FLOWER POT KITCHEN: MINI CHRISTMAS CAKES FOR CLIVE WITH FESTIVE ICING

19 Dec 2012

MINI CHRISTMAS CAKES FOR CLIVE WITH FESTIVE ICING

A rich Christmas spiced fruit, cherry and nut cake covered with a layer of marzipan and finished off with festive decorative icing and edible glitter

Makes 8

Ingredients
200g currents
200g sultanas
175g raisins
150g cherries
100g walnuts
100g hazelnuts
75g dried apricots
Zest and juice of one orange
100ml brandy
300ml brandy for topping up pudding once cooked
1 tsp grated nutmeg
2 tsp mixed spice
175g melted butter
2 tbsp black treacle
1 tbsp golden syrup
150g fresh breadcrumbs
150g self raising flour
3 medium eggs beaten
200g dark muscovado sugar
1 large air tight container

FOR THE ICING DECORATION
1 x 250g red regal icing
1 x 250g green regal icing
1 x 2kg white regal icing block
1 pot gold edible paint
1 pot edible gold glitter
1 thin pastry brush

As I like to top up my cake up with way too much brandy over the weeks up to the big day I do not soak my fruit overnight as trust me the cakes are going to get a generous soaking before icing!

In a large bowl add the currents, sultanas, raisins, cherries, walnuts, hazelnuts, apricots, zest and juice of orange, all the spices and brandy and mix well. Melt the butter gently in a pan and add to the fruit mix with the golden syrup, treacle, muscovado sugar, bread crumbs and flour again mix well, now add the beaten eggs and sugar.

Grease with butter 10 mini pudding moulds and fill almost to the top, cover with a pleated sheet of foil and place in a deep roasting tray, 3/4 fill with boiling water and simmer in the oven for 1 hr or until your skewer comes out clean from testing. You may have to top up the water to keep it at the half way level for simmering the pudding cakes.

Take out of the dariol moulds and wrap in baking paper and place in a air tight container and give a little drizzle of the extra brandy. Repeat this extra drizzle every week for 3weeks and turn over the cakes each time you drizzle.

Now you are ready to ice and decorate. First I roll out some marzipan to the thickness of a pound coin and cover the mini cakes and then I repeat this and roll out the white regal icing to the thickness of a pound coin, and then just place over and tuck under the ends. For the red strips, I just roll out a square of the red icing and slice even strips and then lay them on the cake starting at the centre on the top, dropping the red stripe down for evenness. I love the use of edible glitter as this makes a prettier presentation effect for the finished Christmas cake.

For the Ivy leave this time I did have a ivy cutter, if not just cut the shape or use a real ivy leaf to indent the shape and cut around, I then made a couple of berries to go with the leaves.

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LIFE MY PASSION

Welcome to my daily life of cooking, one winters day many years ago my family and I were all inspired by a back to back rainy day of River Cottage this got us to stop talking about and start actually doing, suddenly three weeks later eight vegetable beds were dug, greenhouse erected and our first vegetables were propagating, this was the start to raising and growing our own food, our fabulous son Oscar changed our path in life which lead us to sell our small thriving restaurant of 10 yrs and to start our new life (Terrifying!) a life of the self sufficient in touch with nature and seasons, taking a step back and looking forward to a slower change of pace and making the most of every moment.

My passion for cooking was stronger than ever and having time at home with Oscar I found I had a new direction and I was no longer striving for perfection, I was suddenly very passionate for the enjoyment of the other side of food, something I had not realised, being the Chef/Cook and every other duty of your own small restaurant made me see that I never actually took time to cook what I wanted!

So there I was muddy boots and hands digging deep in more than one sense and I found myself transported back in time to where everyone grew some of their own food, it is a wonderful world with a real sense of achievement and loss, Slugs Snails and Caterpillars! But thats another story! Childhood memories of summers when I lived with my grand parents reminded me of so much that I had learnt about the make do and mend generation that I had forgotten.

Now as a family we love our free wild food days where we gather what nature has provided, have gone from being mini mini garden urban small holders, who did raised pigs at home because we could not wait to find land and supporting ourselves from our garden to now owning a very small farm that allows us to grow more vegetables for the whole of our family and neighbours, raise our own gorgeous Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs, (Sausages!) and pets! Dorset Down sheep, chickens for eggs and pet goats! Suddenly having large quantities of produce started to wake up the Cook in me!

The Cook was awake that part of me that wants to cook for the masses and I found myself setting up Flowerpot Kitchen, a Farmers Market Stall, I wanted to use our honest raised meats and make old fashioned pork pies, rabbit pies and game pies from the local game keeper along with old fashioned techniques and the best hot water crust pastry. This in turn grew to a small cottage industry from home weekly supplying three farm shops and a deli along with also attending three farmers markets A few years later there came a time when my son Oscar's health changed and it was an easy decision to stop.

I still hold the occasional pop up 40 seater restaurant or gourmet lunch which we do for local charities for the love of sharing food and to remind that Cook in me why I love our go slower self sufficient life!

So here I am sitting amoung the vegetables watching the chickens loving that every season nature teaches me something new and that nature is in charge! She has taught me to just go with it and grow. Give it a try from a tray of salad on your windowsill to a few tomato plants it all counts.