Christmas Cake (V)

Ah the Christmas Cake.... Rule of thumb for me is bake when you start seeing the Christmas chocolates in Supermarkets. Perfect with a glass of mulled wine. This will be a 2 parter, this will show you how to make the cake and then later on we show you how to decorate.

250g Currants
300g Raisins

200g Cherries
250g Dates
300g Sultanas
200ml Sherry (or preferred liqueur) extra for feeding
250g Light Brown Sugar
250g Butter
1 Lemon, zest and juice
1 Orange, zest and juice
1/2 tsp Ground Cloves
1 tsp Cinnamon
100g Ground Almonds
100g Flaked Almonds
4 Eggs
250g Plain White Flour
1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
2 tsp Mixed Spices

1. Preheat oven to 150C/130C fan. In a large pan put the brandy, butter, sugar, dried fruit, zest and juice of the orange and lemon.  Bring to the boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 5 mins. Tip the fruit mixture into a large bowl and leave to cool for 30 mins.

2. Line a deep 20cm cake tin with a double layer of baking parchment. Add the remaining ingredients to the fruit mixture and stir well. Tip into your prepared tin, level the top with a spatula and bake in the centre of the oven for 1 hour and 50 minutes - 2 Hours.

3. Remove the cake from the oven, poke holes in it with a skewer or toothpick and spoon over 2 tbsp of brandy. Leave the cake to cool completely in the tin.

4. Cling film the cake, and feed the cake 2 tbsp of brandy every week. Make it ahead of Christmas and it will be a really boozy cake.

Don't forget to decorate the cake with marzipan and icing.

Mushroom Stroganoff (V)

A variation of the Russian classic, Mushroom Stroganoff is creamy and tasty. Perfect with either Tagliatelle or rice.

Serves 4

250g Flatcap Mushrooms, sliced

250g Chestnut Mushrooms, quatered

1 Small Glass of White Wine

1 Onion, finely sliced

2 Garlic Clove, crushed

2 tsp French Mustard

2 tsp Paprika

Handful of Fresh Parsley, finely chopped

200ml Double Cream

300g Tagilatelie or Rice

Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper

Shake of Worcestershire Sauce

Squirt of Lemon Juice

1. Put a large pan of water on to boil and boil the paste or rice for the instructed time.

2. While the pasta/rice is boiling, get a large frying pan and heat olive oil in the pan. Add the onions and garlic, fry until softened. Add the mushrooms and paprika and fry for 5 minutes.

3. Add the cream, wine, Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice and French mustard to the pan. Simmer for about 5 minutes. Season to taste and add the parsley to the pan for 30 seconds while stirring. 

4. Drain the pasta/rice from the pan, serve onto the plate and add the sauce on top. Serve.

Tip: If the sauce hasn't thickened, get a teaspoon of cornflour and put it into a glass and mix with a dash of water. Add to the pan, leave for a couple of minutes and the sauce should thicken.

Lancashire Hotpot

It's getting cold outside so we need something to warm our bellys. This is where Lancashire Hotpot comes in, with a mixture of flavours that go so well together. This was tweaked a bit, so it isnt your standard Lancashire Hotpot. I added black pudding and red wine to give it a bit more body.

Serves 4-6

800g Stewing Lamb
250g Black Pudding
2 Onions, finely diced
A Good handful of  fresh Rosemary
A Small Glass of Red Wine
400ml Lamb Stock or Vegtable Stock
A good shake of Worcestershire Sauce
4tbsp Plain Flour
100g Butter
4 Carrots, peeled and sliced
900g Potatoes, peeled and sliced

1. Preheat 160c/140c Fan assisted. Put some of the butter in a pan to fry the lamb. Do this is batches. The lamb should release some of the juices so you won't need to keep adding more butter. For each batch put it on a plate. Once the meat is done fry the black pudding for a few minutes and put on the plate with the lamb.

2. If the pan is dry add more butter. Fry the onions and carrots until soft. Add the stock, wine, rosemary and Worcestershire Sauce to the pan. Let it boil for a couple of minutes then add the meat and black pudding to the pan. Boil for a further couple of minutes, then transfer to a casserole dish.

3. Add the sliced potatoes to the top of the meat. It should be covered and add a bit of butter to the top of the potatoes. Cover with tin foil or the lid and put in the oven for 1 Hour and 40 minutes. After remove the foil, increase the heat to 200c/180c fan assisted for 8 minutes to cook the potatoes more. Serve with green vegetables.

Need some decent Cassarole dishes, check here :

Chocolate Teacake (V)

So was watching the Great British Bake Off and thought I could make those but made some changes to the recipe to make it my own. With a biscuit base, marshmallow and jam centre coated in a chocolate sphere. Interesting fact, there was a legal battle over whether the Chocolate teacake is a biscuit or a cake. The European court ruled that the Teacake was not, in fact, a biscuit but a cake.

Makes 6 Teacakes

Biscuit
50g Wholemeal Flour
50g Plain Flour, shifted
30g Caster Sugar
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
25g Butter, left at room temperature
2 tbsp Milk
Pinch of salt

Marshmallow
3 Medium Free Range Egg Whites
150g Caster Sugar
6 tbsp Golden Syrup
1 tsp Vanilla Extract

Chocolate Sphere
400g Milk Chocolate (good quality chocolate is needed).
Half Sphere Silicone Moulds
6 tsp Raspberry Jam

1. Preheat the oven to 170c/150c Fan assisted. Grease a baking tray.

2. For the biscuit, put the flours, caster sugar, baking powder and salt into a mixing bowl and rub together with the butter. Add the milk and make into a small ball.

3. Flour a surface and roll out the dough with a rolling pin. The dough shouldn't be too thick, around 1/4 inch thickness. The biscuit should cover the moulds, I used a medium size wine glass to cut the biscuits. Chill in the fridge.

4. While the biscuits are chilling in the fridge, its time to melt the chocolate to make the spheres for the teacakes. Melt 300g of the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering water. Once the chocolate has melted, line the moulds with the chocolate. Use the smooth side of a spoon to help spread the chocolate evenly around the mould. Set a side to let it set.

5. Place the biscuits on the baking tray and put in the oven to bake for 10 minutes. Don't let them burn. Let them cool on a wire rack.

6. For the marshmallow, put all the ingredients in a large bowl over a large pan of simmer water. Whisk for 10 minutes using an electric whisk. It should double in size and should be a thick consistency.

7. Spoon the marshmallow mixture into a piping bag. Pipe the mixture into the now cooled chocolate domes.

8. Melt the remaining chocolate. Coat the biscuits in the chocolate and leave to cool on the wire rack.

9. When the marshmallow has set, put a teaspoon of raspberry jam on top of the marshmallow. Place the biscuit on top of the marshmallow and jam. Then with the remaining chocolate seal any open areas between the biscuit and the chocolate sphere. Leave for a few minutes to let the chocolate cool.

10. Carefully remove the teacakes from the mould. It should be easy to remove from the moulds. Enjoy!

Tip: Having trouble finding the moulds: Click Below

Viennese Whirls (V)

A lovely biscuit which is delectable with a nice cup of tea. Tried and tested on friends and family.

Makes 15 Biscuits

Biscuit
250g Butter, at room temperature
50g of Icing Sugar
250g Plain Flour, shifted
50g Cornflour
1 tsp Vanilla Extract

Filling
100g Butter, left at room temperature
100g  Raspberry Jam
1/2 vanilla extract
200g Icing Sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 200c/180c fan assisted oven. Grease a baking tray and line with grease proof paper.

2. In a food processor put all the biscuit ingredients in and blend until smooth. This will take a couple of minutes. Make sure you put all of the mixture from the processor into the pipping bag with a large star nozzle (Pipping Bag I used can be seen at the bottom of the post).

3. When pipping the mixture onto the tray make sure the pipping bag is at a 90 degree angle to the tray and squeeze the mixture out a medium size rosettes of dough. Make sure they are spread out so they don't stick together when they bake. Put in the oven and make for 12 minutes or until golden brown.

4. Leave the biscuits to cool on a wire rack. While they are cooling, make the butter icing by mixing the butter, icing sugar and the vanilla extract in a bowl. Mix with a fork until fully combined.

5. Once the biscuits are cooled put a small teaspoon of jam on the smooth side of the biscuit, butter icing and top with a biscuit. Repeat the process until you are out of biscuits. Dust with some icing sugar and serve.

Prawn Cocktail

A classic starter which originated in the 1970s and in my own opinion is a timeless classic. Quick and easy to make and is a real crowd pleaser.

Serves 2

4 Tiger Prawns
175g King Prawns
Knob of Butter
1 tsp Parsley (Dried or Fresh)
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 Little Gem lettuces, washed and torn
2 tsp Paprika

Thousand Island Dressing
5 tbsp Mayonnaise
5 tbsp Tomato Sauce
2 tsp Lemon Juice
Shake of Tabasco (optional)
Shake of Worcestershire Sauce
Pepper
Salt

1. Fry the butter in a small frying pan. Add the garlic and the tiger prawns and fry until the prawns go bright red.

2. Make the Thousand Island dressing by adding all of the ingredients into a bowl and mix well. Add the king prawns and mix further.

3. Get a large wine glass (suggested size seen below), and place 1 little gems worth of lettuce in each glass, add the prawn/thousand island mixture on top of that. Add a tsp of paprika on top of the mixture for each glass. On the side of the glass add the tiger prawns. Serve with brown bread and a side plate to put the discarded shells.



Tip
You will need a large wine glass so that you can get the food out. A wine glass which can hold half a bottle or more is ideal. And when you aren't serving prawn cocktail from them, they make great drinking companions.

Puff Pastry (V)

Anything from pasties to pies. Savoury to sweet. Also the ingredients you will need will be in your cupboard so why fork out more money when you can make it yourself

Makes pastry enough for about 4 servings (Eg 4 pasties)

250g Plain White Flour
150ml Cold Water
1 tsp Salt
250g Butter, cut into small cubes

1. In a mixing bowl put flour and salt in. Rub the butter into the flour (The messy bit)

2. Make a well in the centre of the bowl and add 100ml of water. Mix well. Add any extra water if needed. Then cover and put in the fridge for 20 minutes.

3. Knead out onto a floured surface for about 5 minutes. Form into a rectangle.

4. Roll in one direction so that its 3 times the size it was. Fold the top third to the centre and the bottom third so that it over laps it. Turn clockwise and then roll to 3 times the size again. Fold the same way again and cling film and store in the fridge for 20 minutes or until its needed.

Tip: Don't need all of it? Freeze it. You can freeze it for up to 1 month after making it.


Don't Forget your rolling pin :-)