Want to cheat - Christmas cakes

cazziebo

Good Morning lovely old-stylers!

For the past 15 years or so I've made a batch of Christmas cakes to give to people and it's now a bit of an expectation. I'm really short of time this year (and I've usually got them all made and marinading by now!). More importantly, now the kids have grown up, it's just not fun anymore.

Any ideas on how I can cheat? If I bought some rich fruit cakes, anything I could do to make them taste like home made? I'd still ice them myself.. :A

Penelope_Penguin

cazziebo wrote: »

Any ideas on how I can cheat? If I bought some rich fruit cakes, anything I could do to make them taste like home made? I'd still ice them myself.. :A

Get some brandy into them :beer: They won;t be as good as yours, but they'll be moister and taste richer.

Penny. x

charliee_3

i second that, just feed them for a couple of weeks.. they will never know the difference.. just say you tried a different recipe!

Bronnie

Feed them as suggested, decorate them simply but eye-catchingly and confess that this is a "specially-recommended shop-bought cake with your own special twist added"!!

This should sow the seeds in your recipients' minds that they shouldn't automatically expect a cake from you every year for the next 15 years.

Sometimes traditions run their course and after 15 years, you don't need to be tied to this commitment if it no longer suits you! So often people grudgingly carry on with things at this time of year, because it's expected of them..........which is not what this season's supposed to be all about!

celyn90

Yep - alcohol all the way You might want to attack the edges a bit with a knife to make them look a bit more rustic though - cel x

valk_scot

Make something else for them "for a change"? Mincemeat or mince pies are a lot quicker to make.

Or download a recipe, buy some cheap cake tins, weight out all the ingredients into little bags, wrap the whole lot up in cellophane and give it to them as a DIY kit?

cazziebo

celyn90 wrote: »

Yep - alcohol all the way You might want to attack the edges a bit with a knife to make them look a bit more rustic though - cel x

Hey - you've done this before! :rotfl:

Thanks everyone - I'll try Lidl cakes and Lidl Brandy!

(Valk - nice idea but some of my family wouldn't have a clue what to do with a cake tin!)

lisa26_2

google a company called amazon art, they sell cake decorating equipment by mail order and they also sell the most amazing fruit cakes and I think they are very reasonably priced. I will never make another fruit cake since finding these.

Seakay

lisa26 wrote: »

google a company called amazon art, they sell cake decorating equipment by mail order and they also sell the most amazing fruit cakes and I think they are very reasonably priced. I will never make another fruit cake since finding these.

Unfortunately only get hits for Amazon and your post!
Do you have the full website address for them?

McKneff

Dont know how much Lidl etc cakes are but there are some pretty reasonable uniced ones at Morrisons.

lisa26_2

oops spot the daft mistake!!! Its almond art:

http://almondart.com/acatalog/