Anyone started making Xmas cakes and puddings yet???

[winstonwobble]

will be making mine when everyones back at school/college i also use Delias recipe

[The Large One]

Mrs Large One has now made 3 cakes

2 of a recipe of unkown origin and 1 from Delia, the creole cake
you need to soak the fruit in the liquor for a week in the fridge then make

feeding all cakes weekly now with 1/4 cup of brandy till 2 weeks before chrimbo when they will be iced...yub yub


For the pre-soaking
3 tablespoons rum
3 tablespoons brandy
3 tablespoons cherry brandy
3 tablespoons port
1½ teaspoons Angostura bitters
½ level teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ level teaspoon ground nutmeg
½ level teaspoon ground cloves
½ level teaspoon salt
1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
1 level tablespoon molasses sugar
2 oz (50 g) glacé cherries, chopped
1 lb (450 g) raisins
4 oz (110 g) pitted no-soak prunes, chopped
8 oz (225 g) currants
4 oz (110 g) mixed candied peel
2 oz (50 g) mixed chopped nuts
For the cake:
9 oz (250 g) self-raising flour
9 oz (250 g) demerara sugar
9 oz (250 g) butter, at room temperature
5 large eggs

[Hilary B]

I'm a complete humbug I think!

I hate christmas pudding and christmas cake and mince pies ... I've got an aversion to that much dried fruit in anything!!

I've not eaten fruit cake in years and years....

For christmas lunch, I usually make a steamed chocolate pudding with a bit of orange liqueur in it; unfortuantely, you can't make it much in advance!!

I don't like dried 'vine-fruits' AT ALL, so I make a Christmas cake that doesn't include any. My cookbook has a recipe for a 'white fruit cake' and I substitute things like dried apricots, dried cranberries and glace cherries for all the things I don't like. As long as the total of 'dried fruit' is the same, I can't see that it matters much WHICH fruit....
Since I don't like marzipan either (whole or flaked almonds, love them, ground or 'essence' YUK) I simlpy cover it with fondant icing.
I sometimes make the pud I learned about from Glyn Christian on TV ages ago, a bit like 'lemon pond pudding' but with an orange in the middle, surrounded by dried apples, apricots and similar all in a suet-crust 'shell'
Mincemeat is bought (for OH), or if I'm feeling really lazy, I buy the best quality of mince pies (since I don't eat them anyway......)