Grandmothers Christmas cake

A Christmas cake can be the centre piece of any family table during the festive season.
Guests love a small piece served with a cup of tea, perhaps on a lighter day when they have had enough of the dinners and the Pudding etc.
Serve small slices, as it is quite rich and one will not need too much!
You can either make a traditional round cake or a square or oblong one, but make sure your tin is deep enough for your mixture.
The cake can be iced with royal or roll out fondant icing over a blanket of marzipan or with fruit and nuts on the top, covered in a glaze.
I will also give the recipe for a good Madeira cake as an alternative to the rich fruit cake for those who either do not like it or would like another type of cake for the children.


Traditional Christmas cake -grandmothers recipe!

ingredients-

16oz general purpose white flour                   1/4 pint brandy
16oz brown sugar(dark brown )                     1/2 tsp baking powder
16oz fresh butter                                             1/2 tsp mixed spice
8oz raisins                                                        8 eggs
12oz sultanas
16oz currants
4oz glace cherries chopped in half
8oz chopped candied peel
4oz blanched almonds


method

1. Cream butter, sugar until lighter in colour and soft.
2. Beat the eggs and slowly add to the creamed mixture.
3. Add flour and baking powder the fruit,peel and cherries,chopped almonds,brandy and mix well.
4. put the mixture into a  10 inch greased lined tin.
5. Bake for 5 hours at gas mark 1-250 Fahrenheit or 120 centigrade if using electric ovens.
6. If the cake starts to get too brown on top and still not cooked then place greaseproof paper or a piece of baking foil on the top to stop from burning.
7. Remove from oven when done and leave for ten Min's or to cool a little then remove from the tin and place on cooling wire.
8. you do not need to add marzipan or decoration at this stage- the cake is best left to rest for a couple of weeks and can be infused with more brandy by putting a skewer through the cake at various points and pour a dribble of alcohol into the small holes. make sure the cake is on a cake board before you start to do this. cover with greaseproof paper.
9. we will progress to decoration at a later date.

To test the cake use a skewer or old thin knitting needle and put through the middle to bottom. when your take it back out it should look clean with no residue on needle or skewer.

if you have never made a Christmas cake before-to line your tin cut out a circle,square or oblong to fit the base of your tin in greaseproof paper. cut another piece to fit all around the sides-it should be about 3 inches higher than the top of the tin.
fold over about half an inch or 3 cm and snip up to the fold-you will be able to fit this into the tin for a good fit now.
use butter or margarine to stick the base paper to the base of the tin and like wise at the sides with the other piece.
 

Christmas cake recipe

My Christmas cake recipes will be live tomorrow evening!

We will look at a couple of variations according to your tastes and I will also do a sponge based version for those who do not like the rich fruit cakes-perhaps for the children as an alternative, whilst the adults tuck into the fruit one!

Together we will work on the cakes and then, in the case of the rich fruit cake, infuse with brandy or rum (again depending on your personal tastes) up to the decorating time.

Decorating the Christmas cake can be a fun affair for all the family- choosing the design and the preferred icing type too. perhaps you would prefer my Swedish friends way of using only marzipan and not icing!
Some of us nowadays suffer from nut allergies, so in these cases marzipan is not suitable as it is made from ground almonds.

Look around for the lovely Christmas cake decorations such as the traditional Santa, reindeer or the snowman or go modern and make from fondant icing -which comes ready for use.

Lots of choices-see you all tomorrow evening (London time!) for the basic cake recipes and how to make them.

Have a lovely evening/day wherever you are in the world!

 

Brandy sauce -quick and easy

This is how I make my brandy sauce!

As the pudding is so rich, I prefer this style of sauce to accompany it.

Ingredients

3/4 pint milk
1/4 pint brandy
2 oz cornflour
2 dessertspoons sugar


method

1. Put cornflour in small bowl and add some of the milk and mix to smooth paste.

2. place milk and sugar and brandy into a heavy bottomed pan and heat gently until sugar is dissolved and milk is just simmering.

3. Add some of the heated liquid to the cornflour mix and then add the cornflour to the pan.

4. gently bring to boil and as soon as the liquid has thickened, remove from the heat.

5. place in sauce boat and serve with the pudding....delicious!


variations

you can always use this basic sauce method and change the alcohol or remove alcohol, and increase milk to 1 pint to make a sweet white sauce.

 

Brandy sauce (luxury recipe)

This brandy sauce uses fresh eggs and is made similar to a custard.

Ingredients

3 egg yolks
1/2 pint single cream
1 wineglass brandy
1 dessertspoon of caster sugar (fine white sugar)

method

1. put egg yolks into a double pan or if you do not have one use a pan of hot water and a heavy pyrex bowl on the top of it taking care the base of the pyrex dish does not touch the water. The heat should be from the steam and not direct.

2. add cream, brandy and sugar

3. whisk for approx 8 Min's until the mixture is thickened and sugar has dissolved.

4. take care not to over cook this as it will end up like scrambled eggs.

5. place in sauce boat and serve with the pudding

Economical christmas pudding recipe

This recipe uses beer or stout in it and mixed fruit rather than individual amounts and brandy as in my other recipe.

4oz breadcrumbs
20z flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp mixed spice
40z suet (you can use margarine or butter as an alternative)
30z sugar
10z orange marmalade
2 eggs
1/4 pint milk, ale or stout
1lb mixed dried fruit


method

1. Combine flour,salt and baking powder,sugar,mixed spice,fruit,breadcrumbs and suet or melted butter or margarine.

2. Mix with the marmalade, eggs and ale or milk.

3. Stir thoroughly.

4. Steam for 2 to 3 hours in a saucepan (please see other recipe for full instructions on how to do this)

5. store in cool place.


reheating the puddings

either of these methods needs to be steamed for 1 and a half hours. you could use conventional pan method or use an electric steamer (which i cannot live without). just make sure either doesn't run out of water during the process.

CHRISTMAS PUDDING RECIPE

My grandmother used to make these in bulk and in advance every christmas.
She used to give one to several members of the family and everyone looked forward to the traditional 'flaming up' of the pudding on the xmas table.

This recipe requires pudding basins and covers (made wth greaseproof paper) and covered with a pudding cloth.

Christmas pudding ingredients

80z suet
8oz raisins                                                            if you work in grams and not ounces 1 ounce is
8oz currants                                                          roughly 25 grams.
8oz sultanas
8oz brown sugar
2oz almonds
4oz mixed peel
4oz breadcrumbs
1 lemon
4 eggs
1/4 pint milk
1 wineglass good brandy
1/4 tsp salt
a little grated nutmeg
1 tsp mixed spice
4oz gen purpose flour

method

1. chop the suet (vegetarian or animal is fine), mixed peel and almonds.

2. place all dry ingredients with the above in a large mixing bowl.

3. Beat the eggs with milk and add the brandy.

4. stir into the dry ingredients and mix well.

5. Put into greased pudding basins.

6. You can add a silver coloured coin at this stage and sink it into the middle of the pudding. in the old days in England, they used to put a silver sixpence for good luck to the person who finds it in their portion. If you do put in a coin, please inform the guests as you do not want one to choke during the festivities!

7.Tie the basin by putting a muslin cloth around the sides and make a handle with it over the top of the pudding-but still keep it tight to hold securely in place. This will assist you to remove it from the hot water when cooked.

Steam or boil for 5 to 6 hours depending on the size of your puddings.

steaming-
 half fill a heavy saucepan with hot water and place in pudding. cover with lid and allow to fill with steam-this will cook the pudding and may take longer than the boiling method. you must check the level of the water often or the pan will boil dry and could explode.

A kitchen timer would be of use during this stage.

boiling-
 fill a large pan that will cover your pudding with boiling water and place in pudding. keep boiling and full of boiling water to cover the pudding for 5-6 hours.

carefully remove your puddings by placing a strong wooden spoon in between the cloth and the pudding paper and take both hands(one at each end of spoon ) and lift out.
Place is safe area and allow to cool if making ahead or serve with brandy sauce or brandy butter.

to 'flame' the pudding, which is a party piece-pour brandy over the pudding which has been turned upside down onto your serving plate. use a safety match and light the pudding. The alcohol will catch light and illuminate your pudding until it is burnt away.

safety- do take care of table decorations and centre pieces whilst doing this-anything in its way could catch fire!

I will put the brandy sauce recipe on a separate page and brandy butter can be purchased from any good food store/supermarket

at this time of year.



 

Welcome to my blog

Hello and welcome to my latest blog.

Cooking has always been not only one of my pastimes but also a job from time to time. It has been a central place in my family life. My Grandparents came from catering backgrounds and taught me many of the cooking skills I have today.

Over the years I have been quite a free spirit and followed in my fathers footsteps and travelled all over the world. It is both in the UK and abroad that I have found favourite dishes and learned to make them. Being lucky enough to be in a multi cultural family,with many friends from different cultural backgrounds, has also enabled me to become a cook with a vast and varied repertoire.
I would like to share with you, recipes and photographs not only of the food, but also the places and  I have seen and experienced.