Merry Muffins

Otherwise known as Christmas Muffins, these guys are the result of a mad scientist’s experiment breeding mince pies with cute fluffy innocent muffins, and the result is tasty indeed.

 

Would you still get presents if you left Muffins and Latte out for Santa? I think so...

 

Looking at the ingredients, there is a lot to be worried about here.  Alongside innocent things like cranberries, raisins, mixed spice and brandy, there is apple, Greek yogurt, and mincemeat.  No, I don’t know why.  I’m guessing that the consistency gets all messed up by the mincemeat and the yogurt is needed to offset it.  It does result in a somewhat more solid muffin than the common or garden kind*but in a good way.  There is some slight resemblance to scones, although they are fluffier than that.  They taste like nothing else, but are definitely good fun for a change and the whole sordid mess works out beautifully in the end.

* My Granny had a muffin garden and would often have a good crop in August when we visited for the summer holidays.  Alas, modernisation and climate change have taken their toll and the muffin gardens and sponge-cake fields of the past are now a lost art and are becoming thing of legend.

Who made it: Anna

Recipe: Cakes, bakes, puddings and prayers by Susan Over, page 42.

Classic Rich Christmas Cake

Every year Anna makes a tasty Christmas cake, in a variety of styles.  This year we had the classic christmas fruit cake.

Christmas cake just like your Granny makes it.

This style of Christmas Cake is a bit bonkers to make.  You start it in September, and feed it Brandy once a week like some strange creature under the stairs.  This gets it good and moist and delicate, and probably keeping it sloshed stops it escaping in the middle of the night after tearing up the soft furnishings in the living room.  Anyway, when its time you cover the whole thing in marzipan and then again in royal icing as the British have done since time immemorial.

The main problem with this cake is that store bought ones are actually pretty good.  There is a slight juiciness (and a real brandy hit) present here that you wouldn’t otherwise get, and for those of us who don’t want nuts in the cake its good to make one without.  Of course, this cake tastes great if you like fruit cake, and it keeps forever so I can be merrily stealing slithers well into March if it’s not gone by then.  A foresighted sort of chap like myself sees this as a great reason to make your own Christmas cake, preferably two sizes too large.

Who made it: Anna did all the work, Dan helped with the decorations.

Recipe: Mary Berry’s Ultimate Cake Book, page 91.

Christmas Garland Cupcakes

These are fruity cupcakes, spread with apricot jam and sprinkled with icing sugar in a decorative pattern.

 

Christmas powered cupcakes. So what that it is only October? We're practicing!

 

To make about 8 fruity fairy cakes, mix:

50g margarine

50g light muscovado sugar

70g self raising flour

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

40g dried fruit (we used cranberries here)

in a bowl, spoon into paper cases and bake for 25 minutes at 180 degrees celsius (or until risen and just firm).  When cool, spread thinly with apricot jam, cut a piece of baking paper into the shape of a holly leaf and place in the middle of each cake before sprinkling with icing sugar.

These cakes clearly have the Christmas look and are pretty tasty too, though as with all cupcakes should be eaten as quickly as possible after baking.  I’m serious: they are divine for about 2 hours, amazing for a day, fine for a further day and simply tasty for another couple of days.  You wouldn’t choose food that was just “fine” over food that was “amazing” would you?  So get them down you on day one!

Mmmm, cake.

Who made it: Entirely Anna (I’ve been chastised for claiming to “assist” when all that means is licking the bowl and doing some washing up.  I’ve got to be careful unless I get punished…)

Recipe: “Fairy cakes” by Joanna Farrow, page 27.

Christmas Stars Cupcakes

One of a series of cupcakes that Anna tried to explode me with…

 

Cupcakes with Christmas Stars on them, cunningly named Christmas Star Cupcakes.

 

These little guys are tasty little treats.  Consisting of the usual cupcake, you cut out the top like with butterfly cakes, fill it with buttercream, pop the top back on upside down and then smother the whole thing in icing.  A little icing star and some coconut curls create an attractive finish.

Every time we make these, Anna uses her cookie cutter to make the stars which are the same size as the cakes themselves.  So I have to cut them back down to size… sigh!

Who made it: Anna made the cake, Dan helped with the decor.

Recipe: “Fairy cakes” by Joanna Farrow, page 28.

Buche de Noel

You may have heard of this as Chocolate Yule Log.  Buche de Noel has particular continental flavourings that we may have left out.  This is a Christmas recipe, making an early show for expositionary purposes (exposition has never tasted so good…)

 

The so called "chocolate log": chocolate shaped like a log.

 

The cake itself is a true buche recipe, but we aren’t hugely fond of chestnut purée so we swapped that our for a more standard cream recipe: double cream, crème freche and rum.  Even better was a black cherry conserve spread on the cake before it was rolled.  Mmmm.  Then there is chocolate and cream, laid with flakes and dusted with icing sugar.  Yum…

Although concealed in the photo, the cake did not set flatly in our woeful oven leading to a rather lopsided log.  Apart from that it came out perfectly, being very soft and deliciously chocolatey.

Who made it: Anna (with a little help from Dan.  That means something  very different when it is me doing the helping than when it is Anna, by the way…)

Recipe: “Simply Cadbury’s Chocolate”, page 116.

Christmas flavoured fairy cakes

Fairy cakes come in all shapes and sizes.  So next Christmas why not try:

Mini Christmas Cakes

A “Fruit and nut” variation on the standard fairy cake, when coated in royal icing and decorated accordingly these cakes have all the good bits of Christmas Cake with the best of fairy cakes.  Not as heavy or stodgy as their bigger, jolly cousin, they are still more substantial than an ordinary fairy cake and keep a lot better.

Left: Icing sugar inverse holly leaf. Top and Right: Mini Christmas Cakes coated with marzipan, royal icing and sugar decorations.

These were boxed up attractively and given as a Christmas gift to a family member (Hi Tony!), along with some standard fairy cakes in a variety of decoration schemes.  I can’t speak for his opinion, but we’ve made these before and they are really tasty.  The nuts help create a more complex flavour, but it is important not put in too many bitter varieties to keep the taste sweet.

These obviously belong in with the December posts but these were delayed due to bad weather… there was the wrong type of snow on the internet wires or something.  Oh yes – I was worried the snowmen in the field would come and get me if they saw their poor doomed friend above.

Who made it: Anna made the cake, and insists Dan helped by cleaning up the leftovers. That is not true, of course, but I better not tell her that..

Recipe: “Fairy Cakes”, by Joanna Farrow, page 30.

Yum, its Christmas…

I’m starting this blog at Christmas, so no surprises that the first thing we see is:

Christmas Cake

This a “fast Christmas Cake” recipe, and doesn’t need to be made months in advance.  Basically you throw “mincemeat” (the mixed fruit you get in mince pies) in with flour and other basic ingredients, bake, then put some marzipan on (shop bought).  It then gets left for a week (I don’t know why…) before getting covered in the amazing looking “Royal Icing”, which is icing sugar, egg and water in a really thick solution.  You ooze that onto the cake, then as it dries create the little “peaks” for decoration.

Fast Christmas Cake

As for taste, its pretty good.  Soft and moist compared to traditional Christmas Cake, but with a fairly standard taste that doesn’t scream originality.  This makes it better than most shop bought cakes, but you might beat it with a luxury buy.  Well, I suppose Christmas Cake is eaten everywhere the Empire has been for a reason – it is hard to improve on!

All in all, quite a success.

Who made it: a joint effort between Anna and Dan, with Anna doing the bulk of the planning.

Recipe: Mary Berry’s Ultimate Cake Book, page 99.