TIME TO BAKE YOUR CHRISTMAS CAKE

How many remember speaking about the Christmas feeling?  Today the buzz of the holidays and preparation for the festive season try to give what I knew as the Christmas feeling. Stores are decorated Christmas carols played, Santa is there to take your gift requests. but this is commercial marketing with no true meaning no Christmas feeling.  I remember.   My mother would be busy baking the Christmas cake and other festive goodies, the aroma's envelope me and the flavours of spices and fruit tantalise my taste buds.  Not one cake but many are baked to give to those less fortunate, tins of biscuits and bottles of homemade ginger beer are made.  Christmas from my mother's kitchen would bring good cheer to someone and that was a good feeling, that was a Christmas feeling.

I hope  this year we can re-capture the Christmas spirit of goodwill toward all men, starting in our kitchens.   I know it is much easier to just buy a cake, I can assure you nothing takes the place of the aroma coming from the kitchen when you bake a fruit cake and maybe one for your neighbour. Try it!   Let's get back that Christmas feeling?

Did you know you can bake your Christmas cake in the microwave oven?  Here are some hints.

1. Microwave fruit cakes don't mature or keep as well as conventionally baked cakes, so correct storage is important.   If you want to  keep the cake longer than two months, store in refrigerator or freezer.  A hint is also to place a half cut apple in the sealed container.
2. For a rich brown cake, add commercial syrupy gravy browning liquid called Browning Gravy, or use cocoa powder.
3. Instead of using brandy, use half brandy, half Van der Hum Liqueur for a deliciously different flavour.
4. If the centre of the cake is not cooked when turned out, shield edges with foil, shiny side in, leaving centre exposed.  Microwave on 100% (high) power, one to two minutes, making sure foil does not touch sides of oven.
5. Don't use almonds as they remain white after baking, giving the cake an unattractive speckled appearance.

 

Economical Boiled Fruit Cake in the microwave oven