Saturday 29 December 2012

Christmas Celebrations

Nothing to report on crafting or cooking - I have had a week off and been very lazy. Mark and I did walk in to Bath yesterday and popped in to Fabric Mills on the way. At the end of last year we bought new sofas and, although we have managed reasonably well to keep Rio from scratching the arms, there are a few small pulled threads, so we bought some hard-wearing grey fabric, to match the sofas, and I am going to make covers for the arms, so the sofas should not be permanently damaged by cat claws.

Christmas Day Celebrations

On Christmas morning Mark and I had coffee and panettone and opened our presents before heading over to Mark's parents' house, the other side of Bath. Amongst many very nice things, I was given a lovely pair of earrings from Skånekraft. This is one of my favourite shops in Lund, and not only was it a lovely present for me...Rio really liked the ribbons used to decorate the wrapping too!

Rio enjoys posh Swedish gift wrapping

We usually alternate Christmas Day between Mark's family and mine, and this year it was Mark's family's turn. His brother comes up from London to join the fun and this year he brought his friend and her two young daughters with him. Two lovely little girls who really added to the Christmas spirit.

Solveig keeps her mum company (and avoids the scary strangers!)

Mark's brother took a seat in the 'circle' as we watched Disney's Robin Hood - it's only a wee small house.

Elias sitting in the 'circle'

 Little Elise set the table with her homemade napkin rings...a woman after my own heart (and only 6 years old).

Elise's table decorations

After lunch we sang 'the twelve days of Christmas' and Elise taught us all the actions!

five G O L D rings!

...three French hens...

Elise's main present was a party dress; a perfect little princess!

Elise's party dress

And the present opening carried on. As well as my new work chair and lamp, Mark surprised me with a bottle of Marc Jacob's 'Daisy' eau de parfum! My favourite!

Alice, Solveig and Elise opening presents

Mark's mum

Then it was time for party games - pin the tail on the donkey (there was pin the nose on the reindeer on the other side!)
Elise pins the tail on the donkey

Mark is blind-folded for his turn to pin the tail on the donkey

Elise spins round her mother

Solveig's turn

Elise cheers on her mum

even Mark's dad doesn't escape

After pin the tail on the donkey we had pass the parcel and a lucky dip - I won a spinning top! - and all too soon it was time to go home and feed the cats. It's almost all over now for another year - just a quiet New Year's Eve with Mark, me and a Chinese take-away left to come.

Monday 24 December 2012

Final cakes of 2012

I just have to add my final batch of cakes of the year:

Christmas tree cupcakes
I love cooking and baking, but have done so much over the last few weeks, I will be happy to live on sandwiches for just a few days (after tomorrow, that is).

Christmas Eve

Christmas Decorations

I enjoy Christmas. I like the decorations and the preparations...and the cooking. I do find, however, that it goes on too long. If I put up the tree at the beginning of December, I would be fed up with it by Christmas, so I refuse to put up the tree and decorations more than a week before Christmas - and even then I am more than likely to want to take it all down again on New Year's Day.

Mark gets very grumpy putting up decorations - particularly the lights - so this year I put everything up on my day off, while he was at work!

Christmas tree decoration


Every year I fill Mark's wooden advent train with chocolates and one or two gifts. This year I bought him this gorgeous hand-felted cat in a Christmas stocking. I am a big fan of Etsy and found this little fella from Felt In Devon - it's so soft and very cute. I think Mark likes it too (he's such a big softie) as he's been pointing it out to anyone who comes to visit.

felt cat tree decoration

Talking of cats and trees, Max has adopted his usual Christmas snoozing place...on top of the gifts! This big box is his favourite this year.

Max under the Christmas tree

Westonbirt Arboretum: Enchanted Christmas

It has become a Christmas tradition for us to go to Westonbirt Arboretum's Enchanted Christmas. The trees are illuminated in lots of ways - there are disco balls and bubble machines, things that project images of visitors' faces on to the trees, machines blowing smoke rings, lights that are triggered by the sound visitors make, lights that look like fire and fireworks, delicate fairy lights, festive stalls and snow machines. it was a bit wet and muddy so I didn't take a tripod and the photos are not great, but hopefully they will give you an idea.

visitor's face projected on a tree

lights and smoke

fairy lights

multi-coloured tree

archway of lights
We are friends of Westonbirt and, as well as frequent walks there, we have been to a number of events and concerts and have never lost the car in the dark...until Friday! I felt so foolish as we traipsed through the mud looking for our car. The other downside was that Friday was the only day we (and Mark's parents) could make it to the arboretum, which meant that we missed both the annual Christmas street party and the final Bristol Audit Commission Christmas party. So many people left last week and the week before as they came to the end of their redundancy notice, it will be very strange and quiet when I go back in the New Year. The saving grace is that I will have a lot to do before I also leave at Easter, and I suspect the next three months will fly by.

 Christmas Cooking

 Well, the cooking goes on. Two friends at work each asked me to make them yule logs...and I had already said yes before I remembered I hadn't actually made one before. I had made swiss rolls and roulades, so was confident it wouldn't be a problem. I went through my many cookery books and googled a bit and found that Nigella's yule log recipe was well reviewed and very similar to the Hairy Bikers' recipe, so it seemed like a safe bet. Not only did the yule logs give me the chance to try making meringue mushrooms (another first), but I tasted the bits I trimmed off to roll up the cake and it was so yummy I made us one too, for when Mark's parents came over.


yule log with meringue mushrooms

Another Nigella recipe I like to make is her fir tree cake - the tin was pricey but friends and family have borrowed it over the years, so it has been worth it. This year I added cinnamon essence and ground cinnamon and some lovely red and white polka dot candles and teacup crackers.


cinnamon fir tree cake
We lit the candles and then served it yesterday with a warm berry compote and double cream. As we are spending Christmas Day with Mark's family, we had my family over yesterday for a Swedish-ish Christmas celebration. I had intended to make rice pudding with a warm cherry sauce (which the Scandinavian Christmas book says is Danish), but there was just going to be too much food, so I skipped the rice pudding and used a mix of fruit rather than just cherries. Note the lovely Scandinavian mugs in the background (a birthday present when I was in Sweden earlier in the year).

fir tree cake with candles

Some of the the Scandinavian food was great - the gravadlax and herring in mustard crispbreads to start, the gammon joint with quince syrup, the spiced red cabbage and Annika's recipe for mandelmusslorna (little almond cakes baked in little individual pretty shaped tins - Annika sent me a selection of the tins). However, I was not keen on the sherry-cream sauce for the meatballs (I prefer a tomato sauce) and the jury is out on the Jansson's Temptation. My family seemed to like the creamy things more than I did - perhaps I have just lost the taste for cream.


meatballs with a sherry and cream sauce

I made a selection of little cakes and gingerbread (and cheated with some punschrulle and chokladboll from Ocado's Swedish Shop). I had intended to make the gingerbread horses more like Dala horses, but ran out of time and energy.


Scandinavian-ish cake and biscuit selection

Homemade Christmas Gifts


I like to give homemade gifts as much as I can, so made rocky road, gingerbread and stollen. Of course, gingerbread is just not gingerbread without edible glitter!

glittery gingerbread baubles

 This year Mark's brother is bringing his friend and her two daughters for Christmas. I haven't met them before and wanted to be able to give the two girls a little something. Hopefully these fairy peg-dolls will be well-received. They were certainly good fun to make!


Merry Christmas

Whether you are celebrating today or tomorrow (or not celebrating at all and just making the most of some quiet time), I hope everyone enjoys a happy and peaceful Christmas! Mark and I have a quiet day planned today...just a little baking for tomorrow's Christmas lunch with Mark's family.






Sunday 16 December 2012

Gingerbread houses and Christmas singing

Nearly the final Christmas cakes

This week I finished the last two fruit Christmas cakes (there are still two yule logs to make). My sister had said that the Christmas cakes I gave her in previous years were too big, as her husband and son are not overly keen on fruit cake. I thought the way around the dilemma could be to combine fruit cake and gingerbread, so  I made a ring of house fronts - aiming for the style of the tall houses you see in Amsterdam and Bruges - with a candle in the centre so the light shines out of the house windows. Hopefully this will give everyone something they like. I liked the design so made another one for Mark's parents.

gingerbread Christmas cake

Gingerbread houses

I often make gingerbread houses and churches and a friend at work saw the photos and asked me to make one for her and one for her mum. I just love everything about making gingerbread - the smell (and taste!), the chance to get creative with sweets and icing and the overall effect. I put crushed boiled sweets in the holes for the windows so they melt to form 'glass', and have provided battery powered tea lights so light flickers through the coloured edible glass.

gingerbread house
The trees are iced ice-cream cones and the snowmen are three Whittard marshmallow snowballs (marshmallows covered in desiccated coconut) stuck together with royal icing and held with a cocktail stick, with orange flavoured matchmaker chocolate sticks as arms and a fondant nose and scarf.

decorated gingerbread house with marshmallow snowman
 For the second gingerbread house I covered the roof with matchmaker chocolate sticks, and liberally dusted the whole thing with icing sugar and edible glitter.

gingerbread house with chocolate roof

ice-cream cone tree

Cats

Max the cat was very pleased with the box Mark's Christmas present came in...until my new work chair (gift from Mark) arrived! He has hardly moved off the chair since it arrived. I even found it swivelled round so he could look out at the garden!



On Friday it rained all day. The cats refused to go out...just sat by the cat flap, watching disapprovingly. It's a hard life being a cat (yeah, right!)


cats watching the rain through the catflap

"when will the rain stop???"

Max and Rio

Bath Minerva Choir, Light and Gold concert

Quite a few years ago I used to sing in an amateur musical theatre group. The group folded and I stopped singing. At the beginning of the year I decided to start again. I had a few singing lessons and went along to a Bath Minerva Choir rehearsal to see what I thought. I totally loved it - particularly the people - and kept going. The music is quite a challenge for me as my music reading/understanding/knowledge is not all it could be, but I have enjoyed learning this very different type of music, much of which I had not heard before - and as an alto, so no more tune. It is also good that I am not required to dance any more! I was a very, very bad dancer.

I was away for the first concert, at Bath Abbey in April, and the Summer term was spent working towards a two day workshop rather than a formal concert, so yesterday's concert was the first of its type I have taken part in for 27 years!! I was quite anxious - not least about wearing my new, fitted red top, rather than my usual baggy stuff - but I had a great time! I got to stand next to Christina who has a beautiful and strong voice. I sing so much better when I stand next to Christina; just knowing I am singing the same notes as someone else gives me confidence (she is also very lovely and great to chat to). I had some very nice comments from other choristers about the sound coming from Christina and me in the back row (where the naughty choristers stand!) and, much as I know the lion's share of that came from Christina, I am still pretty chuffed. My biggest singing challenge is a lack of confidence, so kind words are always welcome...even if people are just being kind.

We rehearsed much of Saturday afternoon, with the Bath Philharmonia and soloists, and then had the concert in the evening. I was quite tired. I normally wake up between 5 and 6 on a Sunday, no matter how much I would like a lie-in, but today slept until almost 9...unheard of! The music from the concert is still going through my head, my knees hurt from wearing high heels in order to be able to see Gavin the conductor and my tinnitus is a bit rubbish, but I still keep grinning. It was a lot of fun and I am really looking forward to starting rehearsals again in the new year.

I almost forgot...hyacinth cam!





Wednesday 12 December 2012

Last minute Christmas cake recipes

A little extra post. My friend Irene asked if it was too late to make a Christmas cake for this year, so I promised a couple of recipes for cakes that will be rich and moist even without a couple of months being fed with alcohol. I hope these will do the trick.

I don't really have a recipe for my usual rich fruit cake, as I always make it up as I go along. I generally put a mixture of dried fruits (sultanas, raisins, cherries, cranberries, apricots, prunes, blueberries - whatever takes my fancy) to soak in sherry or brandy or ginger wine so that by eye it looks about right to fill however many cake tins I need to fill and then stir it in to enough basic sponge mixture (sugar, flour, butter and eggs mixed well together) to bind the fruit, add cinnamon, nutmeg, ground ginger and ground cloves and bake on a low heat for 2 to 4 hours, depending on the size of the cake. One tip is to add some hot tea (I like to use spiced chai) to the soaking alcohol as the heat encourages the fruit to soak up the liquid, and it makes it a little cheaper. I always end up with enough mixture - so much I sometimes have to mix it in a clean washing-up bowl - and if I have too much I make up an extra mini cake or some muffin tin sized cakes.


Simmer-&-stir Christmas cake (bbcgoodfood.com)
Ingredients
175g butter , chopped
200g dark muscovado sugar
750g luxury mixed dried fruits (one that includes mixed peel and glacé cherries)
finely grated zest and juice of 1 orange
finely grated zest of 1 lemon
100ml/3½ fl oz cherry brandy or brandy plus 4tbsp more
85g macadamia nuts
3 large eggs , lightly beaten
85g ground almonds
200g plain flour
½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground mixed spice
1 tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp ground allspice

Method
1.        Put the butter, sugar, fruit, zests, juice and 100ml/3½fl oz brandy in a large pan. Bring slowly to the boil, stirring until the butter has melted. Reduce the heat and bubble for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
2.        Remove the pan from the heat and leave to cool for 30 minutes.
3.        Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 150C/gas 2/ fan 130C and line the cake tin. Toast the nuts in a dry frying pan, tossing them until evenly browned, or in the oven for 8-10 minutes - keep an eye on them as they burn easily. When they are cool, chop roughly. Stir the eggs, nuts and ground almonds into the fruit mixture and mix well. Sift the flour, baking powder and spices into the pan. Stir in gently, until there are no traces of flour left.
4.        Spoon the mixture into the tin and smooth it down evenly - you will find this is easiest with the back of a metal spoon which has been dipped into boiling water.
5.        Bake for 45 minutes, then turn down the heat to 140C/gas 1/ fan120C and cook for a further 1-1¼ hours (about a further 1¾ hours if you have a gas oven) until the cake is dark golden in appearance and firm to the touch. Cover the top of the cake with foil if it starts to darken too much. To check the cake is done, insert a fine skewer into the centre - if it comes out clean, the cake is cooked.
6.        Make holes all over the warm cake with a fine skewer and spoon the extra 4tbsp brandy over the holes until it has all soaked in. Leave the cake to cool in the tin. When it's cold, remove it from the tin, peel off the lining paper, then wrap first in baking parchment and then in foil. The cake will keep in a cupboard for up to three months or you can freeze it for six months.

7.        Put the butter, sugar, fruit, zests, juice and 100ml/3½fl oz brandy in a large pan. Bring slowly to the boil, stirring until the butter has melted. Reduce the heat and bubble for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
8.        Remove the pan from the heat and leave to cool for 30 minutes.
9.        Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 150C/gas 2/ fan 130C and line the cake tin. Toast the nuts in a dry frying pan, tossing them until evenly browned, or in the oven for 8-10 minutes - keep an eye on them as they burn easily. When they are cool, chop roughly. Stir the eggs, nuts and ground almonds into the fruit mixture and mix well. Sift the flour, baking powder and spices into the pan. Stir in gently, until there are no traces of flour left.
10.    Spoon the mixture into the tin and smooth it down evenly - you will find this is easiest with the back of a metal spoon which has been dipped into boiling water.
11.    Bake for 45 minutes, then turn down the heat to 140C/gas 1/ fan120C and cook for a further 1-1¼ hours (about a further 1¾ hours if you have a gas oven) until the cake is dark golden in appearance and firm to the touch. Cover the top of the cake with foil if it starts to darken too much. To check the cake is done, insert a fine skewer into the centre - if it comes out clean, the cake is cooked.
12.    Make holes all over the warm cake with a fine skewer and spoon the extra 4tbsp brandy over the holes until it has all soaked in. Leave the cake to cool in the tin. When it's cold, remove it from the tin, peel off the lining paper, then wrap first in baking parchment and then in foil. The cake will keep in a cupboard for up to three months or you can freeze it for six months.

  

Delia Smith's Last Minute Christmas Cake

For the pre-soaking
150ml brandy
 1 x 400g (approximately) jar luxury mincemeat
110g no-soak prunes, roughly chopped
50g glace cherries, quartered
175g dried mixed fruit
50g whole candied peel, finely chopped
For the cake
225g self-raising flour
3 level teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1½ level teaspoons mixed spice
150g spreadable butter
150g dark muscovado sugar
3 large eggs
50g Brazil nuts, roughly chopped
50g mixed chopped nuts
zest of 1 small orange and 1 small lemon
For the topping
1 heaped tablespoon sieved apricot jam
1 tablespoon brandy
approximately 18 walnut halves, 18 pecan halves, 20 whole Brazils (or any other mixture you like)

You will also need a 20cm round loose-based cake tin, greased with base and side lined, plus some baking parchment


Even though this is last-minute, it's best to pre-soak the fruits if you can.  So just measure them out into a bowl, give them a good stir, then cover with a cloth and leave somewhere cool overnight or for a minimum of 4 hours.

When you are ready to make the cake, pre-heat the oven to 170C, gas mark 3.  Now all you do is sift the flour, baking powder, salt and mixed spice into a very large, roomy mixing bowl, then add the butter, sugar and eggs and beat with an electric hand whisk until everything is smooth and fluffy.  Now gradually fold in the pre-soaked fruit mixture, chopped nuts and finally the grated lemon and orange zests. Now take a large spoon and spoon it into the prepared tin, levelling the top with the back of the spoon, then arrange the whole nuts in circles or rows on the surface.

Finally, take a double square of baking parchment with a 50p-sized hole in the centre (which gives it extra protection during the cooking) and place this not on the top of the mixture itself but on the rim of the liner.  Bake the cake on the centre shelf of the oven for 2 hours or until the centre springs back when lightly touched.  Cool the cake in the tin for 30 minutes, then remove it to a wire cooling tray to continue cooling.

While that's happening, heat the apricot, jam and brandy together and brush the nuts with this mixture to make them shiny and glossy.  Store the cake in an airtight tin or in parchment-lined foil and it will keep beautifully.


Sunday 9 December 2012

Christmas cakes

Christmas preparations: sugar and spice and all things nice!

Here in chilly Bath it is full steam ahead with my Christmas preparations. Our Christmas concert is next Saturday (Bath Minerva Choir) and it is starting to sound pretty good...if I do say so myself. As it was our final Saturday morning rehearsal, I made a gingerbread house for the weekly fundraising raffle. Our choirmaster decided to auction it instead and I was chuffed by the response. I guess people don't realise how easy it is to make a gingerbread house!

gingerbread house
I have been making up batches of gingerbread dough as it keeps well in the fridge and can be frozen, and I love the scent that permeates the house. I have two more gingerbread houses to make, some gingerbread dala horses and some two-dimensional houses (tall ones like you get in Bruges or Amsterdam) to stand on top of the next batch of Christmas cakes, with a candle in the middle to shine light through the windows. I may also make some bauble cookies to ice and decorate.

Talking of delicious scents, I have a batch of spiced berry rum I have to stir every day  - and lick the spoon afterwards (it's a tough job, but someone's got to do it!). I have made raspberry vodka before, but this is already far superior. It smells like Heaven and tastes amazing...it looks pretty too.

spiced berry rum

The Christmas cakes

The Christmas cakes have taken some planning, not least because one of them has to be nut-free so has to be handled first, before I start rolling out marzipan. Actually, I think I am toning up my arms with all this rolling out of gingerbread and marzipan and fondant icing!

Each time I roll out fondant and have some left, I cut out snowflakes to use in the decoration. I love simple designs, all white and glittery, although my most requested Christmas cake is always the penguin slide (I'll post a photo a bit further on).

fondant snow flakes
more fondant snow flakes

The penguin slide

As I mentioned, my most requested cake is the penguin slide (or slider, as they say in this part of England). I cut a spiral around the edge of the cake before I marzipan and ice it. The difficulty with this particular cake was over-feeding, as is common this time of year! I have mainly been feeding cakes with ginger wine but this one had had a weekly drop of Jack Daniels...to the point it was starting to seep out of the base of the cake...oops; just keep it away from naked flames! It made cutting away the slide a bit tricky - and made the offcuts all the more tempting!

cutting away the fruit cake 'slide'

I leave the marzipan to dry out for 24 hours and then cover the cake with white fondant icing. I made an igloo by covering an egg cup with cling-film and then fondant, scoring it, adding a door way and letting it harden and dry out. In the meantime I made penguins from fondant icing, attempting to give each a different pose and character. Then I just stuck them in place with royal icing and dusted the whole cake liberally with white edible glitter (the Craft Company sells extra large pots - and lots of other tempting goodies). The result is generally pretty well received - Lesley certainly seemed happy with this one!

penguin slide Christmas cake


Tasteful trees

Two of my colleagues at work asked me to make Christmas cakes for them and left it to me to choose the design, so I am really hoping Nic and Sue will like these! I was inspired by Alan Dunn's "Christmas Cakes" book to use leaf cutters with edible rice paper. I could not get hold of the cutter he used, but found something I hope is still effective. I like the simplicity of these cakes and would choose something like this for myself, but hope my colleagues are not expecting something more whizz bang.

Sue's Christmas tree cake

Nic's Christmas tree cake


Other cakes 

I also made a small cake for my lovely Aunt Anne (with whom we had lunch today). I used fondant snowflakes, stacked up to look a bit like a Christmas tree. For such a small cake the decoration had to be in proportion.



My mother is borderline diabetic, but assures me she is allowed fruit cake as long as there is not too much marzipan and icing, so I skipped the marzipan and fondant layers on this one and just added the fondant tree and dusting of edible gold glitter and stars.

reduced sugar cake

 I have the day off work tomorrow, so I think I will walk in to town to pick up the last few Christmas things (and a replacement rolling pin as I dented mine crushing boiled sweets to melt as glass in the gingerbread house windows!) and then make some mulling syrup and ice my Dutch houses for the last few Christmas cakes. If that all gets done in time, I may just have to watch It's A wonderful Life and write my Christmas cards.

Hyacinth cam: day 29

A slow week for the hyacinth and crocus...

hyacinth: day 29