I've written these for a paying customer, they will be published on my main blog in due course so please don't publish or broadcast as I may need to tweak yet
thanks for trying them !
Mat
Simple Cinnamon Christmas Cake
Ingredients:
180g sugar
75g butter
2 eggs
200ml milk
two cups sifted flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp powdered cinnamon
1 tsp mace
tsp mixed sugar and cinnamon
Whip sugar and butter till no grains of sugar are left and it is a pale yellow colour beat eggs into the mix, then add gradually milk and sifted flour, baking powder, cinnamon and mace, folding ingredients together
Bake in buttered, non-stick 20cm round dish for 25-30 min at 180C, until the sides just begin to pull away from the tin, sprinkle the top of the cake with the cinnamon and sugar mix and replace in oven for five min to glaze
Fruit and Nut Ginger Cake
Ingredients:
100g butter
100g sugar
2 eggs
200g black molasses
6 Cloves
200ml boiling water
1 tsp baking soda
250g flour
3g each powdered allspice, ginger, cloves, cinnamon, and nutmeg
200g seeded raisins
200g chopped walnuts
250ml Port
Add Molasses to one cup of boiling water and add the six cloves, leave to cool then strain out the cloves.
Whip sugar and butter till no grains of sugar are left and it is a pale yellow colour beat eggs into the mix.
Gradually add sifted flour and spices, folding mixture together, slowly add ¾ of the molasses water and fold till mixed to a wet, but not liquid consistency, add more of the mix if required to get to the correct consistency.
Pour into 20cm buttered, non stick cake tin, sprinkle the top with the raisins and walnuts and place immediately into an oven at 180C, bake for 20min before reducing the temperature to 150C and baking for another 30min
Store in an airtight container and daily add 50ml of port poured over the cake evenly for 5 days. Leave for another two days before serving, if left for longer then 'feed' the cake another 50ml of Port every few days.
Hi Mat!
ReplyDeleteI had my first go at your Fruit & Nut Ginger Cake at the weekend, and it didn't go well! D'oh! ;-)
I have to preface all of the following with the fact that I am NOT an experienced baker, so take everything I say with a pinch of salt...
Firstly (and here's where my inexperience really messed things up) I didn't add the baking soda because it wasn't mentioned in the narrative of the recipe. Also I was being 'assisted' by my 3 yr old so maybe wasn't fully concentrating! Anyway it was only as I was clearing up after putting the cake in the oven that I found it and thought 'Oh darn' (or words to that effect)
So I allowed the cake to bake anyway as I reasoned that while it would not rise I would still be able to judge the flavour.
I had not added any of the fruit and nuts to the mix (again because the recipe didn't specifically instruct me to) and with hindsight this might have been another mistake? I thought you were going for a ginger cake with a fruit and nut topping, but there was so much topping (much of which burned) I now think otherwise?
Flavourwise I found the cake VERY strong, quite overpowering, mainly (I think) due to the molasses.
So - for my next attempt I will either add most of the fruit to the mix, or maybe even do it as an upside-down cake? And I will reduce the amount of molasses.
Sorry I couldn't report a complete success but hope that the feedback is valuable!
Kind Regards,
Stephen