Hey guys! I'm back, at my favourite time of the year! I honestly don't have an excuse as to why I haven't been updating my blog at all over the past few months. I have thought about it but as soon as I got out of the routine of doing it, it seemed almost impossible to start again. Whenever I opened this page to write something, my mind just went blank and i simply didn't have the ideas. Fortunately, my imagination is at its peak during the build up to Christmas and, hopefully, i will be bringing you many a blog post.
So, as you can probably tell, I've been making christmas cakes! This is the PERFECT thing to get you in the mood for Christmas. Even though it is almost 2 months away, it's bound to come and go like a flash of lightning - as it does every year. I like to start getting festive super early because, in theory, it will last longer this way.
I took the recipe for these cakes from the farmhouse kitchen:
Weigh out a total of 850g (I know, it's a lot haha) of a mixture of glacé cherries, currants, raisins and sultanas. I didn't have currants so I just made up the weight with some mixed dried fruit. Each of these bowls have 850g of fruit in as I made two cakes. Carefully distribute 2 tablespoons of brandy or rum over the fruit. Stir with a wooden spoon. Put cling film over the bowl and LEAVE THE FRUIT TO SOAK OVERNIGHT.
All of the ingredients to make the rest of the cake are shown here:
PREHEAT THE OVEN TO 150°C/Gas2/300F
Sift 225g of flour into a bowl
(I got a bit carried away with the photography haha)
Add 1tsp of mixed spice and 100g ground almonds
Weigh 225g of soft brown sugar and put into a separate bowl
(Or pan)
Cream the sugar and 225g butter with a wooden spoon
Whisk 4 eggs
Mix the flour mixture, from earlier, into the soaked fruit
Take the bowl that contains the creamed sugar and butter. Take spoonfus of the flour mixture then egg and stir well, with a wooden spoon, after each addition.
Line a cake tin with greased greaseproof paper and pour in the cake mix. Even the mix out, using a wooden spoon.
I forgot to take pictures of the last step but all you have to do is use string to wrap newspaper around the outide of the tin and cut it so that it sticks up 2 inches above the top of the tin. This is really important, to ensure that the cake doesn't burn. The paper protects the cake from being burnt as it is in the oven for an extended period of time.
Put the cake in the oven to bake for 3-4 hours until firm and fruit stops 'singing' and 'sissing'. When fully baked, remove the cake from the tin onto a cooling wire. When cold, let it mature for as long as possible. It will keep for up to a year.
When it's closer to Christmas, I will be decorating the cakes with marzipan and icing as well as some 3D fondant decorations - which I plan on making myself. I should be doing another blog post on how I will decorate them ;)
I will write again very soon (I promise)
Best wishes,
Emily
xx
P.S. All of the photos were taken using my samsung galaxy note 8.0 tablet. It does extremely clear close-up shots and picks up every detail, even the specks of flour. It is just like a regular phone camera when taking selfies or distant shots but it is absolutely perfect for closeups - just in case you were interested ;).
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