Christmas Cake 2010

I know, I know we haven't even gotten Halloween out of the way and here I am bringing up the 'C' word.  I have good reason to, I haven't gone mental, honest.  I wanted to try to post some of my Christmas recipes nice and early to give you plenty of time to plan and because Christmas Cakes and Puddings tend to need some time to mature.  With that in mind now is the perfect time to make these very important elements of any traditional Christmas celebration.  It also means that when you are knee deep in wrapping paper and tinsel you can allow yourself a smug little smile at the intelligent decision to make them weeks in advance saving you from added blood, sweat and tears being shed.

For the last few years I have used the recipe that my mam followed for many, many years.  This year I decided to tinker with ir a little. (God, when she hears this she'll be haunting me tonight!)  Don't get me wrong, it is a delicious cake and has been eaten with gusto by many for as long as I can remember.  I just thought with such a huge variety of ingredients on offer it would be nice to try something a little different with it. 

The main change I made was to soak the fruit overnight in tea and brandy, much like you would do with the fruit for a tea brack.  Usually the fruit just gets chucked in in all of it's dry, shrivelled glory; so soaking will fill the cake with plump, boozey fruit.  I then added a few new ingredients to add more texture and flavour.

I was curious to find out how it tasted so brought one that I made last week to my dads on Wednesday night.  It was his birthday you see and when I enquired as to what cake he would like he requested a fruit cake.  I decided to kill 2 birds with one stone, get a little feedback on the updated recipe and also bring a smile to my dad's face with a super duper fruit cake.  It was declared to be 'lovely'.  It is a moist cake, choc full of fruit with some crunch from the chopped nuts dispersed throughout.  The brandy and spice flavours brought a little Christmas magic with every bite.  I would say that is mission accomplished. 

The recipe below will yield 2 x 8" round cakes.  I'm not sure if the original recipe my mam used was for 2 cakes or if she adapted through the years herself, she always made a cake for our house and one for my aunty, along with 2 Puddings and 2 German Pound Cakes.  I think all Christmas recipes should yield 2 cakes, how nice is it to wrap one up to gift to a friend or loved one.  I know my dad loves to see me coming with my brown paper parcels in winter time.  I'm not sure his 'birthday' cake will stretch out to Christmas so I am sure I will be making him up another one soon, I wonder who will be the lucky recipient of the 2nd one?

LMUTB Christmas Cake
(makes 2 x 8" round cakes)

200ml/7floz Warm Tea
200ml/7floz Brandy
375g/13.2oz Currants
375g/13.2oz Raisins
375g/13.2oz Sultanas
250g/9oz Dried Apricots, chopped to rough 1cm pieces
100g/3.5oz Dried Cranberries
425g/15oz Plain Flour*
75g/2.65oz Ground Almonds*
1.5 level tsp's Mixed Spice*
0.5 level tsp Ground Nutmeg*
150g/5oz Glacé Cherries
150g/5oz Mixed Peel
115g/4oz Crystallised/Stem Ginger
Grated Rind of 2 Lemons
Grated Rind of 1 Orange
150g/5oz Almonds, blanched and chopped
50g/1.76oz Walnuts, roughly chopped
115g/4oz Hazelnuts, roughly chopped
350g/12oz Margarine, at room temperature
350g/12oz Brown Sugar
2tbsp Honey
2tbsp Black Treacle
7 Large Eggs, at room temperature

* Sieve these ingredients together

Optional:

Additional brandy to 'feed' the cake.

If you like you can 'feed' the cake every 3 - 4 weeks with 3floz of brandy to ensure a moist (and boozey) cake at Christmas.  Simply pierce the cake a few times with a skewer, pour over the brandy and allow it to absorb before wrapping the cake back up.

I will ice this cake closer to Christmas so be sure to check back in to see the finished article.

1.  Place the raisins, currants, sultanas, apricots and cranberries in a large bowl.  Pour over the warm tea and brandy and stir to coat all of the fruit in the liquid.  Leave to sit in the bowl for at least one hour but preferrably overnight.  Cover with a tea towel and stir occasionally to ensure all of the fruit has a chance to soak up some of the liquid.

2.  The next day preheat the oven to 150C/300F/Gas Mark 2; and grease 2 x 8" round baking tins with melted margarine and line with greaseproof paper (instructions below).
3.  Sieve the flour, mixed spice and nutmeg into a large bowl.  Add the cherries, mixed peel and crystallised ginger and toss to coat in the flour (this will prevent them from sinking as the cake bakes).
4.  Sieve in the ground almonds and add the chopped nuts.
5.  Add the soaked fruit, margarine, honey, treacle, eggs and grated zest.
6.  Stir with a wooden spoon until all of the ingredients are combined. (For the second year running I did this while my husband was out, not a good idea as my poor little arms aren't up to the task and I needed a few little rest breaks.  If you happen to have a strong man lying about the place rope him in for this step!)

7.  Divide the mixture evenly between the 2 prepared tins and place into the preheated oven for 3 hours.  As all ovens vary you may need longer than 3 hours, if this is the case return to the oven and check at regular intervals.  Also, I would advise that you check the cake after 2 hours and if you find that the top is brownng too much place a round of greaseproof paper, with a small hole cut in the centre, on top. It is ready when a clean skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

8.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin overnight.

9.  Remove from the tin and discard the greaseproof paper.  Wrap in a double layer or greaseproof paper and a double layer of tin foil to store.

To Line the Baking Tins:

1.  Cut a piece of grease proof paper large enough to wrap around the circumference of the tin.
2.  Cut in half lengthways.

3.  Fold up approximately 1" along the bottom edge.

4.  Snip up as far as the fold at intervals of approximately 1.5cm.

5.  Now place inside the greased baking tin.  The 'fringed'end will make it easier to position it neatly.  (if you think it is too tall feel free to trim and inch or two off the top)

6.  Cut a circle of grease proof paper to cover the bottom of the greased baking tin.  You can see a little trick for that here.

7.  Cut a second piece of grease proof paper long enough to wrap around the circumference of the baking tin.  Fold it in half lengthways and wrap it around the outside of the tin.  Secure it in place with a piece of twine.  This will help to prevent the outside of the cake from browning too much.

Vegetable Crumble - Irish Foodies Vegetarian Cookalong

Apologies for the worse than normal picture quality in

this post but crumbles are quite tricky to photograph.

The last Irish foodies cookalong theme was vegetarian.  While I love vegetables and would eat them until they come out of my ears this made me very aware that I never conciously cook an entirely vegetarian meal.  I set my little brain to thinking and settled on a vegetable crumble.  If I remember correctly the night in question was a little chilly and so I fancied something comforting.  My first attempt while nice didn't really float my boat.  It seemed quite flour heavy and lacked the lovely crunch of the traditional sweet crumbles so I decided to give it another bash this week and was very impressed with the end result. 

I found the original recipe online, I can't even remember which site now, but I knew when flour and butter and some seasoning were the only ingredients that it maybe wouldn't be up to much.  As usual I should have trusted my instincts.  So I set my brain to thinking and decided that if I reduced the flour content and added a savoury 'granola' type thingy ma bob that I could be onto a winner.  This is what I came up with.

For the 'granola'
(I just measured everything very roughly but the below worked well for me)

3 handfuls of Porridge Oats
2 Handful of chopped Mixed Nuts
1tbsp Olive Oil
Salt, Pepper and a little Brown Sugar to season

1.  Place the porridge oats and mixed nuts into a bowl and give them a little mix.
2.  Add the oil and mix again.  If you feel the mix is too dry add a little more oil.  You really just want to lightly coat the mix in the oil.
3.  Season with the salt, pepper and sugar and place on a baking sheet and spread them out evenly.

Vegetable Crumble
Serves 4-6 as a side dish

1 Sweet Potato, peeled and diced
1 small Butternut Squash, peeled, deseeded and diced
1 large Onion, peeled and diced
2 cloves of Garlic, thinly sliced
2-3tbsp of Olive Oil
1tsp ground Cumin
1tsp ground Coriander
1tsp ground Tumeric
1tsp Brown Sugar
A pinch of Sea Salt
A pinch of freshly ground Black Pepper
229ml/7.5floz Single Cream
100g/3.5oz Plain Flour
75g/2.5oz Butter, diced
Savoury 'Granola' (see above)
2 handfuls of Grated Cheese (optional)

1.  Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4
2.  Place the diced vegetables and garlic in an oven proof dish.
3.  In a bowl mix the olive oil, ground cumin, ground coriander, ground tumeric and brown sugar.  Pour over the vegetables and mix to ensure they are evenly coated.
4.  Place into the preheated oven and roast for 45 mins, mixing occasionally to stop the tops caramelising too much.

5.  Place the butter and flour into a seperate bowl and rub together to form a coarse, bread crumb like consistency.

6.  Add the granola and mix well with your hands to distribute evenly.
7.  Remove the vegetables from the oven and add in the cream.  Give it a little stir to coat them all.

8.  Pour over the crumble mixture and spread evenly over the vegetables.  Scatter with the grated cheese if you are using.  Return to the oven for 30 - 40 minutes until the top is golden brown and the cream is bubbling around the edges.

9.  Serve and enjoy.