Favorite Christmas Treat: Peppermint Bark

Hi!
I'm really excited to share this peppermint bark recipe with you, as my third post of ElephantasticXOXmas! I love peppermint bark and I think it's a perfect Christmas treat (it's my favorite!).

All you will need for this recipe is:
- 180 grams of white chocolate (= about 6.3 oz.)
- 180 grams of dark chocolate or milk chocolate
- about 6 candy canes

- 1 or 2 glass (oven)dishes/bowls that are heatproof (mine are from Pyrex)
- a rectangular (oven)dishes/bowls that is heatproof (mine is from Pyrex)
- 1 or 2 wooden spoons
- parchment paper
- a sauce pan
- a spatula with a rubber tip
- a stove
If you are going to use 2 glass (oven)dishes/bowls, you will have to clean one in between. The same is for the wooden spoons: if you are using one, you will have to clean one in between.
If you want, you can also use some more of the dark/milk chocolate or of the white chocolate, depending on what layer you want to make thicker. I'm using dark chocolate, because I looove dark chocolate.

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This recipe will make a piece of peppermint bark that is 25.5 cm by 17 cm (= 10 in. by 6.7 in.). Making this pepermint bark will take about an hour and 15 minutes. Have fun and let's get started!

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Step 1: Crushing the candy canes

The crushed candy canes will be sprinkled on top of the chocolate at the end. To crush them, I used a mortar and pestle, but there are many ways to crush them.

Also, put your parchment paper in your rectangular glass (oven)dish and make creases so that it fits right. You can also use some tape to make it stick to the dish and cut the excess paper off.

Step 2: Melting & pouring the chocolate

To melt the chocolate, use the au bain marie technique: break your dark/milk chocolate in little pieces and put the pieces in your glass (oven)dishes/bowl. Fill your sauce pan partly with water and put your glass (oven)dishes/bowl on the sauce pan. Make sure that the glass (oven)dishes/bowl is not touching the water. Let the water simmer (not boil!) and wait for the chocolate to melt. While the chocolate is melting, keep stirring the chocolate with your wooden spoon.

When the chocolate is completely melted, remove it from the pan and pour the melted chocolate into your rectangular glass (oven)dish and use your spatula to scoop out all the chocolate. Also use the spatula to smooth out the chocolate in the dish. Once you've finished smoothing the chocolate out, put the dish in the refridgerator. 

Now melt the white chocolate the same way. When the chocolate is melted, take it of the sauce pan and let it cool off a bit (but make sure it stays fluid), so that when you pour it on the bottom layer, the layer won't or will hardly melt. Once the white chocolate is cooled off a bit, take the dish with dark/milk chocolate out of the refridgerator and pour the white chocolate on the same way as you did earlier. Sprinkle your crushed candy canes on top. Then put the dish back in the refridgerator and keep it refridgerated for 20 to 30 minutes. 

Step 3: Cutting (and eating!)

Once you've taken the dish out of the refridgerator, it should look something like the picture above. Gently peel of the parchment paper. To create little pieces of peppermint bark, cut it or break it. I decided to cut it in lots of different shapes (rectangles, triangles and weird shapes), because I like how every piece is unique that way and it looks fun on a plate. 

I love this peppermint bark and I hope you do, too. Before you know it, it will be all eaten up! 

Happy Holidays!

xox Mia

My Christmas Essentials

Hello!

We're getting closer and closer to Christmas! For my second post of ElephantasticXOXmas, I decided to do a 'My Christmas Essentials', because there are certain products and items that I like to use and wear to make myself look a bit more Christmasy on Christmas day. Here they come:

Reindeer Ears
I love these reindeer ears! I think reindeer ears are a cute way to complete your Christmas outfit. Mine are from H&M and I like how the ears are super soft and have a little bow, too.

Sparkly Nail Polish
For Christmas, I'm going to polish my nails in this sparkly nail polish from Sally Hansen. These sparkles really give me a Christmas feeling, so this is certainly a Christmas must-have for me!

Onesie
When I wake up on Christmas day, I love staying warm and cozy in my soft onesie. Mine is covered in black and pink stars and I bought it with a friend at Primark.

Sparkle Spray: 'The Sparkler'
Christmas without glitter and sparkles is like a swimming pool without water to me: this sparkle spray is from 'The Body Shop' and I absolutely love it! Not only does the bottle look really cute, the sparkles that come out are so pretty and they smell good, too.

A Good Book
I often wake up too early, because I'm so excited about something! Christmas is certainly something to be excited about, so I like having a good book to read while I'm waiting for it to be average wake-up time :).
The book that I'm currently reading is 'Honderd uur nacht' (shown in the picture above). It is a Dutch book by Anna Woltz. I don't think it's translated to English (yet), but if you can read Dutch, I really recommend this book. The story takes place in New York during Christmas time.
All in all, a good book is certainly a Christmas essential for me.

I hope you enjoyed reading about my Christmas essentials. I'm going to celebrate Christmas in Barcelona this year; I'm really looking forward to it! I hope you have an elephantastic Christmas!

xox Mia

Christmas Room DIYcor

Hi!
It's almost Christmas! I love decorating my room for Christmas, especially with DIY's. I chose to do a Christmas Room DIYcor as my first post of my Christmas series ElephantasticXOXmas, because it gets you (and your room) ready for Christmas!

DIY Countdown Calendar 

A great DIY if you can't wait for Christmas!

What you will need for this DIY:
- 25 little square pieces of origami paper
- a piece of paper (normal sized)
- glue
- a pen

To make this DIY, you will need 25 origami pockets. This is how you make them:

1. Fold your square piece of paper in half diagonally.
2. Take the right corner and fold it as shown in the picture.
3. Flip your piece of paper over and do the same thing on the other side. It should look like shown in the picture now.
4. Fold the top little triangle down so that you can see the inside color and do the same thing on the other side.

Now repeat these steps 25 times. Once you've folded all the pockets, you can glue them on your piece of paper and write the dates on the white part of the pockets. All you have to do at this point is fill the pockets with whatever you want: you can put in chocolate, little notes, it's up to you! Now you can count down to Christmas by taking the content from a pocket every day!

Christmas Lights

I love Christmas lights! They really give your room a cozy and Christmasy feeling. You can hang them above your bed, hanging from the ceiling, however you want! (I got mine from IKEA.)

DIY Glitter Christmas Word Art

To add some Christmas glitter to your room!

What you will need for this DIY:
- a computer/laptop
- a printer
- glue
- glitter
- a picture frame (optional)

For this DIY I used the words 'Let It Snow', but you can also use another Christmas song quote. Then, using a photo editing site called Picmonkey, I chose a nice font for my words and printed it out. If you want, you can also use a word processing program or hand draw your words. Now it's time for glitter! Spread glue on the letters and sprinkle your glitter on top. Hold your piece of paper vertically to remove the excess glitter. Lastly, you can put your word art in a frame.

Music

I always think music is also a very nice 'decoration'! I made a Christmas playlist on Spotify, so that I can listen to the playlist on my laptop and phone in my room. Some of my favorite songs from my Christmas playlist are 'All I Want or Christmas Is You' by Mariah Carey and 'Santa Tell Me' by Ariana Grande.

New Year's Resolution Pot 

What you will need for this DIY:

- a pot, preferably glass

- colorful pieces of paper

This is actually a DIY for New Year's, but you can start making it around Christmas time. What you do is think of New Year's resolutions and write them on colorful pieces of paper. You can also write down challenges, such as 'Don't say the word 'okay' today' or tell yourself to do something, like 'Wear green socks'. Then fold them and put them in your pot. Starting from January 1st, pick a piece of paper from your pot everyday or every week and do what it says!

Have fun decorating your room for Christmas!

xox Mia