Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Christmas Cakes

We are crazy for Christmas in this house, and 2011 is no exception. So ont he weekend Hannah and I baked 2 Christmas Cakes. Unfortunately while they were in the oven (for 3 hours) I realised that I had left out the brown sugar and then when I checked the recipe I realised that as well as that I had forgotten to put in the required amount of self raising flour. Luckily it still tasted pretty good. So good in fact that I decided to try again - and not leave out any of the ingredients. Now this is a new recipe that i got off the radio - it is a CWA recipe - Glad Shute's to be precise - so needless to say I was quaking in my inner west birkenstocks. Generations of country housewives in my lineage - I didn't want to let them down....After all I was the first child in my family to be born in the 'big smoke' that was Brisbane circa 1960s and then only because my elder sister had been born with a heart defect and profoundly deaf - so the parents moved to the city in search of better resources and services for her...Both my sisters are very proud of the fact that they were born in country QLD. But I digress....Here are some pics of the first bake up - with Hannah. Yesterday I had another go - Hannah is sick with an ear infection so my other helper stepped in (no doubt encouraged by the fact that during the week he isn't allowed on the DS - so he had some 'spare time' to help out). They looked delicious. We'll try one when the tree goes up in a couple of weeks.

4 comments:

Sharon said...

YUM!
I have only ever once tried to make a Christmas cake when Daniel and Caitlin were really young and I noticed after a long time that the oven temperature had been altered a lot (by little fingers I assume). Haven't been brave enough to try again but yours looks great so maybe this year I will be inspired to follow your lead.

Anonymous said...

Well done, am about to attempt Gald Shutes cakes myself today. Boiled up the fruit yesterday and stage two happens today...

Was really interested in how long you baked them. I know its says 3 hours but was wondering if you bake the two smaller cakes for the same time as the one bigger cake... How did yours turn out? Cheers Craig

Shelley said...

Hi Craig - I made two large cakes and haven't cut them yet but my oven is quite hot and I think 3 hours might have been a little too long... will find out closer to Christmas. I had so much mixture I had a smaller loaf tin one - cut it on Saturday and it was lovely - a little crumbly (not too much) and still moist but not really 'wet' IYKWIM. Good luck!
Even the one without the SRFlour and brown sugar tasted good - much more moist than the proper recipe.

Anonymous said...

Thanks, they are in the oven now. Called the local CWA for advice on time and they said try 1:30 hours first up and if they need more try from there. Baked one a couple of years ago (different recipe) and it was way way way over cooked...
Will see how it all goes this time...