Friday 9 November 2012

It's Beginning to Smell a Bit Like Christmas

Yup, that time of year again people. Time to make the Christmas cake. I was measuring out ingredients before the school run this morning, and had the cake in the oven by 10am. This is absolutely necessary as the cake can take five hours to cook. Which means it will be ready when I am on the school run again. Piss poor planning that then!

I make the Christmas cake that my mother made, and that (she tells me) her mother made too. Everyone who likes Christmas cake prefers the one they grew up with I think. Our recipe is heavy on the basic fruits, not got any whole nuts in it, and is free of any 'tweaks or exotic touches'. I love it just the way it is.

The only part I hate is lining the tin. What a palaver! All the best planning means that no matter what I can never find any kitchen twine, and end up going into my yarn stash and picking something from there to hold the extra layers of lining on the outside of the tin.

The recipe is a very easy one to follow. The majority of the ingredients are measured at 3/4 of a pound - butter, sugar, flour, raisins, currants,  dates, sultanas, etc. I just bung the butter and sugar into the Kitchen Aid and it goes the hard work of creaming it all together. Add eight eggs, and beat them in in a trice. Only there comes the time to add the fruit and the realisation that the Kitchen Aid bowl is not big enough to handle this much stuff. (And coming to the conclusion that I obviously need a bigger Kitchen Aid!)

Next comes the bottle of sherry. For the cake - not me! It was 9:30am for goodness sake. What do you think I'm like? Don't answer that, rhetorical question and it would be opening up a real can of worms.


And I waited, and waited, and waited for it to cook. I stress every year that I will get it wrong. Not cook it enough and it will fall in the middle. Burn the top. Just muck it up somehow. For someone who loves cooking and baking this is pretty pathetic. Eventually it came out the oven. It's only just come out so no idea if it is fine yet. But it smells good! Time to liberally lace it with sherry and rum, wrap it up tight and put it away until Christmas.



Soon after I got the cake in the oven this morning the post arrived and I received an unexpected gift. From the lovely Jan who blogs over at Isisjem. Jan lives not too far from here but for reasons of busy lives and other distractions we have not met in person yet. But we should do in a couple of weeks time and I am really looking forward to it. She put together the loveliest parcel of a perfectly made wide mouthed pouch and chocolate. Then I opened the pouch and found she had given me some of her precious supply of texty fabrics because I had missed out on that swap. How very, very kind! Huge thank you to Jan and I so look forward to being able to say thank you face to face.

Check out the amazing quilting on the pouch!
Susan

38 comments:

  1. Your fruitcake looks delicious!!! We love fruitcake (hint, hint) :) That's a lovely gift from your friend, Jan.

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  2. Cake? Gifts? WooHoo, I'm coming over to your place ;)
    That is one fun pouch, I've found a tutorial for this and want to get a few done for gifts. Oh the list just keeps getting longer.
    Have a fantastic day!

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  3. Fruitcake, yep, that just about sums you up i think! ; ). What a lovely gift-lucky you!! Ange

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  4. I'm going to make my first Christmas Cake tomorrow. Your's sounds delish

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  5. looks like it was worth all that effort of linning the tin xx cam ALMOST smell it xx

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  6. fruitcake makes me shudder, but that pouch of goodies is lovely!

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  7. I bet the smell of the cake is divine. It certainly looks good. What a lovely pressie from Jan. Di x

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  8. lol, I made mine last week and it's the first xmas cake I've made in like 20 years, mum usually makes and I marzipan and ice, I used Delia's recipe without whole nuts...whisky in mine lol, Also used yarn for the string cos couldn't find the twine lol...
    made my home made mince meat too

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  9. Oooh christmas cake... Cannot beat the smell of mums christmas cake in the oven :-)

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  10. Do you add more booze each week too? It sounds like a great bit of work, I make cookies.

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  11. Ooooh, that looks good! No Christmas cake for us this year though, MIL made a huge wedding cake for my BIL's wedding so we're all baked out :-(

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  12. What a lovely gift from Jan, how great that you will get to meet soon

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  13. Oh how I miss my Mom making the fruitcake. I grew up in Canada and it was a holiday staple but now that I live in the US everyone I know hates it so it isn't worth making just for me. Thanks for the wonderful memories.

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  14. Yea - it looks like it turned out great! Oh definitely no exoticness like pineapple *shudder* - has to be traditional. Such a sweet gift from Jan - we like Jan!!

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  15. Love your pictures and hearing about the recipe but I don't like fruit/Christmas cake. I bet yours is amazing though x

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  16. Must get MrPnP onto ours! I do miss my Mums Christmas Cake! Yours looks yummy! Do you ice it or decorate it in some way?

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  17. Oh I so need a slice of Christmas cake; we will be living off birthday cake for the next fortnight, just not as good!

    Lovely pressie from Jan x

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  18. oooo you can't beat the smell of Christmas cake. Looks yummy. Jan is such a sweeties isn't she? Fab pouch and texty loveliness x

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  19. You cake looks fabulous! Mine is in the cupboard soaking in brandy deliciousness after baking last weekend. Totally with you on the pfaff of lining the tin. I start with Mary Berry's recipe and leave out the bits I don't like (candied peel and nuts) and add more of what I do like (cherries and currants). Just juicy fruit and booze and Christmas is sorted!

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  20. Yum, I can smell it from here...

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  21. YUM!!! I love fruit cake. Have never made one.
    Maybe I should try making one this year??
    Coming up near you I think on Monday. Have to go to Thurgaton to check out a truck for the new business.

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  22. Mmm, I do love a good Christmas cake, but just not worth baking for the two of us! Lovely surprise from Jan!

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  23. Aw isn't Jan a wee gem! LOVE Christmas cake, the boozier the better! Jxo

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  24. You're a good woman. I BOUGHT my Christmas pudding the other day! Bring on the festivities.

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  25. I can smel the Christmas cake from here (yes, all the way from Australia!). Good to see things are getting back to normal for you. Wish I had been part of the texty fabric swap too - I'm only just discovering it.

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  26. Mmm I can smell it from here! I may have to investigate m & s soon!

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  27. Waft it in my direction please! Hmmmm! smells great and very Christmassy!

    So you got those goodies from Jan - she is lovely!

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  28. Hey, it's me - the former anonymous Donna! I enjoy reading your blog and wanted to continue commenting when I could - so I got a google account! I love the little pouch you received as a gift - and with chocolate - well, it's even better. And your cake looks yummy too. I agree that most people prefer the Christmas cake that they grew up with.

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  29. Look! It's Donna! Hi Donna!

    Super duper pouch you have there. Lovely make, Jan! That's just beautiful

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  30. OK, now how come your lined tin looks soooo much neater than mine (I should've taken a photo of the 'tram smash')? How do you do it, any tips?

    I'm half way through making mine, 2 of the 4 needed were baked today - 1 big one for us, 3 small ones for Christmas presents, hee hee. Yummy yummy fruit cake.

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  31. My mother assures me that ours is made too, so I'm sitting and patiently waiting...

    Love the pouch :o)

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  32. I agree with you about the nuisance of lining the pan. But one year, I decided to try baking my cakes in regular loaf pans, and they cooked up just fine. I've done it that way ever since.

    My secrets to great fruit cake are: Soak it in brandy and put almond paste on top.

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  33. Not a huge fan of fruitcake, especially when it has nuts and/or heaps of peel in it. Yours looks great.

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  34. I've never made a fruit cake in my life so Im pretty darn impressed by yours. Pass that sherry here will you, it's 6.30 am and I dont care what people say...

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  35. Looks amazing, Susan! We'll have to do a taste-test comparison some day! :)

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  36. Okay Susan, can you post the exact recipe? Or email it perhaps? Pretty please? :)My Fiance loves Christmas cake and I'd love to make one that's tried and true. What's the difference between raisins and sultanas? I thought sultanas were raisins, even though I only heard them called sultanas on Australian TV.

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  37. Is that the same as Christmas pudding? My brother introduced that to our family after studying a year in the UK. Can't say I love it... I'd rather have that toblerone...

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