Christmas Cakes 2014

It's almost Easter, so in the race to get these blog posts from December and January written up before Springtime crafting and baking begins, it means that Christmas posts have to be shared, even if it is the end of March!

 

Using the same traditional fruit cake recipe that was originally my Mum's, but now with a couple of my own little tweaks to it, I started this baking at the beginning of November.  After soaking the fruit in sherry for a few days first, it was baking day and this time I had my baby girl helping me!

 

 

 

 

 

Cakes all baked, stored and soaked in sherry a few times over 6 weeks it was decorating day!

 

 

 

 

Apricot glaze, marzipan and then fondant layers, and white fondant decoration pieces cut out using mini cookie cutters and winter linzer cookie cutter shapes to create a fair isle design.

 

In thinking about this year's Christmas cake designs I knew I wanted to create something Nordic, and my favourite pattern and Christmas theme of the season was definitely fair isle.  Everything seemed to be fair isle and Nordic this past year.  Lots of clothing, home décor and paper crafts all in this design - so I went with this inspiration for my cakes and was so happy with how it turned out.  I was excited to have appropriate shapes in mini cookie cutters, and especially loved the two little squirrels, the little houses and also the ice skates!  I used Wilton's fondant extruder to make the various dividing lines between the small fondant pieces.  SO HAPPY with how it all turned out :-D

 

The cakes were finished just the day before we headed to England for Christmas week, and with a nice layer of snow in the back garden I pulled on my snow boots and headed out in -12°C to do a Christmas cake photo shoot in the snow!!  A little crazy for sure... I don't know if any neighbours saw me but oh well :-S!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After sticking around for a long, long time - the snow has finally almost all melted so with this blog post written, and the grass visible again it's time to look to Spring and everything crafty and foody that will bring.  It's getting closer :-D

Malt Loaf and a Cup of Tea

Ahhhhh... one of my most favourite treats today!  And another recipe I can't believe I have never posted on here!  Malt loaf.  Moist, delicious, fruit loaf - perfect in the afternoon, sliced and buttered with a cup of tea.  Thanks Mum for your recipe!

Once again, I did a double batch!  It really was the best thing when I received two new loaf tins for my birthday :-D 

I'll get going on this malt loaf recipe now, and there are a bunch of savoury recipes coming soon to the blog.  I can't wait to share all of the dinners we have been creating using seasonal vegetables from our CSA Winter Box!  Watch this space for some non-baking blog posts soon!!

Ingredients (for just the one loaf!):

8oz self-raising flour
1/2 cup demerara sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup milk
4oz dried fruit (I used raisins and sultanas)
1 egg
1 tbsp golden syrup
1 tbsp black treacle

 

Method:

1.  Soak fruit with a cup of black tea overnight in a jug/bowl.  Enjoy a cup of tea seeing as the kettle is boiling!

 

2.  Preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C and grease and line loaf tin (or tins if you are doing a double batch like me!)

 

3.  Mix all of the ingredients together in a bowl.

 

4.  Put the batter into the prepared loaf tin and place in centre of oven.

5.  Bake for 1 hour, until a cake tester/skewer comes out clean.

6.  Leave to cool, then slice and enjoy... With another cup of tea of course!!

That's all for today folks! 

 

Hopefully I'll be back next week with some vegetable inspired recipes for once :-)

Thanksgiving Apple Loaf with Maple Syrup Buttercream

A little late to the blog this week, but I haven't been able to write about the Apple Loaf I baked for Thanksgiving, mainly due to being busy with the thing I am most thankful for in the whole world... Our little girl arrived safely on Wednesday 1st October, and we are just the most happy little family and life couldn't be better. 

So now perhaps baking isn't the baby in my life anymore!  But I have successfully baked, and one-handed baking is now a thing I should probably get used to, but it couldn't be more fun :-)

I had a bunch of apples to use and Thanksgiving dinner at my cousin-in-laws so I wanted to find a relatively easy and quick loaf recipe to bake in between feeds and changes that would work for the post-dinner, post-dessert, coffee and cake course of Thanksgiving!

I found this Apple Loaf recipe and thought it looked like just what I was looking for... As usual a few tweaks and it was just perfect!  Very moist, which meant it also kept really well too.  Give it a try this Fall!

 

Ingredients:

175g unsalted butter, softened
175g sugar
3 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
225g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
25ml milk
2 medium apples, peeled, cored and grated

 

Method:

1.  Preheat the oven to 170°C/325°F and grease and line a loaf tin with parchment paper.

2.  In a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

3.  Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition and add the vanilla extract with the last egg.

4.  Sift in the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice and mix together until combined.

5.  Add the milk and stir in.

6.  Add the grated apples and fold through so that they are evenly distributed. 

 

7.  Transfer the batter to the prepared tin and place in the preheated oven for 1 hour - 1 hour 15 minutes, until a skewer or cake tested comes out clean. 

8.  Take out of the oven and leave the cake to cool in the tin for 15 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

 

For added deliciousness I took some plain buttercream I had leftover that was in the fridge, and added 2 tablespoons of maple syrup, mixing it together to make a maple buttercream that I didn't decorate the cake with, but put in a bowl ready to be spread on the loaf (kind of like bread and butter) for people to have as much or as little of a wee bit of sweetness with their slice of apple loaf!

 

 

It has been the best October so far, and I can't wait to post more baby related crafts, sewing projects and one handed bakes soon :-)