Christmas Cake!!

Well, it is November!

I have never made a Christmas cake before - if you don't include stirring my mum's and licking the spoon when I was little - and thought it was the perfect opportunity this year that I am living back up North, close to family, in a house big enough to entertain and warrant a Christmas tree, and now that I am a wife!

So, I called my mum - the best christmas cake maker in the world - and asked if she could let me in on her secret recipe....

Delia!

Delia Smith is my mum's secret!

Well, that was about 4 weeks ago, and last weekend I went to see my mum in the Lake District for Sunday lunch. The smell of brandy and fruit and spices filled the house and I was transported back to childhood and Christmases past.

Turns out, whilst making her own cake, she made me one too!
I was a bit gutted as I had wanted to make my own and wondered why she had made me one, knowing full well I wanted to make my own, but actually she did it to save me time and money and had good intentions behind it.
Anyway, I asked if it was dairy-free and it's not, so I still had the excuse to make my own.
I took hers home with me too of course and it is now in the cupboard being fed brandy!

Anyway, with a good idea in my head of using her cake as a snowy base, and then making my own log-cabin, dairy-free cake on top, I set about straight away maing my own, substituting Delia's butter with Goats butter:

1 lb (450 g) currants
6 oz (175 g) sultanas
6 oz (175 g) raisins
2 oz (50 g) glacé cherries, rinsed, dried and finely chopped
2 oz (50 g) mixed candied peel, finely chopped
3 tablespoons brandy, plus extra for 'feeding'
8 oz (225 g) plain flour
½ level teaspoon salt
¼ level teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
½ level teaspoon ground mixed spice
8 oz (225 g) goats butter
8 oz (225 g) soft brown sugar
4 large eggs
2 oz (50 g) almonds, chopped (the skins can be left on)
1 level dessertspoon black treacle
grated zest 1 lemon
grated zest 1 orange

You will also need an 8 inch (20 cm) round cake tin or a 7 inch (18 cm) square tin, greased and lined with silicone paper (baking parchment). Tie a band of brown paper round the outside of the tin for extra protection.

You need to begin this cake the night before you want to bake it. All you do is weigh out the dried fruit and mixed peel, place it in a mixing bowl and mix in the brandy as evenly and thoroughly as possible. Cover the bowl with a clean tea cloth and leave the fruit aside to absorb the brandy for 12 hours.

Next day pre-heat the oven to gas mark 1, 275°F (140°C). Then measure out all the rest of the ingredients, ticking them off to make quite sure they're all there. The treacle will be easier to measure if you remove the lid and place the tin in a small pan of barely simmering water.

Now begin the cake by sifting the flour, salt and spices into a large mixing bowl, lifting the sieve up high to give the flour a good airing. Next, in a separate large mixing bowl, whisk the butter and sugar together until it's light, pale and fluffy. Now beat the eggs in a separate bowl and add them to the creamed mixture a tablespoonful at a time; keep the whisk running until all the egg is incorporated. If you add the eggs slowly by degrees like this the mixture won't curdle. If it does, don't worry, any cake full of such beautiful things can't fail to taste good! When all the egg has been added, fold in the flour and spices, using gentle, folding movements and not beating at all (this is to keep all that precious air in). Now fold in the fruit, peel, chopped nuts and treacle and finally the grated lemon and orange zests.

Next, using a large kitchen spoon, transfer the cake mixture into the prepared tin, spread it out evenly with the back of a spoon and, if you don't intend to ice the cake, lightly drop the whole blanched almonds in circles or squares all over the surface. Finally cover the top of the cake with a double square of silicone paper with a 50p-size hole in the centre (this gives extra protection during the long slow cooking). Bake the cake on the lowest shelf of the oven for 4½-4¾ hours. Sometimes it can take up to ½-¾ hour longer than this, but in any case don't look till at least 4 hours have passed.

Cool the cake for 30 minutes in the tin, then remove it to a wire rack to finish cooling. When it's cold 'feed' it – make small holes in the top and base of the cake with a cocktail stick or small skewer, then spoon over a few teaspoons of brandy, wrap it in double silicone paper secured with an elastic band and either wrap again in foil or store in an airtight container. You can now feed it at odd intervals until you need to ice or eat it.

Apparently this is fool-proof if you follow the instructions properly - does that apply to using goats butter? We'll see. Check back in a month's time for pictures and results!!

Prawn Caldine

I just love a good, creamy curry and there is no reason why everyone shouldn't be able to have one. Coconut is a great alternative to cream and is usually used in Asian cooking.

One fantastic recipe that I swear by and that I repeat over and over, is Rick Stein's Prawn Caldine. It requires a lot of ingredients that unless you do a lot of asian cooking, you will probably have to go out and buy. But I swear, you will want to cook this again and again like me, so it is well worth it, and most of the ingredients are things to keep in your cupboard for ages.

550g unpeeled headless raw prawns
2 tablespoons coconut vinegar
1 teaspoon turmeric powder
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
1 tablespoon coriander seeds
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
2 tablespoons white poppy seeds or ground almonds (I've always used almonds)
4 tablespoons groundnut oil
1 onion, thinly sliced
3 garlic cloves, cut into slivers
2.5cm ginger, chopped finely
400ml coconut milk
4 tablespoons tamarind water - I bought a paste which dissolves in boiled water
150ml water
5 mild green chillies, halved, seeded and cut into long thin shreds
2 tablespoons chopped coriander
salt

Peel prawns, leaving last tail segment in place. Mix with the vinegar and half teaspoon salt. Set aside.
Put turmeric powder, peppercorns, coriander seeds, cumin seeds and white poppy seeds into spice grinder and grind into a fine powder. I don't have a spice grinder so just use a pestle and mortar. It requires a lot of elbow grease but I reckon as long as all the bits are broken a bit, and you can smell it all, then that's enough!
Heat the oil in a medium sized pan and add the onion, garlic and ginger, frying gently for 5 mins. Stir in the ground spices and fry for 2 minutes. Them if using ground almonds, add them.
Add the coconut milk, tamarind water, water, 3/4 of the sliced chillies and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Bring to a simmer and cook for 5 mins.

Add the prawns and simmer for 3-4 mins so they don't overcook. Stir in the rest of the chillies and coriander and serve with steamed rice.

Pizza Express

Once out of reach of people like my dad, Pizza Express now do some great dairy alternatives for him which he really loves. In fact, anyone would love them, they are delish!

Pizza Caprina - Creamy goat’s cheese and luscious sunblush tomatoes make a tasty combination of flavours and textures

Margherita Regina - The Queen of Margheritas, with the finest buffalo mozzarella, beef tomatoes and the freshest torn basil

Pizza Bianca - Bufalita - Buffalo mozzarella and juicy beef tomato added once it’s out of the oven then seasoned with garlic, basil leaves, rocket and fresh basil pesto, all sitting on a golden crispy base (be sure to ask for it without the pesto though)

Jus' Roll

I found these when I couldn't be bothered getting my hands dirty making pastry one lunchtime, in Booths in the freezer section.
They are ready-made tartlet cases and come as Puff pastry or as Shortcrust pastry.
I took them home and raided the fridge for ingredients and found some goats cheese. I fried some red onion til they were nice and sweet and caramelly, layered them on the bottom of the tart, added a layer of sliced cherry tomatoes, and then put a nice slice of goats cheese on top - not for me as I don't like it despite trying so hard to, so I used cheddar for me.

My husband loved it! Really loved it, and intrigued, I went to the freezer to check the packaging.
Lo and behold, they are made with oil and no butter!

My Wedding Cake

Trying to find a dairy-free wedding cake was a task and a half, especially as I was getting married in North Wales but living in London at the time.
A lot of cake makers don't have websites, especially up North it seems, so it was one thing trying to find a good looking cake, and another trying to get them to make it dairy-free for us.
And then we stumbled upon Jane Asher, the goddess of cake making.
I fell in love with her cakes as soon as I saw her website - absolutely beautiful!

We spoke to her, and lo and behold, she could do our cake for us. I was thrilled!

She advised that as there was only one person who really needed the dairy-free option, just to make the top tier with no butter. She said this would make it more stable.
So we went with that and sent her all our mood boards and colour schemes to work with.

I have to say, the cake was absolutely delicious. It was the most amazing, delicious wedding cake I have ever tasted.
We chose a chocolate sponge with praline butter cream - goats butter used in the top tier.
I tried both the non dairy, and the dairy tiers and they were both completely divine. I was so happy!

Everyone commented on how beautiful it was, to taste and to look at. It was stunning.
The staff at the venuev kept the whole of the bottom tier for us and had managed to rescue all of the flowers decorations. The rest of the cake lasted for a whole week afterwards despite handing it out to all our neighbours, family, and even my driving instructor.
The flowers were absolutely incredible, they were all edible and just looked so so real. I am trying to find a way of preserving them and displaying them nicely. Do let me know if you have any ideas.
For now they are just in a glass bowl on top of a cupboard.

Mmmm.... what a perfect cake for such a special occassion!

Dairy-Free Birthday Cake

Last year it was my dad's 50th birthday and as a surprise, I arranged for all of our side of the family to turn up in Cornwall.
It actually took nearly a year of organising, getting all the family together, sorting out travel for everyone, booking accomodation big enough for us all, and then sorting out a dairy-free cake.
I was going to make one myself but it needed to be huge, taste delicious, keep well and be very well decorated.
I rang round a lot of people but they were either not interested in taking the challenge or said they could make dairy-free sponge but would fill with fresh cream!
In the end I found a cake maker in London called Tracey Taylor who runs a company called TDT Designs.
She was in touch with me constantly for about 6 months, discussing flavours and decorations and making it really personal for us.
My dad loves playing guitar and his favourite song is 'Wish You Were Here' by Pink Floyd, so Tracey said that if I sent her a copy of the music sheet, she would copy it onto the sides of the cake. And then I sent a picture of my dad's own guitar and she replicated it for the top.

She delivered the cake to our house and then we set off 200 miles for Cornwall.

My dad was very suitably surprised and even more so that we had found this huge cake to go round us all, made with a lovely dairy-free sponge and a fantastic, sweet, dairy-free buttercream. Divine!
Thanks Tracey!

Jamie Oliver's Surprise Cake!

I didn't realise this was dairy-free until after I had eaten it.
I baked it when my mum and sister came round, as a 'surprise' surprisingly!
It was only when I was eating a second helping later that day that I suddenly realised I had used no dairy products. I immediately packaged the leftover half of the cake and sent it home with my sister to give to my dad to get his verdict.
Verdict: Delicious. We all thought so!

550g raw beetroots
2 thumb-size pieces ginger, finely chopped
3 large organic eggs
150ml honey
170ml olive oil
seeds from a vanilla pod
2 heaped teaspoons baking powder
100g polenta
zest and juice 1 orange
pinch salt
pinch allspice
pinch cinnamon
150g plain flour

Boil the beetroots until soft, then drain and allow to cool a little. The water you boil them in goes a gorgeous colour - if anyone finds a good use for this, let me know. I'd keep it in a nice jar for now.
Rub the skins off and then mash the beetroot in a food processor or with a masher til smooth.
Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.
Put beetroot puree, ginger, egg yolks, honey and olive oil in a bowl and add the seeds from the vanilla pod. Whisk together and then add baking powder, polenta, orange zest and juice, salt, allspice, cinnamon and flour.
In a seperate bowl beat the egg whites until stiff and fold them into the beetroot mixture.
Get yourself a 10in / 25cm cake tin or cheesecake mould and rub with butter and a little flour to stop the cake from sticking. You could also line with greaseproof to be extra sure.
Pour in the mixture and bake for around 35 min until spongey.

Jamie serves his with a creme fraiche and Marsala sauce, but obviously if you are steering clear of dairy, then opt out of this. His sauce is made from creme fraiche and a wineglass of Marsala whisked together with 2 heaped tablespoons of caster sugar and the seeds of another vanilla pod.