Xmas Spice cake

Merry Christmas to you all dear readers!

This blog has been neglected of late due to general bedlam after the birth of the little princess, in fact, I think she’s The Queen. She certainly has us twisted around her little finger.

In the spirit of Christmas I chose this easy spice cake recipe since I don’t have the luxury of spending hours in the kitchen these days. It is supposed to taste better after three weeks but I wouldn’t know as we have been eating the smaller one. I lace it with rum every few days ;-) DH took the big one to his work Xmas morning tea today, so we’ll hear what the verdict is after three weeks of storage and extra rum.

The recipe is taken from food.com

http://www.food.com/recipe/mums-special-spice-cake-106510

Merry Christmas 2011!

We're having an easy quiet Christmas this year with just the two of us and the animals. Merry Christmas to all! Have a blessed time with your family and wishing you a very Happy New Year!

The recipe is here. Last year's rumballs.

Stained Glass Christmas Cake

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!

This is Belinda Jeffrey’s recipe published in the Dec/Jan edition of Delicious magazine. It has hardly any cake, just decadently full of fruits and nuts. The orange and lemon zests give it a fresh lift. You can put in any permutations of dried fruits and nuts as long as the combined weight is 810g. I used apricots and cranberries instead of glace cherries, I think I’ll try some glace ginger next time.

Ingredients

125g Brazil nuts

125g pecans

250g pitted dates, chopped

125g glace pineapple, cut into 1 cm pieces

125g red glace cherries

60g glace peaches, chopped

1tbsp Grand Marnier or cognac

Grated zest of 1 lemon

Grated zest of 1 orange

½ cup (75g) plain flour, sifted

¾ tsp baking powder

A small pinch of salt

3 eggs

90g caster sugar

1 ½ tsp vanilla extract

40g unsalted butter, melted

¾ cup apricot jam

Method

1.          Preheat oven to 140C.

2.          Grease and line a 21x11x6cm loaf pan.

3.          Placed all the fruits in a bowl with the alcohol, mix in the nuts and zests.

4.          Beat the eggs and sugar until pale and fluffy.

5.          Add in the sifted flour, baking powder and salt.

6.          Add in the cooled melted butter.

7.          Combine the batter with the fruits and nuts.

8.          Spoon batter into the loaf pan and level the top with the back of a spoon.

9.          Bake for 1 ½ hours or until skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. (only took 1 hr and 10 minutes in my oven)

10.      Place on wire rack and allow cake to cool completely in the pan.

11.      To serve, warm the apricot jam with a couple of spoonfuls for water in the microwave and brush over the top of the cake.

Christmas rumballs

I've made these rumballs as gifts. They look nicer than last year's. The original recipe came from Australian Good Taste magazine.

 Decorated with a dark chocolate coating, white chocolate snow, mint leaves and jaffas. (Tip: Jaffas fade in the fridge)

Simply decorated with dark chocolate coating and white chocolate drizzle.

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients

800g of dark fruit cake (I used Woolworths Homebrand) chopped finely

Rum as much as you like

200g melted chocolate (either dark or milk or a mix)

Method

1. Mix all the ingredients together and leave it to firm up in the fridge for an hour.
2. Shape into balls of desired size.
3. Put it back into the fridge to firm up before dipping them in melted slightly cooled chocolate.
4. Back to the fridge again before drizzling the cooled melted white chocolate and decorating with the mint leaves and Jaffas. (You can use candied cherries instead of jaffas)

Here's the cat pretending to be one of the gifts.

Speculaas

Enjoying these Dutch windmill cookies is probably as Dutch as my husband gets. I usually buy them from Aldi, they are quite good, I love them with coffee, love the aroma of the spice blend. I decided to make a batch as Christmas gifts.

Pretty Xmas trees in a row. Cute!

I added some flaked almonds as the base like the ones they sell in Aldi. The problem is the nuts won't stick on the back very well.

Aren't these pretty?

Recipe

Ingredients:

3 cups plain flour

1/8 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1tsp ground cloves

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp mace (or use nutmeg if you can't find mace)

1 tsp ground white pepper

A pinch of salt

1 cup butter, softened

1 1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 egg

1/2 cup flaked almonds

Method:

1. Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy, beat in the egg.
2. Mix the spices and baking powder into the flour.
3. Stir in half the flour through the butter mixture.
4. Slowly add in the other half and add the almonds.
5. Knead lightly until all even.
6. Wrap dough in cling wrap and chill in fridge for a few hours.
7. Preheat oven to 180C.
8. Flatten the chilled dough on a floured surface to 1/2 cm thick and stamp out dough with a cookie cutter or use a cookie mold if you can get hold of one.
9. Bake in 180C oven for 20-25minutes.

Christmas Eve Dinner

Our christmas spread last year.

 The table setting.

 Lobster Thermidor.

Turkey with roast veges.

BBQ herb crusted prawn skewers.

 Xmas Trifle.

The Pavlova.