Three Fruitcakes---Dark, Chocolate, Light...........

 Finished product....Dark ( left) Whte ( middle) and Chocolate ( right) Fruitcakes, full of boozy fruit, which has baked out, chocolate, nuts, real fruit, butter and eggs.

Sunday afternoon baking. Fruitcakes ready to plop into little bags on their way to the freezer to await homes in far off distant places.....................

FRUITCAKE 101-DARK CHRISTMAS CAKE

2011 DARK CHRISTMAS CAKE

FRUIT MIX ( let soak for at least a day)
One   8 oz container of candied cherries
One 8 oz container candied mixed peel
Two cups raisins/dried cranberries
One cup dried blueberries
One cup dried cherries
2/3 cup slivered almonds
One cup brandy to cover fruit

BATTER:
2 1/2 cups flour
½ tsp baking soda
1 tsp gr.cloves
1 tsp gr. Allspice
1 tsp cinnamon
pinch salt
1      cup softened butter
Two cups brown sugar
6 eggs
¾ cup molasses
¾ cup apple juice

Combine batter with the fruit mix. Divide between six small loaf pans, that have been sprayed with veggie spray, and a piece of parchment paper slipped inside. Bake at 300 degrees about an hour…check half way through with a sharp knife as the tester.  Freeze when cool.

Fruitcake 101 is now over...........time to put the three all together.....see next installment...

                                    

                                    

FRUITCAKE 101-CHOCOLATE CRANBERRY CHRISTMAS CAKE

Chocolate Cranberry Fruitcake  2006   (updated 2011) 

(This is my signature Christmas cake….I’ve tweaked the original recipe and changed a few ingredients around to make it work better. Absolutely a favourite every year. )                 

A GROUP 1 cup golden raisins                       B GROUP   1 ½ flour
                   1 cup dried cranberries                                    1 tsp cinnamon
                 ¼ cup rum    ( a must)                                    1 tsp ground ginger
                 1 cup slivered almonds                                    ½ tsp baking powder
                 1 ½ cups choc chips                                        ¼ tsp baking soda
                                                                                       ¼ tsp nutmeg

                                                                                       ¼ tsp allspice

C GROUP  ½ cup butter ( not margarine) ,  ¾ cup brown sugar, 3 large eggs

                 2 tbsp maple syrup,  1/3 cocoa (mix in with the softened butter)
                    ½-3/4 cup orange juice

METHOD:

1. Combine  A Group in one bowl with the booze or orange juice. It should sit for 24 hours to steep and let the flavours mellow.
2. Combine  B  Group in another bowl.
3. Combine  C Group in still another bowl.
4. Pour B Group into C Group, mixing well.
5. Add A Group and stir till well mixed.
6. Have ready a parchment lined loaf pan, and small pan of water in oven Preheated to 300 degrees.
7. Bake in oven till cake tester comes out clean. This may take 40 minutes to 1 hour. You must test cake periodically, and add minutes to baking timer as needed.

NOTE: In 2011 made 7  small loaf tins.

NOTE:  I TRIPLE  THIS RECIPE and it makes 1  9x13 pan plus two small loaf pans
             Or pour batter into parchment lined,(greased), small foil loaf pans.

              Very good with a plain butter cream frosting.

                        Freezes well with or without frosting.

               Wrap well by putting entire small loaf pan with baked Cake into a freezer baggie, tie the end with a gold ribbon, and label.

FRUITCAKE 101 (White Fruitcake)

WHITE FRUITCAKE ( 1997 from Shirley Moore, Fredericton, New Brunswick. This is  a  lovely, light , pretty cake. Updated in 2011 )

COMBINE IN BOWL:                                               BATTER:                                               

3 cups raisins combined with dried cranberries                                                            

                                                                                             1 pound butter

2 cups glazed /dried fruit ( your choice)                              2 cups white sugar

6 candied / dried pineapple rings, cut up                              10 large eggs
1/3 cups orange peel/fresh or candied                                  1/3 cup lemon juice
¾ cup chopped dried apricots
1 cup dried blueberries                                                        1 tsp. almond extract
1 cup dried cherries                                                             1 tsp vanilla extract
1 ½ cups chopped almonds                                                     3 cups flour
1 ½ cups pecan halves                                                            pinch of coarse salt
1 cup flour for dusting fruit                                                 1 tsp baking powder
1 cup of Napoleon or Grand Marnier Brandy

½ cup orange juice to go with brandy

    (Do not double recipe)

 1. Line  small loaf pans with greased parchment paper. You can find loaf pans in the section of the grocery store where they sell foil and cling wrap.

2. Put all ingredients for “Combine in Bowl” into  large bowl, mix together. Let sit for a day to let the flavours mellow. If you don’t want to use Brandy you can use all orange juice, but it’s not  the same. Alcohol will burn out in the baking. Do not brush finished cake with booze. It will be way too strong.

3.From BATTER List, cream butter with sugar, add eggs 1 at a time. Add the remaining ingredients.  When the batter is ready, pour in the fruit that has been standing for 1 day. Mix with hands ( clean hands).

4.Divide batter between pans. The small loaf tins work so well as they freeze great and are the perfect size for gift giving.

5.Bake at 275 degrees for about 1 hour. I kind of guesstimate the time, and check after 40 minutes by testing the centre.  You do not want to over bake the little loaf pans , so check often.

****Once cooled, you can slip each loaf, right in its foil pan, into a plastic freezer bag. Tie with a gold ribbon, label , and freeze till it’s time to give away. Perfect Christmas cake.

NEXT TIME: CHOCOLATE CRANBERRY CHRISTMAS CAKE........

FRUITCAKE101 ( In the beginning......)

 There MUST have been fruitcake......I am positive of that. Fruitcake has a bad rap. The best way to make fruitcake is with good ingredients, the best butter, the best brandy, and always make it during fruitcake weather. That's what my mother always called it, you know those dark, dreary, gloomy, windy days, right near the end of October, early November. 
    I make fruitcake to give away for Christmas. I make three different kinds each year. This year it will be a "Bohemian Dark Chocolate Fruitcake", a "White Ginger Fruitcake" and a "Dark Fruitcake." Wherever possible I substitute dried fruit, instead of the candied stuff, but I still use the candied  here and there. The best way to deal with candied fruit is to wash it...wash it very well, to get rid of all the sticky, gooey, ikky stuff.  In my fruitcakes, I have dried blueberries, real dried cherries, dried cranberries, ginger, almonds, real dried pineapple, etc.

HEre are the three batches of fruit, all sloshing around in a cup (each) of Napoleon Brandy, with about 1/2 cup of orange juice. They will steep away for a day ( or two), making the kitchen smell like brandy. When baked the alcohol will burn off. I like adding the orange juice to mellow everything.
    Stay tuned for addition 2, next time.........when we start baking up these cakes....no sampling the brandy, in the meantime...

EARTHQUAKE!!!!!!

CAKE! That is.....

 A gaping maw of gooey cream cheese, pulsating from this chunk of Earthquake Cake......

INGREDIENTS:
1 package devil's food cake mix              1/2 cup margarine or butter
                                                                  8 ounces cream cheese
1 cup flaked coconut                                  2 cups icing sugar
1 cup chopped pecans                                1 tsp vanilla extract

 1. Sprinkle coconut and pecans over 13 x 9 inch greased pan.

 2. Mix up cake batter according to pkg directions, and pour over ingredients already in pan.

 3. Melt butter with cream cheese. Nuke in microwave about 30 seconds or so, just to soften. Mix up with vanilla and sugar. Beat well.

 4. Spoon dollops over batter in pan. Bake at 325 degrees  for 50 minutes (check part way thru to see how the batter is cooking).

Note: this could be made without the coconut or pecans, or even the cream cheese. I am not a huge fan of any ofthose ingreients, but the cake is interesting, and freezes great. You could replace the coconut and pecans with chocolate chips, and the cream cheese......that would be nice. Chocolate and more chocolate.

Chocolate Chip Shortbread

Trying different recipes is one of my favourite things to do, especially before Christmas. This one
foreshadows every carol, every snowflake, every Christmas card and good wishes.  And sooo easy. Freezes great, by the way, though don't freeze too long....about 2 months  I should say. Good for Christmas cookie bake offs, exchanges and open houses.

CHOCOLATE CHIP SHORTBREAD
1 lb softened butter
3/4 cup berry sugar
4 cups flour

Combine all together to make a pliable, if a bit crumbly dough. Press into a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Press down  firmly. Bake in 325 degree oven, for about 25 minutes.Check shortbread to see if you need to add more time. Edges may be light brown. That's okay, you re going to cut off the edges anyways.
    When you first bring out of the over, take a sharp steak knife and clice into squares or rectangles while the shortbread is hot. If it cools the cookie will crumble, as they say......Cool on wire rack.
Ho Ho Ho........

SHORTBREAD CHOCOLATE CHIP BOO BOOS

 Kind of made a boo boo when I was mixing these up. Was supposed to add eggs. Forgot. Just one of those things. More than likely cause I was multitasking at the time. Thing is, I discovered a whole new cookie by that boo boo. Not a real shortbread, because that would entail just flour, sugar and butter. but very similar. 

 As you can see they are slowly disappearing. So nobody seems to have minded that there are no eggs involved. Jut mix up 2 cups butter, 1 1/2 cups brown sugar, 1/2 cupwhite sugar, 2 tsp vanilla, add 4 1/2 cups flour, with 2 tsp baking soda, and 1 pkg of vanilla instant pudding powder. Lastly toss in about 4 cups chocolate chips. Add a little more melted butter if it is a bit dry.

 Bake at 350 for about 12-13 minutes. Make the cookie balls a bitlarger than normal and shape on silpat  orparchment lined cookie sheets.I just add time if they aren't quite ready.

                                      Now there is only a small piece left This is my piece.

              Oops, wasn't fast enough. No more BOO BOOS ....will have to bake more.

PUMPKIN SCONES

PUMPKIN SCONES (2011)  just  as good as pumpkin pie, with a beautiful golden  shine........and great with tea.

2 cups flour
1/3 cup brown sugar
½ tsp gr. Ginger
½ gr. Cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
Pinch salt
½ cup cold margarine or butter in little pieces
1/3 cup dried cranberries
½-1/2 cup buttermilk
1 egg
½ cup pureed pumpkin ( no spices )
1 tsp vanilla extract

Combine dry ingredients. Cut in margarine.
Combine wet, then combine all together to make a nice soft dough.
Divide in half. Place on silpat or parchment lined cookie sheet.
Flatten each section to a round circle, not too thin.
Cut each into 4 wedges. Brush with a little milk.
Sprinkle each circle with coarse sugar.
Bake at 400 Degrees for about 18 minutes. Watch closely to make sure the scones do not overbake, or underbake.

Oodles of Cupcakes

 Thought I would show you what Morgan has baked in the last few days. The ones above are devil's food with buttermilk and chocolate ganache buttercream. For Dale's 19th birthday. She made them at 1 in the morning, when all was quiet.

Snickerdoodle Cupcakes...made with buttermilk, cinnamon and a cinnamon buttercream piped with a large tip piping bag, and a snickerdoodle on top.  I'm thinking that maybe she should open a cupcake business.......cause we never see them. Then always head out to destinations unknown.....

Eggplant

 Eggplant. Rubbery. Purple. Good for taking on other flavours. Here, they seem to look like disembodied characters from Veggie Tales.....

 Cutup eggplant, onions, any other veggie you want to stir fry, mushrooms,etc. Throw in a glop of tomatoe sauce. This is about a cup I had frozen  and just added to the mix. Very steamy.

A dash of Parmesan Cheese and ready to eat........................

Dragon Fruit (Pitaya Fruit)

 Looks like a dragon's head, it is tuberous and firm. Rather looks like an ugly fish......

 Dragon Fruit is grown in Southeast Asia, Mexico and South and Central America, plus Israel. It is actually a type of cactus and comes in various colours. The fruit offers lots of nutrients, like Vitamin C, Phosphorus, calcium, fibre,  and antioxidants.

Thr fruit tastes a little bland, I thought, kind of like an underripe pear, but would be nice with something more tart. Not my favourite fruit, but thought it would be good to try it at least once. It was about $4.00 for one Dragonfruit, so is extremely dear. It can be made into a sorbet, if you have the time and patience.

DRAGONFRUIT SORBET: 4 ripe dragon fruit,3/4 cup cold water,2 tablespoons lemon juice,4 tablespoons sugar.  Puree all together and freeze in ice cream maker or in freezer.

RAINBOW CAKE

 Morgan's been baking for work once again. This time a cake  in all the shades of the rainbow. She baked the layers using a couple of the silicon cake pans we just purchased. They are easy to use and no fail every time.

 Cake batter, homemade or from a mix, is separated into various bowls and a dollop of food paste colouring added. This particular food paste Morgan found is made from vegetable matter.  Gives a nice bright colour and a little goes a long way.

 Pretty colours galore..............

                             Dividing up the colourful batter between the cake pans.

               The final rings of colour ready for a 350 degree oven, for about 23 minutes.

Unfortunately, in the end the cake layers separated , but we were able to patch them together with almonds and coconut. Made huge cake. I think all those Wal-Mart employees are pretty lucky........

Food Fit for Frankenstein or Friends

 Tons of renos being done at our house, so decided it was time to try out some  baking on friends.  Took CHocolate/Espresso Shortbread, rolled it out and made hands. Kind of make sense this time of year....muhhahahaaha. The hands are easy and also cut out witches hats, then dipped the edges in white chocolate. Quite cathartic on a crazy day, when all I can hear from downstairs is hammering, drilling and loud scrunching and squeaking...

 Took the same shortbread and made shortbread in a pan, cut it into squares while still hot then drizzled it with white chocolate. The recipe is an easy one: 1 cup butter, 1 cup powdered sugar,  cups flour, pinch salt. Knead into a ball, roll out and cut into shapes. Bake the shapes for about 11 minutes in a 325 degree oven. If you squish the dough into a parchment lined 8 by 8 inch pan, then bake for about 24 minutes. Just watch closely, cause you may have to add on minutes.

 APPLE CAKE: Nice tender crumb. I just frosted it with a thin butter cream, it is fine on its own or with a streusel topping. 1/2 cup butter, 2 cups sugar, 2 large eggs, 1 tsp vanilla, 2 cups flour, 2 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp baking soda, pinch salt. 4 Granny Smith apples cut into small chunks. This is soooo easy...just combine all together, plop into greased 13 inch pan, and bake at 350 for about 34 minutes give or take a few. Frost, or leave plain. If you want streusel topping add on batter and bake.
STREUSEL TOPPING: 2 tbsp butter melte, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 2 tbsp flour.  tsp cinnamon, 1 cup chopped pecans.

                                              Yummies for friends in Flannel City...................

DEVIL'S FOOD STRAWBERRY-YOGURT-CHOCOLATE-POUND CAKE

 Okay, before you drool all over the screen, I must tell you that this is a cheaters' cake. All with the best intentions, of course. This is so easy, so good, and made with good stuff. Well, mostly good stuff......first you start with a mix.Yes, I said a mix. I like Duncan Hines, personally. This is in all reality a type of pound cake......but it doesn't take a pound of this and a pound of that......

 INGREDIENTS: 1 pkg Duncan Hines Devil's Food Cake, 1 pkg instant pudding, 8 oz container of sour cream ( but I used strawberry yogurt instead...gives the flavour a boost), 4 eggs, 1/2 cup water, 1 cup oil, and 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips. Beat all together, pour into greased bundt pan, bake at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes. Check with sharp knife to see if it comes out clean, if not add some more baking time. Cool , inverted, on plate.Glop on frosting. See below.........

FROSTING: 1/3 cup butter, melted, throw in enough icing sugar to make a smooth mix, add a drop of water and about 2 tbsp of cocoa powder. beat till a little runny. Plop on top edges of cake and let run down......

Banana Bread

 Banana Bread.........
1/2 cup margarine. 1 cup sugar, 2 eggs, 1 cup mashed or squished up banana, 2 cups flour, 1 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp baking powder, pinch salt, 1 cup chopped pecans. 1/2 cup or so of orange juice at the very end. Mix all together, adding orange juice last to make the mixture smooth. Plop into greased loaf pan. Bake at 350 for about 40 minutes will done. Test with sharp knife. Let cool. Slice and serve. Wayyyy yummy.

This is what I like to do ( with clean hands, mind you)....squish up the bananas....way fun. When I was a kid, my mum would make an orange frosting to drizzle over the finished bread. But it is good without it, just the same.