Christmas Baking Class

Edinburgh Food & Drink Academy is running a Christmas baking class on Saturday 5 December, a full day of baking in the heart of the city centre. It's led by the academy's own teachers, and the day is split between a demonstration, hands-on time in the kitchen, and lunch in the academy's dining room.

The list of what you'll make is a proper Christmas spread. There's a chocolate fruit Christmas cake, stollen, home-made mince pies, pear, pecan and cranberry muffins, and cinnamon shortbread stars. You'll work through them across the day, and you take the recipes home with you, so you can make them again for years to come.

It helps to know where you'll be spending the day. The academy is set in a Georgian town house in the city centre, and it's a working school that trains professional chefs while running short courses for amateurs, students and food enthusiasts. The building spans five floors and looks out over the Firth of Forth, and inside there's a fully equipped teaching kitchen, a demonstration theatre that seats 50, and a function room for corporate events and team building.

The class starts at 09:45 on Saturday 5 December at the academy's address, 7 Queen Street, Edinburgh New Town EH2 1JE, and costs £225.