Oh my lord, it's so blustery today. I almost was blown away waiting at the bus stop on the way home. But not quite. The wind keeps rattling down the chimney, so I'm glad I'm tucked up inside now with a fire and a cup of tea.
So, remember that fruit I was soaking the other week? Well, I finally got around to mixing it into a Christmas cake on Friday
afternoon, or rather 3 Christmas cakes. I always feel like it's 80% fruit and 20% cake every year I make it.
It's been one of those things
waiting patiently on my to-do list for far too long. At first I managed to rationalise this to myself
quite sucessfully because although I've
made this cake numerous times over the years, this is the first year that
I've made multiple cakes to gift. In my mind, this seems to add so much more pressure to making the cake absolutely perfect, and since I had only one 8" cake tin, I had to set about on a quest to find another that wasn't absurdly expensive or paper thin. TK Maxx to the rescue. Also, I'm making one for my aunt this year, and since she's on her own a full sized cake would have been far too much, so I had to third my grans recipe (and oh what fun thirding and old imperial recipe is) and of course I didn't have a cake tin that was large enough, so ended up improvising using some kind of foil tin we had lying around the kitchen. Ironically, since I was most concerned about over baking the smaller cake, this one took the longest and ended up making me late for an engagement party I was meant to go to. But at least the cakes are finally made! They smell deliciously of Christmas spices, and I fed them their first dose of brandy yesterday.
Also, after dropping my mum off at the airport on Wednesday, I was left with a huge amount of bananas. They were reduced to 10p a bunch and were still quite firm, and my mum just can't resist a bargain! I knew I wouldn't finish them all so I decided to bake up some delicious banana nut bread too.
I sprinkled some extra brown sugar and chopped nuts on top on top, which caramelised nicely in the oven while the bread baked.
It was so yum warm and straight out the oven, but is also delicious lightly toasted with or without butter and a cup of tea. It's almost all gone now, but I still have bananas so I think another batch is needed pretty soon!
So, remember that fruit I was soaking the other week? Well, I finally got around to mixing it into a Christmas cake on Friday
afternoon, or rather 3 Christmas cakes. I always feel like it's 80% fruit and 20% cake every year I make it.
It's been one of those things
waiting patiently on my to-do list for far too long. At first I managed to rationalise this to myself
quite sucessfully because although I've
made this cake numerous times over the years, this is the first year that
I've made multiple cakes to gift. In my mind, this seems to add so much more pressure to making the cake absolutely perfect, and since I had only one 8" cake tin, I had to set about on a quest to find another that wasn't absurdly expensive or paper thin. TK Maxx to the rescue. Also, I'm making one for my aunt this year, and since she's on her own a full sized cake would have been far too much, so I had to third my grans recipe (and oh what fun thirding and old imperial recipe is) and of course I didn't have a cake tin that was large enough, so ended up improvising using some kind of foil tin we had lying around the kitchen. Ironically, since I was most concerned about over baking the smaller cake, this one took the longest and ended up making me late for an engagement party I was meant to go to. But at least the cakes are finally made! They smell deliciously of Christmas spices, and I fed them their first dose of brandy yesterday.
Also, after dropping my mum off at the airport on Wednesday, I was left with a huge amount of bananas. They were reduced to 10p a bunch and were still quite firm, and my mum just can't resist a bargain! I knew I wouldn't finish them all so I decided to bake up some delicious banana nut bread too.
I sprinkled some extra brown sugar and chopped nuts on top on top, which caramelised nicely in the oven while the bread baked.
It was so yum warm and straight out the oven, but is also delicious lightly toasted with or without butter and a cup of tea. It's almost all gone now, but I still have bananas so I think another batch is needed pretty soon!
