Slow Cooked Christmas Round Up

I hope you all had a very Happy Christmas.  Unfortunately, I was rather unwell with a terrible cold and cough throughout the festive season, but managed to enjoy it in short bursts!

The Slow Cooked Challenge for December was to make a festive recipe using a slow cooked method, here are the entries.

Ema at De Tout Coeur Limousin cooked up  Bigos Polish Stew   made with pork and sauerkraut and s traditionally served around Christmas time, a lovely warming dish with a great story of it's origins and significance to Ema.


Lucy at Baking Queen 74  is the Queen of Slow Cooker cakes and does not disappoint with her Christmas offering of  Slow Cooker Christmas Cake 



Nasifriet at By the Way  shared some Christmas lore from Belgium along with this intriguing Slow Cooked Turkey Stew with Speculoos and Abbey Beer I really must make this, it sounds so good.




Claire at Foodie Quine provides a host of delicious Slow Cooked recipes featuring Scotch Beef, Scotch Lamb and Specially Selected Pork, all quality assured Scottish meat products.  I'm featuring the  Slow Cooker Scotch Lamb with Red Wine and Butter Beans but please visit as there are more delicious recipes to choose from.



It's always nice to finish a meal with something sweet, and Sarah of Tales from the Kitchen Shed is supplying this very festive Black Forest Chocolate Pudding as our finale, this one isn't just for Christmas, it would make a great Sunday Lunch or dinner party dessert.

Many thanks to all those who took part in the Slow Cooked Challenge, both this month and throughout the year.  I'll be back with a new linky on the 1st of January.

Labels: Bigos, Black Forest Chocolate Pudding, Christmas Cake, crockpot, Scotch Lamb, Slow Cooked Challenge, slow cooker, Speculoos, Turkey

posted by Janice @ 18:49 4 Comments

What to Bake and How to Bake it: Festive Fruit Cake

Do you make a fruit cake for Christmas?  Usually I have my cake made at the end of October and maturing until it is iced a couple of weeks before Christmas.  However, this year I was in danger of not having any cake at all, as I've just been so busy.  Thank goodness I was sent a copy of What to Bake and How to Bake it by Jane Hornby and took the opportunity to bake Jane's Festive Fruit Cake. 


Jane Hornby is an experienced food writer, baking expert and cookery teacher.  She has spent many years working on bestselling food magazines where she has honed her clear, friendly, step-by-step style, and her passion for real home cooking.

The book begins with a comprehensive chapter full of technique, tips and answers to frequently asked questions.

Simple Family Baking contains recipes such as Golden Citrus Drizzle Cake, Peanut Butter Cookies, Favourite Swiss Roll, Lemon and Raisin Pancakes, Rocky Road  and Classic Crusty Bread.

Morning Coffee and Afternoon Tea, just imagine a tiered cake stand loaded with Classic Shortbread, Jaffa Marble Loaf, Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting, Lemon Glazed Ginger Cake and Seriously Chcolately Cookies.

As if these are not special enough the next chapter is entitled Special Bakes. The Chocolate Fudge Layer Cake looks pretty special and the Coconut Layer Cake is really pretty with it's toasted coconut chip decoration. Angel Cake with berries and Pumpkin Pie are classic US celebration cakes and almost everyone loves Frosted Cupcakes.  The Festive Fruit cake comes into this chapter (recipe below) as does another winter feast bake, Cranberry Stollen.

Finally we come to Desserts and After Dinner, the Flourless Chocolate Cake is a decadently rich and gooey dessert, I'm definitely going to try the Tart au Citron, it's one of my favourites.  Another citrus favourite is Whole Orange and Almond Cake, the instructions look incredibly easy.  Want to master choux pastry?  Jane provides the perfect step by step Chocolate Profiterole recipe and pastry is also de-mystified in the recipe for One-Crust Apple and Blackberry Pie.  Macarons, biscotti and Salted Caramel Shortbread bites complete this indulgent chapter.

There is a really useful index of bakes by occasion, for example, Bake-sale bestsellers and Mother's Day.  There is a standard index as well, so you can easily find your favourites.

Who is it for?
You would think this is a book for beginners, the step-by-step photos and instructions certainly make it ideal for a beginning baker.  However, although I have many years of baking experience, I probably made the best fruit cake I have ever made using the Festive Fruit Cake recipe, so it is well worth investing in for anyone who wants to improve their baking.

Pros
It's a beautiful book and would make a great gift.  The photographs are clear without too much styling to get in the way of what you need to do, you could frame the illustrations at the start of each chapter,  and hang them on your wall, they are so delightful (see the cover for an idea of the style).   The written instructions are very detailed and neatly laid out down the side of the photos.  If my experience is typical, the recipes really work.

Cons
There are an awful lot of baking books on the market, and I seem to own quite a few of them.  Many of the bakes in What to Bake and How to Bake it are standards such as Victoria Sponge, Swiss Roll, Shortbread, Brownies which will feature in other books you may own, but perhaps not in such detail with a step-by-step format.

The Verdict
Beautiful book, well written recipes.  I'm not sure I could resist if I didn't already have a copy.

Festive Fruit Cake
1 lemon
100 g glace cherries, drained
600 g dried mixed fruit, such as raisins, sultanas or currants
100 g candied mixed citrus peel
120 ml brandy or dark rum
225 g soft butter, plus extra for greasing
225 g light brown soft sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 eggs
225 g plain flour
2 tsp ground mixed spice
1/4 salt
50 g toasted flaked almonds

1. Finely grate the zest from the lemon and squeeze the juice.  Cut the cherries in half.  Put them into a large saucepan with the dried fruit and peel and 100 ml of the alcohol. Cover, then bring to a simmer. Remove from the heat and leave to stand for at least an hour, or overnight if you can.  The fruit will plump up and absorb the liquid.

SOAKING ALTERNATIVES
If you'd rather not use alcohol, strong black tea makes a good substitute, as does orange or apple juice.  Alcohol is added to act as a flavouring as well as to preserve the cake until Christmas.  Any dried fruit can be substituted, although I'd recommend a balance of sweet and tart fruit for a more interspersing end result. 

2. When ready to make the cake, preheat the oven to 160C (140C fan/gas 3).  Double-line a deep 20cm round cake tin with baking parchment.  To do this, fold a 65 x 30 cm piece of parchment in half lengthways.  On the folded side, make a fold about 2 cm of the way in.  Snip at 2 cm intervals along the length of the seam, up to the fold, a make a frill. Cut 2 circles for the base.

3. Grease the tin with butter, then line the sides with the frilled paper, with the frills at the base of the tin, overlapping slightly.  Grease the circles with butter, then sit them on top trapping the frill below.  This preparation is neede to protect the cake during the long baking time.

4. Put the butter and sugar in a large bowl, then beat with an electric mixer until pale and creamy.  Add the vanilla, then beat in 1 egg.  When the mixture is fluffy and light, add the next egg and repeat.  If the batter starts to look a little lumpy, beat in 1 tablespoon on the flour.  Repeat with the remaining eggs. This is one creaming-method cake that can't be sped up; don't try to make it using the all-in-one method.

5. Sift in the flour, spice and salt into the bowl and fold into the batter with a spatula or large metal spoon.  Now fold in the soaked fruit, plus the nuts.  It will make a stiff batter.

6.  Scrape the batter into the prepared tin and level the top.  Make a depression in the middle of the batter with the spatula.  This will  help the cake rise more evenly.

7. Bake for 1 1/2 hours, then turn the oven down to 150C (130C fan/Gas 2) for 1 1/4-1 1/2 hours more. When ready, the cake will be dark golden and a skewer inserted into the centre will come out clean.  If not bake for another 15 minutes and check again.  Leaver to cool in its tin on a rack.  When still warm, prick holes all over it with a cocktail stick and spoon in the rest of the alcohol, tea or juice.  Once cool, remove from the tin then wrap carefully in clean baking parchment and store in an airtight container in a cool place.

The recipe also includes instructions for how to marzipan and ice your cake, I love marzipan but this year I decided to leave my cake 'naked' and enjoy it in all it's fruity glory. 

What to Bake and How to Bake It by Jane Hornby
Photographs by Liz and Max Haarala Hamilton
Illustrations by Kerry Lemon
Published by Phaidon 
RRP £19.95

Digital image of Santa Claus from Jingle all the way by Kate Hadfield

Labels: baking, Christmas Cake, cookbook review, fruit cake, Jane Hornby, Phaidon, Step by Step, What to Bake and How to Bake it

posted by Janice @ 20:31 16 Comments

Festive, Light and Fruity Whisky Marmalade Cake

I am a huge fan of Christmas cake, but I know that not everyone likes the rich dark fruit cake that is traditionally baked for Christmas.  I am also aware that not everyone manages to make their cake in late October or early November to allow it to mature in time for Christmas, so it's really nice to have a lighter cake that can be made and eaten straight away.  This recipe is great to make any time of the year, but I've dressed it up a bit for the festive season.

I'm delighted to say that this post is part of #ChristmaswithMackays a 12 days of Christmas feature being run by Mackays, a family run Scottish company who make their preserves in small batches in the traditional way. 




Festive, Light and Fruity Whisky Marmalade Cake

For Cake
6oz/175g soft margarine or butter
6oz/175g caster sugar
6oz/175g sultanas
4oz/125g raisins
50g mixed peel
50g glace cherries, halved
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp mixed spice
2 tbsp Mackays Orange Marmalade with Whisky
1 tbsp Whisky



For Topping 1 clementine, sliced thinly
1 tbsp caster sugar
2 tbsp water
glace cherries
Mixed nuts
  
To make the cake:
1. Pre-heat the oven to 325F, 160C and grease and line an 8in/20cm round cake tin.
2. Put all the ingredients in a bowl and mix well.
3. Fill the tin with the mixture, smoothing the top.
4. Bake for 2 hours or until a skewer comes out clean.
5. If the cake appears to be browning too quickly place a piece of foil over the top of the tin.
6. Allow the cake to cool in the tin for about 10 minutes, then turn onto a rack and leave until completely cold.

To make the topping
1. Place the sugar and water in a saucepan and heat slowly until all the sugar has melted.
2. Bring to the boil and simmer for about 5 minutes until it starts to thicken and become like syrup.
3. Add the clementine slices and simmer gently for 10 minutes.  Watch it carefully to make sure the sugar syrup does not dry up.
4. Lift the clementine slices out of the syrup and place on a sheet of baking parchment to cool.
5. Set aside the syrup to cool.
6. Brush the top of the cake with the cooled syrup and place the clementine slices, cherries and nuts in an attractive pattern over the top of the cake. Brush the nuts and fruits with the syrup.



Thanks to Claire at Mackays for the samples of Mackays Marmalades, I was not paid for this post and all opinions are my own.

Labels: Christmas Cake, Fruity, Last minute, Mackays, spices, Whisky Marmalade

posted by Janice @ 05:00 5 Comments

Your favourites and mine from 2012

January

February

March

Labels: Chocolate Berry Pavlova, Chocolate Cake, Christmas Cake, cupcakes, fish, Jubilee, La Tasca, Lemon Meringue Pie, macarons, Review 2012, Rhubarb and Ginger Jam, Tapas, Turkey, Vanilla Chip Oatmeal Cookies

posted by Janice @ 10:00 12 Comments

A Woodland Dell Christmas Cake

My Christmas cake for 2012 has a woodland theme, with some little toadstools and a miniature deer.  Yes I know it's not in proportion, I really wanted a fairy, but had to make do with this teeny little deer!  Although I covered the cake with fondant icing,  I needed to stick the toadstools together with something and also make sure they would stand up on the cake.



What I needed was some Royal Icing, but I only needed a little bit.  That's where Sugar and Crumbs Royal Icing mix is ideal.  I only needed to mix up as much as I needed as this Royal Icing has been developed using the best quality fine particle icing sugar available on the UK market together with a fully pasteurised "high whip" egg white powder.  High whip basically allows the egg white to create peaks/get firmer much quicker and it can also be used for run out icing because of the quality of the egg white. It's not yet available to purchase, but I can certainly recommend it for ease of use and performance.
I added some colour to the icing I had left after using the Sugar and Crumbs Royal Icing to fix the toadstools and leaves, then added some food colouring and piped Merry Christmas onto the cake.  My piping skills are not so great, but at least I didn't mis-spell it!

You can see the cake and the recipe by Paul Hollywood in my review of  'How to Bake'

I was supplied by Sugar and Crumbs with a number of products for trial, including Royal Icing.  I was not required to provide a positive review, all views are my own.

Labels: Christmas Cake, Royal Icing, Sugar and Crumbs

posted by Janice @ 21:16 7 Comments

How to Bake Paul Hollywood's Christmas Cake

What do you think about when you think of Paul Hollywood?  Oh stop it, you naughty readers.  If you were behaving yourselves, you might think of baking but more specifically, baking bread.  Certainly, I associate Paul Hollywood with bread baking rather than cake baking.  So I was surprised and delighted when I received a copy of his book 'How to Bake' to review, to see that there were indeed lots of bread recipes but also lots of other bakes too.

How to Bake by Paul Hollywood

Who is it for?

Pros and Cons

 

Ease of use

 Worth buying?

 As I hadn't yet made my Christmas cake, I decided to try Paul's recipe, the photograph above is from the book.

Christmas Cake

Makes at least 16 slices / prep 1 hour, plus pre-soaking fruit / bake 3–3½ hours
This is a classic, richly fruited Christmas cake – deliciously moist and
substantial. It tastes wonderful just as it is, but of course the addition of
marzipan and snowy white icing make it much more festive and spectacular.
You can either make your own marzipan, or use a good-quality bought
one. The same goes for the icing.
450g sultanas
225g raisins
225g dried apricots, chopped
115g prunes, chopped
55g glacé pineapple
225g glacé cherries, chopped
225g chopped candied peel
115g blanched almonds, toasted and very roughly chopped
Finely grated zest and juice of 1 orange
70ml brandy
225g unsalted butter, softened
200g light muscovado sugar
5 large eggs
280g plain flour

To finish
2 tbsp apricot jam
1 quantity marzipan (see page 255), or a 500g packet ready made marzipan
Icing sugar for dusting
1 quantity royal icing (see page 255), or a 500g packet ready-to-
roll royal icing

1. Combine all the dried and glacé fruit, candied peel and almonds in
a large bowl. Add the orange zest and juice, and the brandy. Mix well,
cover and leave for several hours or overnight.
2. Heat your oven to 150˚C. Line the base and sides of a 20cm round deep
cake tin with a double thickness of baking parchment, cutting it so that
it stands a good 5cm proud of the top of the tin.
3. In a very large mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar together for
several minutes until pale and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time,
adding a little of the flour with each to prevent the mixture splitting.
Stir in the fruit mixture. Sift the remaining flour over the mixture and
fold in, using a large metal spoon. Spoon the mixture into the prepared
cake tin and level the surface.
4. Bake in the middle of the oven for 3 hours, then check by inserting
a skewer into the centre – if it comes out clean, the cake is cooked.
If not, give it a further 15–30 minutes. Leave the cake to cool before
removing it from the tin.
5. When your cake is completely cooled – and ideally after a couple of days
– you can marzipan and ice it. Warm the apricot jam gently in a saucepan
with a splash of water to thin it down, sieve, then brush all over the cake.
6. Roll out 300g of the marzipan to a large circle, about 4mm thick. Using
the cake tin as a guide, cut a round of marzipan to fit the top of the cake
and position it. Roll out the other 200g marzipan with the trimmings
and cut 2 long strips to fit around the side of the cake. Position these,
then smooth the marzipan and mould the edges together.
7. If you are using ready-to-roll icing, roll it out on a surface lightly
dusted with icing sugar to a thickness of about 5mm. Lift it over the
marzipan, smooth down and trim off the excess at the base.
8. If you are using homemade royal icing, smooth it over the cake with
a palette knife. You can leave it smooth or swirl it into peaks with the
back of a spoon or your palette knife, as you choose. Leave to set.
9. Wrap a ribbon around the side of your Christmas cake and finish as you
wish with festive decorations.

Here is my cake, it is much lighter than the one I usually make but it is packed full of fruit.  There seemed to be a lot of mixture, too much for my 20cm tin, so I baked the remaining mixture in a small loaf tin.


The advantage of this was that I was able to taste the cake without cutting into my Christmas cake!  In fact the cake cuts very well as the texture of the cake is quite dense but moist and not over sweet. As an apricot and prune fan, I particularly enjoyed the dried fruits.  I'll be interested to see how the cake matures.

How to Bake by Paul Hollywood is published by Bloomsbury  RRP £20,  Popular On line Retailer £8.86

Thanks to Bloomsbury for the opportunity to review this book

Labels: apricots, book review, Christmas Cake, cookery book review, Great British Bake Off, How to Bake, Paul Hollywood, prunes

posted by Janice @ 21:49 7 Comments

Farmersgirl Recipe Round Up 2011

Labels: 2011 round up, Beef Wellington, blondies, chickpea, chilli, chocolate pavlova, Christmas Cake, crumble, Gingerbread, jam, lasagne, marmlade, New Year, pepper steak, shortbread, smoked paprika, Soup, tomato

posted by Janice @ 11:00 11 Comments