CHRISTMAS CHEER

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 57, 1 December 1923, Page 15

CHRISTMAS CHEER

CAKES AND PUDDINGS The following reciper, which appeared in tho Sydney “Morning herald, are recommended: — To make tho pudding, fake Jib. white bread crumbs, lib. flour, IJlbbutter. -Jib. sugar, lib. sultanas, 11b. raisins. Mb. currants. Alb. mixed candied peel. Jib. almonds, loz. mixed spice, loz. cinnamon, 1 teaspoon salt, grated rind and juice of I lemon, 1 wineglass brandy, 10 eggs, hirst preDare all the fruit. This is best done the previous day. as then the pudding can be mixed, and put on to cook earlv. Seed the raisins, wash the currants well in a collander and dry m the sun: remove tho stalks from the sultanas and wash them, blanch and shred the almonds. Then, to mix the puddinff cream the butter and sugar, add the' flour, sifted, bread crumbs; then the fruit, spice, etc. Mix well so that all the fruit is well coated with the drv flour. , lastly, add the eggs, well beaten, and the brandy. Next prepare a pudding cloth. scald it well with boiling water, then spread it on the table, and sift some flour on tho centrb part, where the cloth will touch the pudding. Then put tho pudding mixture on the cloth, poke m the money, ring, button., thimble, etc., ®ll well scalded, each in a different place, so that they are well scattered. Gather up the ends of the cloth, and tie tightly with sU ng x allowing a small space only fir swelling; plunge into large pot boiling water, and boil for at least six hours. Care must ho taken to fill up the pot from time to time with more boilin.g water. Lho pot should bo large enough to allow the pudding to move about freely; a sn all pot will generally result in a pudding burnt at the bottom. An old saucer placed in the bottom of the pot helps to prevent tho pudding from burning. When cooked lift out into a collander and drain off the water, then hang the pudding in a dry place. It should hang from tho edge of a Blielt, or somewhere where it doesn t touch anything—not against a wall. If hung in a dry place a pudding should not get mouldy; but in this damp climate it should be watched, and if there' is any suspicion of mould then tho puddino- should be rebelled for several hours. On Christmas Day the pudding should be put into boiling water and boiled for 1} hours. It will need as long as this to heat through properly. It should 1 be served with boiled custard or with hard sauce. The general custom is to pour a cup of brandy over ' the pudding, and light it just as it is brought to tho table. To make _ the hard sauce, take Jib. icing sugar, roll and sift it well until it is quite free from lumps; add Jib. butter, and cream them together until the mixture is the consistency of whipped cream; then add gradually 1 wineglass of brandy, beating all the time. This sauce is very <rood served with any boiled* fruit pudding, or with boiled apple dumpling. This mixture will make a large pudding. It could for a small family be divided and cooked in two separate cloths and then the one-half kept for New Year. If divided, five hours’ cooking would be sufficient;

THE CHRISTMAS CAKE. Tho Christmas cake will need careful preparation and cooking, and will have to be a rich one if made so early; a cheaper cake made with more baking powder would get too dry if kept. Hero is a good rich mixture that will keep well:—11b. butter, lib. castor sugar, lib. raisins. Jib. currants, Jib. sultanas, Jib. dried figs, Jib. candied peel, Jib. preserved ginger. Jib. blanched shredded almonds, 2 teaspoons mixed,, spice, J teaspoon salt, J wineglass' brandy (this can he omitted if liked), 8 eggs, IJlb. flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder. Beat the butter and sugar wbll together with the hand for from 20 minutes to half an hour, then break in the eggs, one at a time, and beat well. Prepare the fruit as for the pudding. Mix the fruit well with the flour (sifted with the baking power and salt),-, and add to the butter, eggs, etc.; add the brandy and mix well. Line a largecake tin with well-greased paper at thg bottom to prevent the cake from burning, and the paper at the sides of the tin about 2in. higher than tho tin (this makes tho cake rise more evenly, and so it is easier to ico it). Pour tho mixture into the tin, put into a hit oven, with the gas turned very low, and bake for four hours. Test with a straw to be sure it is cooked through. Open the oven carefully after tho first hour, and if the top is getting too brown put a folded newspaper over it to prevent it from further browning. When cooked turn out on to a cake cooler, and leave until quite cold. Then pack in greaseproof paper, and put away in an airtight tin until it is to be iced. Almond icing is made by mixing Jib. ground almonds with Jib. icing sugar (rolled and sifted), and adding the yolks of three eggs. The mixture is worked with the hands until all the drv ingredients are taken up and a stiff paste is the result. If the paste seems too soft and sticky a little more icing sugar should be added. The Daste should be rolled! out—largo enough to cover the cake—with a sugared rolling-pin, sprinkled with icing sugar. The cake should then be pre-' pared bv scraping off any burnt part of the crust: this is best done with a coarse grater: anv crumbs should then be dusted off with a cloth, and the almond icing pressed firmly on to the top of the cake—if the sides are to be almond iced too. a larger quantity of the iciner will be needed. It should then, if possible, be left 24 hours for the almond icing to harden before the white icing is put on. If this is not possible then it should be placed , for half an hour in a cool oven with the .door left open. Next make the white roval icing by beating the whites of the eggs, and adding sufficient icing t sugar (sifted free from lumps) to make a stiff paste—about 31b. will be needed • —a teaspoon of lemon iuice (strained) should also be added. The royal icing should then be nut on the top of the cake in a pile and smoothed 1 over the ton and sides with the blade of a knife dipped in boiling water. The knife should be worked in one direction as much as possible to give the icing an even, smooth appearance. If a little of the roval icing is kept back it can be coloured pink with cochineal and pined on to the cake through a forcing bag to decorate the cake if liked. A simple forcing bag can be made bv forming a stiff sheet of writing naner into a pointed bag. and thencutting the point, to allow a small stream of the icing through. It may be to add a little more sugar to the icing for decorating if it is found that it runs too freely. The decoration should not be put on the cake until the white icing has set quite firmlv.