TIPS FOR HOSTING THE PERFECT CHRISTMAS PARTY

Plan your menu early, making sure that at least half of the items on the menu can be made a few days in advance.

Write up a checklist about a week before the party and stick it on your fridge, so that during the week you can check off chores at your ease.

Choose your serving plates a couple of days before the party. Try to use oven-totable serving ware to help keep food warm, rather than glass or metal baking dishes. Label what you are using ahead of time so you know exactly where everything goes when it comes out of the oven or the fridge.

Set up a beautiful self-serve cocktail bar. Write up a couple of cocktail recipe cards for your guests to follow, set out all the drinks, garnishes and ice on a decorated table. Use any lovely vintage or crystal glasses that you might have and arrange them on a pretty tray or platter with sprigs of fern around them. I love using sprigs of herbs as stirrers, such as rosemary and thyme. They look so pretty and add delicious flavour to your drinks.

Decide on how you are going to decorate. I love big sprigs of ferns for table runners and also for bringing colour and warmth against white walls.

Pine cones, pomegranates, satsumas (with leaves) and fresh figs look so beautiful and seasonal clustered around your serving plates and on mantelpieces.

Lighting is so important in setting the right mood for a Christmas party. Candles bring such a beautiful ambience, so use lots of them. Floods of tea lights in glass jars or brown paper bags at the entrance to your home or around the garden can look gorgeous for when your friends arrive – but remember to make sure that quite a few of them are dotted in a line or clustered together to make an impact.

Create a music playlist so that you don’t have to worry about it on the night. I love Nina Simone, Frank Sinatra, Billie Holiday and Harry Connick Jr at

MAKES 24 METHOD

Preheat the oven to 200C/180C fan/Gas 6.

In a mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Add the orange zest and orange blossom water.

Lastly, sift in the flour and baking powder and tip in the ground almonds. Mix until a dough forms.

With floury hands, divide the dough in half and shape each piece into a log 7.5cm in diameter. Place the logs on a baking tray and bake for 30 minutes, or until firm to the touch.

Leaving the oven on, transfer the log to a chopping board. Cut each log into 1cm slices. Arrange the slices in one layer on the baking tray and return to the oven. Bake for 10 minutes. Turn the biscotti over and bake for a further 10 minutes. Transfer to wire racks to cool.

Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl suspended over a pan of simmering water. Remove the bowl from the pan and dip each biscotti into the melted chocolate, coating one half.

Set on a wire rack and leave to cool.