If you’d like to be included in this slot, please get in touch: estherchilton@gmail.com. Poems can be up to 60 lines and prose 2000 words. If you’d like to add a short bio and photo, then great. All I ask is that there’s nothing offensive.
This week’s guest is familiar to many of you. Robbie Cheadle is a prolific writer and so supportive of other bloggers. Please give her a warm welcome as she shares her new book, which I’ve just read. You’ll find my review below. For now, over to Robbie:
Something Fancy, A Winter Wonderland Celebration book 1
Christmas in South Africa
Christmas in South Africa is a different experience to Christmas in the Northern Hemisphere. It is summer here and the temperatures on Christmas Day are frequently in the mid 30 C’s. Our Christmas menu is designed for hot weather and tends towards salads, cold meats, and light desserts rather than the hot meal enjoyed in colder climates and the heavy puddings. That being said, my family always have a traditional Christmas Cake to enjoy on and after the day. We also usually have either a chocolate house or a gingerbread house on display which goes down well with the children.
On several occasions, I have used a summer fun theme for my Christmas confectionaries. One of my favourite Christmas cakes features Santa on the Beach.
Santa on the Beach Christmas Cake
The Santa on the Beach Christmas Cake consists of a large round Christmas cake covered with white fondant. A length of white ribbon runs around the bottom of the cake and is attached with royal icing. The cake is decorated with a traditional-looking fondant Santa with a beard but no hat. He is wearing a pair of white and red striped swimming trunks and a red and white striped swimming vest. He has a red glitter surfboard next to him and is sitting in sand made from biscuit crumbs.
Picture caption: Santa on the Beach Christmas Cake
My tried and tested recipes for royal icing and a traditional English Christmas cake are included in Something Fancy, A Winter Wonderland Celebration book one.
Picture caption: Cover of Something Fancy, A Winter Wonderland Celebration, Book One
Blurb
Robbie’s cake and fondant creations are full of imagination and enchantment as demonstrated by her gingerbread bakery, populated by three mince pie figurines, and her Ice cream Rainbow Fairies Christmas Cake, decorated with seven fondant fairy figurines for each colour of the rainbow.
This book is intended as a celebration of Christmas in poetry, cake art, and gingerbread constructions and includes several of Robbie’s delicious Christmas recipes as well as design ideas for Christmas themed confectionaries. Bite sized smatterings of historical information relating to various culinary delights are also included.
Robbie Cheadle is a poet, writer, and artist. Over the past twenty years, she has created art cakes, gingerbread constructions, and fondant figurines for a variety of purposes including as illustrations for the Sir Chocolate children’s book series she wrote with her son, Michael Cheadle.
Purchase link
Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/Something-Wonderland-Celebration-Celebrating-Confectionary-ebook/dp/B0FTX21BXL Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0FTX21BXL
My review
This is a wonderful book from start to finish. It was great to read about Robbie’s love of everything under the artistic umbrella and how her fantastic creations came about. There are some stunning cakes and plenty of recipes to enable you to make your own, as well as methods and tips. I have to say my favourites are all the stunning gingerbread houses, especially the Christmas village.
And there’s a little bit of poetry in there too.
It’s the perfect read for the festive season.
About Robbie Cheadle
Picture caption: Robbie Cheadle author photograph
South African author, photographer, and artist, Robbie Cheadle, has written and illustrated seventeen children’s books, illustrated a further three children’s books, written and illustrated four poetry books and written and illustrated one celebration of cake and fondant art book with recipes. Her work has also appeared in poetry and short story anthologies.
Robbie also has two novels and a collection of short stories published under the name of Roberta Eaton Cheadle and has horror, paranormal, and fantasy short stories featured in several anthologies under this name.
Find Robbie Cheadle
Website https://www.robbiecheadle.co.za/
Blog https://robbiesinspiration.wordpress.com/
Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/robbiecheadle.bsky.social
YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVyFo_OJLPqFa9ZhHnCfHUA
Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15584446.Robbie_Cheadle
TSL Publications https://tslbooks.uk/product-tag/robbie-cheadle/
Amazon Robbie Cheadle https://www.amazon.com/stores/Robbie-Cheadle/author/B01N9J62GQ
Unsplash profile https://unsplash.com/@r_cheadle
Esther Chilton 
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