain-marie by placing a saucepan on the stove over a medium heat, containing four inches of simmering water. Rest a heatproof bowl on top, making sure the water doesn’t touch the bowl.

Separate the egg whites from the yolks.

Add the whites and sugar to a bowl and stir until combined —keep stirring until the sugar has fully dissolved to avoid the eggs scrambling. The mixture should be smooth to touch.

Whisk the mixture on medium to high — with a stand or handheld mixer – until it forms peaks.

Separate the meringue into four portions. Add food colouring — black, red and peach — to three and leave the fourth white.

Use the red meringue first to make Santa’s base. Using steady pressure, pipe two circles (2 cm approx diameter), one on top of the other. This will act as a border to contain the meringue. Still using the red meringue, hold the piping bag at a 90-degree angle (your hands will be vertical to the work surface), and gently squeeze the mix into the base so it fills over the top of the border by about half a cm.

Change to the black piping bag, and make two border circles on top of the red for Santa’s belt.

Then, using the red meringue, fill the black belt with red meringue, piping straight into the middle. The black border will expand a little to make a big Santa’s belly. Then slowly pipe circles upwards to make Santa’s upper body.

Using white meringue, make a small neck-sized border. Then fill this with the peach mix to make Santa’s face. Using white meringue, pipe a fuzzy zigzag line around the face to make Santa’s hair and beard.

Make a small white border, then fill with red meringue to make Santa’s hat.

Using the black meringue, pipe Santa’s eyes, gloves and boots. Then add his buttons in white.

Bake in a preheated oven at 120c/100c fan/gas ½ for 1-2 hours or until dry to touch.

Mulled wine sandwich biscuits

Children love helping out in the kitchen, and these easy-to-make biscuits are perfect for getting little ones involved. They are lovely alongside a mug of hot chocolate.

SPICED BISCUITS (makes 24)

150g salted butter, at room temperature
90g icing sugar
2 medium eggs
110g ground almonds
240g plain flour
3 tbsp spice mix (ratio 1:1:1 of ground cinnamon, ground cloves and ground star anise)

Children love helping out in the kitchen, and these easy-to-make biscuits are perfect for getting little ones involved. They are lovely alongside a mug of hot chocolate

METHOD

In a bowl or stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar until it comes together in a paste consistency.

Add the eggs and ground almonds and mix until well combined.

Add flour and spice until just combined. Take the dough and wrap in cling film, placing in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Once chilled, roll the dough to 3 mm thickness (about the depth of a coin).

Use a circular cookie cutter with a 5 cm diameter to cut 48 circles.

Use a smaller star cutter to cut a star-shaped hole out of half of the discs. This half will be on the top of biscuits.

Bake in a preheated oven at 190c/ 170c fan/gas 5 for 8-10 minutes.

CRANBERRY JAM

300g cranberries (fresh or frozen)
160g granulated sugar
Juice of one orange, plus some zest
1 tbsp ground cinnamon

METHOD

In a saucepan, over a medium heat, mix all ingredients together.

Simmer for 10 minutes.

Cool down in a small container.

MULLED WINE GANACHE

30g double cream
70g mulled wine (for an alcohol-free version, you can replace with the same amount of cream)
150g dark chocolate
3 tbsp cranberry jam

METHOD

On a stove, over a medium heat, heat the cream and the mulled wine to a gentle simmer.

Chop the dark chocolate into small pieces, and then pour the hot mixture over it. Let it sit for couple of minutes, then stir until no visible chocolate chunks can be seen.

Add the cranberry jam and mix until well combined.

Chill in the fridge for 4 hours, or overnight to let the ganache stiffen.

FOR ASSEMBLY

50g milk chocolate and gold sprinkles

METHOD

Melt milk chocolate and brush lightly on the underside of the biscuits. This will keep them crunchy.

Pipe the ganache in a circular motion onto the chocolate-brushed side of one of the biscuits. It should be about double the thickness of the biscuit.

Sandwich a biscuit with star-shaped hole on top. To finish, add gold sprinkles to the exposed ganache.

Black Forest verrine

Makes 4 x 400ml tumblers

For the chocolate sponge

3 medium eggs whites (room temperature)
1/3 tbsp white vinegar
55g caster sugar
3 medium egg yolks (beaten)
55g self-raising flour (sieved)
30ml vegetable oil
40ml full-fat milk
10g cocoa powder

Syabira Yusoff from the Great British Bake Off shares her recipe for a Black Forest verrine

METHOD

Separate the egg whites and yolks into two separate bowls.

Add the vinegar to the whites then, using a hand mixer, beat until big bubbles form.

Add a third of the sugar, beating until the sugar is dissolved. Repeat until all the sugar has been used. Now whisk until semi-firm meringue-like peaks form.

Beat the egg yolks and fold into the mixture.

Microwave the oil and milk together on high for 45 seconds. Whisk with a fork and then add the cocoa powder and set aside.

Add half of the flour to the cake mixture, folding it in until it’s mostly incorporated. Then add the rest of the flour, folding it all in.

Take out a third of the batter, folding it into the emulsified cocoa mixture until it has been fully incorporated. Then mix the cocoa mixture into the remaining batter mix .

Spread the cake batter onto a shallow tray lined with baking paper.

Bake in a pre-heated oven at 190c/170c fan/gas 5 for 10 minutes.

FOR THE VANILLA CREAM

300ml non-thickened whipping cream/double cream
1 tbsp icing sugar
½ vanilla pod seeds or 1 tbsp vanilla extract or 1 tbsp vanilla sugar

Equipment:

Piping bag with nozzle #2D

Method

Add all the ingredients together in a bowl and whisk until full-bodied. Be careful not to over whip the mixture or it will become butter-like .

Transfer the cream into a piping bag, and fix on the nozzle. Keep in the fridge until ready to use.

FOR THE CRUMBLE

50g drained tinned cherries
90g plain flour
55g unsalted butter (cold and cubed)
35g dark brown sugar
60g granola or rolled oats

Chop the cherries into small pieces.

Using your hands or a mixer, mix the flour and butter into a coarse, sand-like texture.

Add the sugar, cherries and granola.

Bake in a preheated oven at 200c/180c fan/gas 6 for 5 minutes. Remove and mix it again, then bake for another 5 minutes.

Set aside to cool.

FOR THE CHERRY, LEMONGRASS AND BLACK PEPPER JELLY

5g powdered gelatine (soaked in 45ml cold water)
150ml cherry juice
150ml lemongrass juice (blend a lemongrass stalk with 200ml water and then strain)
15g caster sugar
2 tbsp ground black pepper

METHOD

Add the gelatine to cold water, and set aside.

In a pan, gently heat the cherry juice, lemongrass juice and black pepper with the sugar until the sugar has dissolved ,then remove from the heat.

Heat up the gelatine and water in a microwave for 5 seconds on high power, using a fork to mix it together until no powder is visible.

Transfer the gelatine solution to the cherry juice mix. Mix well and transfer to a jug.

TO ASSEMBLE

METHOD

At the bottom of the glass add the cherry jelly and chunks of cherry.

Put in the freezer for 10 minutes.

Add a layer of chocolate sponge disc (cut to the diameter of your glass) and brush with cherry juice.

Add a layer of crumble.

Pipe a layer of vanilla cream.

Repeat the chocolate sponge and crumble layers, finishing with cream, and garnish with a cherry on top.

Dazzle your guests with Bake Off winner SYABIRA YUSOFF’S scrummy Christmas showstoppers