Just in time for thick of Christmas preps, Chef Lovely Jiao of Sugarplum Pastries serves up her Christmas Classics, featuring favorite holiday treats and sweets of all time. 
In so doing, she does a retrospective on how the past 14 years of Sugarplum Pastries has made its mark by coming up with innovative dessert concepts, the bestsellers of which she highlights in this series.
“Pure nostalgia,” beams Lovely. “We can see how much we have evolved and improved into what Sugarplum is today.”
What headlines the selection is the Meringue Tower, a delightful confection of chocolate truffles, candy canes, and cinnamon cookies. Structurally, it sure will be a scenestealer on your Noche Buena table. 
Then there’s the interactive dessert—Cookie-Do. A crowd-favorite, especially in this season centered on families coming together, it’s a great bonding activity for the kids, as well as with friends. The DIY set, which comes with a bigger cinnamon biscuit in the shape of a Christmas tree as well as cookies in the form of stars and beribboned gifts, not to mention three piping bags of green, red, and yellow frosting, rainbow sprinkles, candies, and Sugarplum’s signature chocolate smash balls with a wooden mallet, is fun to look at, let alone eat.
Just as exciting and delectable are the Cakesicles, the chocolate-coated truffle cakes bearing Santa Claus, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Snowman, Gingerbread Man, and other adorable traditional Christmas characters.
But there’s more—the Christmas Macarons, for instance, elegant meringue sandwiches with decadent salted dulce de leche, white chocolate, or strawberry filling, or the Brownie Cheesecake, which is just the right blend of creamy and salty, replete with dark, gooey brownie bites. Plus, there’s Dark Maria, moist dark chocolate topped with succulent strawberries. 
Still dreaming of Christmas desserts that melt in the mouth? Check out the Peach and Mango Tres Leches, a sponge cake soaked in evaporated, condensed, and whole milk and finished with the freshest mangoes and peaches in generous portions and a touch of whipped cream. 

From the beloved personal recipe of Chef Lovely’s mom, there’s the Christmas Trio of Banana Loaf, Dark Maria, and Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies. And there’s the Christmas Sampler, an assortment of macarons, cakesicles, and cinnamon cookies.
Or why not the Cheesy, buttery, and fully Ensaimada? Or the Banana Bread with dark chocolate topped with toasted walnuts? Or the and INF Cookies with cashews, walnuts, and almonds? These are also classics that look and smell and taste like Christmas, with the extra magic of evoking memories from Christmases past, which is why they complete Chef Lovely’s magical lineup of Christmas goodies. 
Any of these Christmas Classics should make for delightful last-minute gifts, that is if you still have many boxes to tick off on your Christmas list. But they are all also perfect to make this Christmas as memorable for you to spend with the people you love this year. 

“As we are all excited to once again to meet up with relatives and good friends we have missed since the pandemic, our collection shares the same message: The warmest hugs and reunions of loved ones,” muses Chef Lovely. 
Armed with a culinary degree from De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde (DLS-CSB) School of Hotel, Restaurant, and Institution Management (SHRIM), the chef has honed her skills at the Makati Shangri-La and F1 Hotel Taguig. She established Sugarplum Pastries in 2011. Through the years, she has remained true to her philosophy—“No to boring desserts!” Indeed, Chef Lovely creates only the most enticing pastries to celebrate special moments.