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

Baby Sized Baby Shower Swiss Roll

 

Earlier in September we were thrown a wonderful Peter Rabbit themed baby shower and I was told not to bring anything!... But well, the invite said pot luck and when am I ever going to turn down a chance to bake something new!?

 

For my birthday I received a swiss roll pan (jelly roll pan) that I had been wanting for a long time.  I've never made one of these myself, but have been thinking about it a while.

 

I started simply, with a plain sponge, filled with strawberry jam and then, as I wanted to decorate it with some fondant pieces I knew I wanted to make I also covered the swiss roll in a vanilla buttercream.  Here's the recipe, and photos of the finished product!

 

Ingredients:

 

4 large eggs

4oz golden yellow sugar

4oz self-raising flour

 

Method:

 

1.  Preheat the oven to 400°F.  Lightly grease a swiss roll pan (or cookie sheet with high edges) and line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper, leaving the paper hanging over the edges.

 

2.  Using a stand mixer (or electric beaters), beat the eggs and sugar in a large bowl on high speed for 5 minutes, or until light and foamy.



 

3.  Sift the flour into the bowl and fold in lightly and quickly. 

 

 

4.  Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and smooth the surface.  Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until the sponge springs back when lightly touched.

 

5.  While the swiss roll is baking, lay a sheet of parchment paper on a tea towel.

 

6.  Once baked, turn the sponge out onto the paper, remove the original parchment paper from the bottom of the cake, and starting from a short end, roll up the sponge with the paper, using the tea towel as a guide.  Cool rolled up for at least 30 minutes.

 

7.  While the cake is cooling prepare your buttercream filling and decorations.  I made enough buttercream for a thin spread inside the roll and a thick spread on the outside.  (12 oz icing sugar, 9oz butter, 1 tbsp milk and 1 tsp vanilla essence beaten together).

8.  When the cake has cooled, and the filling is ready carefully unroll the sponge and spread with buttercream.  Add some spoonfuls of seedless strawberry jam and spread with a palette knife leaving a border at the edge of the cake so it doesn't all fall out of the sides!

 

9.  Carefully re-roll the sponge, and spread over the buttercream.  Smooth the edges and wipe away any excess on the platter.  I chose to already put the swiss roll on the platter it would be served on - I thought it would be best to decorate this way! 

 

 

 

10.  Add your decorations and enjoy the cake!

I used these great baby shower cookie cutters and used them with fondant.  I love how these imprinted cookie cutters work with fondant (check them out on my Baby Boy Elephant Cupcakes, and Zebra Birthday Cake to see the other times I've done this!)

And the finished product...

 

 

 

But why did I call this post baby sized?!  Well.  MAJOR melting problem.  I was stupid and left the cake out in a sunny car for longer than I should have done and the left hand side of the swiss roll definitely was not a pretty sight.  So, a good chunk had to be cut off but I was persuaded by my wonderful husband that I should still take some of it along.  BOO huge error.. Now, even in the middle of a Canadian Winter I will not be leaving anything buttery in the car!  At least the taste wasn't effected and I'm pretty pleased with how my first swiss roll turned out - now to try out lots of other flavour combinations, I feel like the possibilities are endless with this cake!

 

Here's a final snap of the dessert table - the fact that my swiss roll was baby sized did NOT matter one bit - just look at the amount of sweets there were, as well as the incredible Peter Rabbit cake and cookies that were made for us :-) 

 

 

 ... And now, the countdown is on!  More baby posts coming soon!