Find A Christmas Fruit Cake You Enjoy

People have many and varied opinions on what sort of fruit cake they like for their Christmas cake. Some people even cook a dark fruit cake even though they are not personally particularly fond of them. Although I like a piece of dark fruit cake, I am more partial to having a lighter fruit cake in my home. Perhaps you would like to change this year and make a different fruit cake for Christmas.

Christmas is one of the most fun filled festive seasons of the year, and you just don't want to pass by it without a mouth watering fruit cake Christmas recipe. Fruit cake Christmas recipe is one of the most deliciously kept secret recipes of all moms and grandmothers and they just won't let them out to you. These cakes have been around for centuries, and today you might find varieties of them in the different households.

Dried Fruit

Getting a recipe from my mum was a work of art. You had to sit beside her while she added the ingredients to the mixture because it was a bit of that, a handful of that, a cup of this and so on. Although she had some written recipes, very rarely did she ever stick to them, but oh, my, could she cook.

Making a Christmas cake is a matter of being prepared. Making sure that you have all the right ingredients and prepare ahead. Cakes that have a lot of fruit in them, you will find, often have the fruit soaked over night in a liqueur or something similar and if this is the case, then you need to make sure you have everything on hand the day before you want to bake the cake. They are one of the simplest recipes that you might have come across, and all you need is a little organizing before you get started on it. Be it dried fruit, candied fruit, fruit rind, nuts, spices with liquor or brandy, these cakes simply make a yummy moist, dense, heavy cake.

There are two basic types of fruit cake Christmas recipe:

Light Fruitcake: The term light just refers to the way it looks because all the ingredients put into them make the cake light in appearance once it is cooked. Ingredients like granulated sugar, almonds, light corn syrup, pineapple, golden raisins and apricots are seen on the cake, which makes it look colorful and appetizing.

Dark Fruitcake: You guessed it. It is the darker ingredients like brown sugar, molasses, dark raisins, dates, prunes and walnuts that make the cake look dark when it is cooked. All these ingredients make the cake look very heavy, moist and dense. Some people love this lavish treat while the others resort to the lighter version.

Cakes are best made two months in advance if possible, so that it can mature and taste delicious at Christmas. After Christmas you can wrap it and store them in the fridge, provided that you take them out every month and sprinkle some liquor on them.

Decorate your Christmas cake and enjoy sharing with family and friends.

Find A Christmas Fruit Cake You Enjoy

Kaye Dennan has been in commercial catering for many years and has a strong understand about what is need for a successful Christmas gathering. For valuable tips and information on Christmas entertaining and best of all, for hundreds of recipes visit http://christmas-medley.com where you will be able to find the answers to your Christmas recipe problems.

Tags : kitchenaid gourmet essentials 2 quart tea kettle

How to Make Christmas Decorations From Nature

Making Christmas decorations from nature is a very old tradition. The very first holiday decorations were garlands made from tree branches, live Christmas trees, and evergreen wreaths. Natural materials have always been and will always be part of decorating for the holidays. You can decorate your home with items gotten from nature and not only be both modern and traditional, but save a lot of money at the same time. Here are some ideas to get you started:

1. Natural Wreaths

Dried Fruit

Natural wreaths are available at almost every store, but you can make your own and save money.

You can make a small or large wreath from English Ivy. English Ivy is easy to grow and it does grow pretty quickly. Once your plant has some length to it, wrap the ivy around a frame that you have inserted into your pot. You can add lights or just about any kind of decorations you like such as berries or other natural decorations. Another great way to make a wreath is to make one from cut greens. Use a round wire frame that you can make from a coat hanger or you can purchase one at any craft store. Take some of your evergreen bunches and tie them together at the base with wire. Then, wind the evergreen branches around the wire frame or take a coat hanger apart and weaver the coat hanger wire around the branches from beginning to end and then form it into a circle.  You can decorate the evergreen bunches with natural fruits and berries and put a bow at the top. For Christmas tree wreaths, take some small twigs and make them into wreaths to hang them on your Christmas tree. You can use a craft Styrofoam circle and add leaf bunches, berries and pine cones with some fresh bay leaves stuck in for scent.  You can also use a glue gun to glue everything to the craft circle instead.

2. Natural Garland

Instead of buying garland at the store for your stairwells or for on your mantle, make them out of cut evergreen branches. Wire the evergreen branches and wind them around your handrails or place them on your mantle. They also look nice over a doorway in a swag design.

When you make your garland, add some bay leaves for a wonderful scent. If you have a bay laurel shrub, the leaves cut from the shrub would be perfect. If you don't have a bay laurel shrub, you can also purchase bay leaves in bulk in some markets. Secure the bay leaves with twine until you have the length that you need and then inter-mingle them with the evergreen branches. Then, add dried fruit, pine cones and berries.

3. Clove-Studded Oranges or Apples

Clove-studded oranges or apples are a wonderful traditional decoration and many years ago, they were given as gifts. They were called pomanders and some of these still exist in museums. Oranges, apples and lemons are typically used to make pomanders. They are very easy to make and they smell wonderful! Here are easy instructions for you to make your own pomanders.

First, with a small knitting needed, skewer or fork, pierce the fruit all over, making each hole about ½" apart. Then, put dried cloves into all of the wholes. In a small paper bag, mix 2 teaspoons each of ground cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg. Add ½ teaspoon of ground orris root if you can find it. The orris root helps to dry and preserve the fruit. Put the clove-studded fruit in the paper bag and shake to completely coat the fruit. Then, place the fruit in a cool, dry place for two weeks. Shake the pomander once a day. Pomanders also look good in a bowl or displayed on a mantle.

These are just a few ideas for decorating your home this holiday season with nature. Have fun!

How to Make Christmas Decorations From Nature

Decorate your home with items from nature. Be environmentally friendly and save money at the same time. Go to http://trimthehome.net for more ideas for the holidays.

Thanks To : calphalon contemporary nonstick

Find A Christmas Fruit Cake You Enjoy

People have many and varied opinions on what sort of fruit cake they like for their Christmas cake. Some people even cook a dark fruit cake even though they are not personally particularly fond of them. Although I like a piece of dark fruit cake, I am more partial to having a lighter fruit cake in my home. Perhaps you would like to change this year and make a different fruit cake for Christmas.

Christmas is one of the most fun filled festive seasons of the year, and you just don't want to pass by it without a mouth watering fruit cake Christmas recipe. Fruit cake Christmas recipe is one of the most deliciously kept secret recipes of all moms and grandmothers and they just won't let them out to you. These cakes have been around for centuries, and today you might find varieties of them in the different households.

Getting a recipe from my mum was a work of art. You had to sit beside her while she added the ingredients to the mixture because it was a bit of that, a handful of that, a cup of this and so on. Although she had some written recipes, very rarely did she ever stick to them, but oh, my, could she cook.

Making a Christmas cake is a matter of being prepared. Making sure that you have all the right ingredients and prepare ahead. Cakes that have a lot of fruit in them, you will find, often have the fruit soaked over night in a liqueur or something similar and if this is the case, then you need to make sure you have everything on hand the day before you want to bake the cake. They are one of the simplest recipes that you might have come across, and all you need is a little organizing before you get started on it. Be it dried fruit, candied fruit, fruit rind, nuts, spices with liquor or brandy, these cakes simply make a yummy moist, dense, heavy cake.

There are two basic types of fruit cake Christmas recipe:

Light Fruitcake: The term light just refers to the way it looks because all the ingredients put into them make the cake light in appearance once it is cooked. Ingredients like granulated sugar, almonds, light corn syrup, pineapple, golden raisins and apricots are seen on the cake, which makes it look colorful and appetizing.

Dark Fruitcake: You guessed it. It is the darker ingredients like brown sugar, molasses, dark raisins, dates, prunes and walnuts that make the cake look dark when it is cooked. All these ingredients make the cake look very heavy, moist and dense. Some people love this lavish treat while the others resort to the lighter version.

Cakes are best made two months in advance if possible, so that it can mature and taste delicious at Christmas. After Christmas you can wrap it and store them in the fridge, provided that you take them out every month and sprinkle some liquor on them.

Decorate your Christmas cake and enjoy sharing with family and friends.

Kaye Dennan has been in commercial catering for many years and has a strong understand about what is need for a successful Christmas gathering. For valuable tips and information on Christmas entertaining and best of all, for hundreds of recipes visit http://christmas-medley.com where you will be able to find the answers to your Christmas recipe problems.

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Christmas Foods to Remember

If you're planning any kind of family Christmas or Yuletide celebration this year, especially if you're hosting the event. Or even if you're thinking of what you need to do in terms of preparing food for a family gathering then now, the beginning of November, is where you need to begin your cooking. Many Christmas cakes and confectionaries need to be prepared well in advance so that they can be allowed time to mature. This is particularly the case with rich fruit based cakes and puddings such as Christmas Cake, Twelfth Night Cake and Christmas Puddings. Even Stollens are better if stored for a week or two before consumption.

With that in mind, and to help you with your festive planning here are some classic Christmas recipes for you. This first is for the traditional Twelfth Nigh cake, which is typically served at Epiphany, or the Twelfth Nigh but which can also double as a rich Christmas cake:

Twelfth Night Cake

Ingredients:

350g butter
350g caster sugar
6 eggs, beaten
75ml brandy
350g plain flour
1 tsp ground allspice
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cinnamon
700g mixed dried fruit
50g blanched almonds, chopped
45g apricot conserve or apricot jam
900g almond paste (or marzipan)
4 egg whites
900g icing sugar
3 tsp lemon juice
2 tsp glycerine
glacé fruit, candied angelica and silver balls, to decorate

Method:

Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Gradually add the beaten eggs, mixing well after each addition then add the brandy. Fold-in the flour, spices, fruit and nuts. Grease a deep 25cm cake tin and line the bottom and sides with greaseproof paper. Tip the cake mixture into this and tap to remove any trapped air. Place the cake in an oven pre-heated to 150°C and bake for about 2.5 hours, or until the cake is firm to the touch. If the top of the cake darkens too quickly cover with a sheet of folded greaseproof paper about half-way through the cooking. Remove the cake from the oven, allow to cool in its tin for 30 minutes then tip onto a wire rack and allow to cool completely.

Once cold cover the surface of the cake with the apricot preserve or apricot jam. Roll out the almond paste and cut just enough of the paste to go around the side of the cake. Then roll the remainder of the paste out and use to cover the top of the cake. Allow the cake to set for at least two days then prepare the icing by lightly beating the egg whites and incorporating the icing sugar into this to form a stiff paste. Add the lemon juice and glycerine and incorporate well. Then, using a palette knife spread the icing all the way around the sides and top of the cake. Place in a tin and allow to set for at least two days. When ready form a crescent of the candied fruit and anjelica on top of the cake and decorate with the silver balls.

The next recipe is a 'twist' on the classic Christmas pudding that I call the 'Roman Christmas Pudding'. It's a traditional rich Christmas pudding but made with ingredients that the Romans would have had to hand. It also uses the classic Roman combination of fish sauce and pepper in desserts. This has been so successful a recipe that I have to make it for the family every year now!

'Roman' Christmas Pudding

Ingredients:

70g dried sour cherries
70g dried cranberries (The Romans would have used elderberries but a mix of blueberries and cranberries provides the same basic flavour)
70g dried blueberries
100g chopped dried figs (roughly chop into cubes)
70g chopped dried dates
70g chopped semi-dried prunes
70g chopped dried papaya (the Romans would have used something similar to candied oranges but papaya provides a nice flavour and a chewy texture)
Seeds of 1 pomegranate
120g dried currants
60g self-raising flour
70g dried almonds
100g roughly-chopped nuts (the choice of nuts is up to you but a mix of almonds, brazil nuts, macadamia nuts, pecan nuts and walnuts works well)
140g fresh breadcrumbs
100g shredded suet (beef gives a better flavour but vegetarian works just as well)
120g dark brown sugar (demarara preferably)
1 small cooking apple, grated
Juice and rind of 1 orange, 1 lemon and 1 lime
Juice of 1 further lime
50ml oatmeal stout
5 tbsp honey
1 tbsp Defritum
2 tbsp Liquamen
3 tbsp Passum (use this to be 'authentic' I would normally use 2 tbsp Madeira and 1-2 tbsp brandy or cognac)
3 eggs
1 piece (about 2cm cube) stem ginger, finely chopped
1 tsp ground pepper
1 level tsp mixed spice
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ freshly-grated nutmeg

Method:

The evening before prepare all the dried fruit and add to a large mixing bowl along with the citrus juice and peel, the pomegranate seeds, the honey, defritum, liquamen and passum (if used). Cover with a towel and leave to stand over night so the fruit absorbs the liquid and plumps up.

The following morning, add all the remaining ingredients and mix well. Allow to stand for an hour or so and mix again. Meanwhile prepare your steamer and grease some pudding bowls (there should be enough mixture here to make 3 600ml puddings) and spoon in the pudding mixture. Cover the pudding bowls with foil and steam for five hours each (Remember to keep checking the water level in your steamer). Once done allow to cool and store until needed (each pudding should keep for at least six weeks in a cool place).

When you are ready to serve the pudding steam for four hours in a steamer until thoroughly cooked through. Once done turn out onto a serving plate (the pudding should slip out of its bowl quite easily). Serve with a white sauce (a classical cornflour-based white sauce could be used, but if you want a more 'authentic' Roman sauce use the flour-based one described below).

To prepare a flour-based white sauce heat 40g of butter in a sauce pan. Once the butter has melted add 2 heaped tablespoons of finely-milled flour to the butter. Turn down the heat and mix the flour into the butter until it forms a smooth, lump-less paste. Keep stirring for a minute or so to begin cooking-out the flour flavour. Now take cold milk and add about 20ml to the roux. Mix until this is a smooth paste. Then add another 100ml of milk and again mix to a smooth paste. Add another 50-80ml of milk, again mixing to a smooth paste. Turn the heat up and bring the mixture to a gentle boil. If needed turn down the heat until the mixture is quite thick. Take off the heat, add some 2-3 tbsp of brandy or cognac to thin. Grate a little nutmeg on the top and serve with the pudding.

You now have two classic Christmas recipes to make and enjoy. If you want more Christmas and family recipes then why not visit my site:

Dyfed Lloyd Evans is a cook and an internet marketer. All his recipes can be found at the Celtnet Recipes site an ever growing list of global recipes and recipe-associated information. To help with the Christmas celebrations he has now pulled all his seasonal recipes together into the Celtnet Christmas Recipes page where you will find Christmas and Midwinter recipes from ancient times to the modern day. Everything you need for a successful culinary Christmas in one place. If you want the original for my Roman Christmas Pudding then that is also avaialble.

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Sweets and Candies For Christmas

There is a long and distinguished tradition of preparing home-made sweets and candies, especially chocolate-based candies for Christmas. These candies can be used as after-dinner treats to accompany coffee they can also be used as treats for children.

However, in these times of economic uncertainty home-made chocolate candies can be wonderful gifts. Indeed, if you choose the right kinds of chocolate and the correct fillings they can be much richer and healthier than shop-bought candies.

Here I present two classic Christmas candies. The first designed as a 'fancy' or a sweet used at the table whereas the second is intended to be produced on a large scale as a gift.

Christmas Pudding Truffles

Ingredients:
175g digestive biscuit (Graham cracker) crumbs
50g dried fruit (eg apples, dates, figs, raisins, currants, sultanas), chopped
50g toasted mixed nuts, chopped
50g ground almonds
50g raspberry or blackcurrant jam
grated zest of
1 orange
brandy or dark rum, to taste
white marzipan
candied angelica (or green cherries)
glacé cherries
icing sugar
dark chocolate or cocoa powder

Method:
Mix the biscuit crumbs, dried fruit, nuts, ground almonds, jam and orange zest in a large bowl. Add enough of the rum to form a stiff mixture. Form this mix into walnut-sized balls and lightly coat in cocoa powder, or dip in melted chocolate and allow to set.

Decorate the top with a small piece of white marzipan to resemble icing and add glacé cherries and angelica to resemble holly berries and leaves.

Chocolate Truffles

240ml double cream
300g dark (at least 70% cocoa solids) chocolate, chopped
3 tbsp unsalted butter
500g dark (at least 70% cocoa solids) chocolate, chopped (for coating)

Method:
In a heavy pan, bring the cream to a simmer (a microwave and a glass bowl is just as good for this). Remove from the heat and whisk in the chocolate and butter. (The smaller they are cut up, the easier this will be.) Once the chocolate has been incorporated, allow to cool and refrigerate until firmly set, stirring now and then. In the refrigerator compartment (this will take about 4 hours). Use the freezer and you can cut that down to under an hour, but with much more frequent stirring.

Using a melon baller or spoon, scoop out a tablespoon or so of chocolate and use your hands to form balls about 2 to 3 cm in diameter. Spread them on a baking sheet and freeze for an hour. While the balls are freezing, chop and carefully heat, in a bain-marie (double boiler) or heavy pot, the chocolate for the coating. Stir until melted. Allow to slowly cool until it feels just warm to your skin. The object is to have it just above the melting point so that when the frozen chocolate balls are dipped in it, they gather and congeal a thickish coating around them.

When the centers of the chocolate balls are frozen and the molten chocolate is ready, take each ball and drop it into the coating, roll it quickly about, then remove it with the tines of two forks and drop it onto a sheet of wax paper. If the coating thickens too much, reheat it a little, perhaps using a microwave.

When all the truffles are dipped, you can serve them right away. If they will be stored or transported, refrigerate them a while longer first.

Dyfed Lloyd Evans is the creator of the Celtnet Recipes website where you can find hundreds more recipes for sweets and candies as well as a selection of recipes for Christmas foods that range all the way from ancient times to the modern day.

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Christmas Pudding

Christmas pudding is a dessert traditionally served on Christmas day in Britain, Ireland and some Commonwealth countries. It is sometimes known as "plum pudding", but this name can also refer to other kinds of pudding based on dried fruit.

Christmas pudding is made with dried fruit and nuts, together with suet, and then steamed. It is very dark, almost black, and usually moist with brandy or other alcoholic beverages.

Christmas puddings were traditionally prepared five weeks before Christmas, most frequently on the Sunday of the week before the start of Advent (which is sometimes known as "Stir-up Sunday". However, as Christmas puddings keep extremely well for a long period of time (months, or sometimes even a year or more), many families like to put aside an extra pudding, to be eaten later in the year (for example at Easter). Some families even go so far as to make their Christmas pudding the year before!

Of course, not everybody makes their own Christmas pudding themselves nowadays - you can buy ready-made puddings in all major supermarkets - and all you have to do with these is simply heat them up. Traditionally a small silver coin was placed in the pudding (such as a sixpence) which could be kept by the person whose serving included it, and which hopefully would bring wealth for the coming year. Other tokens such as a silver thimble (for thrift), an anchor (for safe harbor) or a tiny wishbone (for luck) have also sometimes been included in Christmas puddings.

Christmas pudding is traditionally decorated with holly, and may be doused in brandy and fired. It may be eaten with brandy butter, cream, custard or other similar sauces.

By S. Tanna. First published at http://www.guide2christmas.com/p1_christmas_pudding.php

Discover Christmas traditions, foods, and how Santa's Sleigh compares to a supersonic jet aircraft at http://www.guide2christmas.com/

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Holiday Gift Giving: Recipes for Homemade Christmas Trail Mixes

Homemade Christmas trail mix is the perfect stocking stuffer, teacher gift, mailman gift, or family gift. Trail mix recipes vary in specific ingredients, but generally they contain cereal, nuts, chocolate chips, dried fruit, and at times, small candies like M&M's or Heath Bits.

It's easy to make up large batches of trail mix at one time, which means you can make plenty for everyone on your list in one day. It's much easier than baking and is a nice switch from the traditional cookies and fruitcake.

Package your homemade trail mix in tins, cellophane bags, or small paint cans for an interesting and fun presentation. Add a small card with all of the ingredients listed, just in case you're not sure about potential allergies.

Homemade Christmas Trail Mix Recipes

Christmas Tree Trail Mix

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit and grease a jellyroll pan or cookie sheet with sides. Also, grease the sides of a large bowl. Set aside.

8 cups popcorn

1 cup walnuts, toasted

1/3 cup real maple syrup

teaspoon cinnamon

teaspoon kosher salt

Pinch of baking soda

1 cup dried cranberries

Pop the popcorn according to the directions. Mix the toasted walnuts and popcorn together in the prepared bowl.

In a saucepan, combine the syrup, cinnamon, and salt. Set to medium heat and allow the mixture to come to a boil and let it cook for about 4 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove the pan from the heat. Add the baking soda and blend well (the mixture should have a creamy consistency).

Let the mixture cool slightly and then pour it all over the popcorn and nuts. Make sure the popcorn and nuts are thoroughly covered.

Turn everything out onto the prepared cookie sheet and distribute evenly. Bake for 15 minutes at 300 degrees Fahrenheit or until the mix is 'dry'. Cool for 20 minutes. Add the cranberries last.

Christmas Party Trail Mix

Yogurt covered raisins or pretzels

Peanuts, walnuts, or your favorite nut

Almonds

Chopped dates

Yellow raisins

Dried oranges, cranberries, or apricots

Corn Chex cereal

Toss all of the ingredients into a large bowl and mix. Take the entire bowl to the office Christmas party or divide it up into smaller containers to give as gifts to family and friends. Easy and delicious!

Holiday Snack Mix

Dry cereal - your choice

M&M's, Heath Bits, or your choice of small candy

Raisins

Dried fruit - apples, bananas, apricots, cranberries, etc.

Granola or oat bran

Chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, or white chips

Mini marshmallows

Pretzels

Toss the ingredients together and then divide into mason jars, tins, coffee can, or any other interesting container idea that comes to you.

Packaging Your Presents

Keep an eye out all year at garage sales, dollar stores and sales at World Market to find interesting containers and canning jars to store and gift your recipes. Add a bow or ribbon and the recipe and I'm sure the recipients will appreciate such an attractive and tasty gift.

Trail mix is so easy to make at home! The colors and textures are fantastic from a presentation standpoint too. Try different methods and ingredients in your trail mix and maybe you'll come up with your very own version of homemade Christmas trail mix. Serve it at family functions, give as gifts, or munch on it while you make your homemade Christmas cards. No matter how you serve it, trail mix is the perfect gift.

Shellie Gardner is the owner of Christmas Light source, a great place to find Christmas Lights. Christmas Light Source is a one stop shopping website for all your Christmas lighting needs. From traditional to LED lights to hardware and every thing in between, they have everything for holiday lighting decor as well as tips, tricks, videos and do it yourself projects.

Christmas Cake Recipe

December is the time for baking in the kitchen, insulated against the cold weather by a festive fug of spices, brandy and rich dried fruit: cookies, mince pies, Christmas pudding, Christmas cake. The Christmas cake should be prepared well ahead of time so it has time to develop moistness and flavour. Usually I procrastinate and bake it only a week before Christmas but this year I was determined to do it right. So yesterday the kitchen exuded a gentle spicy aroma as the cake cooked extremely slowly for four and a half hours. Just one whiff is enough to conjure up Christmas.

It is just the sort of rich, damp, heavy fruit cake that Captain Hook put out to poison the Lost Boys in the original Peter Pan story. That detail seems to have been omitted in the updated versions, maybe these days it seems too old-fashioned to believe that rich cake is death to young stomachs! My kids aren't really into the cake itself anyway, but they love the marzipan and icing, so will nibble meagrely at the cake in order to justify feasting on their icing and that of the adults as well, who Jack Sprat-like tend to prefer the cake and leave the excess sweet icing to the children.

Just before Christmas I usually get out the reliable old Delia Smith cook book to check out the cake recipe and quantities for the marzipan. Her recipes almost always work and are accurate if not always inspired. Now she is long supplanted by the younger, sexier Nigella, but her books are still at the back of my shelf for when I need to check details of some ordinary but useful dish.

Rich Fruit Cake Recipe

450g/1lb currants

175g/6oz sultanas

175g/6oz raisins

50g/2oz glace cherries(optional)

50g/2oz mixed candied peel chopped

3 tablespoons brandy

225g/8oz plain flour

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon grated nutmeg

½ teaspoon mixed spice

225g/8oz unsalted butter

225g/8oz soft brown sugar

4 large eggs

50g/2oz chopped almonds

1 dessertspoon treacle

grated rind of 1 lemon

grated rind of 1 orange

The night before you want to make the cake, soak all the dried fruit and peel with the brandy. Leave it in a covered bowl over night or at least twelve hours.

Grease and line a 20cm/8 inch round cake tin or a 18cm/ 7 inch square one.

Sift together the flour, salt and spices. Cream the butter and sugar together in a large mixing bowl until light and fluffy (make sure you do this thoroughly). Beat eggs and add them a little at a time to the creamed mixture, beating well each time. Next fold in the flour and spices gently. Stir in the dried fruit and peel, treacle and the grated lemon and orange rind. Spoon the mixture into the prepared cake tin and spread it out evenly. Tie a band of brown paper round the outside of the tin and cover the top of the cake with a double layer of greaseproof paper (with a hole cut in the middle of it) Bake the cake at 140C/275F on the lower shelf of the oven for 4 ¼ - 4 ¾ hours. Don't open the door to check until at least 4 hours have passed. Once the cake has cooled wrap it in a layer of greaseproof paper then foil. Delia recommends feeding it with brandy every week or so, by poking a couple of holes with a skewer then letting a few teaspoons of brandy soak in.

Our cake is now well wrapped in grease-proof paper and foil and stored on a shelf in the larder to steep in its own flavours. A week before Christmas I'll make the marzipan to go on it. I'll have a lot of help with that as the children vie to gather up any scraps that fall or are trimmed off. We've even converted marzipan haters in the family to our variety of almond paste, just by leaving out the almond essence, which gives the strong almost metallic taste to shop marzipan. Without it the real almond flavour gets a chance to shine through, more mellow and delicately nutty. (I'll write up my recipe for the marzipan and royal icing in my next article.)

On top of the marzipan goes the top layer of royal icing, made with icing sugar and egg white, put on rough to resemble a snowy scene. When I was growing up we had a set of figures for a Nativity scene that always decorated the cake and it was my favourite job to arrange them with a few tiny pine trees for added effect. You can be creative with your decoration, go for elegant with a single artificial poinsettia flower or fun with plastic animals - a donkey and ox, or as I often do being in Africa, a zebra, elephant and giraffe - standing around in the snow. Silver balls could make a star or you could find a tiny angel decoration to stand atop the cake heralding Christmas.

Kit Heathcock - worked and travelled in Italy for many years, is passionate about food and loves being a fulltime mother. Co-creator of A Flower Gallery home of original flower pictures, Food and Family and Great Books Reviewed

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Nancy Today: Pt. 4 Christmas stollen in bulk

making christmas stollen

Total Link : staub 9.5 inch saute pan

Quick Christmas Cookie Recipes - Lemon Snowflake Cookies

Image : http://www.flickr.com

A deliciously light and tasty cake.

1 (18 1 / 4 ounce) package lemon cake mix with milk

2 1 / 4 cup of whipped topping, frozen, thawed

1 egg

Powdered sugar

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a bowl, combine cake mix, whipped topping and egg. Beat with mixer at medium speed until well blended. The dough will be sticky.

Drop by teaspoons powdered sugar and roll lightly coat completely.

Place the cookies onungreased baking sheets. Fry Cook for 10-12 minutes or until they are. Remove from skillet and drain.

Makes 60-72 cookies.

=> Fast Christmas Cookie Recipes: No bake cookies Snowball

This easy to make cookies seem to snowball in miniature.

4 cups All Bran cereal

1 cup pitted prunes

1 2 / 3 cup raisins

1 1 / 2 cups dried apricots

2 cups pecans, chopped

Powdered sugar

Instructions

bran and PlacePlums in a food processor or blender, cover and shake until cereal is completely destroyed. Add the raisins, apricots and pecans. Blend until finely chopped dried fruit and nuts.

Form balls 1 inch. Roll balls in sugar. Store cookies in an airtight container and refrigerate.

Before serving, roll cookies in powdered sugar if desired.

Makes 66 cookies.

=> Recipes Christmas Cookie strawberry quick easyCookies

These cookies are full of sweet strawberry goodness.

1 (18 1 / 4 oz) Pkg strawberry cake mix

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 (8 ounce) box mounted frozen topping, thawed

2 cups powdered sugar

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Prepare baking sheets with nonstick cooking spray.

In a bowl, combine cake mix, eggs and whipped cream topping, mix and stir well.

Put powdered sugar in a shallow dishBowl.

Drop tablespoons of dough rolled in sugar until completely coated.

Place balls on cookie sheet for baking. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown on the edges of it. Cool.

Makes 60 cookies.

=> Quick Christmas Cookie Recipes: two cookies Minute

Prepare these delicious cookies in no time.

02:01 cup butter

02:01 cup milk

2 cups sugar

3 cups quick cooking oats or dry oatmeal

5 tablespoons unsweetenedCocoa

02:01 cup raisins, chopped nuts or coconut

Instructions

Heat oil in a large saucepan, butter, milk and sugar, bring to boil, stirring occasionally. Boil for 1 minute. Remove from heat.

Stir in oatmeal, cocoa and raisins, coconut. Drop by tablespoonfuls on baking paper. Cool.

Makes 36 cookies.

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