It was all happening at the Fortnum and Mason Christmas Gift Swap

Last week was the first Fortnum and Mason Christmas gift swap. Fifty Food Bloggers were invited and it really captured everyone's imagination, as the finest range and quality of the gifts were brought  to the waiting tables.  It was just fantastic.  Thank goodness for Dan Lepard.  He was utterly brilliant at judging the winners for each category, I can't imagine how hard to was to choose .. but he did a fabulous job and the winners were as follows:

Drinks – Damson Schnapps by Jayne.


Baked Goods – Amaretti Biscuits by Claire.


Sweets – Cranberry & Port Mincemeat Pops by Snezhana.


Pickles & Preserves – Blackberry Curd by Urvashi.

The winners had exceptional gifts that really captured Christmas.  the great thing was that we were all winners.  I popped a number on each gift and they were put in to the mixing bowl of the Kenwood and drawn. It was really good fun and  I was delighted with how it all turned out.   Fortnum and Mason was the perfect venue and epitomised the Christmas spirit we all love and I think everyone just soaked up the atmosphere.  I really felt part of a community, with like minded people who are as passionate about food and blogging as I am.   I  feel it is important to recognise the effort and hard work of food bloggers and we get each other.. so it was lovely to gather a group together, have a cup of tea and a mince pie.  ( a delicious Fortnum & Mason Mince pie) !  We all write for the love of it, and  just to be able to organise a free event just for us to celebrate and meet each other was a real privilege.

So thank you again to our hosts Fortnum & Mason and the Hamper and fabulous prizes from Kenwood, Aga, Leiths Cookery School and Rococo Chocolates, and thank you to Dan Lepard.

It was fabulous!

Of course it hand't really occurred to me as I set up a gift swap that by offering a prize for the best of each category that it was a competition.  In fact it only really dawned on me as there was some friendly rivalry being tweeted!

There were over 100 gifts entered and it's been quite a difficult post to round up.  I initially wrote out everyone on a spread sheet and then on a word document.  In all honesty I couldn't fit all the information together without redesigning the width of my site. So I have decided to split the links and information over two posts.  This post is about who was there, and the Let's make Christmas round up post will be posted next week with all the recipes in there.  I'll also add in the links on this page as people write their posts up. .. so bear with me this page will have several more updates over the next few weeks.

In the mean time you can read what everyone else said right here!

The delicious Working London Mummy 

 Lovely Ben Vear

The Beautiful Bountiful Plate
My friend Sarah from Maison Cupcake
Sophisticated Solange
Slow Food Kitchen wrote a gorgeous post
Chocolate Blog made me smile with her brilliant write up 

 Here is a list of all the gifts entered
(blog links with recipes will be added as they are sent to me Recipes@VanessaKimbell.com and will be added to the next round up post of Let's make Christmas)

Polish Spiced Christmas Biscuits & And extra one ready for DIY decorating

Christmas Vodka, Cranberry and Orange Spices

Blackberry Curd, Lemon Curd Macrons WINNER OF THE BEST PRESERVE

Clove Shortbread Snowflakes & Salted Caramel Brownies

Shortbread

Festive Macarons, Christmas Cookies, Frangipane Mince Pies

Fruit and Nut bars, Turkish delight, Ginger Cordial

Blackberry Liqueur, a trio of preserves, Mini cake pops and Rum Truffles

Chocoalte truffles with Pistachio's

Mulled Wine Syrup, Mini Crunchy Fruit and Nut Christmas Cakes, Christmas table Truffles

Amaretti Biscuits  WINNER OF THE BEST BAKED GIFT

White Christmas Mud Cakes   Chocolate Cake Balls

Mulled Wine & Chocolates

Seville Orange and Whisky Marmalade, Crab Apple Jelly, Stawberry Jam and Spiced elderflower Cordial

Malaysian Pineapple tarts, Chocolate brigadeiro

Florentines, Florentine Spread, Quince and Roasmary Jelly

Chocolate Christmas Trees with Chocolate Truffle Presents Spiced Christmas Pudding Macrons

Damson Snapps, Candies Pecans WINNER OF THE BEST DRINK

(no info on sheet)

Triplle Ginger cake in Jars, Chilli Vodka, meringue Nibbles

Macademia nut & Cherry Chocolate Fudge, Lemon and Ginger shortbread, Apple and Cranberry chutney

Orange & Chocolate iced Biscuits, Cranberry & Port and Mincemeat Cake Pops - WINNER BEST SWEETS

Fig and Nut Cake, Almond and Turkish delight Clusters

Orange and Clove Sugar, Fresh cranberery mincemeat, Sloe Gin

Basler Lackerli. Berry and Cherry Jam. Marrons Glace.

Brownies and a set of three preserves

Stilton and Walnut Cheese Sables

Hot Chilli & Ginger Pickle, Sweet Hot Sour Tangy Pickle, Pear and Ginger Chutney

Chocoalte Tort Truffles, Cornish Farings, Mulling Syrup

Vanilla Extract, Pumkin Chitnry, Honeycomb

Mulled wine Jelly , Ginger Surprize house, Assorted Truffles

Biscotti

Christmas Pudding Cake Pops

Min Christmas Anowflake cakes, Boozey Fat Free Mincemeat, Orange Liqueur

2 pumpkin and Apple Chutneys & 2 peppermint crunch

Chocolate and Chestnut Cake

Orange Mince Pies, White Chocolate and Cranberry cookies, Cranberry Chutney

Home made Marshmallows, Christmas Feel Good Cookies

Red onion Chutney and Blueberry Gin

A Trio of seasonal Jar Pies

Chili Jam

Picalilli, Christmas Puddings, Chocolate Wafers Trio of preserves Damson Jam, Pretty Pear Jelly and Green Tomato Chutney,  Turkish Delight Here is a list of the bloggers that took part ( I've lost a sheet so if you are not here PLEASE let me know!)  Renbehan.com @renbehan www.fussfreeflavour.com @fussfreeflavour www.thebotanicalbaker.wordpress.com @botanicalbaker www.browniesforMozart.Blogspot.com @MozartsGirl www.benvear.com @BenjaminVear www.workinglondonmummy.com @workinglondonmummy www.howtocookgoodfood.co.uk @Laura_howtocook www.atriflerushed.blogspot.com/ *** to add in www.thebountifulplate.wordpress.com/ @CatchyChan www.whatkatebaked.blogspot.com/ @KateCakeandBake hwww.claireshandmadecakes.com/ @claires_cakes www.lheureduthe-jennifer.blogspot.com *** to add in www.allthethingsieat.blogspot.com/ @MissWhiplash www.penelopespantry.blogspot.com/ @penjy www.slowfoodkitchen.com/ @SlowfoodKitchen www.london-unattached.com @FionaMclean www.craftstorming.com @Craftstorming www.jaynerly.wordpress.com/ @Jaynerly www.susaneatslondon.com/ *** to add in www.cornercottagebakery.blogspot.com @cornercottageB www.eathealthybuttasty.blogspot.com/ @juliaplatia www.orangethyme.blogspot.com/ @OrangeThymeBlog www.ladyrhubarb.com/ l@adyrhubarb www.prepped.co.uk @Vanessa Kimbell http://sarahbakes.co.uk @Sarahbakes_uk http://utterlyscrummy.blogspot.com/ @UtterlyScrummy www.extra-relish.com @Extra Relish http://www.kaveyeats.com/ @Kaveyf www.lostartofeating.com @lostartofeating www.onemilliangoldstars.com @gailDoggett www.talesfromthegiantswood.co.uk NONE Chocolate Log Blog @Choclette8 Maison Cupcake @mainsonCupcake Lavender and Lovage @KarenBurnsBooth HeidiRoberts Kitchen talk @Walpolegirl CharlottePike.blogspot.com  & www.gofreefoods.co.uk @gofreecakes www.turquoiselemons.weebly.com @turquoise Lemons www.foodforthoughts-blog.blogspot.com @BakingCindy www.foodforthink.com @foodforthink www.IamaFeeder.net @jaxies www.feedingtheboys.wordpress.com @Cookingkt http://sarahskitchendiary1.blogspot.com @SKitchenDiary The Things We Make @clairetweet Pebble Soup @solangeweb