How To Make Christmas Bark | Blogmas #12

Hey lovelies! Today has been one of those super busy days, I haven't felt like I've relaxed much at all and I am so tired! I've been packaging up things that I've sold on eBay and shipping them, I've been making the delicious Christmas treats that my Blogmas post today is going to be all about, and I went to my brothers house for tea tonight. I hadn't been over since he first bought his new house so it was really cool to see it all now that he's revamped and decorated it. It's also my nephew's birthday tomorrow so I've been getting his present ready, plus going through more boxes in my bedroom, throwing away things and organising others to be donated to the charity shop. I can't wait to have a nice relaxing bath after I've finished this post! 

I have been very much looking forward to making this Christmas Bark! I've been wanting to make some chocolate bark for ages now, after seeing so many different variations on Pinterest... Halloween bark, Christmas bark, even unicorn bark! I will get around to making them all eventually but since it's Christmas, I just had to have a go at making a chocolate bark with a festive twist. This is my first making/baking project of the year, but it definitely won't be the last! So, keep reading to find out how I made my Christmas Bark :) 

I am really happy with how my Christmas Bark turned out, so I thought I'd share a recipe and method with you all so that you can make some yourself this December :) If you checked out my Countdown to Christmas Checklist post yesterday, I included do some festive baking to my list and although this is not technically baking because there's no oven involved, I still feel like I've achieved something already off my list, so I'm off to a good start! I think that making Christmas Bark is a great festive activity to do for many reasons. You can make it to suit your own tastes, because you can add everything you want into your chocolate! It is easy to make so you don't need to be a masterchef baker, haha! And also it's perfect for kids to make too! 

What will you need to make your own Christmas Bark? 

♥ A few of the big bars of white chocolate (I used three 150g bars from Asda)

♥ Some milk chocolate to drizzle over the top of your bark (I used a bar of Cadbury's Dairy Milk)

♥ All the sweeties!! This is for your toppings and filling :) (I used Jelly Beans, Smarties and Mini Marshmallows). You can stick to sweets with a Christmassy colour theme if you want to!  

♥ Candy canes (to crush up and sprinkle throughout).

♥ Other things you'll need: a pan and a large glass bowl (to melt your chocolate over), wooden spoon, a baking tray and some grease-proof paper. 

How do you make your Christmas Bark? 

♥ The first thing that you need to do is line your baking tray with a piece of grease-proof paper. This is one that your chocolate bark doesn't stick to your tray! 

♥ Then, throw however many of your sweets that you want into the tray, to later pour your chocolate over & mix it, so that you have some sweets inside your bark too! 

♥ Now, it's time to melt your white chocolate. You can use any other chocolate you wish; some people prefer to have a milk chocolate bark with white chocolate drizzled on top instead, for example :) Pour your boiling water into a pan (there is no need to add this pan to a heat source because your water is already boiling. Break up your chocolate into smaller pieces so that they are easier to melt, add them to the big glass bowl and put this on top of the pan of boiling water. The steam will cause the chocolate to slowly melt. 

♥  Keep occasionally staring your chocolate until it has all melted. There's a lot of chocolate to melt so it can take a while. Ngl I popped mine into the microwave to speed things up... 30 seconds at a time and stirring in between.

♥  Once all of your white chocolate has melted, you can pour it into your baking tray on top of the sweets you placed in there earlier. Stir them in a little before smoothing it all out with your spoon and then get to decorating!!

♥ This is really fun part!! Drop your sweets all over your melted chocolate mixture to decorate it however you want! I crushed up my candy cane by popping it into a plastic sandwich bag and hitting it with a metal spoon until it was all crushed up and perfect for sprinkling over the top of your chocolate :) 

♥ Just before you're ready to pop your chocolate into the fridge for 1-2 hours to set, I left mine for a lot longer just to be sure, it's time to melt your milk chocolate to drizzle over the top as a finishing touch. You can either do this with the boiling water again as you did with your white chocolate or as I did, pop it into the microwave. Then using a spoon, let the milk chocolate pouring over your mixture in the baking tray. 

♥ Ta-da! After a few hours in the fridge, your bark will be set and ready to break! Your grease-proof paper will make it easy to remove your chocolate from the baking tray, then all I did was turn it upside down, put it back down into the baking tray and used the handle of a spatula to smash up my chocolate bark. You will be left with some scrumptious chunks of treat-filled chocolate to share with your loved ones this Christmas! 

Christmas Bark makes the perfect homemade gift to give to your friends and family on Christmas Day, especially since you can make it with their favourite sweets. You can pop a couple of pieces into a plastic bag, and seal it with a sparkly festive ribbon, or a gift-wrapping bow! You could even drop some of the left over sweeties into the bag with the Christmas bark :) I might gift some to my brothers this year! 

Overall, it was really fun to make this Christmas Bark and I am delighted with the outcome, even though to be honest I did want my bark to be much thinner than this, however I realised that we only had deep, square baking trays, oops!

I've eaten a piece and it's very yummy! Let me know if you make some for yourselves guys :) 

Thankyou for reading! 

♥

Are you a fan of candy canes? If so, what flavour is your favourite? 

I love the traditional peppermint ones, but I've tried spearmint ones and they were amazing!

Looking for more festive recipes to try? Check out my previous Blogmas posts:
| Gingerbread Men | Strawberry Santas | Festive Shortbread | 

Blogmas Day 12 | Favourite Christmas Movies

Apologises for posting so late today. I'm feeling very poorly with a chest infection and I fell asleep earlier when I should have been writing this post! Today's blogmas post will be all about my top 5 Christmas movies. Most of my favourite festive films could be considered not very Christmassy at all, but I always remember watching them on TV in December and they remind me of Christmas. I also love watching cheesy Christmas movies, like the ones shown on the channel Christmas 24. I can't believe that I haven't watched a Christmas movie this year yet! Planning this post has made me really want to watch some so I know what I'm doing tomorrow afternoon. I hope you all enjoy reading. What's your favourite Christmas Movie? 

 ♥ The Grinch ♥

This is my favourite Christmas movie of all time! I love it so much that I can happily watch it several times at Christmas and probably anytime throughout the year! Jim Carrey is an amazing, hilarious actor and he plays the character so well. The Grinch always has me laughing so much I can't breathe! I really enjoy the movie adaptations of books by Dr. Seuss; they are such quirky stories. I love the costume designs and props used in this movie. I wish I lived in Whoville at Christmas... the decorations and Christmas trees in the movie are so gorgeous. I love the ending of the movie & how everything turns out for the Grinch. How adorable is little Taylor Momsen playing Cindy Lou Who? I used to love singing along to 'Where are you Christmas?' (well, I still do, haha). I really like the original version by Faith Hill, it's one of my most loved Christmas songs. 

   ♥ The Nightmare Before Christmas ♥

I know I included this on my favourite Halloween movies list but it's also a Christmassy movie & I'm happy with any excuse to watch it. I love how excited Jack Skellington is when he discovers Christmas town! It reminds me of how excited I get around Christmas Time. I love the way Christmas town is portrayed in the movie, all jolly and full of magic & fun. I think the expression on Jack's face when he sees Christmas for the first time is so adorable... oh, and when he hides inside the snowman! I love the song 'What's this?', the lyrics remind me of all the little things that make Christmas special & what a lovely tradition it is. I feel sorry for Jack that he wants to celebrate Christmas and it doesn't go to plan. I also think Zero makes a great substitute for Rudolph :p 

 ♥ Elf ♥

This is another Christmas movie I will never get bored of watching every year! Will Ferrell is extremely funny and the main character, Buddy the Elf, is so sweet and lovable. He is just so innocent and comes out with the cutest things... like when he says 'I just like to smile. Smiling's my favourite'. Another of my favourite quotes from Elf is 'The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear'... I most definitely embrace this and I never stop singing festive songs at this time of year (my family are probably all very appreciative! haha). Buddy makes me remember how exciting Christmas used to be when I believed in Santa and Magic and Flying Reindeer and thought that they actually ate the cookies & carrots that we left for them. I think it's hilarious when Buddy shouts 'SANTA! Santa's coming! I know him'... and I always say this to whoever I'm with when I see someone dressed as Santa :) Peter Dinklage is also in the movie (which makes me happy)... the entire meeting scene with his character & Buddy is one of the most hilarious parts of the movie.

 ♥ Gremlins ♥

Although this isn't a very Christmassy movie, I love it so much and the opening song 'Christmas' by Darlene Love is another of my favourite Christmas songs. It has me reminiscing about my childhood Christmas memories as soon as I hear it. It's such a unique movie... I've never seen anything similar. Gizmo is just sooooo bloody adorable! I very much wanted my own pet mogwai when I was younger. I used to have an awesome teddy of the evil mogwai, Stripe when I was around 8 years old... it was so cool because you could turn it inside out and switch it to the Gremlin. For some reason, my favourite mogwai was Stripe, even though he is the leader of all the evil Gremlins. Nowadays, I'm team gizmo. This movie is always on around Christmas and I recommend that you watch it if you haven't already (if you enjoy comedy horrors).

 ♥ Edward Scissorhands ♥

The final movie in my top five favourite Christmas movies is another that is set at Christmas time but Christmas is not the main focus of the movie. I love Tim Burton movies, they are so strange and beautifully written with such interesting characters and fascinating storylines. Johnny Depp and Winona Ryder played their roles perfectly! It's such an emotional story and it doesn't take long to fall in love with Edward. I love the scene when Edward is carving the angel ice sculpture which is making snow and Kim (played by Winona Ryder) is dancing in it. Whenever I'm outside when it's snowing, that scene always pops into my mind. 

Thanks for reading!

 ♥

Which is your favourite movie out of my top five? 

What's your favourite Christmas movie?