Christmas baking lesson 1

................so here as promised is phase 1 of my christmas cake cookery session. In the spirit of e-learning and as someone who thinks baking is an art everyone can partake in, I am doing this blog in the form of a lesson.
So get your notebooks ready, pens and pencils sharpened and filled and get ready for the bestest fruitcake recipe in the world.

So to begin you will need, big drum roll, the recipe:-

MRS ROBIN'S FRUIT CAKE

(from The Complete Farmhouse Kitchen Cookbook, Ed Mary Watts, 1988, Guild Publishing, London, UK).

125 grams/ 40z margarine ( or butter if u have no artery concerns)
175 g/6 oz of dark brow, light or white sugar ( I have used dark brown muscovado as it's for Xmas)
175 g/ 6oz currants
175g/6oz sultanas
50g/2oz chopped cherries/candied peel (if you like them, I substitute extra fruit normally)
225 ml/8 fluid oz water
1 level teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 heaped teaspoon of mixed spice.
To make this extra special I have also added in:-
the juice and cut halves of 1 lemon
1 cinnamon stick and
............half a bottle of rum/brandy mixed (only because my mum brought over a bottle oh I'll explain later).

So once you have ur ingredients for phase 1 together you will need to get yourself a large saucepan, a mixing spoon, and a hob/aga/electric cooker ring.

The next phase is the nice putting it together part:

Firstly measure out your water in a clean jug

pour this directly into your saucepan........

Next measure out all the dry ingredients in your scales......



The sugar and margarine/butter



The dried fruits including cherries chopped and candied peel


Next put all the dried fruit into the saucepan and add in your lemon juice and peel, spices and cinnaman stick and also your bicarbonate of soda.......


The next job as this is for Christmas is to add some merry and bright to the equation and add the alcohol.......


now alcohol is a personal choice and I asked all you friendly bloggers what you would choose. The winner by a margin was brandy. Now u are asking why is there a bottle of rum in this photo, well it's because I asked my mum to bring some over from their alcohol cabinet and she got a wee bit confused bless her and put the brandy in with a little left over rum. She assures me she hadn't tasted it beforehand!!!!!!!!! Anyway I put in the whole lot so the brew will be hiccuping nicely!


Next turn on the heat.......



Get your Whittards Easter bunny mixing spoon and put the pan on the heat and stir.......



Bring the mixture to the boil and simmer for 1 minute

Now it will froth up, that's the bicarbonate, but that's meant to happen. Keep stirring until the sugar and marg are melted down and the mixture is lushcious. It smells gorgeous and if there was blogging smellivision you'd agree. Once it's simmered for 1 minute, pop the lid on and leave the mixture to cool.

There endeth lesson 1 and you can now put your feet up until tomorrow when the fruit will have absorbed all the yummy goodness and swell up ready for phase 2 - the flour, eggs and bakey part.