Here is Nigella, in all her Christmas glory. Author of many bestselling books, known the world over for her low key approach to cooking, here in India, we know Nigella for her hugely popular show Nigella Express seen on Discovery Travel & Living. With Nigella Christmas, she has won many more hearts.

Christmas is a time for family and friends, for tradition and treats. But when the pressure to feed and entertain builds up, the festive season begins to lose its sparkle…

That’s where Nigella comes in. With her no-nonsense approach, her inspirational ideas and empathy for the practical realities of the season she has presented to the world her latest book with reliable, easy-to-follow recipes and reassuring advise about planning and cooking ahead. Nigella Christmas is guaranteed to bring comfort and joy and make sure the season of goodwill stays that way.

UpperCrust recommends some recipes for you to win hearts in your own home this festive season. Go ahead, try them out and let us know how good the results and how thrilled the family.

“Merry Christmas”, says Team UpperCrust.

Whip together all the ingredients, except the cream, with an electric whisk; I use my freestanding mixer.

Slowly whisk in the cream and continue whisking until the cream is softly whipped but will still hold its shape when the whisk is lifted out of the lightly bulging mass.

Dollop moundingly into 15 espresso cups or shot glasses and grate a little more nutmeg over each one.

(Note: If you prefer not to give people raw egg to eat then replace the egg and 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract with 2 teaspoons of Bird’s custard powder, and reduce the sugar to 50g.)

Smoked Salmon Soda Breads
Makes approx. 30 salmon soda bread canapès

You will need about 8-10 slices of bread. Cut each slice into 3 or 4 bits; since soda bread comes in rounded loaves, the slices vary in size.

Spread the bread with the horseradish-crème fraiche mixture and top with a snipped ribbon of smoked salmon.

Fork a dark-red tangle of pickled red cabbage on each piece and top with a frond of dill.

Piselli Con Panna E Pancetta
(Peas with Pancetta in Cream All’Italiano)
Serves 8

Add the spring onions, stir well, and cook for a further 3 minutes.

Add the butter and thyme to the pan or casserole, stir well, then tip in the frozen peas. Cook for a few minutes, stirring, until the frost begins to leave the peas and they start to look a brighter green.

Add the water, give another stir, then stir in the cream. Bring to a bubble, put the lid on and let it cook for 15 minutes.

Take the pan off the heat, and remove the lid while you stir in the Parmesan flakes, then put it back on to let the peas cool in their flavoursome cream. The peas will dull down, losing their bright green colour as they cool and sit. This is as it should be, and don’t worry about it; they may look less vibrant but they taste more vivid.

To reheat, put the pan over a low medium heat and keep it covered- opening it only to stir occasionally – for 5-10 minutes.

Christmas Cupcakes
Makes 12

Put all ingredients for the cupcakes except the milk into a food processor and blitz until smooth.

Pulse while adding the milk down the funnel - try one tablespoonful at a time - to make a smooth dropping consistency.

Divide the mixture in your prepared muffin tin, and bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes. They should have risen and be golden on top.

Let them cool a little in their tins on a rack, and then carefully take them out of the tin to cool in their papers, still on the wire rack.

To ice, make up the royal icing as directed on the packet and, using a tablespoon, dollop over the cupcakes, so that each one is thickly covered.

Adorn with sprinkles (don’t let the icing dry before scattering) or sugar decorations, or roll out the fondant icing or sugarpaste and cut out Christmassy shapes of your choice to go on top.

Christmas Sprouts

Cut the stalk-end off the sprouts, just a thin slice, and let the outer blowsier leaves fall away. If you have any large sprouts, cut an “X” in the bottom, so that they cook at the same time as the smaller ones do.

Roughly chop or break the chestnuts so that some are cut in 2, some in 3; you don’t need them whole but nor do you want mealy rubble. Plus, they’ll break up further as they get turned in the butter.

Cook the sprouts lightly, in the salted boiling water, for 5 minutes or so, then drain them. You don’t want these mushy: you need them tight and nutty.

Melt the butter - either in the pan the sprouts were cooked in, or in a casserole that you can serve them in – then toss in the chestnuts to warm through and add the cooked, drained sprouts.

Add fresh nutmeg and salt and pepper to taste, then coat well with the butter in a pan before turning out into a warmed dish, or serving in your casserole.

Christmas Coleslaw

Peel and slice the red onion into fine half-moons.

Peel and cut the beetroot into matchsticks or juliennes. You might want to wear CSI (vinyl disposable) gloves to do this.

Finely slice the fennel, then combine the cabbage, onion, beetroot and fennel in a big bowl.

Mix the chutney, mayonnaise, garam masala and buttermilk (or yogurt) in a bowl. Dress the coleslaw with it, and check the seasoning, adding salt – or whatever you want-to taste.

(Note: If you can’t find buttermilk, use a runny plain yogurt, such as Activia.)

Aromatic Christmas Ham

Turn on the heat and bring to the boil, then turn down to a simmer and partially cover the pan. Cook for about 3 ½ hours. (This may not seem long for a big joint, but as it will carry on cooking as it cools, and this is going to be eaten cold)

Preheat the oven to 200° gas mark 6. Lift the ham gently out of the hot liquid, sit it on a board and let it cool slightly, not too much but just so that you can touch it without burning yourself.

With a sharp knife, strip off the rind, and a little of the layer if it’s very thick, but leave a thin layer of fat. I love this work: it is peculiarly gratifying seeing the hot blubbery fat slither off. Use the same knife to score a diamond pattern in the remaining fat on the ham, in lines about 2cm apart. Stud the points of each diamond with a clove.

Put the cranberry or redcurrant jelly, cinnamon, paprika and red wine vinegar into a little saucepan and whisk together over a high heat, bringing it to the boil. Let the pan bubble away, for about 5 minutes, so that the glaze reduces to a syrupy consistency that will coat the fat on the ham.

Now sit the ham in a roasting tin lined with foil, as the sugar in the glaze will burn in the oven as it drips off. Pour the glaze over the diamond-studded ham, then put it in the oven for about 15 minutes, or until the glazed fat has caught and burnished. Take the ham out of the oven and sit it on a wooden board to cool (2-3 hours) before you carve it.

Christmas Rocky Road

Put the biscuits into a freezer bag and bash them with a rolling pin to get big- and little-sized crumbs; you want some pieces to crunch and some sandy rubble.

Put the Brazil nuts into another freezer bag and also bash them so you get different-sized nut rubble.

Take the pan off the heat, and add the crushed biscuits and nuts, whole glacé cherries and mini-marshmallows. Turn carefully to coat everything with syrupy chocolate.

Tip into a foil tray, smoothing the top as best you can, although it will look bumpy.

Refrigerate until firm enough to cut, which will take about 1½–2 hours. Then take the set block of Rocky Road out of the foil tray ready to cut.

Push the icing sugar through a small sieve to dust the top of the Rocky Road. Then, if you like, add a sprinkling of edible glitter for some festive sparkle.

With the long side in front of you, cut into it 6 slices down and 4 across, so that you have 24 almost–squares.

The Boozy British Trifle

When the cream’s at boiling point – though don’t actually let in boil – take it off the heat and pour it over the eggs and sugar, whisking as you go.

Wash out the pan (boring but it does have to be done), then pour the uncooked custard back into it and return to the heat.

Cook over a medium heat (people will tell you it should be low heat but that is just too tedious for words), stirring all the time, until it has thickened. It must never boil!

After 10-15 minutes, it should be thick enough, so straightaway pour it into a cold, clean bowl, add the vanilla extract, and whisk a bit to help bring the temperature down.

Cover the very top of the custard, as well as the bowl, with clingfilm and leave to cool, while you start assembling your trifle.

Split the 16 trifle sponges in half and make into sandwiches with the jam. Squidge these into the base of your trifle bowl. A trifle bowl should, I feel, be glass so you can see the layers from the outside. The proportions vary and, since the point of a trifle is the layers, the dimensions of your bowl will determine how these build up and the amount of sponge etc. you will need.

Pour the sherry over the sponge sandwiches and let it soak in.

Now tumble in the thawed summer fruits, with a little of their liquid. (It might seem unseasonal to use “summer” fruits, but I love their tartness against the sweetness of the custard that will drape over them.) Then grate the zest of the orange over the fruit and sprinkle with the caster sugar; if you’re not using frozen fruit (which tends to be sour), don’t bother with the sugar. (And you could bake a layer of pink, forced winter rhubarb, instead. Use 1kg rhubarb -about 800g trimmed and sliced into 4-5 cm pieces. Put the slices in a baking dish, sprinkle with 300g caster sugar, cover tightly with foil and cook, without adding liquid, for 45 minutes in a 190 C/gas mark 5 oven. Once the rhubarb’s cold, use that as your fruit layer and boil down the juices to make a syrup for ice cream, or to drizzle – reduced and then chilled – over the cream with the pistachios and roses, later.)

When the custard’s cool, remove the clingfilm. Pour and scrape the custard on top of the berries. It will be soft-set: thickened but far from solid. Cover the bowl (not the custard this time) with some fresh clingfilm and refrigerate for at least half a day or up to 2 days – it’s this standing time that makes the difference.

When you are ready to serve, take the trifle out of the fridge to stand for about 1 hour. Whisk the cream until softly whipped. You don’t want it to merge with the custard, but nor do you want it stiffly peaking.

Remove the clingfilm from the trifle bowl and spread the cream on top of the custard with a rubber spatula.

Finely chop the pistachios, sprinkle over the top of the trifle and adorn with a few, beautiful crystallized rose petals (or crystallized violet petals, if you prefer).

Mulled Cider

Halve the clementines or satsumas, stick a clove into each half, and add them to the pan.

Break the cinnamon sticks in half, and tip into the pan. Add the bay leaves and bruised cardamom pods, and let everything infuse as the pan comes almost to the boil.

Once the pan is near to boiling, turn down the heat, so that it just keeps warm, and ladle into heatproof glasses with handles to serve.

To make this into a non-alcoholic warmer, replace the cider and rum with 1 litre of apple juice and 60ml freshly squeezed lemon juice. You probably won’t need the sugar, but taste when warm to see if you want a little and then add as you like.