Flake it to make it

What lies beneath

Cronut creator Dominique Ansel has hidden an edible Rudolf inside his mince pie. It’s luxurious, with cider, sherry and clementine jam adding zingy edge to the fruit.

£18 for five, dominiqueansellondon. com

Nutty numbers

Frangipane and flaked almonds top these buttery pies. They have satisfying shortcrust pastry and sumptuously boozy mincemeat.

The bakery’s Christmas cake is also a thing to behold — it contains Guinness, which adds rich body. blonde chefs Kristelle and Chelsie, have filled mini sponge cakes with mince pie filling. The sponge has a light toffee, candied flavour and they have been generous with the fillings. From £16.99 a box, blondieskitchen. co.uk

Put it on ice

Embrace the cold weather with ice cream. Gelupo has a range of seasonal ice cream flavours inspired by traditional desserts, including British Christmas cake, Italian panettone, French Roquefort, fig, walnut and pear, German stollen and advocaat from The Netherlands.

Dominique Ansel also has stollen ice cream. It’s studded with dried fruit and has an aromatic marzipan flavour. Meanwhile, Kensington restaurant Maggie Jones’s is serving its mince pies with Christmas pudding ice cream and Blondie’s Kitchen goes down the lolly route, with frozen Bailey’s pops. Ice cool.