Daz in the Kitchen: A rather yummy Christmas cake ... in the Thermomix

Friday, December 13, 2013

A rather yummy Christmas cake ... in the Thermomix

It's getting around to the festive time of year again and my how quickly the year has zoomed past. This year, like the year before, and the year before that, I am responsible for making the dessert on Christmas Day lunch.

Previously, I've made my famous creme brulee in the Thermomix and that was very well received. In actual fact, my mom had asked for the creme brulee again but since we are traveling 2 hours to get to Christmas Day lunch, the creme brulee is not going to survive in the car for that duration so I had to think of something else to make and I landed upon Christmas cake.

Now, those of you who know me will know that I am no baker by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, I am no baker at all and I like all my baking to be simple and done in the Thermomix, as you can tell from my banana bread and zucchini bread recipe.

I, of course, immediately rang my friend Yanna and asked for a recipe.

This is what she gave me:

Ingredients:

1kg mixed dried fruit

620g full cream milk, white coffee or chocolate milk

280g self raising flour

Instructions:

Soak fruit in milk for at least 4 - 6 hours

Preheat oven to 150°C

Line a 25cm cake tin with baking paper and set aside

Place fruit mixture and flour (put the flour in the bottom) into mixing bowl and mix for 60 sec / Reverse / Speed 3

Pour into prepared tin and bake for 1 hour 10 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean

Which I varied a little bit, but not by very much, because I know enough to know that baking is a lot more exact than cooking.

I added 250g of sherry and the remainder in fat free soy milk instead of 620g of full cream milk, because (1) I wanted the Christmas cake to be drunken, and (2) I'm lactose intolerant and can't have full cream milk. Plus, I soaked the fruit overnight instead of just for the few hours that the recipe requested.

I also baked them in my customary single serve muffin tin sizes, rather than a full cake tin, since I like my cakes and muffins in single serves. In the single serve sizes, the Christmas cake took 45 minutes to cook.

The cakes turned out very well and very fruity. It's kind of an odd recipe because it's like 95% fruit. It's the sort my mom really likes too cos she likes her cake with lots of fruit and very little "cake". In fact, just enough cake to hold it all together. :-)

The Boy who is not a fan of Christmas cake at all liked it, which says a lot for it since he usually cannot be convinced to eat the stuff. I will take it as a win.

This recipe made exactly 12 single serve mini Christmas cakes.

The next time, I am going to try adding nuts to the recipe and maybe a bit more flour. That would take a little bit more experimenting.

In the meantime, if I do not post again before Christmas, have a very Merry Christmas and may you have a blessed day with family and friends.