Sunday, November 14, 2010

Surfacing to bake



Putting the newsletter together for the woodworkers, has, as usual, kept me out of blogging action for the past week. At last it's out of the way and I can concentrate on other things. Of course it's time to bake the Christmas cake that my family will share at Christmas time. Being the lazy thing that I am I'd happily go out and buy one; the Lions cake that is baked for charity would be my choice, but our grandson has a nut alergy and I daren't. He really enjoys fruit cake and so I roll up my sleeves and do the proper Granny thing and make one that I know he can eat. This cake is just a Dundee fruit cake which, after keeping for the weeks that remain until Christmas, should be delicious. I removed the nuts from the recipe and substituted chopped, dried apricots of the same weight. It is usually successful.
I use my dear old scales that my Nana gave us for a wedding present 49 years ago. They're still doing the job and they have the lovely advantage of being marked out in both metric and imperial measurements, so I don't have problems with recipes using either. Of course I'd like a nice new set of fancy digital scales but I couldn't bear to part with Nana's gift.
Hope you had a lovely weekend. It rained buckets here - typical Melbourne Spring but the heat will get here soon enough and then I'll really have something to moan about.
Bye for now until next time.

6 comments:

  1. Christmas cake, puddings, fruit mince pies... How absolutely devine.. The aroma that fills ones senses at this time of year only comes with Christmas cooking...
    Happy cooking :))

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  2. Pat I really like Christmas fare, and all that fruit has just gotta be good for us. At least that's my excuse for tucking in. :)

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  3. Good for you for doing the proper "granny" thing. This Christmas I want to attempt a Trifle for our family dinner. We'll see how successful this granny is! I'm thinking maybe I should make a trifle every week leading up to Christmas just to test recipes and practice :)

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  4. Mind if I drop in for a slice - no-one else in my family eats Christmas cake and I miss it every year :-(

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  5. Well, I used to just love my mothers christmas pudding as the recepie was passed down to her from many generations ago. The hard skin and moist inside would make me melt. Covered in cream was the best. i would sit and watch the cloth bag hang for months and wonder how it ever could not go off and taste so yum. We have not had one since she passed away 3 yrs ago, but I think of her every day and especially xmas as there is no pudding, darn it. Your cake will be yum, good on ya nan, I can hear them say :)

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  6. Minding my own: Trifle every week? Of course you must practice. I wish I could help you judge your results. :)

    Maria: I feel for you. I am really partial to Christmas cake.

    Donz: I was lucky, I inherited my Mum's recipe books. Your mother's pud sounds pretty good. It is a time when we miss them, isn't it? We were never wealthy but we had the best Christmases when I was little. Lovely memories.

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