Hello Everyone
This year has gone so fast!
Only a month to go until Christmas (yippee!) so we wondered if you would like to share our Christmas cake recipe. Mum says it is much easier and cheaper than most Christmas cake recipes, but we don't know because we have never tried to make a different one. We would be interested to hear what you think.
This cake is Gluten free and dairy free for Mattie, and nut free for our mum.
Ingredients (What you need to put into the mixture)
800g of dried fruits - see note below for details
100g of glace cherries
8 tablespoons of syrup
200ml Red wine
160g Pure soya margarine (Or butter if you aren't dairy free)
3 medium eggs
280g doves gluten free plain flour (or normal plain flour if you don't need gluten free)
Half a teaspoon of sodium bicarbonate
1 teaspoon of mixed spice
1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
Equipment (Tools to get the job done)
A largish saucepan, weighing scales, scissors, a metal spoon, a mug, a bowl, grease proof paper, a large round cake tin and an oven
Method (How to make it)
1 Firstly weigh out the dried fruits, you can use which ever dried fruits you prefer but we used one 500g bag of Tesco dried fruit and peel and 300g sultanas. Put them into the saucepan.
If you weigh out too many (on purpose) eat a few...
2 Next comes the tricky bit, we mean sticky bit... Using scissors CAREFULLY cut the cherries into smaller pieces, they are very very sticky, look at Joel
3 Now for another sticky job, getting the syrup out of the jar. We have found a way to make it easier though. If you CAREFULLY pour some hot water into a mug and stand your spoon in it for a minute, the heat from the spoon will then stop the syrup sticking to it when you are using it to measure out the super sticky syrup
4 Add the margarine
5 Now pop the saucepan onto the cooker and heat slowly, stirring a bit now and then. Once the butter has melted, simmer for 5 minutes. (Simmering is when the liquid is just about bubbling slowly, not hot heat)
6 Next pour the mixture into a bowl, remember the pan will be HOT!! Leave the mixture to cool for half an hour or so
7 Whilst you are waiting you can put some grease proof paper into your cake tin and put the oven on.
8 When the mixture has cooled you can move on with the next bits. Start with the eggs. Crack them into a mug first, on at a time, to make sure you don't get any shell in by mistake! Pop them into your bowl with the cooled mixture
9 Weigh out the flour
10 Measure out your spices and bicarbonate
11 Sift the flour and spices on top of your eggs and fruit mix and stir really well
12 Put it into your cake tin, then pop into the oven (Gas 1)
13 Cook for about 2 hours. You will need to check from time to time whether the cake is cooked. Carefully put a skewer into to the middle. If the skewer comes out with mixture stuck to it, it needs longer to cook, if it comes out clean it is ready.
14 If the cake isn't cooked in the middle but getting too brown on the top, you could put a piece of tin foil over the top.
15 When it is done, take the cake out of the oven, but leave it in the tin for 10-15 minutes to cool a little. Then lift out, remove grease proof paper and leave to cool.
16 When cold, you can wrap it up in a clean piece of grease proof paper and store it in a tin for months!! Really you can!! Mum made one 3 years ago and left it to see what happened. Because no air has got to it and it is cooked in the sugary syrup and wine it seems to be OK... not sure we would like to try it though. We are going to leave our cake for a few weeks and then ice it ready for Christmas day.
17 We hope someone finds this recipe useful. We hope to do a few Christmas recipes, presents for people and things like that.
Thank you for your time, enjoy your cooking.
Ethan, Reuben, Mattie, Jacob and Joel Bean
P.s Do you know any good Christmas theme jokes?
Sounds like a lovely recipe and thanks for sharing but you left out when you are supposed to add the red wine and what temperature the oven should be!
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