Christmas Cake 2014!

Like I do every year, I started making the Christmas cakes in September as is tradition. I macerated the fruit for a week, then began the mass production of wheat and dairy free cakes. I made 4 successful cakes in total, but I messed up the first one by accidentally mixing baking powder into the flour by force of habit; that one we're eating as a tea brack.

I've always loved Christmas cake, and this year it's just as delicious as ever. I did, however, subsidise some of the sherry with cold strong tea to make it go further, as I was macerating 4 pounds (2 kilogrammes) of fruit in one go to make a load of cakes.

They have gone into storage, wrapped in cling film then tin foil, to mature until December when I will cover them all in marzipan and icing.

Here is the recipe for the cakes, it's a slightly modified version of last year's one (not much, just a little)

FREE FROM
☑ Soya (check for soya lecithin)
☑ Yeast
☑ Wheat

CONTAINS
☒ Alcohol (use ingredients in italics for an alcohol-free version)
☒ Nuts (use ingredients in italics for a nut-free version)

INGREDIMENTS
Makes 1 8 inch (20 centimetre) round cake

For the fruit preserve:

• 4 ounces (115 grammes) dried currants
• 4 ounces (115 grammes) raisins
• 3 ounces (85 grammes) sultanas
• 3 ounces (85 grammes) glacé cherries
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) candied mixed citrus peel
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) slivered almonds
• For a nut free version, simply replace that ounce (30 grammes) of almonds with another fruit of some sort.
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) brown sugar
• 1¾ fluid ounces (50 millilitres) rum, spiced or plain
• 5 fluid ounces (150 millilitres) dry sherry
• For an alcohol free version, just use 7 fluid ounces (200 millilitres) cold strong tea instead of the rum and sherry.

For the cake mixture

• 4 ounces (85 grammes) butter or block margarine
• 4 ounces (85 grammes) soft brown sugar
• 2 medium eggs
• 4 ounces (115 grammes) white spelt flour or gluten-free flour mix
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) ground almonds
• For a nut free version, just replace this with an ounce (30 grammes) of cornflour
• 2 teaspoons ground mixed spice
• Pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence or almond essence

HOW-TO

First mix all the fruit preserve ingredients together in a glass or ceramic bowl. Mix thoroughly, and leave somewhere cool (but not in the fridge) for a week before preparing the cake, stirring daily. For best results, the cake should be made at least a month before serving, so by extension the fruit mixture should be prepared about a month and a half in advance.

When the fruit has soaked:

• Prepare your cake tin. Grease and flour the inside, and then double line the bottom and sides with baking paper. Preheat the oven to Preheat your oven to 150°C (300°F, Gas Mk.2, or moderately cool) and set the rack in the centre of the oven with plenty of room to spare from the rack above it.
• In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until light and creamy with a wooden spoon or electric hand mixer.
• Beat in the eggs, one at a time, until fully incorporated. Add the vanilla or almond essence, and then the ground almonds.
• Sieve in the flour, spice and salt and mix in until the flour has just disappeared.
• Add the fruit preparation and combine thoroughly.
• Pour the cake mixture into the tin and bake for 1½ hours.
• Start checking for doneness after about an hour and a quarter. The cake is baked when a skewer inserted into the thickest part - usually the middle - comes out completely clean. If it isn't, continue cooking but don't cook for more than 1½ hours in total; it'll be dry and chewy.
• Once cooked, allow to cool completely in the tin before taking out and transferring to a wire rack.

THIS TIME LAST YEAR: Free-From Gingerbread Men

Variations on a Theme: Surfing Toffee Tray Cake (Wheat Free)

Earlier this year I was appointed as the youth worker in my church, which means now I'm in charge of designing, maintaining and running the youth group for the young people in my church and the surrounding churches in our circuit. I host a youth group every second Monday, where we have tea and biscuits and do team activities.

This week we had a surfing themed evening because the leader of our church's surfing mission was giving a talk. To fit in with the evening, I made some sea themed cakes.

I also took this opportunity to try out my new recipe for 'fail safe' boiled fondant icing, and it worked a charm. However, the weather was very overcast so the sugar boiling took a few goes to stop crystallising.

Before I started my surfing themed cakes I thought about how I'd decorate them, then I remembered that the Natural Confection Company does sea creature gummies, which would make very quick and convenient sea themed decorations for the cakes. The whole fairy cake versus tray bake conundrum was not a challenge for me: I infinitely prefer tray bakes to fairy cakes. I've never been a fairy cakes person, honestly.

I decided to play it safe and simple with the flavours because they were for teens and tweens who tend to be fickle and unadventurous. I settled on a toffee flavoured sponge with a simple vanilla icing; I thought the blue colour and the little sea creatures would be the main things, as children tend to get excited more about interesting visual things than interesting flavour combinations.

The texture of the cake was spot on, and it was deliciously moist and tender. I cooked the tray cake at a slightly lower oven temperature to get it to rise more evenly and bulge less in the centre; it worked quite well.

Overall, I think this little venture worked out brilliantly. I often overlook the advantages of using premade sweeties for decoration, and I think I'll keep an eye out for themed sweeties any more.  The children really enjoyed them, anyway, which is the most important thing.

HOW TO MAKE

• Make one 7x9 inch (17x24 centimeter) toffee sponge cake following this recipe, using 4 ounces (115 grammes) of soft brown sugar and ½ an ounce (15 grammes) golden syrup in place of all the caster sugar. Bake as instructed.
• Once the cake is cooled completely, use either blue butter cream icing or blue pouring fondant to cover the top of the cake. Streak to make it look like waves.
• Arrange 16 sea creature sweets on the top in a grid, and allow to set completely for about 2 hours at room temperature.
• Cut the cake into 16 pieces using a bread knife in a long sawing motion.
• Store in an airtight container at room temperature.

No-Churn No-Cook Strawberry Cheesecake Ice-Cream (Egg- and Wheat Free)

Yeah, I just said that; and I know that tittle has a lot in it...

And boom, there is the gratuitously super sexy sunlit shot of my final creation. After years of searching, I eventually found the perfect recipe for this decadent treat... and yes it does taste as sexy as it looks; look!

I'm getting way too excited about this. Apologies... but not really!

So, with this knew found knowledge, I decided to recreate a favourite of my teen years. Luxury American ice-cream makers Ben and Jerry used to sell a variety of ice-cream here in Ireland called Peace of Cake, which is a fabulous pun, which was basically strawberry cheesecake flavoured ice-cream with a swirl of biscuit base crumb running through it; and it was heavenly.

Obviously, having difficulty with wheat, I stopped being able to eat it. Which doesn't really matter after all because they don't sell it here any more anyway!

Of course, this doesn't actually have a biscuity swirl through it, the biscuit crumbs are more dispersed through the cream, but I'm sure I will find a way of making a swirling stripe of buttery biscuitness one day.

So, without further ado!

INGREDIMENTS:

Makes 14 fluid ounces (400 millilitres)

For biscuit crumbs:

• 1 ounce (30 grammes) cold butter or block margarine, cubed
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) caster sugar or coarse brown sugar
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) spelt flour or gluten-free flour blend
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 to 2 teaspoons of sunflower oil

For ice-cream:

• 3 fluid ounces (90 millilitres) whipping cream (35 - 40% fat)
• 1 fluid ounce (30 millilitres) Greek yogurt
• 2 fluid ounces (60 millilitres) sweetened condensed milk
• 4 tablespoons strawberry jam
• Optional: A few drops of red food colouring

HOW-TO:

First off, make the biscuit crumbs

• Preheat your oven to 200°C (400°F, Gas Mk.6, or moderately hot).
• In a mixing bowl, mix the sugar, flour, and salt. Rub in the cubed butter until it forms crumbs.
• Mix in the cinnamon, and then pour out on an un-greased un-lined baking tray.
• Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, tossing the crumbs with a fork every 3 minutes to keep them separate. You want a nice mixture of small and large crumbs.
• Once the crumbs are all evenly golden brown, remove from the oven and allow to cool to room temperature on the tray.

Now, prepare the ice-cream

• In a medium bowl, mix the sweetened condensed milk and jam until well combined.
• In another medium bowl, whip together the cream and yoghurt or cheese with a balloon whisk until holds stiff peaks. I prefer to whip by hand to I can have more control over how stiff the peaks are.
• Using a spatula or a large metal spoon, take a spoonful of the cream and fold gently into the strawberry condensed milk mixture using a cutting motion. This will make it lighter so it doesn't knock all the air out of the rest of the cream.
• Add the rest of the cream and fold in completely.
• If the ice-cream isn't pink enough for your liking, add a few drops of red food colouring until it reaches the right colour.

Final assembly:

• In a bowl, moisten the biscuit crumbs with the sunflower oil.
• Spoon about a quarter  of the ice-cream mixture into your freezing container and then sprinkle a third of the moistened crumbs over the top. Repeat finishing with the last layer of ice-cream mixture.
• Using a long knife, swirl the ice-cream to slightly mix the crumbs and cream together.
• Cover with cling film, making sure the cling film touches the surface of the cream. If the container has a lid, pop that on as well.
• Freeze for a minimum of 6 hours, but overnight is best.

And there you have it! The most deliciousest of egg-free, wheat- or gluten-free, no-cook, no-custard, no-churn ice cream! Temper for about 5 to 10 minutes before scooping into bowls, or better, wheat free ice-cream cones.

Ice Cream Cones (Wheat Free)

You may have noticed I'm on a real ice cream buzz recently, but I have the kind of mind that once it's set on working something out, nothing gets between me and the pursuit of perfection and my mind become completely enveloped in obsessive trial and error.

However, I think now that I've found the seemingly perfect recipe for no-machine homemade ice cream (recipe pending upload as of today), it was time to put the ice cream creating to rest and find a way to house it, and by house it I mean make cones for the ice cream to go in.

My first attempt at the cones was successful but troublesome.

The recipe was perfect, but the making of them was pretty tricky. In the absence of a waffle iron, I took the lead from several recipes I found online which suggested I cooked each individual cone in a frying pan over medium low heat: this produced fantastic results, but was far too fiddly as the crepe thin waffles were too soft and delicate to flip easily with a household frying spatula.

The cones were soft enough immediately after cooking to form into cones around a mould I'd fashioned out of a paper plate, and once completely cool were nice and crunchy like a cone should be. The finished cones were just as lovely as I'd imagined, but I had to know if there was an easier way to make them.

The answer unfortunately in my case is no.

I decided to try baking them in the oven, cross-referencing several cookery books to find the precise baking time and oven temperature. I cooked them at 180°C (350°F, Gas Mk.4, or moderate) for about 15 minutes until golden around the edges, but it was far too soft and fell to pieces when I tried to roll it. I worked out pretty soon that they needed to be cooked on both sides with direct heat, which is why waffle irons are so handy.

So, my third attempt went back to the frying pan. However, this time I cooked them slowly on a medium-low heat for about 3 or 4 minutes, or until they were golden on the pan side and set on the upside, before flipping them and cooking them for a further 4 minutes or so until equally golden on the other side.

This was far more successful, however my rolling technique will have to improve before I burnt my thumb and forefinger off...

FREE FROM
☑ Soya (check for soya lecithin)
☑ Yeast
☑ Wheat

CONTAINS
☒ Gluten (use ingredients in italics for a gluten-free version)
☒ Dairy (use ingredients in italics for a dairy-free version) 
☒ Eggs
☒ Refined sugar products

INGREDIMENTS:
Makes 4 or 5, depending on size

• 1 egg
  
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) caster sugar
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) melted butter or block margarine
• ½ teaspoon (3 millilitres) vanilla essence
• 1 fluid ounce (30 millilitres) milk or water
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) spelt flour or gluten-free flour mix
• Pinch of salt 

HOW-TO

• Make a cone shape form using half a paper plate or a piece of card. It should be about 6 inches (15 centimetres) long.
• In a  medium size mixing bowl, whisk the egg, vanilla and sugar together with an electric hand mixer on high speed until doubled in volume, pale, fluffy and thick.
• While still whisking, pour in the butter in a thin stream. Mix until incorporated.
• Using a spatula or metal spoon, gently fold in the milk.
• Sieve in the salt and flour and fold in gently.
• Heat a heavy based frying pan or griddle on a medium-low heat. Oil very lightly is it's not a non-stick frying pan.
• Pour 2 to 3 tablespoons (30 to 45 millilitres) of mixture onto the frying pan and swirl gently by the handle until it flattens out into a thin disc about 6 inches (15 centimetres) across. Cover the pan with a tight lid, or encircle the crepe with a saucepan lid if using a griddle, and cook gently for about 4 minutes, or until golden brown underneath and set on top.
• Using a pancake flipper or fish slice, gently lift and flip the crepe and cook, covered again, for a further 4 minutes. The cooking times will vary slightly depending on your hob, so please go by what it looks like.
• Put the crepe on a clean tea towel, making sure the prettier side is down, and roll it around the paper cone, squeezing as you go and making sure the bottom is sealed. If it's too hot, you can use the tea towel to help. Make sure to do this step as fast as possible because once it sets you can't unwrap it and start again.
• Hold the cone in shape until it sets, then move onto the next one.
• Allow all the cones to cool completely before serving.

I know there's an obscene amount of photos in this article, but my Lordy was I pleased with myself when I worked this one out!

Homemade Condensed Milk

Like I said in my post on homemade ice cream, I make my own condensed milk, you know... because I can.

I attempted to make condensed milk many years ago when I went through my last hunt for the perfect ice cream, and also when I learnt about making vanilla fudge and butter tablet using the glorious stuff, but it wasn't successful. It caught on the saucepan and burnt, and left me with little brown bitter bits in the finished product. It wasn't nice.

However, this time around I found this recipe, which is much simpler than many of the slow-cooking methods I've found online. However, it is high-maintenance. This was my starting point, but when I made it I found it didn't have exactly the right consistency.


The recipe I developed from this uses a tad more sugar, but only to make it mathematically work. The recipe I use now is simple: 1 ounce weight of sugar for every 4 fluid ounces of full-fat milk.

You may have guessed, I'm a fan of formulas, and also a fan of the imperial system. This works out as 30 grammes of sugar for every 120 millilitres of full-fat milk.

So, here she goes!



FREE FROM
☑ Soya
☑ Yeast
☑ Wheat
☑ Eggs
☑ Gluten

CONTAINS
☒ Dairy (obviously)
☒ Refined sugar products

INGREDIMENTS

• 1 pint (570 millilitres) full-fat milk
• 5 ounces (140 grammes) caster sugar
• 1 pinch baking soda (sodium bicarbonate)

HOW-TO

• In a large, heavy bottomed saucepan, bring the milk to a boil.
• Once boiling, add in the sugar and soda in one go and stir until dissolved. Reduce the heat to low when it reaches the boil again, and simmer gently.
• Simmer on a low heat for about 20 minutes, stirring very frequently. Don't leave it un-stirred for any longer than 2 minutes at a time. This is quite time consuming, but necessary.
• Cook until it has reduced to a third of its original volume. If you want to be pendantic, you can weigh it, subtracting the weight of the saucepan: it should weigh 9 ounces (250 grammes).
• Another way to test its doneness is to keep a saucer in the fridge. When it comes close to being ready, drop a teaspoonful of the milk onto the chilled saucer, and tilt it. If it runs like it should - thick but still pourable - it's done.
• Allow to cool completely, then pour into a sterilised jar. Store in the fridge for up to a week.

Apologies for the photo, it looked in focus on the little camera screen! Oopsies...

The Mystery of Perfect Homemade No-Machine Ice Cream: SOLVED!

At last, after years of fruitless searching, I have finally cracked it! I could almost weep with joy!

I have settled on the cream and condensed milk method, and have managed to pin the exact ration of milk to cream. The Carnation official recipe says one 14 ounce (400 gramme) can of condensed milk to one metric pint (570 millilitres) of whipping cream, and that's just about right but a teensy tiny little bit still icy. So I upped the milk by a little bit and boom: perfect consistency and melt in the mouthiness.

The optimum ratio is (in volume measurements, which I think is best) 5 parts whipping cream to 3 parts condensed milk. It works every time, and if one is adding liquid flavour additions, such as fruit purée or juice or whatnot, do not exceed 1 extra part.

Also, the kind of cream you use is important: use whipping cream, not double cream. Double cream is at least 48% fat, and it too heavy and dense, and it oddly enough give the ice cream a powdery mouthfeel. Whipping cream is between 35 and 40%, which is just right.

So, for example, you want to make coffee ice cream (like I did last night and it was so delicious I ate it all before I bought batteries for my camera... whoops...) the recipe would be as follows:


INGREDIMENTS
Makes 1 imperial pint (570 millilitres)

• 7 fluid ounces (200 millilitres) whipping cream
• 4 fluid ounces (120 millilitres) sweetened condensed milk
• 3 tablespoons (45 millilitres) strong black coffee
• Pinch of salt

HOW-TO

• In a small bowl, mix together the condensed milk, salt and the coffee together. Set aside.
• In a medium mixing bowl, whip the cream until it forms stiff peaks.
• Fold a spoonful of the cream into the milk and coffee mixture, then pour the milk and coffee mixture into the cream and gently fold through.
• Pour into a pint (570 millilitre) container, cover with the lid or with cling film, and freeze overnight, or for a minimum of 6 hours.
• Allow to sit at room temperature for about 5 minutes before serving, and consequently eating with relish!

And it is so good, I can tell you now! No lies here! It's even better when you make your own condensed milk, like I do, because I'm a traditionalist.

Please try it and let me know what you think!

My Research into Machine Free Ice Cream Continues...

So, instead of allowing my  funk to get between me and my first love, I've been researching culinary delights to make when I'm feeling better.

A few posts ago I mentioned that I was searching in vain for the perfect no-machine homemade ice-cream. While the hurling was on I thought I'd try a few methods and recipes that I'd found, but none of them worked. I tried the whole rock-salt and ice insulation method but that didn't work, I tried the freeze and beat every two hours method but that didn't work either. I think the most recent lurid creation is still languishing in the freezer...

I thought I would turn to my favourite research tool to further my discoveries, and rediscovered a recipe that I'd found a long time ago. Back when I was in college I found this recipe for ice cream that used whipping cream and condensed milk, and needed no mixing during churning. However, using the method in this video, it came out separated and icy.

Needless to say, I never thought to try it again.


It took a few years for me to get around to trying homemade ice cream again. I once again tried several different methods and recipes, none of which worked. However, in the few years I wasn't trying, there were a few people who ad uploaded more successful attempts at the condensed milk and cream technique.

 







These two used the same ingredients as the first video, but in slightly different quantities and with a slightly different method. Having made this discovery (especially the first video: that stuff looks sinful!), I think I might give it another try...

I'm one for giving second chances!

Substitutions: Gluten-Free Flour

It's amazing how mass-production of Christmas cakes scuppers any other baking endeavour! I've been so busy making the same thing over and over, and had a few experimental failures. However, while I'm going through this bakery journey of learning, I'm going to write a few little theory lessons.

As I said in previous posts, I have a few friends who have even more strict diets than I do, such as one of my friends who can't eat gluten, eggs, yeast or dairy which are all very important in baking. As such, in the last two months or so, I've been experimenting extensively and researching furiously to find out how to substitute what for what; and now I'm going to share my knowledge with you all.

Let's start with flour.

Why wheat flour works: Baked goods, over hundreds of years of development, have only ended up as marvelous as they are because of wheat-flour. The same way that risottos are only the way they are because they're made of rice, and polenta is the way it is because of maize, cakes, bread, biscuits and other flour-based products are only the way they are because of the properties of wheat. Wheat flour provides baked goods with three key components that make them all work: substance, starch, and gluten.

• When the grain is ground into meal, the meal provides the body of the baked product. It provides the bricks to make the baked good with, the substance of the cakes or biscuits or whatever.

• Inside the grain, there is starch. Starch is a complex carbohydrate that when cooked becomes sticky. The starch provides the cement or mortar between the bricks.

• Then finally gluten. Gluten is a protein, that forms long strands that hold everything together. Moving away from the builder's yard analogies, gluten is like a stretchy net that holds onto the substance, the starch, and all the other ingredients in the baked good, like sugar, butter, eggs etc. When gluten is worked and stretched, it becomes elastic and is able to hold onto more things, which is the key principle of kneading bread to allow it to rise (hold onto gas built inside the dough).

All these things must be kept in mind when replacing wheat-flour, which is the key ingredient of all baked goods.

How to replace wheat-flour: To replace it, you need to add substance, starch and protein, or something equally gummy. So! This is how you do it:

• You make your quantity of flour using two-thirds any of the below substance flours, that is whole grain flour.
• The remaining third any of the starchy flours.
• Then add 1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) xanthan gum for every 8 ounces (225 grammes).

So, here are the lists.

Substance Flour
brown rice flour
corn meal
sorghum flour
sweet potato flour
mesquite flour
millet flour
oat flour
quinoa flour
buckwheat flour

Starchy Flour

potato starch
tapioca flour
white rice flour
arrowroot flour
cornstarch/cornflour
potato flour

Example: you need 8 ounces (225 grammes) of flour for your recipe, so you add 5½ ounces (155 grammes) brown rice flour, 2½ ounces (70 grammes) cornflour, and a teaspoon (5 millilitres) xanthan gum. Done and done!

The Search for Perfect Homemade Ice-Cream without a Machine

Ever since I was a very little girl, I've always wanted to perfect homemade ice-cream. In the early noughties, my parents bought an ice-cream machine for making homemade frozen delights, but it wasn't fantastic: the bowl of the churn was too small, and it was very expensive. It took an early retirement in the shed. Since then, making ice-cream at home without the aid of a churn has proven to be an elusive skill to master.

Over the last few months, I've spent hours and hours researching blogs, articles, watching videos and television programmes, and even read many scientific documents on how ice-cream freezes, the properties of the individual ingredients, and how best to make the perfect soft ice-cream at home. Homemade ice-cream runs the risk of being grainy, icy and rock solid on freezing. Scientifically, the faster the ice-cream is frozen, the smoother it will be, hence why Heston Blumenthal likes to use dry ice to instantly freeze the custard while it's mixing.

I've so far found a way of making a very tasty ice-cream mixture, that is nice and rich and creamy, but on freezing it becomes rock solid, grainy, icy and has an overall unpleasant mouth feel; I just can't work out how to get it right!

Now, through research I've learnt that the key to nice soft, creamy dreamy ice cream is the inclusion of things that don't freeze at conventional freezer temperatures, such as fat, sugar and syrups, alcohol, complex proteins and stabilisers, and air. The recipe I have developed is high in fat (double cream), uses a sugar syrup that won't freeze, and is stabilised with cornflour slurry, but incorporating the air throughout freezing is proving to be my biggest challenge yet.

Any suggestions? Or do you think I might just have to invest in a machine or in some dry ice?

The Grand Christmas Cake Creation of 2013 Starts (plus Wheat-free Fruit Cake Recipe - Part 2)

And I'm back with part two of the Christmas cake creation! Click here for part one where I made the fruit preparation.

So, my fruit has been marinating/macerating/steeping/lacing/whatever for about a week now, and it has drunk up all the lovely alcohol and sugar. It's proper nice, I can tell you that for nothing! The smell of the sherry, rum and fruit together is just magical!

Now the time has come to mix the fruit with the cake mixture. The cake is a standard creamed sponge cake, known as a Victoria sponge or pound cake, and mixed in equal parts with the fruit preparation. You should have a pound in weight (450 grammes) each of cake mix and fruit mix, which are then combined and baked. My first cake of the year came out very nicely!

The cake mixture is as follows.

FREE FROM
☑ Soya (check for soya lecithin)
☑ Yeast
☑ Wheat

CONTAINS
☒ Dairy (use ingredients in italics for a dairy-free version)
☒ Nuts (use ingredients in italics for a nut-free version)
☒ Eggs

INGREDIMENTS
Makes one 8 inch (20 centimetre) round cake

For the cake mixture

• 3 ounces (85 grammes) butter or block margarine
• 3 ounces (85 grammes) soft brown sugar
• 3 medium eggs
• 4 ounces (115 grammes) white spelt flour or gluten-free flour mix
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) ground almonds
• For a nut free version, just replace this with an extra ounce of flour
• 2 teaspoons ground mixed spice
• Pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence or almond essence
• 1 pound (450 grammes) of fruit preparation

HOW-TO

• Prepare your cake tin. Grease and flour the inside, and then double line the bottom and sides with baking paper. Preheat the oven to Preheat your oven to 160°C (320°F, Gas Mk.2½, or moderately cool) and set the rack in the centre of the oven with plenty of room to spare from the rack above it.
• In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until light and creamy with a wooden spoon or electric hand mixer.
• Beat in the eggs, one at a time, until fully incorporated. Add the vanilla or almond essence, and then the ground almonds.
• Sieve in the flour, spice and salt and mix in until the flour has just disappeared.
• Add the fruit preparation and combine thoroughly.
• Pour the cake mixture into the tin and bake for 1½ hours. Half way through cooking, reduce the oven temperature to 150°C (300°F, Gas Mk.2, or moderately cool).
• Start checking for doneness after about an hour and a quarter. The cake is baked when a skewer inserted into the thickest part - usually the middle - comes out completely clean. If it isn't, continue cooking but don't cook for more than 1½ hours in total; it'll be dry and chewy.
• Once cooked, allow to cool completely in the tin before taking out and transferring to a wire rack.

This of course is covered with marzipan and icing, but that's for closer to the time... be patient...

The Grand Christmas Cake Creation of 2013 Starts (plus Wheat-free Fruit Cake Recipe - Part 1)

To skip the inane ramblings, scroll to the bottom for the recipe

Today is the day where I begin making the Christmas cakes! I love this time of year: I love autumn and winter more than any other season, as we have warm, comforting dinners, long evenings and Halloween. I get so excited when August happens (as here in Ireland, autumn starts in August) and my excitement grows as the autumn months turn into winter months. I feel at my most creative and productive during this time of year...

And yes, I know it's September and that we shouldn't even be thinking of Christmas yet, but I'm all in favour of forward thinking, especially when cake is involved. But mainly, I'm starting on the Christmas cake now because it's the way it's done traditionally.

So let's get traditional up in this:

A Christmas cake should be a rich fruit cake, which is a cake that has a 50% weight of dried fruit, ie. once you make up your cake mixture you mix in the same weight of prepared dried fruit. Any less of percentage fruit is seen as light fruit cake which, due to its higher amount of cake versus fruit, can't be preserved as easily or for as long. This rich fruit cake is made months in advance using the dried and preserved summer and autumn fruits.

After the cake is baked slowly for a long time it can be fed, which is where the baker of the cake sprinkles it with an alcoholic spirit or fortified wine, such as sherry, once a week until it needs to be decorated. This was devised as a preservation technique, back when folk didn't have airtight containers or fridges, as the sugar an alcohol in the cake would make it inhospitable to mould and bacteria, allowing it to keep for longer. Using a fruit cake makes traditional decoration - with marzipan and royal icing - easier, as it won't go stale as you allow the marzipan and layers of royal icing to dry over a few days.

Making a rich fruit cake more preservable wasn't just for Christmas, but also for wedding cakes: back in the day, the small top tier of the couple's wedding cake would be kept until for the baptism of their first child, which back then would've usually been within a year of marriage. Of course, once upon a time, these kinds of cakes were just for the wealthy.

But nowadays we live in a different world. Access to butter and dried fruits and berries is easier (you can just nip down to Tesco), and the more traditional and natural methods of preservation are no longer necessary. In fact, if you freeze a rich fruit cake, after wrapping it in foil and greaseproof paper, it can be kept for up to three years, which is good news for nowadays couples who leave the babies until a few years after marriage, if at all. However, people still do it the traditional way just out of taste: people like booze.

Now, out of moral choice, I don't drink alcohol, and I also try to avoid desserts made with or including alcohol. As such, I don't feed the cake with alcohol over the months, but making it ahead of time allows the flavours in the cake to develop and mature, making for a way tastier cake when you cut it open on December twenty-fifth. As for preservation, I just keep it in an airtight box, and any left over is frozen.

So, how do I make the cake?

The way I make Christmas cake has been commented on as being 'bizarre' or 'unconventional', because I make a whole pile of fruit preparation in one go... in a bucket.

Yes, into a plastic bucket I throw a pound each (450 grammes) of currants and raisins, half a pound each (225 grammes) of prunes, glacé cherries and sultanas, and quarter pound each (115 grammes) of mixed peel and slivered almonds. This amounts to exactly 4 pounds (1.8 kilogrammes) of dried fruit, however when I do it there's probably more: if there's any little bits of leftovers in the packets, I just throw them in too... no point them languishing in the back of my cupboard forever. To the fruit I add 4 ounces (115 grammes) of brown sugar and 1 bottle (70 centilitres) of dry sherry and a miniature bottle (5 centilitres) of rum, and the alcohol will cook off during the cake's stint in the oven. This sits and soaks for a week, stirring daily.

This is a ridiculous quantity of fruit, I know, but I mass produce Christmas cakes because I give them away - fully decorated - as gifts for families. Last year I made six cakes, and all bar one got a home (as for the one that didn't, it was supposed to go to my boyfriend's family, but our relationship didn't make it to Christmas).

But enough theory, onto practise! This is how to make enough fruit preparation for 1 8 inch (20 centimetre) round cake.

FREE FROM
☑ Soya (check for soya lecithin)
☑ Yeast
☑ Wheat

CONTAINS
☒ Alcohol (use ingredients in italics for an alcohol-free version)
☒ Nuts (use ingredients in italics for a nut-free version)

INGREDIMENTS
Makes 1 8 inch (20 centimetre) round cake

For the fruit preserve:

• 4 ounces (115 grammes) dried currants
• 4 ounces (115 grammes) raisins
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) sultanas
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) glacé cherries
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) candied mixed citrus peel
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) slivered almonds
• For a nut free version, simply replace that ounce (30 grammes) of almonds with another fruit of some sort.
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) brown sugar
• 1¾ fluid ounces (50 millilitres) rum, spiced or plain
• 5 fluid ounces (150 millilitres) cheap sherry
• For an alcohol free version, just use 7 fluid ounces (200 millilitres) cold strong tea instead of the rum and sherry.

HOW-TO

First mix all the fruit preserve ingredients together in a glass or ceramic bowl. Mix thoroughly, and leave somewhere cool (but not in the fridge) for a week before preparing the cake, stirring daily. For best results, the cake should be made at least a month before serving, so by extension the fruit mixture should be prepared about a month and a half in advance.

Stay tuned for part two next week where I assemble the cake, using cake mixture and this fruit preparation!

Chocolardiac Arrest Cake (Wheat Free)

This is my go-to for any birthday celebration. It's basically a Death by Chocolate cake, using a name coined by the geniuses behind Homestar Runner which sits at number three on Strong Bad's Bottom 10 List. This name couldn't be more appropriate.

I made this cake for the first time when I was about twelve years old, and over the years it has evolved into something truly beautiful, and now wheat-free!

There's a lot of making in this cake, but trust me: it's totally worth the whole few hours/overnight wait!

FREE FROM
☑ Soya (check for soya lecithin)
☑ Yeast
☑ Wheat

CONTAINS
☒ Gluten
☒ Dairy (use ingredients in italics for a dairy-free version)
☒ Eggs
☒ Refined sugar products

INGREDIMENTS:

For two 8 or 9  inch (20 or 23 centimeter) round sandwich cakes

• 5 ounces (140 grammes) spelt flour
• 3 ounces (85 grammes) cornflour
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) cocoa powder
• 1 tablespoon (15 millilitres) ground cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 5 medium eggs, at room temperature
• 2½ ounces (70 grammes) soft brown sugar
• 5 ounces (140 grammes) caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 2½ ounces (70 grammes) sunflower oil
• 2½ ounces (70 grammes) butter or block margarine
• 5 to 7 tablespoons (75 to 105 millilitres) warm coffee

For filling and crumb coat:

• 4 ounces (85 grammes) butter or block margarine, softened to room temperature
• 11 ounces (310 grammes) icing sugar, sieved
• 1 ounces (30 grammes) cocoa powder
• 1½ tablespoon milk or water, or more if needed
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence

For chocolate fudge glaze:

• 6 ounces (170 grammes) milk chocolate or dairy-free chocolate, finely chopped or grated
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) butter or block margarine
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) caster sugar
• 2 fluid ounces (60 millilitres) milk or milk substitute

For assembly (optional):

• Hundreds and thousands, or coloured sugar

HOW-TO:

First, prepare the cakes:

• Preheat your oven to 180°C (350°F, Gas Mk.4, or moderate).
• Prepare the cake mixture as per the basic sponge recipe, and pour into two greased and floured 9 inch (23 centimeter) cake tins. Cook for 20 to 25 minutes until ready. Allow to cool completely in tins.
• Once cold, cut each cake in half horizontally, and cut the domes off both cakes. Decide how you will assemble the layers, making sure the bottom layer of one cake, bottom side up, is on the top of the pile.

Then, fill and crumb coat the cake:

• Cut a circle of card that's the same size as the bottom of the cake.
• Make the chocolate buttercream icing following this recipe 
• Smear a little buttercream on the card circle and stick the bottom layer of cake to it.
• Spread the bottom and middle two layers with two thirds of the filling. Assemble the layers and chill for about half an hour.
• Once chilled, use the remaining third of the icing to spread the top and sides with a thin layer of icing to lock in the crumbs. Chill for at least an hour.

Next, prepare the chocolate fudge glaze:

• In a medium sized saucepan, heat the milk and sugar over medium-low. Stir to melt in the sugar, and once melted in bring to the boil and boil for two minutes.
• Take off the heat and stir in the butter and chocolate. Once fully incorporated, return to the heat and cook gently for a further minute.
• Remove from the heat and cool until thick but still pourable.

Assemble the masterpiece:

• Cut a large piece of non-stick paper, and set a wire rack on top of it.
• Put the cake on the rack and pour the glaze over it, allowing the excess to drip onto the non-stick paper.
• Once the dripping has stopped, put onto a serving plate and, if you like, sprinkle hundreds and thousands over the top.
• Chill in the fridge for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight.

And that's it! Like I said, fiddly but worth it! I hope to have better photos when I get my hands on my Dad's camera: he took photos of this cake that was being eaten as part of birthday celebrations I could not attend.

Experiment: Homemade Sprinkles

Firstly, happy Coeliac Awareness Week! As you all know, this blog is dedicated to the pursuit of making wheat-free goodies that are as good as any wheat-ful kind you’ll buy in the shops. Please, utilise these recipes to enjoy a few sweeties this Coeliac Awareness Week, just substitute all the spelt flour for gluten-free blend, as spelt is not suitable for a gluten-free lifestyle, just for a select lucky few who are just wheat-intolerant.

Anyway: moving swiftly on.

I’ve always wanted to make my own sprinkles. Why, you ask, would you want to go to all that bother if you can get them in the shop relatively inexpensively? Two reasons: one, when one gets into the mode of making everything themselves from scratch to accommodate for a wheat-free lifestyle, it starts to become less of a necessity and more of a challenge to see how many shop items one can recreate as faithfully as – if not better than – the original version; two, because shop-bought sprinkles have loads of very suspect ingredients in, and my version has only four. Those four ingredients are icing sugar, egg white, lemon juice, and food colouring; if you can get your hands on natural food colourings, you can make completely natural sprinkles.

Also, when you make your own sprinkles, you can make them any shape you want, as long as your piping skill and array of icing nozzles facilitates. I had some left over royal icing from the other day, so I decided to try my hand at making some, and I did a few different shapes. They’re all quite pretty! I think for a first go, they’re pretty awesome...

• For the traditional, sugar strand style sprinkles, I piped long straight lines of royal icing onto a piece of non-stick baking paper. Once they were completely dry, having been left to set overnight, I cut them into shorter pieces using a sharp knife. You could also break them up with your fingers.
• I piped a large amount of little dots, and they were pretty cute. They weren’t flat enough to be confetti, but I think they were quite nice in their own right.
• I also piped some teardrop shapes for added interest; I wouldn’t do that again, to be honest: I didn’t like them as much.
• 
  

And there they are. I did two different colours and mixed them up, which was a nice touch. You could do any combination of colours: you could have a rainbow mix, or a pink mix with different shades of pink, or green or blue or whatever. Hell, go crazy!


As for the creation of these little beauties, the consistency of the royal icing itself is key. Here are a few tips:

• Use the recipe in my iced biscuits post, but whip the royal icing to firm peaks. A flowing consistency will be too thin, and the sprinkles won’t keep their shape; very stiff peaks stage is a little too far, but firm peaks stage is just right.
• Also, when colouring the icing, bear in mind the colour will deepen as the icing dries. Your delicate pink may turn out neon if you’re not careful, but maybe that’s what you want.

This is only my first adventure in homemade sprinkles, so watch this space for more adventures in Sprinkleville!