This year's Christmas Cake – lovingly created six weeks ago by my youngest and I. This is our third attempt at making our own cake, with varying degrees of success it must be admitted. This time we're trying the Halsey School 1972 House Craft Christmas Cake recipe – copied from her original school exercise book by a friend of mine. We've been administering a fortnightly double tablespoon of brandy – so fingers crossed it will be a good one.
My lad's favourite part of the process is the always the decoration, and this year he wanted to pay homage to Bill Watterson's brilliant Calvin and Hobbes.
Seems a shame to cut into really …
Merry Christmas.
That is one cool cake? How does one administer fortnightly doses of brandy to a cake (revealing my lack of baking experience here)?
ReplyDeleteHa! Thanks Candy. I can now report that it tastes pretty fine too (thankfully!)
ReplyDeleteHere's how you administer brandy to a cake: You have to bake the cake at least a month in advance of eating and leave it to mature in an airtight tin. Then every couple of weeks you take it out, and using a knitting needle or skewer, you pierce half a dozen holes, then drizzle a couple of tablespoons of brandy over the surface. The brandy drains down through the holes and keeps the cake moist while lacing it with alcohol at the same time. Works best if done to an appropriate soundtrack – I find the Elvis Presley, James Brown or Phil Spector Christmas albums work well. Not sure I'd trust Mariah for a job like this …