Festive baking Sue Lawrence It's the time of year to grab the spices and get into the kitchen. Here are some creative ways to add new life to traditional festive cakes and bakes.

In this article

Mincemeat and mince pies Panic-free Christmas cakes

Muffins, brownies and pancakes Cheat's festive breads

Get ahead Recipes

Festive baking needn't be a time-consuming chore. Once everything is weighed out, most things take minutes to prepare - even less if you use a food mixer. To avoid last-minute panics, bake as much as you can in advance. Then squirrel your creations away in the freezer, ready to pluck out as and when they're needed during the festive season.

What could be better at this time of year than the glorious sweet waft of baking coming from the kitchen? Surely only the alluring alcoholic whiff of mulled wine can surpass the spicy aroma of mince pies for genuine festive cheer. And if you're fed up with baking traditional mince pies, try topping each pie with a macaroon or meringue mixture or a lattice pastry. Or, just before serving, carefully lift the lid, pop in a spoonful of orange zest-zapped brandy butter, replace the lid and devour while hot and molten.

Make crumbly mincemeat shortbread by spreading a layer of mincemeat between two layers of shortbread dough before baking it in the oven. This shortbread keeps well and freezes beautifully - as do mincemeat flapjacks. Just add a good dollop of mincemeat to your regular flapjack recipe before baking. And if you want to make bought mincemeat more interesting, tip the contents of a jar into a bowl and add some grated apple, orange or lemon zest, chopped almonds or hazelnuts - and, of course, a good slug of brandy, whisky or Drambuie.

If you forgot all about baking the Christmas cake (or just haven't had time to think about it), then bake a last-minute mincemeat cake with an oaty crumble topping. It's every bit as delicious as a classic cake and infinitely more versatile because it can also be served warm as pudding with ice cream.

Provided you still have a clear ten days before the big event, there's still time to make the traditional Christmas cake. It will need at least ten days for the flavours to mature and for the cake to be 'fed' with brandy or whisky. But, instead of 'feeding' it every week, as is usual, you'll need to feed it every couple of days. And don't forget - much festive baking may seem anathema to non-drinkers, with its heavy emphasis on alcohol. For alcohol-free cakes, puddings and mincemeat, you can substitute the brandy, sherry or whisky with the same amount of orange or apple juice.

Instead of converting all the seasonal cranberries in the shops right now into sauce for the bird, make cranberry muffins for Christmas breakfast, or use them in a lovely citrus-spiked fruit loaf. Flavour dark chocolate brownies with a scattering of dried cranberries and white chocolate chips. Or make a batch of sugar-free Scotch pancakes, which take minutes to rustle up; then serve them for tea or breakfast over the festive season smeared with butter and jam or lemon curd - or as canapés with sour cream, horseradish and smoked salmon.

At this time of year, many people hanker after Continental-style sweet breads, such as German stollen and Italian panettone. A few words of advice: unless you've made sweet enriched breads like brioche or Chelsea buns before, don't bother. As divinely delicious as the homemade ones can be, they do take a fair amount of time and the bought breads from good delicatessens are at least as good, possibly better.

Stollen has a tendency to dry out, so check the sell-by date; wrap it in foil and heat it up a little before serving. If you do bake your own stollen, try adding a small tub of Quark to the mix to ensure a seriously moist bite.

The very best panettone is moist and very moreish, but if by any extraordinary chance there are leftovers, convert them into the best bread and butter pudding ever. And if you find on 1 January that you never actually got round to even unwrapping it, serve it as the most impressive pudding by slicing off the top, hollowing out some of the inner panettone crumb, then filling with a rich cassata-like filling made of ricotta, sugar, citrus peel and dark chocolate. Replace the lid and serve, perhaps with a generous slug of Marsala.

The most important thing is to get ahead by baking in advance and freezing as much as possible so that on Christmas Eve, while everyone else is merrily glugging mulled wine to the sound of Christmas carols, you're not tied to the kitchen stove waiting for those far-too-late mince pies to hurry up and bake.

Whether you're planning the traditional mince pies and Christmas cake, or if you want to try something more Continental, get cracking with these festive recipes.

• Mince pies
• Bûche de Noël
• Swedish Lucia rolls or saffron cake
• Mincemeat cake
• Italian Christmas cake with pine nuts