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?

Guess the weight of the cake

I donated a cake for a 'Guess the weight of the cake' competition recently, and was surprised at the result. Four people (out of 40) correctly guessed the weight, measured to the nearest pound. Considering that I guessed wrong myself, I was duly impressed. No pictures unfortunatley as I forgot, but I made a fruit cake and arranged almonds in a starburst pattern on the top. I was hoping to make it more decorative, as fruit cakes, while nice to eat, don't look spectacular. I kept it undecorated as it would be more difficult to judge it by sight covered in marzipan and icing. Some people did pick it up and hold it, making me panic as it was still wrapped in the greaseproof paper (to keep it moist) and wasn't secured to the cake board. It prpably would have survived a fall, but unless there were no witnesses I couldn't pick it up and put it back on :)

The only problem with things like that are I have a nagging worry that I've put curry instead of mixed spice, or something similar, since I won't get to 'check' it myself. I haven't heard anything back, so fingers crossed!

Oh and just in case you ever need to know, a 9 in fruit cake weighs 4 lb 8 oz.