Christmas Cake

I made the actual cake back in October (which was probably a bit late) using Mary Berry's standard Christmas cake recipe, feeding it with Cointreau a few times. Unfortunately I only got a chance to decorate it on Christmas Eve so didn't have much time.

I've always loved a design in one of my cake decorating books "The Home guide to Cake Decorating". It's a fantastic book and there's a template for the Three Kings with as a piped run-out with royal icing, it also has fancy collars round the edges.

Being pushed for time I decided to paint onto the cake. I've wanted to try this for a while after seeing beautiful cakes like this from Birthday Cake Party:

I used an edible marker pen to draw on the outline using the tempate in the book as a guide. I had wanted to get black paste for the outlines, but as luck would have it , it was the only colour sold out in the shop. I'd definately use it next time to get a stronger outline.

I then used food colours to paint. These worked out okay, but the colour was a bit thin and it was a bit watery for fine work. Lustre dust mixed with alcohol made for a much more effective result. Here the blue is food colouring and the purple and gold are lustre dusts. I kept the colours to a minimum as I liked the effect. The gold came out really sparkly, I can wait to use it again. I might get some silver too!

And the finished product. I did go over the lines a bit, but I was trying not to put any more fingerprints in the icing from leaning my hand on it. I think if I had more time I'd do a better job but I'd like to give painting another go. We still have some cake left but as it keeps practically forever I'm enjoying it!

Practice Pies

As it's December I thought I'd do a little Christmas Baking. My Christmas cake is baked and being fed regularly with Cointreau. I did skip on making a proper pudding though, as I just couldn't handle watching it steam for 7.5 hours, especially as I've never steamed anything before. As I'm a firm believer in not waiting until one day of the year to eat your favourite things, I made some mince pies.

Strangely I've never made mince pies before, so these are my practice pies. The pastry recipe I used was a bit short, so I think I'll just have to give them another go (yay more mince pies!)

I like Christmas Trees as a wee change from the usual stars too. I also bulked up the sweet mincemeat with some stewed apples. It makes a moister filling and goes further. Off to sample them now, yum...

Christmas Cake

Well, I finally managed to finish my Christmas cake and used some of the penguins from my tutorial to decorate it. It took a few goes arranging them, as at first I had them grouped round the snowman. According to my family it looked like something out of the wickerman! So, I had to make 3 of them into carolers to give a less sinister effect.

The cake itself had a very strong flavour, probably because I've been feeding it and it had quite a lot of fruit, so I may tone this down next year. Marzipan and fondant icing finished it off, with a little of the 'magic sparkles' for snow. I bought these ages ago and haven't been able to find a use for them so far.

I haven't been able to bring myself to eat the penguins yet, though I did allow it to be cut. The first year I made it I'd put so much time and effort in I wouldn't let anyone touch it for a week.

So for all who celebrate it Merry Christmas!

Christmas Cake

Oh dear, I haven't blogged in ages! From past history this usually means a flurry of posts and this is no change, so look out this week for some festive treats.




I've made my Christmas fruit cake (below). As usual it came out a bit bumpy on the top. Maybe I got carried away putting the fruit in. I made it enough in advance to feed it this year, but have never done this before, so hopefully I won't end up with a Cointreau soaked top on a dry bottom.



It was back to my old reliable Mary Berry's Ultimate Cake Book. I do have other ones, honest, but this one is brilliant for standard recipes. What I particularly like about this one is that in the book there's about 8 different sizes and associated ingredient lists, so it can be as big/small as you like.

http://www.goodtoknow.co.uk/food/284497/Mary-Berry--039-s-classic-Christmas-cake



I only made a little one myself this year, 6in as not everyone in my house likes it, and sometimes it can get a bit sickening. I love it though, yum yum ( I hope :) )

Next, well when I get to the shop, is a layer of marzipan, and then I'll have to actually decide on the decoration. I keep changing my mind.

I just noticed the bottle of Shloer hiding in the backround of the photo. It wouldn't be Christmas without it. I used to love have 'red or white' as a kid at the table. Why don't we buy it all year round?