I'm Dreaming Of A White Christmas

Inspired by several of the Canadian members of Mr X a cookery forum I’m lucky to have gained entrance too, I’m dreaming of a white Christmas, but the chances are it isn’t going to happen, well not in terms of the weather anyway.

So I’ve decided I’ll just have to make up for it with food, starting with a marathon baking session this morning. I’ve been busy baking Christmas cakes, following the “Easy Action Christmas Cake” recipe in Feast: Food That Celebrates Life by Nigella Lawson. The recipe can be found here.

Feast: Food That Celebrates Life has got to be one of my all time favourite recipe books, it has perfect meal ideas for every conceivable occasion from Christmas, Rosh Hashana, Weddings through to a Chocolate Cake Hall of Fame, perfect for when chocolate is the only thing which will satisfy.

The “Easy Action” Cake was so simple to make, probably the reason why it got the name it did, but joking aside it was fabulous and filled the kitchen with the aroma of the Festive Season. I changed the rum for brandy as it’s what I had easily available today, although I have been known to use liquors such as amaretto, whiskey and limoncello, not together I hasten to add. I will also be adding a traditional marzipan and icing top, the sides will be left uncovered so that friends and family will be able to continue to ‘feed’ their cakes upon receipt of them.

It’s very funny really that the smell of Christmas cake baking could be so evocative of childhood Christmases as I cannot remember my mother or father ever baking a cake for the event, it was always a M&S one at home, the majority of which went in the bin! The only experience I had of family home made cake at Christmas was made by my Nana (my Mums mother) which was seriously lacking in fruit and had been baked to within an inch of its life, how she ever managed to slice it without it falling to dust within our eyes will forever amaze me.

For the last three years though it has been my main job in the lead up to Christmas to bake cakes for my Grandparents, work colleagues and of course ourselves. I try and use a couple of different recipes each year for example, last year I made the “Old Fashioned Christmas Cake” and “Certosino” (Feast: Food That Celebrates Life). Now I’ve still to decide on which other cake recipe to use for my second family cake.

Once the cakes have been iced and decorated I will post again here, with plenty of photo’s and a full review of the taste-bud test.