My First Christmas Cake



My first Christmas Cake

This is the first year I have ever made and decorated my own Christmas cake and I am rather proud of the results. Following on from my previous post, I have just completed an 8 week cake decorating course and was keen to be use many of the techniques I had learnt.

I decided to make my fruit cake with Kirstie Allsopp's Fruit Cake recipe (I had bought a copy of her book 'Craft' from her recent series, but see link below for the recipe on-line). The recipe calls for a range of dried fruits and I used what was in the cupboard, including sultanas, raisins, currants, figs and prunes. It looked and smelt delicious while cooking.
 http://www.channel4.com/4food/recipes/tv-show-recipes/kirsties-handmade-britain-recipes/caribbean-fruit-cake-recipe

The mixture looks nutty and fruity and smells gorgeous

I initially cooked the cake for less time than the recipe had said as a skewer came out of the centre clean and I needed to cook our lasagna for dinner. On reflection though I was worried it may have been undercooked and so put it back in the oven for the required time, plus another hour to enable the oven to get back to the right temperature. I think this was a good idea as it turned out really well, and I avoided burning it.

Feeding the cake

Over two weeks I regularly fed the cake with the Quince Brandy I had made up previously. The result was a sumptuous and moist cake. All this time I was so excited about the idea of decorating my cake. On the last night of my class I made the trees, the robin and snowmen with sugarpaste, using an example from my tutor for inspiration. It took a couple of days for the sugar paste models to dry, and then it was time to decorate.

It looks lovely, but I think it could still do with a little something....

The original design looked similar to the picture above  - although the robin was my addition, and I love it! I also used snowflake patchwork cutters on the sides of the cake - as the top of the cake and the board had soft peaks and glitter to resemble snow and I wanted it to look like there was snow falling down the side of the cake. I think it looked lovely. However, I felt I needed something to walk down the path in the snowy scene to finish the design, and so I decided to make a reindeer. It did look fantastic, but unfortunately I left the reindeer and antlers out to dry and one of the cats decided to attack it. Since time was running out and I wouldn't have time to make another reindeer and wait for it to dry, I bought a Santa to walk down the path. I think he sets off the scene nicely, and I am so proud of my Christmas cake. It tastes as divine as it looks as well - sweet, moist and delectable.

It was delicious to devour for afternoon tea on Christmas Eve

Foodie Christmas Gifts

Christmas Cake for presents

Having become addicted to 'Ace of Cakes', I decided it was time to learn, if not how to spray paint a cake and make it look like a flamingo or the Taj Mahal, at least cover a cake with icing and some simple decorations. For that reason, I decided to join a cake decorating course at my local college, and have spent the last 8 weeks learning so much. To test how much I have learnt I even borrowed a book from the library in my half term to read and see how much I understood - and I can honestly say that at the beginning of the course I would have felt like Alice in Wonderland upon opening the book, but after just 4 weeks of my course I understood the majority of the techniques and had at least an inkling of how to carry them out. The course finished just in time for Christmas, and I decided in order to practice and reinforce some of the skills I had learnt I would make and decorate Christmas cakes for my Foodie colleagues and give them as gifts.

Making Nigella's Christmas cakes

I decided to make the majority of the cakes from a Nigella recipe, as I thought it would be more gooey than traditional Christmas Cake and that the combination of fruit, chocolate and Tia Maria would be enjoyable... and it was! Mr BB seemed to love it as several disappeared rather quickly from the cooling rack. If you want to try it follow the link below - it is a good last minute recipe as it does not need time to mature - and nor does it need to be covered in marzipan and icing, although I covered them to make them sweeter (and neater) presents.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/nigella-lawson/chocolate-fruit-cake-recipe/index.html



Nigella's Chocolate Fruit Cake

Since I wanted to make my main Christmas Cake with Kirstie Allsopp's recipe, I also decided to take this oppurtunity to test it by making several minature cakes with that recipe as well, and they turned out very nicely. And for those who really can't stomach fruit cake, I purchased madeira cake (I just didn't have the time to make it unfortunately), covered it with vanilla frosting, and decorated it.



From left to right - Kirstie's Christmas cake, shop bought Madeira, and
Nigella's Chocolate Christmas cake

During my course I made some poinsetta's and Christmas roses, which adorned the tops of some of the cakes, and then used my minature Christmas tree cutters on alternate green or white icing for the rest of the fruit cakes. On the maderia cakes I made snowflakes in a variety of sizes with snowflake patchwork cutters. A dusting of edible glitter on the top of all of the cakes finished them off, and they were then wrapped in white issue paper and tied with red ribbon, ready to gift. I was really happy with how they turned out, and better yet I was able to practise my newly learned skills. I think from the texts I recieved that the recipients were happy as well x