Last-Minute Traditional Christmas Cake, with Spelt (Alcohol-, Dairy-, and Gluten Free Option)

Happy 300th blog! And I thought that something befitting a celebration would be in order for this momentous post, so I bring you last-minute Christmas cake!

If any online article these days is to be believed, making a Christmas cake is a load of palaver: soak the fruit, bake the cake, store for three months feeding with alcohol, etc. In some respects it's off putting due to complexity, but it also leads people to believe that a Christmas cake can only be made three months in advance of the event, and there's no last minute option if you forgot to make your cake in September.

But fear not! A cake only needs to be made that far in advance if you plan to feed it with brandy or whiskey, and if you don't plan on doing that it can be made as soon as a week before Christmas. In fact, a Christmas cake made at any other time of year is just a very fruity fruit cake, which is a recipe found in nearly every cookery book published.

So, please, do not worry if you find yourself a week before Christmas without a cake: just follow this simple recipe. The only time consuming aspect of this cake is waiting for the fruit to soak overnight in tea and orange zest.

~~ ^ _ ^ ~~

DIFFICULTY

Lining the tin is a little fiddly, but the cake is very simple

TIME

4 hours, plus an overnight chill

RECIPE RATING

Easy!

~~ ^ _ ^ ~~

INGREDIMENTS

For fruit preparation

1½ pounds (680 grammes) dried fruit: sultanas, raisins, glacé cherries, candied peel, candied ginger, currants, prunes, apricots, etc.

Juice and zest of an orange

Zest of a lemon

4floz strong black or earl grey tea, or sherry, brandy, whiskey, or spiced rum

For cake mixture

8 ounces (225 grammes) plain spelt flour, or gluten free plain flour

2 teaspoons (10 millilitres) ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) ground ginger

 ½ teaspoon (2½ millilitres) ground coriander

 ½ teaspoon (2½ millilitres) ground mixed spice

¼ teaspoon (1 millilitres) ground cloves

Pinch of salt

8 ounces (225 grammes) soft butter, or baking margarine

8 ounces (225 grammes) brown sugar

4 medium (US large) eggs, at room temperature

2 ounces (55 grammes) ground almonds

~~ ^ _ ^ ~~

FREE FROM

Spelt, yeast

CONTAINS

Eggs, spelt, dairy (dairy free option in italics), nuts, refined sugar

~~ ^ _ ^ ~~

METHOD

First, prepare the fruit

• In a large saucepan, place the fruit, orange juice and zest, lemon zest, and tea (or spirits) and heat gently until it begins to simmer, stirring continuously. Once simmering, remove from the heat.
• Pour into a large glass bowl and allow to cool to room temperature. Cover with cling film, and then allow to soak overnight.

The next day, make the cake

• Preheat the oven to 150°C (300°F, Gas Mk.2), and grease and double-line a 9 inch (22 centimetre) round deep cake tin, about 3 inches (7½ centimetres) deep.
• Onto a large piece of baking paper, sieve the flour, the spices, and the salt. Set aside.
• In a large mixing bowl, cream the soft butter, or margarine, and sugar together very well with an electric mixer until light and fluffy.
• Beat the eggs in a jug, and beat into the butter and sugar in several additions, beating for at least 30 seconds after each addition. It helps if you beat the eggs for a bit where they're added to the bowl before mixing around the whole bowl to fully incorporate the eggs.
• Beat in the ground almonds and a quarter of the flour mixture only until there is no more visible dry flour. Using a metal spoon for a silicone spatula, fold in all the fruit and any leftover soaking liquid.
• Sieve in the remaining flour and fold through thoroughly with the spoon or spatula, until there is no dry flour left and the mixture is smooth and soft. 
• Pour into the tin, and bake on the centre shelf for 2½ hours, or longer if needed. It'll be done when a skewer inserted into the middle comes out completely clean. If it's browning too quickly on top, cover with a layer of tin foil.
• Turn off the oven and cool down inside to room temperature. Once at room temperature, remove from the tin, and peel off all the paper.
• Store in an airtight container for 5 days before coating with marzipan and icing. 

STORAGE

Store in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks. This cake can also be frozen for up to a year: just wrap in a layer greaseproof paper, a layer of foil, then finally a double layer of cling film before freezing.

Báirín Breac, a.k.a. Barm Brack: Traditional Irish Fruit Bread

Hallowe'en as a holiday originates in Ireland: Oíche Shamhna was the original Gaelic new year's eve, where the division between the living world and the spirit world would open for one night only to permit the dead to pass over. Sometimes, though, pesky spirits would accidentally (on purpose) take people who were still alive into the spirit world, where they'd get stuck forever. To prevent this from happening, the living people were advised to disguise themselves as ghouls, goblins and sprites to fool the spirits into thinking they were some of their own, and prevent their apprehension.

Once the Irish migrated en-masse to the United States, Hallowe'en became part of the American consciousness, and was popularised worldwide through American television. How the Irish celebrated Hallowe'en was always a little bit more ghoulish and pagan when I was a kid, and not as holiday-fied as the American Hallowe'en, but over my lifetime it has lost popularity and has become completely overshadowed by Christmas. Seriously, we have Christmas stuff in the shops from September.

So, in the spirit of sharing our traditions, I will share with you a recipe for barmbrack, or báirín breac in Irish, which is a fruited bread often eaten at this time of year. Hidden inside the loaf are a few trinkets that have symbolic meaning: a ring for marriage, a coin for wealth, a stick for poverty, a pea for spinsterhood, and a relic for a religious life. Nowadays, it's usually only a coin or ring. And yes, even the ones in the shop have the trinkets hidden inside; I understand in America it's illegal to sell food that contains foreign object, but not here!

I tried making this the traditional way, with a home-cultured yeast and tea-soaked fruit, but it was really really difficult: making your own bread starter is a tricky business, and I personally find it too sour, and using soaked fruit made a complete and utter mess. Instead, I've somewhat adapted the traditional bread recipe to make it a tad easier.

~~ ^ _ ^ ~~

DIFFICULTY

Requires bread making

TIME

About 5 hours

RECIPE RATING

Experienced

~~ ^ _ ^ ~~

INGREDIMENTS

Makes one large loaf, weighing roughly 1½ pounds (680 grammes)

6 fluid ounces (170 millilitres) strong black tea, hot

10 ounces (280 grammes) raisins or currants, or a mixture of both

2 teaspoons (10 grammes) brown sugar

12 ounces (340 grammes) white spelt flour, plus up to 2 ounces (55 grammes) extra for dusting

1½ teaspoons (7 grammes) salt

1 quarter-ounce (7 gramme) packet of dry active yeast

1 ounce (30 grammes) caster sugar

1 medium (US Large) egg, or you can use more tea

1½ ounces (40 grammes) unsalted butter, soft, or margarine

Demerara sugar, for sprinkling

Eggwash

~~ ^ _ ^ ~~

FREE FROM

Nuts, wheat

CONTAINS

Spelt, dairy (italics show alternatives), eggs (italics show alternatives), refined sugar, yeast

~~ ^ _ ^ ~~

METHOD

• In a large jug, mix the fruit with the hot tea and brown sugar. Heat in the microwave on full power for 1 minute, stirring half way. Allow the fruit to cool to hand-hot, which will take about 20 minutes
• Strain all the liquid out of the fruit, pressing as much liquid as you can out of the fruit. Set the fruit aside for later, and make sure the tea is still hand-hot: it should feel like nice bathwater. If it's too cold, heat gently in the microwave until it's hot enough again.
• In a large mixing bowl, sieve in 8 ounces (225 grammes) of the flour, and add in the yeast, the sugar, and salt. Mix in the egg, and only enough of the strained tea to make what looks like a thick pancake mixture. Cover loosely with a tea towel or cling film, and allow to rise for about 20 minutes to half an hour. This will help the strengthening of the gluten.
• Once the dough has risen, add in the remaining 4 ounces (115 grammes) of flour and mix to a very soft dough; it will be a little bit tacky. Sprinkle some of the premeasured flour onto the work surface and knead until smooth.
• Add the butter and fruit into the dough, and knead again until the dough is very smooth and supple, and passes the window-pane test. The whole kneading process from adding the flour to finished dough might take up to 20 minutes and will be incredibly messy, so prepare yourself and don't be afraid to flour the surface often (making sure not to add more than 2 ounces (55 grammes). If you have a standing mixer with a dough hook, it'll be ready in half the time.
• Roll into the dough into a ball, return to the bowl, and allow to rise for about an hour to two hours, or until just over doubled in size.
• Grease and flour an 8 inch (20 centimetre) deep, round cake tin. You could also use two 8 inch (20 centimetre) sandwich tins to make shallower loaves.
• Once doubled, press the air out of the dough and shape again to a ball, making sure the surface is very smooth and tight. Put into the prepared tin and flatten out until the surface is level. Cover again and allow to rise once more until doubled in size, about 45 minutes. In the last few minutes of rising, preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F, Gas Mk.4).
• Brush the surface of the loaf with eggwash and sprinkle with Demerara sugar. Bake the loaf on the centre shelf of the oven for 30 to 45 minutes: the top will be a beautiful golden brown, and to test the doneness take the loaf out of the tin and knock the bottom, and if it sounds hollow it's done.
• If the top is browning too quickly, cover with a tin foil hat. Ovens turn loaves of bread into conspiracy theorists sometimes.
• When cooked, carefully remove from the tin and cool on a wire rack. If you want to enjoy it freshly baked, allow it to cool enough to handle before cutting, but it's best cut at room temperature.

STORAGE

These keep for up to 3 or 4 days in an airtight container at room temperature. Do not store in the fridge!

Christmas Cake of 2015 (so it begins...)

And so, the time of year rolls around to prepare the Christmas cake. Wait, what? That was October? Oops, I was a little busy. Yes, unfortunately my Christmas cake and pudding creation was delayed this year somewhat. My 30 hour a week job is taking up 42 hours a week these days, and I have very sadly been struggling significantly with depression. I did it: I said the 'D' word.

Over the course of the last 10 years, I've struggled on and off which depression, usually triggered by a sudden life change. Those have been abound recently, which has resulting in my spending most of the time that I'm not at work in bed. I haven't been baking unless utterly necessary, which means my kitchen has been getting kind of neglected. I cannot wait to be better, but it's not looking like that's going to be any time soon.

But anyway! Enough of the super dismal talk of mental illness. Back to baking!

So I made the Christmas cake this week, and this time I did things a little differently. I definitely have taken after my Grandma in this department: Mum says Grandma used to try a different recipe for Christmas cake every year, but never wrote them down, so she'd never be able to remember what she'd done.

I decided to go a little less alcoholic than usual: typically, I soak the fruit in basically a whole bottle of sherry. However, this time I soaked it in hot Chai tea that was spiked with a little spiced rum instead (Lidl's knock-off Captain Morgan is a Godsend), inspired by Delia Smith's recipe for Creole fruit cake.

This recipe also takes a little inspiration from the recipe for Christmas cake on the Odlums official website, that used a melted method instead of a creamed method.

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 fruit, the night before:

• 12 ounces (340 grammes) mixed dried fruit of your choice: currants, raisins, sultanas, candied peel, glacé cherries (rinsed thoroughly and chopped), prunes (chopped, etc.
• 4 ounces (115 grammes) ground almonds
• 8 fluid ounces (240 millilitres) hot tea: Chai or Assam work best
• One shot (42 millilitres) spiced rum or whiskey
• 2 tablespoons (30 millilitres) brown sugar

For the cake mixture:

• 6 ounces (170 grammes) plain white spelt flour
• 2 teaspoons (10 millilitres) mixed spice (or, if you want to be adventurous and make your own: 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon, half a teaspoon of ground ginger, a quarter teaspoon of ground coriander, and two pinches of ground cloves)
• 6 ounces (170 grammes) light brown sugar
• 6 ounces (170 grammes) butter or margarine, cut into pieces
• 3 medium eggs
• Grated zest of half a lemon
• Grated zest and juice of half an orange

HOW-TO

• In a large glass mixing bowl, put the dired fruit, ground almonds, brown sugar, hot tea, and whiskey. Cover with a tea towel and allow to soak overnight.
• The next day, prepare your cake tin. Grease and flour the inside, and then 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 
• In a saucepan, heat the remaining sugar, butter, lemon zest, and orange juice and zest. Melt over a medium-low heat until all the sugar and butter have melted together. Bring to the boil and cook for about 1 minute.
• Pour the melted mixture onto the soaked fruit and mix well. Allow to cool to a touchable heat.
• Once cool, beat in the eggs, one at a time, alternating with a tablespoon of flour. 
• Sieve in the remaining flour with the spices, and mix well with a wooden spoon or spatula.
• Pour the mixture into the prepared tin, and cook for at least 1½ hours before testing with a wooden cocktail stick. If there is still mixture stuck to the stick, cook for another 15 minutes. In total, the cake could take up 2 to 2½ hours to cook.
• Once cooked, remove from the oven and cool in the tin on a wire rack. Don't turn out of the tin until it is fully cool.

To store, wrap in greaseproof paper and either foil or clingfilm until decorating. I recommend covering with marzipan and icing about 3 days before Christmas.

Experiment: Yeast and Wheat Free Hot Cross Buns

So, after the success of my Bakewell tart slices, I decided to get even more experimental in the kitchen and do something completely different. Seeing as it is Good Friday, I thought I'd try my hand at making some yeast and wheat free hot cross buns.

Hot cross buns are a big part of out family's Easter festivities, but for years my mother and I haven't been able to eat them. A few years ago I tried my hand at traditional yeast risen buns, and they turned out really well. But generally speaking I avoid using yeast because the temperatures of my house and the houses of my family members (where I would bake if I'm there for a holiday) are too unreliable for proofing dough.

As such, I though I'd try to make some using my yeast and wheat free quick pizza base recipe, which I successfully converted into bagels. I thought of the theory, and thought it would work, and just made a few little changes: I replaced some of the warm water with a medium egg, and added some dried mixed fruit and spices. I kneaded it for about 5 minutes, allowed it to sit for 20 minutes, then rolled it into 8 balls. I put them together in close proximity on a flat baking sheet and baked them at 200 degrees Celcius for 15 mintes.

And here is what happened:

For some reason, the crusts baked up to hard, and they didn't spread properly in the oven. as you can see, they turned into balls instead of buns, and the crusts split. This suggests to me that the temperature was too high, and the dough was too firm.

The texture of the buns was really convincing and bread-like, and the taste was very good. But the shape was wrong and they were a little too dense. Next time I'll have to make the dough softer, maybe even more like a brack batter.

At least I gave it a go! And I'll know better for next time. Maybe between now and March 25th 2016 I'll have the recipe perfected.

THIS TIME 2014: No blog
THIS TIME 2013: Different Sponge Cake Flavours (no April Fool, it's after 12pm)

Traditionl Irish Barmbrack (Wheat and Dairy Free)

There is nothing that transports me back to Halloween as a child than a traditional barmbrack: a dense, fruity bread enjoyed toasted with slatherings of real butter and raspberry jam.

Traditionally, it's a leavened bread with mixed dried fruits soaked in tea mixed throughout it, but I try to avoid cooking with yeast as much as I can. Why? Because it is a) really fiddly, and b) gives me a sore stomach if I eat too much.

This is also eaten in Wales, where it is called bara brith.

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

CONTAINS
☒ Gluten (spelt)
☒ Eggs

 INGREDIMENTS
For 1 8 inch (20 centimetre) cob

• 13 ounces (375 grammes) dried mixed fruit
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) brown sugar
• 1 medium egg
• 6 fluid ounces (180 millilitres) warm strong tea
• 8 ounces (225 grammes) wholemeal spelt flour
• 1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) cinnamon or mixed spice
• 1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) baking soda
• Pinch of salt

THIS TIME LAST YEAR: Variations on a Theme: Surfing Toffee Tray Cake

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

Wheat-Free Autumn Apple Crumble

Here in Ireland we've been having a massive late summer/early autumn heatwave, and every day this September has been in excess of 20 degrees Celcius outside, whih is not what I expect for autumn; in fact, I'm disappointed in autumn this year. For me, it has always been a month of hearty, warming comfort food, but the weather outside is just too darn hot for heavy food.

My solution: eat the same old comfort food, but make them a little lighter; same autumnal flavours, but without the heaviness.

Here is one of those recipes: a nice autumnal spiced apple crumble, made with a granola style crust. 

This recipe has been made a little less rich than is traditional by adding a nice dose of lemon juice to the apple mixture, and by using oil instead of butter. Oddly enough, despite using autumnal flavours, it has quite a summery feel to it.

I also really like the little oven dish I bought from my local Dealz (PoundLand) for a quid-fifty. It's about 4 by 7 inches (10 by 17 centimeters) which is just the right size to serve two or three people with this crumble. The recipe amounts are to fit a dish of this size, but obviously you can increase it if you want to fill a larger dish.

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

☑ Eggs
☑ Cocoa

CONTAINS
☒ Gluten (oats and spelt)
☒ Refined sugar products

 INGREDIMENTS

For the apple filling:

• 2 large sharp firm apples, for example Granny Smith, Pink Lady, Jazz, Braeburn etc.
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) raisins or sultanas
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) golden syrup
• Juice of ½ a lemon
• ½ teaspoon (3 millilitres) salt
• 1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) ground cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon (3 millilitres) ground ginger
• Pinch of ground cloves

For the crumble topping:

• 3 ounces (85 grammes) rolled oats
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) wholegrain spelt flour
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) brown sugar
• 1½ fluid ounces (45 millilitres) sunflower oil
• 1 tablespoon (15 millilitres) water
• Pinch of salt

HOW-TO

• Preheat your oven to 200°C (4000°F, Gas Mk.6, or hot).
• Prepare the filling by cutting the apples. To do this, cut each apple into quarters then cut out the core on each quarter; thinly slice each quarter. You can peel the apples if you like, but I prefer leaving the skins on.
• Place the apple slices into a bowl and sprinkle over the salt and golden syrup. Mix well. As you mix, the salt will pull the juice from the apples and the mixture will thin out. Add the rest of the ingredients and pour into your chosen dish.
• Prepare the crumble by mixing all the ingredients together in a bowl until it is fully combined, making a loose but moist mixture. Sprinkle over the filling spread out evenly.
• Bake in the preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the topping is crisp and golden brown.
• Serve hot with cream, custard, yogurt, or ice cream.

As well as being a nice dessert, I discovered (merely out of laziness) that this also makes a very nice breakfast when eaten with thick Greek yogurt. Obviously, it's not an every day breakfast, but does well as an occasional treat. Also, instead of apples one could use peaches, pears, or nectarines.

THIS TIME LAST YEAR: There was no recipe.

Basic Granola (Gluten- and Dairy Free)

Recently I’ve been trying to get a better handle on my diet as it’s got out of hand due to busy scheduling. This process is starting with what I eat for breakfast, as over the last while it’s literally been Crunchy Nut cornflakes every day. As such, I decided to shake up the usual Muesli or porridge route by making some lovely, delicately spiced granola!

At the beginning of the week I made a big batch of this delicious stuff that I could eat with milk in the mornings, accompanied by fruit in either smoothies or juice form. So far so good! Just a third-cup (85 millilitres) with a splash of whole milk of this stuff and two pieces of fruit is enough to keep me quite full til lunchtime.

It's fairly simple to make. Granola is basically a deconstructed flapjack, so it’s fundamentally made of oats, sugar and oil, then you can add what you want to it from there.

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

CONTAINS
☒ Gluten (unless you use gluten-free oats)
☒ Refined sugar products
☒ Nuts (but you can leave them out)

INGREDIMENTS

• 8 ounces (225 grammes) jumbo oats, check for gluten warnings
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) brown sugar
• 2 fluid ounces (60 millilitres) sunflower oil
• 2 tablespoons (30 millilitres) water
• 2 teaspoons (10 millilitres) cinnamon or mixed spice
• 3 ounces (85 grammes) chopped or crushed nuts of your choice
• 3 ounces (85 grammes) mixed dried fruit or trail mix

HOW-TO

• Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F, Gas Mk.4, or moderate).
• Mix the sugar, oil, water and spices together in a large bowl until smooth, then stir in the oats and hazelnuts. 
• Stir until the oats and nuts are evenly coated with the sugar and oil mixture, use your hands if you have to. Stir even if you think they are coated enough, there is no much thing as too much stirring when it comes to granola.
• Pour the mixture into a casserole dish and cook for 30 to 40 minutes, tossing with a fork every ten minutes to separate the flakes.
• Remove from the oven, add in the trail mix or dried fruit and mix through before it has gone cold. Allow to cool completely before storing in an airtight container.

I love these latch jars, I don't know what they are actually called, I'm sure they have a technical name. But they're really useful for storage and making your kitchen pretty...

THIS TIME LAST YEAR: Wheat-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies, finally!

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!