http://s199.photobucket.com/albums/a...1%20Christmas%
20Cake/


or the slideshow at.......


http://s199.photobucket.com/albums/a...1%20Christmas%
20Cake/?albumview=slideshow


http://tinyurl.com/29hsyk2




It smells great!! But what a debacle making it :-)

It must have been the G&T's I was having at the time...... or the fact
that it was almost making me sick when I was making it as I macerated the
fruit and nuts in red wine and brandy..... and all I could smell was the
red wine :'(

Consequently, I didn't taste it as I was making it....... and I had
forgotten to put the spices in until it had been in the oven for about 5
minutes..... so dragged it out, tipped it back into the mixing bowl, added
the spices and mixed it all over again.

And then I was wondering why it seemed rather 'wet'...... looked at the
recipe and remembered I was making a 1/2 mix, but had added the full mix
amount of booze!! So the cake should last a long time :-D

Oh well........


We were supposed to be going over to the SIL's place for lunch with some
of the siblings(and to deliver the cake to my Sydney based BIL), but the
SO has a migraine and was up at 0-dark-hundred this morning spewing her
guts up...... so she's going to be spending the day in bed.


And here's me....... never gets headaches or hangovers!!

They aren't allowed on the Planet I come from ;-P



Peters Christmas Cake.


500g (1 lb) butter
500g (1 lb) Brown Sugar (the darker the better)
2 level tablespoons Mixed Spice
2 level dessertspoons Cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon Nutmeg
12 eggs separated
500g (1 lb) Flour
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
Grated rind of 1 orange and 1 lemon
1kg (2 lb) Seeded Raisins
500g (1 lb) Sultanas (Can use 2kg of mixed fruit for the
raisins/sultanas/currants)
500g (1 lb) Currants
225g (1/2 lb) Mixed Peel
225g (1/2 lb) Cherries (I used Glace' cherries)
225g (1/2 lb) Almonds
4 tablespoons Wine or Brandy (to marinate the fruit and nuts)
1&1/2 cups combined red wine and brandy extra


Cream butter sugar and spices together, add egg yolks and beat well.
Fold in stiffly beaten egg whites alternatively with sifted flour and
baking powder. Add grated rind and fruit and nuts. (Chop the cherries up
and whizz the almonds (if whole) in a food processor). Lastly, add all
the booze and mix.

Grease and line your biggest cake tin with baking paper (mine's a 9"
square and still wasn't big enough!! I ended up with a loaf pan full as
well).

Bake approx 5 hours at 120C (250F) and then 2 hours at 100C (200F)

Note: With the egg whites, I put them and the flour in the mix in 3
batches. The egg whites won't properly 'assimilate' by themselves so
rather than spend too long trying to make them mix in, throw some flour
in with them.
And with the extra 1&1/2 cups of booze, mix them together in whatever
quantities you want, and even add more if you wish... it'll just make
the cake moister :-)


--
Peter Lucas
Hobart
Tasmania


A good friend would drive 30 miles at 2:00 am to bail you out of jail.
A best friend, however, would be sitting in the cell next to you saying
"Man, that was f******n Awesome!"