My very late Christmas Fruitcake.

Don't need to read another word - Just go directly to the recipe and start baking

SOS

My Christmas cake was so nice, and we had visitors so we ate it.

Not to worry. This cake can be eaten immediately. The longer one leaves it (and feed it a bit of booze now and again) the nicer it is though, but it can be eaten almost immediately.

I prefer light fruit cakes so it does not matter if I bake late.

Regardless of the method of preparing the fruit in a fruitcake recipe,

I substitute it for my own, which is:

• Soak the fruit in brandy overnight,

• Drain as much of the brandy off just prior to baking

(The brandy is set aside for casual sipping during the baking process or adding to the wet ingredients later.)

• Pat the fruit dry and coat th fruit some of the sifted flour so that the cake mixture easier embraces the fruit.

(One can say I marry the fruit with the flour)

• If this is too messy, I just add a little of the sifted flour to the brandy and fruit mix first.

The reason for this is to get the fruit evenly distributed throughout the cake and not all the fruit doing breaststrokes at the top of the cake, or lazing around at the bottom.

When I choose a recipe I use my own dried fruit and nut mixtures as long as the combined weight is the same as the combined weight of fruit in the recipe.

I do the same with the nuts if I am going to use it.

I do not soak the nuts in brandy, though.

I choose the freshest ingredients and real butter for my very expensive Christmas cake, but many people will have to use what is cheapest this year.

Luckily for me, my husband is still working and Christmas cake time coincides with bonus month time, so I can splash out a bit.

• If the recipes I use do not make allowance for alcohol, I simply reduce the amount of fluid in the recipe.

Even people who do not take alcohol normally may add it to cooking.

The heat process used during cooking is supposed to destroy the active alcohol ingredient in fruitcakes. So they say, but watch out for my cake. I "skelmpies" feed it brandy or sherry so by Christmas time my cake is a swaying alcoholic.

We may no longer drink and drive so at least let the cake enjoy itself.

Something has to consume the booze.

Mind you, that is now another can of worms, come to think about it.

One does not want one of our guests to fail the Breathalyzer test because he/she ate a slice of my Christmas cake.

Perhaps I will bake alcohol free kiddies and drivers cake also and put a big warning sign on my alcoholic cake.

"Do not eat and drive" a doggy bag is recommended.

This particular cake is beboozled."

Happy late baking

Follow the link to the recipe

Light Christmas Fruit-cake (level beginners)

This year I baked the same light fruit cake for Christmas as I did last year.
After looking through many of my cook books, I settled for "old favourite" from "Cook and Enjoy."
The only difference was that I baked it in two loaf tins so that I have one small cake for Christmas and one for my husband's birthday a month later.

I added all the weight of fruit, cherries and peel together and made up my own mixture of glacè- and dried-fruit and cherries.
All except the preserved ginger which I ate before the baking day. I loooooove ginger.

My husband normally buy's the fruit mixture. I just give him the amount and tell him buy whatever he wants in the cake. It is then his job to feed the cake some brandy every now and then, after it has been baked, while it is waiting in the cake tins to mature.

I soak the fruit in brandy the night before and use some of the flour and just sprinkle it over the fruit before adding it to the flour mixture. The reason for coating the fruit is to spread it evenly throughout the cake when it bakes and not all go to the bottom. The flour coating "marries" the fruit with the dough before it is mixed.

Light Christmas fruit cake

• 250 gram butter

• 250 gram castor sugar

• 6 eggs (or 4 extra large)

• 3 cups flour

• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 500 g mixed fruit (chopped sultanas, candied peel, seeded raisins, currants)

• 250 gram candied cherries, cut into halves

• 55 g (2 oz.) chopped nuts

• 1 teaspoon lemon essence

• (45ml - 60ml) brandy

METHOD

• 1. Cream the butter and gradually add sugar. Beat until light.

• 2. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

• 3. Add the prepared fruit, cherries and nuts. Mix well.

• 4. Sift together the dry ingredients and fold in.

• 5. Lastly add flavouring and brandy and blend well.

• 6. Turn the batter into a cake tin lined with aluminium foil or a few layers of buttered brown paper.

• 7. Bake in a moderately cool oven at 150 °C (300 °F) for 2-2 1/2 hours.

My variations
Before I start I turn the oven on and prepare my cake tins.
Clean the kitchen and prepare my work surface.

People living in small flats may even use the ironing board with plastic over it for more work space.
Next I find and weigh or measure all the ingredients

I did not have castor sugar so I added normal sugar to the blender and blended it into caster sugar.
Then I added the butter and mixed it until it resembled cream.

Then I transferred it to the mixer and added the eggs one at a time.
I sifted the dry ingredients and coated the fruit with some of the dry ingredients first.

It was less messy to add the other ingredients to the soaking fruit so I first added the wet ingredients and then the dry ingredients.

I mixed it carefully aiming not to break the trapped air caught up by the mixing and the sifting process. ( using a metal spoon rather than a blunt spoon.)

Granny Rosa's BANANA BREADS

Granny Rosa's Banana breads

(which is CHRISTINE'S BANANA BREAD with slight modifications)

I am not a good cook. I am a good recipe collector. When I post a recipe that I cooked myself, then you can write it down as flop proof, because if it can flop – I will flop it.

The recipe was modified a bit because I had very big bananas and extra large eggs.

I also wanted to see how the recipe bakes in a ring-from tin.

• 150-ml/100 gr. Butter

• 300 ml Sugar

• 3 Eggs (extra large)

• 1 Tablespoon (20 ml) olive oil

• 900 ml Flour

• 20 ml Baking Powder

• 2 ml Bicarbonate soda

• 2 ml Salt

• 2 cups (500 ml) Mashed Banana (6 large Bananas)

• 10 ml Vanilla Essence

METHOD

• Preheat oven to 200 (Turn it down to 180 C immediately prior to putting the cakes into the oven. This allows for loss of heat while the oven is being loaded.)
• Prepare two medium sized baking pans
  

• Cream butter & sugar & Beat in the eggs one at a time. Until it looks like cream. (I used an electric beater - (easy peasy) - but hubby will do if he is around.)

• Stir in the vanilla and mashed banana until just mixed.

• Transfer it to a large enough bowl if necessary and sift in the dry ingredients, (a little bit at a time, stirring until it is smooth every time.)

Do not over do the stirring at this time. The air trapped by the creaming and sifting process needs to be trapped in the dough mixture. It is the air that makes it rise.

Personally, I like my crust to have a crack on top. It looks more artistic and it looks as if it is bursting of flavor. A cracked top will not win any prizes at the show, however.

• Pour the mixture into the pans and place them onto the middle oven-shelf.

• Bake for 1 hour in a medium oven @ 180 C.

• Turn out of the tin onto a wire rack and allow to cool.

The bread is at its best after third day.

( I use a plastic (office tray) instead of a wire rack. It works fantastic, and it does not rust.

This weeks best Christmas Cake search results

Allrecipes .com has the following best links with easily to follow recipes and photographs

Best Christmas Cake

and

Twelve Cakes for Christmas

"Christmas craft ideas" websites review 20081107

"Free Christmas craft" website review:

www.christmas-joy.com
The following recipes on this website are all written out in a clear and easily to follow print with additional information and photographs.

Christmas Fruit Mince


Christmas Plum Pudding
The introduction to this recipe reads:
Introduction:
Although often confused with fruitcake, this classic Christmas dessert tastes more like a rich, dense spice cake. This version uses butter instead of the traditional suet and can be made with your choice of candied fruit, currants, or raisins.


Christmas Pudding
The introduction to this pudding recipe reads:
Introduction:
No traditional Christmas dinner is complete without pudding. It is best if allowed to mature for at least two days before serving, but it can be made up to three months ahead.

Makes 12 to 16 servings.
Preparation time: 5 hours and 3 days.

Christmas recipe review 2007