Xmas Cake

3 cups Butter
3 cups sugar
2 tsp Baking powder
10-12 eggs
2 tsp Vanilla essence
5 cups Flour

1 cup of sugar to be burnt till black and made into a thick syrup
Marinated dry fruits (ref: http://yenforblue.blogspot.com/2007/11/xmas-cake.html)

Mix butter and sugar till creamy
Add eggs one by one till sugar dissolves
Add the baking powder
Add essence and then the flour. Stir in till well-mixed.
Add burnt sugar, mix.
Add marinated dry fruits dusted in flour.
Mix well and bake at low heat (150-180 deg Celsius) till done!

Viola! Let cool thoroughly before cutting. Ideally leave overnight!
But if you can't resist the aroma, then go ahead, warm pieces are just as divine.

If you think this procedure is too tedious, just imagine how hard these guys must have worked:
http://news.smh.com.au/india-breaks-tallest-xmas-cake-record/20071225-1iyf.html

Merry Christmas!

Xmas Cake

November has begun. Divali is just a few days away. Most of us would have done some shopping, for the entire family and the home. Gifts too should have been taken care of by now.

However do spare a few minutes for something divine to be made next month.
That's right, the Christmas cake.

I was lucky enough to have learnt this recipie from the legendary baker, Selvaraj at DSSC Wellington. I can share it with you but later...

Right now, what needs to be done is marination of the dry fruits.
Clean and put together equal proportions of dry fruits- cashew nuts, almonds, manuka (black raisins) and candied orange peel. Some tutti fruti will add to the bulk if you do not wish to add too many nuts. Walnuts are not be added at this stage. Add a cup of rum and one teaspoon of Cinnamon and clove powder for 400 gms of the fruit mixture. Mix all ingredients well.

Place is a glass bottle and leave till December. The nuts absorb the rum and the mixture dries up. Shake the bottle once a day to ensure even spreading of the rum which tends to settle down.

I usually do this in August itself but up to 2 weeks prior to baking is fine.

Do this today itself for a delicious Christmas cake.

Ciao,
Archana

X for Xmas

Welcome! 
We are with the 2018 April AtoZ Blogging challenge and its my fifth attempt. For those who missed it, here is the link to my Theme Reveal post. Do the alphabets still stand for the same things we learnt about in Nursery school? 

Its day twenty four and the alphabet is X. 

Among the several festivals that we celebrate, Christmas is among my favourites. Technically I do not 'celebrate' Christmas but possibly because I studied in a convent school, this festival has always been special to me. We always had a party in schoolwith each class having its own celebration. Sometimes they took us to the chapel and we sang carols. 

Now years later, I still make it a point to listen to Christmas carols. 

Besides carols, the Christmas cake is yet another favourite. I learnt to bake one from an expert baker and it is really awesome even if I say so myself.The recipe calls for advance preparation but the results are worth it.