Sunday, November 11, 2012

Christmas Cake already!

Goodness me, how organised am I?! As I type, I am breathing in the gorgeous smell of cooking Christmas cakes. Last year's efforts were such a diasaster - I made nine at once, put several in my neighbour's oven, had the temperature up too high and forgot about them - resulting in burned outsides. A classic example of getting too cocky.
So, this year, I am experimenting. A month ago, I put over 2kg of cake fruit in to macerate with a can of Guiness. A week later, I added another can. I was concerned that using beer would cause the fruit to go mouldy or ferment or something. It turned out to be a huge success however. The liquor I drained off it today is thick and unctious, not too alcoholly, and not too sweet, which is what I was hoping for.
The fruit made two square cakes - usually I make round ones because I have so many round tins, but now I have access to all those cake tins for hire, why not! (We hire all kinds of cake tins out).
Anyway, once the cakes are cooked, a couple of hours to go I suspect, and cooled, I will prick them with a skewer and pour the liquor back into the cake. Yum.
Next up, the 'real' Christmas cakes, which instead of being entirely done with (top quality) fruit cake mix, include figs, dates, apricots, ginger and dried cherries. It doesn't need such a long soaking, which is just as well. Time is flying towards Christmas, and with the shop side of it as well as family and friends, I am needing to be a bit more organised.
Thank Goodness for MrC, who is holding the fort at the shop so I can escape and bake, and then go and sew. Happiness Aplenty!!

9 comments:

  1. Sounds yum - put one in a box and send across to me!!

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    1. Will do. Of course eating fruit cake in Oz summer is even more ridonkulous than eatig it here in NZ hehehe.

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  2. Now I'm unusual in that I'm not a fruitcake (some might choose to disagree!) but I can appreciate the art of Christmas cake making....yours sounds full of yummy things and of course excitement aplenty, which is bound to make them taste superb....I really need to get Christmas making myself....

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    1. Hehe, Winnie, I confess I am not a huge fan of it either! But I LOVE making it. All the rituals, the process, the meaning in it, it's awesome. Tastes OK, I guess, but that's not why I do it. Madness! And Garfield once said, avoid fruit and nuts - you are what you eat. ;-)

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  3. Dear Mrs. C.,

    You are going to laugh at me again, but when you first said "Christmas cakes" I thought to myself, what, Christmas there, now? Shouldn't it be in wintertime?

    I suppose it is really warming up in New Zealand, while here I am appreciating the idea of Christmas cake from a warming point of view, because of the alcohol, you know: when I went to pick up the boys from school, it began to sleet... This is shaping up to be a banner year for iffy weather.

    Anyhow, those cakes sure do sound good. Your husband is a duck to let you rest and create.

    Very best,

    Natalie

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    1. heehee, Natalie a dear friend of mine here who only arrived in March from the US, is still bemused that we bother doing Christmas stuff when it is not winter. It's very discombobulating for northern hemispherers! And yet, we are a funny mash up of cultural traditions from the UK, and summer stuff. The pohutakawa flower is to us what the poinsettia is to you - the red flower symbolic of Christmas (though we have poinsettias too!) and Santa is sometimes pictured in jandals, working the kettle barbeque. Me, I am very traditional and prefer to pretend it is winter! ;-)

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  4. I did a big Bisto sniff but couldn't smell anything. Dang. I'm blaming the hay fever. You are too, too organised and I'm jealous (I should add that I don't make Christmas cake or pudding but I'm still jealous).

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  5. Fruitcake is foreign to me. Me, I need to get some honey soon to make gingerbread cookies!

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  6. Gosh you are good! Mum makes eeeeenormous Christmas Cakes that are definitely not for the kids. Nor for me either because I love the preparation but not so much the eating. Smells fabulous too.

    I'll make an appalling bad for us gooey brownie this year I think and need to get a rock on with my DIY Christmas pressies of preserves and merino tops for those northern hemisphere types.

    PS like the new URL :o)

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