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

The Food Blogger Gift Swap at Fortnum & Mason #LetsMakeChristmas

There are about 50 food Bloggers coming today to swap edible Gifts at the fabulous Fortnum and Manson from my initial posting. It's really happening and it's today  .. ( I must remember to breath  .. I can hardly believe it's today  .. it feels like Christmas!)

I am so excited ( .. in case you hadn't noticed)   I haven't finished the final post of Let's make Christmas .. but I have s few photo's to show you as a sneak preview so there are about 70 Christmas gift recipes to post!  How amazing is that ?

Oh I am tingles and excitement  & Dan Lepard is deciding which is the best and will be there with his new book Short and Sweet. ( I know I need a couple signing for Christmas gifts myself !)

 I'll see you all there at 3pm ...  it's going to be fab!!

Today 

You will need to bring along your gift to Fortnum & Mason's 4th floor at 3pm (with your name and the recipe must be attached in an envelope.)  Your gift needs to be entered into the swap by 3.45pm. Your gift get’s a number and a category.  At the end of the event you get to pick out the tickets (According to how many gifts you brought with you ) out of the hat and leave with the gifts correlating to the number that you have picked from the hat it's like a raffle and you will leave with someone else’s gifts.  I wanted to add a bit of gentle competition to it all ... so Dan Lepard has very kindly offered to judge the gifts and the timetable is as follows: 

4 -5pm Dan Lepard will judge the entries and pick the winning gifts.

5 .45pm you pick a ticket out of all the entries and you leave with a gift.  

The gift categories are:

1 Pickles and preserves

2 Sweets

3 Alcohols / Drinks

4 Cakes, biscuits and baked goods

The Prizes are as follows

1 Overall best gift.  –  Fortnum & Mason Hamper

2 Best preserve / pickle is Aga Preserving Pan & Maslin Pan

3 Best sweets – Rococo Chocolates course with Laurent Couchaux -  the Principle Chocolatier at Rococo Chocolates and winner of Chocolatier of the year 2011

4 Best drink - Champagne tasting class with Leiths Cookery school resident wine expert, Richard Bampfield this fun, informative tasting of the world’s most desirable tipple is the prize for the best drink

5 Best baked goods Signed book Short and Sweet by Dan Lepard & a Kenwood kMix KMX58 Stand Mixer, Citrus Yellow
mixer by a leading brand of Kitchen appliances Kenwood.  ( Hurrah for British design!) 

The Rules

You must share your recipe and blog about your gift using the Fortnum & Mason Let's make Christmas Logo in the blog post. 

You may enter up to 3 categories. Minimum entry is 1 category. 

You must provide an envelope with the recipe inside and your name and email address. Ingredients must be clearly marked to accommodate andy food allergies. 

All gifts must be packaged in a way that is appropriate for someone else to transport home. 

Prizes will be sent directly to the winners.  If you win you will need to leave your address with me at the end of the day. 

All decisions by the judge are final  and there are no cash or product alternatives. 

All gifts must tbe hand made, and credit the recipe to the author if appropriate.

You must be over 18 to participate.

Must dash  .. I've a train to catch

Vanessa
x

Let’s make Christmas - The Food Blogger Gift Swap

It occurred to me just the other day that we food bloggers don’t often get the chance to meet up and yet we love nothing more than a cup of tea, something delicious to eat and a good natter about a recipe.  So I decided to organize just that. 

So I spoke to the lovely people in one of my absolute favorite shops in the world, Fortnum & Mason and they thought it was a wonderful idea for a get together and the swap has been arranged on Friday 18^th November 3 – 6pm.  I love their gifts and if ever I haven’t got he time to make something then I know many of their goods are hand made and, as you can see from my pictures they make fabulous gifts.

I am so excited not least because we’ll all get to sample Fortnum & Mason’s delicious world famous tea and eat cakes and mince pies but we’ll get the chance to meet world class baker Dan Lepard, who’s recent book Short and Sweet is looking to be one of 2011 Christmas best selling baking books.

There are now just 3 spaces left 

If you'd like to come please add your comment below and tell me what you favourite thing to make at Christmas is and what your blog is called. 

On the day 

You will need to bring along your gift to Fortnum & Mason's 4th floor at 3pm (with your name and the recipe must be attached in an envelope.)  Your gift needs to be entered into the swap by 3.45pm. Your gift get’s a number and a category.  At the end of the event you get to pick out the tickets (According to how many gifts you brought with you ) out of the hat and leave with the gifts correlating to the number that you have picked from the hat it's like a raffle and you will leave with someone else’s gifts.  I wanted to add a bit of gentle competition to it all ... so Dan Lepard has very kindly offered to judge the gifts and the timetable is as follows: 

4 -5pm Dan Lepard will judge the entries and pick the winning gifts.

5 .45pm you pick a ticket out of all the entries and you leave with a gift.  

The gift categories are:

1 Pickles and preserves

2 Sweets

3 Alcohols / Drinks

4 Cakes, biscuits and baked goods

The Prizes are as follows

1 Overall best gift.  –  Fortnum & Mason Hamper

2 Best preserve / pickle is Aga Preserving Pan & Maslin Pan

3 Best sweets – Rococo Chocolates course with Laurent Couchaux -  the Principle Chocolatier at Rococo Chocolates and winner of Chocolatier of the year 2011

4 Best drink - Champagne tasting class with Leiths Cookery school resident wine expert, Richard Bampfield this fun, informative tasting of the world’s most desirable tipple is the prize for the best drink

5 Best baked goods Signed book Short and Sweet by Dan Lepard & a Kenwood kMix KMX58 Stand Mixer, Citrus Yellow
mixer by a leading brand of Kitchen appliances Kenwood.  ( Hurrah for British design!) 

The Rules

You must share your recipe and blog about your gift using the Fortnum & Mason Let's make Christmas Logo in the blog post. 

You may enter up to 3 categories. Minimum entry is 1 category. 

You must provide an envelope with the recipe inside and your name and email address. Ingredients must be clearly marked to accommodate andy food allergies. 

All gifts must be packaged in a way that is appropriate for someone else to transport home. 

Prizes will be sent directly to the winners.  If you win you will need to leave your address with me at the end of the day. 

All decisions by the judge are final  and there are no cash or product alternatives. 

All gifts must tbe hand made, and credit the recipe to the author if appropriate.

You must be over 18 to participate.