Living in shared student accommodation means there is often more than one person wanting to use the oven at any one time – and let’s face it, some people would say cooking a hearty meal is slightly more important than making cute festive snacks… We’re not sure exactly who those people are, but there are definitely some treats you can make without using the oven!
Chocolate wreaths
This is a brilliant twist on traditional rice crispy or chocolate cornflake cakes. Simply pick your cereal of choice, melt some milk chocolate, and combine the two. Instead of spooning into a cupcake case, you get something like a shot glass and mold the cereal/chocolate mix into a ring around the glass. Add some sprinkles and voila, you’ve got a chocolate wreath!
No-bake cheesecake
It’s actually much easier than you think to make a cheesecake, and you don’t need to use the oven either! Take 300g crushed digestive biscuits and mix with 150g melted unsalted butter. Press into your tin and pop in the fridge to set while you work on the top part – mix 750g cream cheese with 100g icing sugar and some vanilla extract. At this point, you can swap the vanilla extract for a more festive flavour like cinnamon or gingerbread, if you want to! Once it’s all mixed, slowly whisk in 300ml double cream until you have a really thick mixture to scoop on top of the biscuit base. Leave to set for at least 5-6 hours, ideally overnight, before the fun part: decorating.
When it comes to decorating your festive no-bake cheesecake, it’s really up to you and your preferences – but if you’re trying to make it Christmassy, there’s plenty you can do! You could use reindeer shaped chocolate treats, elf shaped biscuits, or even make some coloured buttercream and pipe on some baubles, a santa, or a festive scene. By reworking the flavours and getting creative with the decor, a Christmas themed no-bake cheesecake can look fantastic!
Christmas chocolate tiffin
Chocolate tiffin is a really popular no-bake dessert, and it’s super easy to make – and of course, you can add a festive twist! Add 150g butter, 3 tbsp caster sugar and golden syrup, and 6 tsp cocoa powder to a pan and melt over the hob. Once melted, stir 225g crushed biscuits into the chocolatey mix; most recipes call for digestives, but with it being Christmas you could swap these for speculoos biscuits (like Lotus) or gingerbread. Press this mixture into a lined tin, and then melt some chocolate to spread on top. Once you’ve topped the mixture with chocolate, you can also add some festive decor – the same suggestions stand as with the cheesecake, but red and green sprinkles or little snowflakes would be very cute too.
These are just three really fun and easy no-bake Christmas desserts you can make in your student accommodation kitchen. They’re perfect for gifting to friends or lecturers, or for sharing with your flatmates if you’re having a little Christmas dinner together.
