Preparing for Christmas

I heard Fr James Leachmen preaching today at Holy Mass about the Collect.

Stir up the will of your faithful, we pray, O Lord,

that, striving more eagerly to bring your divine work to fruitful completion,

they may receive in greater measure the healing remedies your kindness bestows.

 Fr James said we would normally be making our Christmas pudding this week and as we 'stir' the pudding mixture, we would say the above prayer.

And our God is the greatest pudding maker as he stirs us up to do his will, which I have experienced personally in the last 24 hours.  

However, many of us, including myself, no longer make Christmas pudding and I am planning to go to the shops to buy a Christmas pudding today.  It is very sad we are slowly losing our tradition in preparing for Christmas and all this preparation has been reduced to office parties, buying presents, getting drunk and in this process we are also losing our identity.

In some 'Christian' countries some people have even stopped saying Merry Christmas but happy holidays!

Most Christians are also completely unaware that our Christian New Year begins this Sunday with a new liturgical calendar on the first Sunday of Advent.  Advent is a time for waiting, yet we have forgotten this.

Fr Alan Fudge used to say who would go and have a party to celebrate the birth of a child before the child was born.  However, we all do now - we sing Christmas carols before Christmas, we go to Christmas parties before Christmas etc.

So, I am very pleased Delia Smith wrote in Waitrose Weekend recently her perfect Christmas bakes recipes which includes Christmas cake, Christmas pudding, mincemeat, mince pies and stollen.  

How many of us are actually making these and how many of us are just buying these from the shops? 

May God bless you and help you to celebrate Advent by waiting for our Lord.

鍋貼 Guotie

Guotie 鍋貼 - this is a northern Chinese snack 小吃 'xiaochi' and is very popular with many non Chinese.  In Teochew, it is called ziang'giao 煎餃.  People in North America call guotie, pot stickers. Why? Guo 鍋 means a pot as in a cooking pot and tie 貼 means to stick and hence pot stickers.  LOL Cantonese people pronounce 鍋貼 [guotie's characters] as wo'tip.  The Japanese calls this dumpling gyoza 餃子. In London, Chinese restaurants list this dumpling as grilled dumpling - even though we Chinese never ever grill these dumplings.  

I lightly oil my largest frying pan, a wok, and place 14 guotie on the semi hot pan.

I then turn the guotie over when one side gets brown - a trick I learnt from Fr Dominic, a friend from Xian 西安

 Fr Dominic told me his sister in law would fry the guotie on two sides before adding water and I thought this was a wonderful style of cooking guotie.  

Traditionally, in Beijing, guotie would be fried on one side only and the dumplings would be placed adjacent to one another in a large frying pan and they would all stick to one another and hence tie 貼 meaning to stick - as in the dumplings sticking to one another and not to the pot.  It would be a disaster if the dumplings were to stick to the pot! 

I then add about 70 ml of water, cover the pot and wait until the water has been reduced and give all the guotie a good turnover.  The water creates steam which then cooks the guotie.

I then serve the guotie on a lovely Chinese bowl which my friend Christina bought for me from HK.

Guotie goes very well with balsamic glaze but traditionally Chinese people eat this with black Chinese vinegar and julienne of ginger.  Nowadays, many Chinese people eat guotie with chillies - lots of chillies.

You can buy ready made guotie from Chinese supermarkets.  However, I have never bought these from any supermarkets!

If you want to make these guotie, then you need to make the wrapper dough first and Chinese people call the wrapper, 'skin'! LOL  This is because you need to rest the dough for sometime.  I made the dough last night at midnight when I got home from Deacon David's birthday dinner party.

I use 500 grams of strong flour [Canadian strong white bread flour is best - which you can buy from Waitrose] and then bring to boil in excess of 250 ml of water.

I then place the flour in one of my Kenwood metal bowls, add about a teaspoon of salt and about the same amount of sugar to the flour. I then attach a dough hook to the Kenwood mixer and start mixing the flour with salt and sugar.  I then pour the hot water [must be at least 70 C] into the flour while the Kenwood Chef turn the flour at low speed until a dough is formed.  

Every type and batch of flour uses a slightly different amount of water, and I find by getting my Kenwood to work for me at midnight means I do not add too little or too much water into the flour.

I then roll out the dough into a long 'sausage' shape, cling film it well so as not to let the dough dry out while resting.  I then place the wrapped dough in an air tight container.

The dough must not be sticky and while one kneads the dough, none of the dough should stick to one's hands and when one strokes the dough it should form a smooth outer skin.  One definitely needs some skill to know the right amount of water to use and one has to learn this through trial and error, unless one has a friend like a Kenwood Chef or Kenwood Major!

We Chinese do not add eggs or oil into the dough.  In fact, traditionally, we do not even add salt or sugar into the dough mixture.  Traditionally, Chinese people would mix half boiling water and half tap water and get the right temperature.  However, in London, our tap water is freezing cold and I would not get that minimum 70 C water if I were to follow this method.  Hence, I get a thermometer out, measure the temperature of the water and when it reaches just over 80 C, I turn off the heat and start preparing to pour the water into the flour.

If you do not have a Kenwood, then perhaps you could use a food processor to make the dough.  If you have none of these, then you need to learn the hard way, like the way I did when I was in my 20s, using my hands and a Chinese rolling pin to knead the flour and water into a dough.  LOL  

The filling:  There are many different types of filling.  Chinese in the South of China add all sorts of things.  Vegetarian Chinese use eggs and garlic chives.  However, I still prefer the traditional Northern Chinese filling.  

So these were what I used to make this batch of guotie filling.

6 or 7 Napa cabbage leaves - sliced thinly - in English supermarkets you will see Napa cabbage labelled as Chinese leaves.

I add 1 teaspoon of salt into the sliced cabbage leaves and give them a good squeeze - in fact many good squeezes! 

I then take a bunch of organic spring onions [which is now called salad onions in English supermarkets because we get them all year round and not just during spring time], and I slice the green part thinly.  I add these to the top of the salted sliced cabbage.

In Southern China, the people could replace the above two ingredients with thinly sliced Chinese garlic chives.

And because I am making these for Auntie Ratna, who is a Southern Asian, previously from Ceylon, I add some shallots.

I take an echalion shallot, slice it in half length wise, and then slice it thinly.  I fry the shallot in oil until it is brown and add the fried shallot and oil into the above vegetable.  This gives the filling an interesting flavour.

Chinese people would add quite a bit of vegetable oil into the filling at this stage.  This would then give the dumpling a very moist texture with liquid oozing out of the hot dumpling when eaten.  However, I skip this step as I am not making these dumplings for Chinese people. 

I then remove the skin of a two inch ginger, slice it thinly, then julienne the thin slices of ginger and then finely dice the julienne of ginger.  I add this to the vegetable above.

Then seasoning: I then add 2 tablespoons of JinLan soya sauce 金蘭醬油 and two tablespoons of sesame oil, 2 tbsp of water to the vegetable mixture.

Finally, I add 500 grams of minced pork from Waitrose - 8% fat - to the above.  I mix all the ingredients well together with one of my hands.  There is no alternative than using one's hands because the seasoning has to be  massaged into the meat vegetables mixture.  

I have tried using beef, lamb, turkey, chicken, extra lean pork mince but none of these have worked out well as this 8% fat pork mince from Waitrose.  The idea is that the meat in the dumpling should stay together like a sausage and not to fall apart when you eat the dumplings with your chopsticks.  I found beef to be too tough, lamb too smelly, and as for the rest, the meat fell apart when eaten. 

Traditionally, Chinese people would buy pork with some fat and hand minced the meat with cleavers.  However, nowadays my neighbours would report me after hearing all that chopping sound coming from my home.  

You can add ground white pepper if you want - Chinese ground pepper - but I do not use pepper anymore in my cooking.

When you have mixed all the ingredients together, you need to wash your hands, dry them, then take the bowl containing the filling ingredients and bring it to your nose and take a deep breath.  If you can smell the flavours up your nostrils then you have seasoned the filling well.  If not, then you need to add more salt, or sesame oil or whatever.  This way of testing food for the right amount of seasoning is an old traditional Chinese way of doing things.

I then transferred the filling into an air tight Pyrex dish and stored it in my fridge for a minimum of half an hour.  I made the above at 4 am this morning and started wrapping after Morning Prayer at 10:30.  

Wrapping:  I roll the dough into a long thin sausage, cut equal slices - roughly 14 per batch. I then press each piece with the palm of my hands and then using a rolling pin start rolling out the dough into discs.  The middle of the wrapper round disc should be thicker than the edges.  It is like making miniature Indian chapati. 

If you want to watch an American lady explaining to you how to make these little small wrapper discs, then do watch this YouTube video.

You know I started learning to make guotie in my 20s, and that was centuries ago, and I had to make over 1000 guotie(s) before I learnt how to roll out the dough discs well and  how to wrap the dumplings.

In Chinese families, everybody would help, including little children.  Some wrap it square, some odd shapes and some perfectly.  This does not matter - it is a family affair and brings everybody together for a good chit chat.  When you are invited to a Chinese family home, you are also expected to participate in this wrapping process.  Everybody then compares who has made the most beautiful dumpling and would give the person a praise, and encouragement for those who could improve their wrapping technique.  

Nobody would come to eat dumplings and sit like kings and queens doing nothing.  This would be most impolite for Chinese people.

However, in the UK, people always just come and sit like kings and queens and I therefore would make 20 or 30 dumplings regardless of the number of people eating.  I do not see why I should kill myself and over exceed my usual production limit.  LOL

So, get all the children together, invite the in-laws and start a wrapping guotie party and have a good time making and eating dumplings as a family. 

And if you want to see how the same American lady teaching you how to wrap these dumplings, then please watch this YouTube video. 

Gingerbread Cake

I saw Gretchen Price making gingerbread in a bundt cake baking tin and I thought I would like to make this American cake to see how it would compare with an English gingerbread.

However, I do not have those American ingredients such as molasses and others and I therefore use what I have at home.

Instead of all purpose flour, I use a French flour - Francine Farine Supreme.  I do not have any plain flour or all purpose flour in my cupboards!  LOL I do not use such flour for baking.  

For molasses, I use Tate and Lyle treacle - but as this is more viscous than the American Molasses, I have decided to use less and I will therefore be using 300 grams [7/8 of a cup] of treacle and Golden Syrup instead of Gretchen's 1.25 cups of molasses. 

Instead of light brown sugar, I use Billington's natural molasses sugar and I have reduced the amount of sugar from 200 grams to 113 grams or 4 ozs.

So here is my revised list of gingerbread cake ingredients

4 ozs [113 g] unsalted butter
4 ozs [113 g] Billington's natural molasses sugar
7/8 cup Tate and Lyle treacle and Golden Syrup = 300 grams [260 grams of treacle and 40 grams of Golden Syrup]
2 eggs - I have increased the number of eggs by 1 and I use medium size eggs
2.5 cups [350 grams] Francine Farine Supreme flour
1 tsp bi-carbonate of soda
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground cloves
1.25 cups [10 fl oz or half a pint] hot water [off the boil] - same temperature as in making coffee at around 80 C

1. Weigh the butter and molasses sugar in a bowl and set aside
2. Measure the flour and the other dry ingredients and sift them twice
3. Grease a 12 cup bundt baking tin with butter and flour - I use NordicWare 12 - 15 cups bundt baking tin and I am therefore presetting my oven to 165 C with fan switched off 
4. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy and then add the treacle and Golden Syrup and mix well until all the sugar has dissolved. 
5. Add the eggs one at a time and beat to combine well.
6. The add the dry ingredients and hot water alternately ending with dry ingredients, and mixing well after each addition.
7. Pour the cake mixture into the prepared bundt baking tin and bake at 165 C convectional oven for 50 to 55 minutes - and it took 53 minutes to bake. The idea is not to over bake your gingerbread cake. 
8. Leave the gingerbread cake to cool in the bundt tin. 

As for the icing glaze, I followed Joy of Baking and used 150 grams of sifted icing sugar and 2 tbsp of freshly squeezed lemon juice.

I personally think the icing is too thin and it does not look too good. So here is the transformation!

I rather like the variegated moss green leaves - and the colour was given to me by Vero - and thanks Vero! 

Questions and Answers

I do not have a bundt baking tin. What should I do?  You could use a 9 inch [23 cm] square or a 10 inch round baking tin instead.

I have a bundt tin but not a Nordic Ware Bundt tin. What temperature should I bake the cake?  Nordic Ware advises people to bake their cakes at a lower temperature if they were to use their platinum range baking tins as the metal they use to make these tins is a very efficient conductor of heat.  If you have an ordinary baking tin, may it be a 9 inch square baking tin or other makes of baking tin, then you need to read the manufacturer's instructions. This cake would normally be baked at 175 C or 350 F. 

I do not have that Francine flour.  What flour should I use?  Use plain flour if you are in the UK.  If you are in other countries, you may use all purpose flour.  The Francine flour has 9 % protein and do not use flour which has a protein contain more than 11 %.  AND I am unlikely to go to Holland Park to buy all purpose flour from an American shop just to make this cake.  

I cannot find natural molasses sugar.  What sugar can I use?  You can use any brown sugar - light brown sugar, dark brown sugar, or any muscovado sugar or even caster sugar.

I do not have treacle in my country. What should I use?  The Americans use Grandma's Molasses - Yellow brand - the original version.  You can use this if you can purchase it.  In London, a 12 oz jar of Grandma's Molasses costs nearly £5 and if I were to buy it from Amazon, it would cost over £7.  As for a pound weight of treacle only costs £1.18.  Therefore it is not economical for me not to use Tate and Lyle treacle.

Why did I use such odd quantities of treacle and Golden Syrup?  It is rather late at night and it is too late for me to go to the shops to buy more treacle. I therefore made up the quantity I wanted with Golden Syrup.  I am making this cake for Deacon David's birthday and I have to make the mixture tonight to bake the cake tomorrow morning as the birthday party is tomorrow.  LOL

Why am I using 2 eggs and Gretchen uses one egg?  This is because Grandma's website uses two eggs for such proportion of ingredients to make a gingerbread cake. 

Other recipes have salt and why is there no salt in this recipe?  I have a dislike of salt in my sweet creations - cakes, biscuits and others. I just cannot imagine why people like salt and sugar in the same food item - like cakes and biscuits. I do not mind having salt and sugar in my sweet and sour but not cakes and biscuits.

Evaluation

The cake served 9 people after dinner tonight and everybody loved the cake.  They said the cake was moist and they liked the flavour of the cake.  The ginger was not over the top and the cake was not too sweet.  I served the cake with sweetened whipped double cream and this really went well with cake.  There is no need to change this excellent recipe and may God bless America as this is an American cake!


27 December 2014

Made the cake again for Dominic's baptismal agape and used the following ingredients.

113 grams unsalted butter
113 grams molasses sugar
188 grams treacle
145 grams Golden Syrup - total syrup 333 grams just under 1 cup of syrup
2 large free range eggs
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
0.5 tsp ground cloves
350 grams mąka tortowa
1.25 cups of hot water

Icing Glaze: 150 grams icing sugar & 5 tsp of lemon or orange juice and this gives a much better glaze. 

November Cupcakes

A group of people from my parish are meeting tonight to reflect on 'Jesus, My Lord' and at the end of the meeting, we are having a shared meal and I agreed to bake some cakes to share. 

I have made cupcakes early this morning for this event - some mini cupcakes and some standard American size cupcakes.

I made 24 of these mini cupcakes and some have already been eaten! LOL

These were piped with Ateco 6 point star piping tube / nozzle number 34 and I used Italian butter cream which was not too sweet.

And there were 12 standard American size cupcakes as well for those who are not on a diet!

And these were piped with Kaiser 15mm 51-0 piping nozzle using Italian butter cream.

Green butter cream - piped with Kaiser 16 mm 45-9 piping tube

Light Fruit Cake

English fruit cakes are made with pound cake recipe – 1 lb of eggs, butter, sugar and flour each.  However, as one adds more fruits, as in rich fruit cakes, then one has to increase the proportion of flour.  For rich fruit cakes, one would not have any raising agents and bake at 140 C.  However, I have found that by lowering the baking temperature and thereby increasing the duration of baking, one gets a more moist cake.

As for light fruit cake, I prefer to use self raising flour, which is McDougalls Supreme Sponge premium self raising flour.   Technically, you can use plain flour and add a little raising agent.   One would bake a light fruit cake at 160 C, for a shorter period.

I am baking three different light fruit cakes this Christmas – one for my cousin Margaret who wants only sultanas in her cake, one for Sissi, a friend who is taking the cake to Nigeria, and she wants a range of different fruits including ginger but not apricots and one for myself to share with my friends. 

Technically, you can add any type of dried or preserved fruits you want into your fruit cake. 

For Sissi who will take the cake to Nigeria next week.

6 oz  butter

6 oz caster sugar

3 large eggs

7 oz Supreme Sponge flour

2 oz naturally glacéd cherries – quartered

5 oz raisins – halved 

5 oz sultanas – halved

2½ oz ginger in syrup – julienne

2 oz flaked almonds

½ tsp orange oil + ½ tsp vanilla extract + ½ tsp lemon oil

1 tbsp Golden Syrup – this inverted sugar will keep the cake moist

1 tbsp ginger syrup

3 fl oz vodka to soak the fruits for a day or two + more to inject into the cake after baking

This the bottom of Sissi's cake - you can see the smooth finish because I have used parchment paper with the 'Pushpan' baking tin. The manufacturer of the Pushpan instructs users not to line their baking tin and I disagree with the manufacturer's instructions. 

      

Sissi's cake for Nigeria - There is an improvement on the side because I manage to use some parchment paper but the top has an indentation and it took 2 hours 50 minutes to bake. If you are worried about the top's indentation, then add a spoonful of flour to the cake mixture and this will stop this. 

For my Cousin Magaret who will take the cake with her to Canada - this cake was baked in a German spring form baking tin and it took less than 2 hours 15 minutes to bake. 

• 3 large free range eggs
• 6 oz butter
• 6 oz sugar
• 7 oz Supreme Sponge flour
• 14 oz sultanas – halved – soak in 4 tbsp vodka for a couple of days
• 1 tbsp Golden Syrup
• 1 tbsp any inverted sugar syrup 
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 4 tbsp of vodka to soak the fruits + more to inject into the cooked cake

These pictures are of the cake for Canada [for my cousin] and it is the last of the three cakes to be baked.  You can see the top of the cake is flat and the side of the cake has a better finish than the 'pushpan' baking tin. In addition, it took less time to bake - less than 2 hours 15 minutes.  Perhaps this German spring form tin has a metal which allows for faster baking. 

This the bottom of the cake baked in the German spring form baking tin.  It has smooth bottom and side, perfect for icing or covering with marzipan. 

and for myself and my friends

6 oz  butter

6 oz caster sugar

3 large eggs

7 oz Supreme Sponge flour

3 oz naturally glacéd cherries – quartered

4 oz soft dried apricots – diced

1 oz mixed peel + 1 oz homemade orange peel – diced

6 oz sultanas – halved

½ tsp orange oil + ½ tsp vanilla extract + ½ tsp lemon oil

1 tbsp Golden Syrup – this inverted sugar will keep the cake moist

1 tbsp ginger syrup

3 fl oz vodka to soak the fruits for a day or two + more to inject into the cake after baking 

Sissi's and my cakes will be baked in a 7 inch round 'PushPan' baking tin and my cousin in a 6.5 inch round spring form baking tin.

Method

1. Prepare fruits and soak fruits in 3 fl oz of any alcohol or any flavoured vodka for a couple of days, stirring occasionally.
2. Double line a 7 inch round baking tin and use baking strip to protect the cake.  If a ‘pushpan’ baking tin is used, then line the bottom only with parchment paper and grease with butter and flour the sides.
3. Cream butter and sugar lightly
4. Add the eggs one at a time, and hand mix after each addition.
5. Flour the fruit mixture and set aside.
6. Add the syrups, vanilla extract and other flavourings to the cake mixture and hand mix.
7. Fold in the flour – and do not over mix.
8. Hand fold in the floured fruits and place the cake mixture into the prepared baking tin.
9. Refrigerate the cake over night prior to baking.
10. Wrap the outside of the baking tin with baking strips before baking.
11. Bake the 7 inch in a pre-heated 160 C convectional oven [fan switched off] for about 2.5 to 2 hrs 50 minutes hours, on the bottom shelf on top of a pizza stone. 
12. When the cake is cooked, remove it from the oven and allow the cake to cool in the baking tin.
13. Then inject the cake with 4 tbsp of alcohol while the cake is still warm. 
14. When the cake has cooled, remove all the parchment paper and wrap in new parchment paper and store in an airtight container for at least six weeks prior to serving or decorating.. 
15. It is a good idea to freeze the cake for a week or s o before eating, as this process makes the cake more moist. 

This cake is for me and my friends - the first to bake and it took 2 hours 25 minutes to bake.  I am not happy with the sides and when I bake Sissi's cake, I will line the side of the baking tin with parchment paper. 

From the pictures above, you could see I have used a 'PushPan' baking tin.  This baking tin does not like one to line the tin with baking parchment.  The cake will go out of shape if I were to line the tin.  

If you want the sides of the cake to have a smooth finish, then you have to use traditional baking tins and not this new technology baking 'pushpan' baking tin.  

I followed the instructions of the manufacturer for their Pushpan by not lining the baking tin and because of this I have the above terrible outcome.  I baked my own cake first and I was really disappointed that I had followed the instructions of the Pushpan manufacturer.  So, if you were to have a Pushpan and you wanted your cake to have smooth sides and bottom - then line your Pushpan baking tin with parchment paper!

However, when I cover the cake with marzipan and icing, nobody can see the state of the cake.  LOL  But this is besides the point!  

This is a traditional English recipe and I therefore have used Imperial Measures.  However, if you were to use metric units, then you could follow the following approximate conversions.


3 large free range eggs
170 grams butter [or 6 oz]
170 grams sugar [or 6 oz]
200 grams flour [or 7 oz]
400 grams of a mixture of any dried fruits [or 14 oz] - according to your own choice
1 tbsp Golden Syrup
1 tbsp syrup from the ginger preserve
flavours - ½ tsp orange oil + ½ tsp vanilla extract + ½ tsp lemon oil
3 tbsp any alcohol for soaking fruits and 4 tbsp alcohol for injecting into the cooked cake

And if you were really lazy, then you could even put the butter, sugar, flour, eggs, syrups and flavourings into a Kenwood Chef bowl, and you could use a K beater to mix the ingredients into a batter and you could fold in the floured fruits, and you would not find any difference between this method and the creaming method. 

And finally feeding the cake with alcohol.  In the old days, one would feed the cake with a teaspoon over many days / weeks.  However, we have large syringe for food use nowadays - syringes which holds about 40 ml of alcohol at any one time.  So I inject the cake with alcohol nowadays - just once, while the cake is warm, so it can absorb the alcohol easily.  I then wrap the cake, store it in a Ziplock bag in an airtight container, in a cool room - away from your central heating hot pipes - and the best place would be your larder or basement - if you have one.  The cake will keep for at least six months.  

I would recommend injecting the cake from the top in several places and allow the cake to stand with the top of the facing up for a number of weeks [a minimum of six weeks - and the longer the better].  

When it is time to cover the cake with marzipan, then turn its bottom up, where there are no holes or blemishes and cover the cake with marzipan / icing accordingly.  You will of course have to brush the cake with warmed apricot glaze  before covering it with marzipan, so the almond paste could stick to the cake. 

Emilie's birthday cake

Today is Emilie's tenth birthday.  I have made and decorated a sunflower cake to celebrate her birthday. Apparently, sunflowers are the happiest of flowers - so I read somewhere.

Here are the pictures of the birthday cake.

Here is a picture of a side of the cake. The side of the cake has some writings adapted from a German children's song.  

How wonderful you were born, we would have really missed you otherwise.

How blessed we are together today, we congratulate you, Emilie, birthday girl! 

as well as Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday Emilie! 

Christmas Fruit Cake

My friend Mercedes and I made Christmas rich fruit cakes today 7 November 2014.  This is a standard English recipe. 

Christmas fruit cake should be packed with fruits, normally all vine fruits. 

One could use any dark brown sugar but I particularly like muscovado sugar, for it has a strong molasses flavour. 

As for flavourings, one can others including vanilla extract such as orange oil and / or lemon oil.

         8 ozs unsalted butter

         8 ozs dark muscovado sugar

         4 large free range eggs

         9 ozs plain flour - not self raising flour and no raising agent

         4 ozs ground almonds

         2 tbsp Golden Syrup + 2 tbsp treacle

         1 dsp mixed spice

         ½ nutmeg – grated - optional

         2 tsp vanilla extract
     2 lbs of any vine fruits for example 

         8 ozs sultanas

         8 ozs currants

         8 ozs raisins

         4 ozs mixed peel

         4 ozs cherries – natural colour

         4 ozs toasted flaked almonds

         1 cup of brandy to soak the fruits + more to feed the cake after baking

1. Prepare the fruits and soak them in brandy for a few days, stirring each day to make sure all the fruits are well soaked.
2. Double line two 6 inch round baking tins with parchment paper and brown paper.  Reserve some brown paper to wrap the outside of the cake while baking.
3. Lightly cream the butter and sugar, and add the eggs one at a time.  Add the spices, syrups, flavours and mix well.
4. Roll the soaked fruits in some of the flour.
5. Fold in the ground almonds and the rest of the flour into the butter mixture.
6. Fold in the floured fruits and nuts into the cake mixture.
7. Bake the cake in the prepared baking tin at 130 C for 3.5 hours or until cook, using bottom shelf of the oven and allow the cake to cool in the baking tin.
8. Inject enough brandy into the cake, wrap the cake well and return it into the baking tin and store it in an airtight container for at least a month to 6 weeks before icing the cake. 

Christmas Cake 2014

I have finally baked this year's Christmas cake and here is a recording of what I have used and done.

Christmas cake 2014

        8 ozs raisins – halved

        8 ozs sultanas – halved

        6 ozs cherries – quartered

        6 ozs mixed peel

        8 ozs dried apricots in lieu of glazed pumpkin – diced

        4 oz stem ginger in syrup – but without syrup – julienned

        4 oz [½ jar] ChowChow in syrup – plus syrup – 蜜什菓 – mélange au sirop – sliced, julienned or diced according to type of fruit / vegetable

        8 ozs soft figs in lieu of dates – diced

        4 fl oz of vodka – cranberry flavoured vodka – for soaking the fruits 

        2 oz [50 g] homemade orange peel – julienned

        4 oz diced cashew nuts – used 130 grams

        8 ozs softened butter

        8 oz caster sugar

        2 oz dark brown sugar

        8 oz semolina [added 250 grams] dried fried until light brown and allowed to cool + 2 heap tbsp flour [no raising agent] – then sifted

        12 large egg yolks

        1 cup or 6 large egg whites – whisked + ¼ tsp cream of tartar + + 4 tbsp sugar for egg whites

        2 tbsp Golden Syrup

        2 tbsp honey

        1 tsp vanilla extract

        1 tsp vanilla paste

        ½ tsp orange oil

        ½ tsp lemon oil

        1 heaped tsp mixed spice

        ½ nutmeg – ground

        7 oz [½ jar]  apricot jam or orange marmalade or strawberry jam or any jam 

        150 ml or 10 tbsp vodka to inject into the cake after baking and also just before wrapping

1.      Prepare fruits and soak fruits in 4 fl oz of vodka for about a week.

2.      Dry fry the semolina and set aside to cool.

3.      Mix the butter and sugar with a pedal attachment lightly and add the egg yolks one at a time.  Then add the jam and flavourings.

4.      Mix the spices, homemade peel with the semolina and flour. Mix the fruits into this mixture.

5.      Whisk the egg whites with cream of tartar and then add the sugar [4 tbsp] until soft peaks.

6.      Fold the whisked egg whites into the butter egg yolk mixture.

7.      Then fold (6) into the semolina fruit mixture (4).

8.      Pour the cake mixture into a prepared baking tin [9 inch square tin] and bake as per (9), and protecting the outside of the tin with cardboard.

9.      Place the cake on a pizza stone, on the bottom shelf in a preheated oven – of 140 C – with fan switched off.

10.  Total baking time 5¾ hours – first 3½ hours at 140 C, and the rest at 130 C  

11.  Covered the top of the cake with aluminium foil after 3½ hours or when the top of the cake begins to brown.  

12.  Allow the cake to cool in the baking tin and when the cake has cooled, after several hours, remove the cake from the baking tin and inject 150 ml or 10 tbsp of vodka into the cake.

13.  Wrap the cake well with parchment paper and return it to the baking tin and store it in an airtight container for a month. 

When the cake matures, then the cake is reformed into 2 by 1 inch sizes and package accordingly.  The 2 by 1 inch cake pieces are wrapped with parchment paper, then with tissue paper and then placed inside food grade cellophane bags.