I have never made a Christmas cake before for the simple reason that I will eat it all.
I love Christmas cake with tons of thick icing, but I know me (the benefits of growing up/self awareness/facing the truth...) and I will not stop at one piece a day.
However.
I decided to make one. I decided that I would practice self-control and stick to one piece a day. (Snort/Dreaming)
I chose a recipe from my Delia Smith Christmas cook book.
The first thing was to soak the fruit mince mixture in 3 tablespoons of Brandy over night.
I thought the next day the brandy must have evaporated as it seemed quite dry. You just cover the bowl with a tea towel overnight, but it is summer here, not winter like in Delia's England so I thought that explained it.
Then, when I went on-line to see if the recipe was on-line, in case it was amazing and I could link to it, I discovered that on-line, on Delia's website, it said to soak the fruit mince in 100 mls of brandy. That is, around twice as much as it says in the book.
So I thusly added some more for a few hours, before I cooked the cake.
So, this is the cake, as it was cooling on the rack. Not attractive but boy, she/he/they melt good. I let it cool, which took a time, sprinkled more brandy into the pin pricks I'd slathered it with, and it is now wrapped in greaseproof paper sitting in a tin.
I opened it up yesterday and was assaulted, nay, imbued with the smell of Christmas cake. Whether it will be okay ie is it dry, or undercooked? I will find out after the next step which is going to be icing it.
I am going the whole hog and putting on it the yellow almond icing you buy, and then making the white icing to go on the top of that.
That momentous event, ie the sampling, will take place on Tuesday December 24th. It's in my diary.
So if it is a success when the great cutting and tasting arrives, I will post. In fact, if its a failure, I will post, too, cos why not? After all, one can always make it into a Christmas pudding or something else if its bad. But I'm sure it won't be too bad at all.
Onward!
I love Christmas cake with tons of thick icing, but I know me (the benefits of growing up/self awareness/facing the truth...) and I will not stop at one piece a day.
However.
I decided to make one. I decided that I would practice self-control and stick to one piece a day. (Snort/Dreaming)
I chose a recipe from my Delia Smith Christmas cook book.
The first thing was to soak the fruit mince mixture in 3 tablespoons of Brandy over night.
I thought the next day the brandy must have evaporated as it seemed quite dry. You just cover the bowl with a tea towel overnight, but it is summer here, not winter like in Delia's England so I thought that explained it.
Then, when I went on-line to see if the recipe was on-line, in case it was amazing and I could link to it, I discovered that on-line, on Delia's website, it said to soak the fruit mince in 100 mls of brandy. That is, around twice as much as it says in the book.
So I thusly added some more for a few hours, before I cooked the cake.
So, this is the cake, as it was cooling on the rack. Not attractive but boy, she/he/they melt good. I let it cool, which took a time, sprinkled more brandy into the pin pricks I'd slathered it with, and it is now wrapped in greaseproof paper sitting in a tin.
I opened it up yesterday and was assaulted, nay, imbued with the smell of Christmas cake. Whether it will be okay ie is it dry, or undercooked? I will find out after the next step which is going to be icing it.
I am going the whole hog and putting on it the yellow almond icing you buy, and then making the white icing to go on the top of that.
That momentous event, ie the sampling, will take place on Tuesday December 24th. It's in my diary.
So if it is a success when the great cutting and tasting arrives, I will post. In fact, if its a failure, I will post, too, cos why not? After all, one can always make it into a Christmas pudding or something else if its bad. But I'm sure it won't be too bad at all.
Onward!