Christmas Baking 2011

CH27

punitalemon wrote: »

It is a great Christmas cake for me...

Ingredients:

* 8oz butter
* 6oz brown sugar
* 8oz self raising flour
* 1 tsp mixed spice
* 1 ½ llbs dried mixed fruits
* 1 tbsp treacle
* 2 tbsp brandy
* 2 tsp lemon juice
* 2oz ground almonds

Method:

# Grease and line cake tin.Heat oven 150c gas 2.beat butter and sugar until pale and creamy,amd mixture drops easily from the spoon,beat in eggs one at a time with 1tbsp flour,add treacle,brandy,flour,mixed spice,lemon juice and fruit mix together.Place cake in tin and smooth top.Bake in oven for 3hrs 45mins.Cool in tin and turn out onto cooling rack.

# Cover cake with marzipan leave to dry for a day.

# To make icing sugar sieve icing sugar into bowl and make a well,pour beaten egg whites into well and beat thoroughly until snowy white and the icing stands in peaks, use to cover christmas cake (to make the snow with the rounded side of the spoon bowl press into icing and flick sideways to form little peaks top with the snowman).

How many eggs?

AwkwardAnnie

Our usual Christmas baking consists of Vanilla Kipfel, Lebkuchen, Strudel, gingerbread houses, gingerbread house cookies for neighbours, gingerbread friend cookies for classmates (two gingerbread men holding hands as cooked close together), nigellas gingerbread : )
I'm sure I'm forgetting things - like HM Jammy dodgers : )

Bexstars

Im doing hampers as gifts this year so will be baking some shortbread, cake balls and making chocolates to go inside, along with some other bits like candy cane vodka, fudge. Already baked our christmas cake, first one ever!

Will be baking lots of biscuits with the kids and mince pies on Christmas eve so we can leave one out for Father Christmas

Cheapskate

I made these last year, replacing the dried cherries with dried cranberries (cos I already had them) - a bit fiddly to make, but fairly easy nevertheless, and GORGEOUS! They only just made it into a biscuit tin, and only lasted more than a day because I hid them! Everyone loved them, even a friend who said she doesn't like pistachios.

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/8022/fruity-christmas-biscotti

A xo

kitschy

Getting hungry reading this! Can anyone recommend/post a recipe for lebkuchen at all? I love it, and would like to take it as a house gift when I'm visiting.

rachbc

i don't make a cake as no one likes it so will do a panforte for after dinner wiht coffee. I also usually do gingerbread muffins, cranberry and white choc cookies a gingerbread house and hm sweets. Fancying a change from the usual but so far nothing has appealled as much so still scouring for a cookie and a cupcake/ muffin recipe

SpikyHedgehog

Made cupcakes for DS2's school Christmas fair & felt really proud of them - we use a dairy & egg free recipe and this time made marbled cupcakes & as they rose nicely, I turned them into butterfly cakes with pink icing & added pink sparkly edible glitter. (Really shouldn't label them dairy & egg free as they get shoved at the end & no-one else buys them. More fools them, the staff at DS1's primary school used to love my cakes. But 2 children in DS2's class can't have egg or dairy, so I like to let them they can have something.)

Someone else had made some fantastic looking cupcakes, I bought one so I could copy the idea . Plain (but yummy tasting) vanilla cupcake in a brown cupcake case, piped on chocolate ganache in a swirl, wrapped chocolate coin pushed into the cake, standing on its side so the coin was pointing up, and silver sparkly cake glitter.

I've never made Christmas cake or pudding yet as always had mummy's - think I'll start next year as I want to start making new traditions.

But I do make mincemeat brownies - mum had the recipe out of women's weekly when I was young, but I use whatever brownie recipe I'm finding best at the time & add a good dollop of mincemeat to it. I have a burn on my wrist from getting them out of the oven in a hurry last year to send into DS2's school for the staff but now have the silicone edges for the shelves to stop me doing it again.

npsmama

What a fantastic thread!

I discovered a wonderful fruit cake recipe in Australian Womans Weekly cookbook a few years back - it's unlike any other fruit cake in that it's bursting with flavour instead of just tasting of sugar- mind you, it has a lot of booze in it but then again we never drink alcohol otherwise.The cake doesn'ttaste alcoholic, just tangy.The recipe is unusual as it calls for jam, instant coffee and cocoa. It also has prunes and dates which add a lot of flavour.

I swear by Nigella's mincemeat recipe - again, lots of flavour instead of just sugar.

Does anyone have a good recipe for Xmas pudding pls? Mine always turn out tasting like a bad bread pudding and a very unappealing brown colour - truly awful.

lucylema

Anyone got any fool proof recipies for the following

Chocolate Chip Cookies
White Chocolate Chip Cookies
The Best Mince Pies

any anything really cheap easy and quick for a small gathering on saturday night

Thanks

triticale

lucylema wrote: »

Anyone got any fool proof recipies for the following

Chocolate Chip Cookies
White Chocolate Chip Cookies
The Best Mince Pies

any anything really cheap easy and quick for a small gathering on saturday night

Thanks

Millies cookies recipe is the only one I use these days.

You can use any chocolate, my favourite is white choc (I use Sainsburys basics, which is perfect for this - I wouldn't eat it as an 'eating' bar though) I have also used smarties and an unwanted galaxy with hazlenuts bar before with great results.

Main expense is the butter which has to be 'real' block butter, it's worth it though as you would taste Stork/marge too much in these.

Tesco had Lurpack 250g blocks on 2 for £2 last week, not sure if it's still on.

I usually cook them for a minute or two longer than the recipe says, but always check on 11 mins first.

Can't help with mince pies though, I have an irrational hatred of dried fruit! :rotfl: