The lead up to Christmas was CARAYZEEEEE!!!!!!!! I work in retail, and what with christmas crazed customers and a cold snap that sent people scurrying in to buy warmer clothes, the last few weeks have been hectic-hence the lack of blog. I did manage to squeeze in a bit of pre-christmas baking though- more christmas biscuits, because many of those intended for the tree last time were consumed, and also extra to feed people. We also baked a Nigella Lawson Chocolate Christmas Cake. This apparently was shown on t.v. at some point over the christmas period, but i missed it! Somehow i chose to bake it independently-and it has been a success!
It contains loads of dried fruit, including prunes, currants and peel, and this was all simmered together with..... wait for it.... TIA MARIA- trashy i know, but soooooo delicious. All this is mixed with fresh orange juice, almond meal, cocoa and butter. It creates a moist and amazingly dense cake, which despite what the recipe said (1.5 hours) took around 2.5 hours to cook. I have included pictures of it here in its brown paper wrapping which it gets cooked in, and a pic of one of my friends enjoying the results.
I baked it 2 weeks before Christmas, and i must say it keeps amazingly well- in fact like all good fruit cakes it is getting better and better. We have been eating it with (shop-bought) vanilla custard and an unbelievably decadent brandy infused cream. mmmmmmmmm
No comments:
Post a Comment