THE HOME.

Digger (Invercargill RSA), Issue 39, 10 December 1920, Page 12

THE HOME.

CHRISTMAS CAKE RECIPES. 1. — .Slightly warm and free from lumps a pound and a-half of flour, and mix with it a level teaspoonful of spice and a smali half-teaspoonful of salt. Beat together one pound each of slightly-warmed butter and castor sugar. When thick and white stir in six eggs, each one sepa.rately with a teasponful of the flour. Beat ithoroughly ' before adding a pound of plumped currants a half-pound each of sultanas, quartered raisins, and shredded candied peel, and a quarter-pound of sliced almonds. In two or three tablespoonfuls of warm milk dissolve a teaspoonful of bicarbonato of soda, beat it in, and finally stir in the remainder of the flour. Bake in a buttered paper-Iined tin in a moderate oven. Keep it in ar, air-tight tin for a few days, then level the top, and brush all loose crumbs from both top and side before covering with almond paste. 2.— Take flb flour, £lb butter, £lb sugar, flb currants, {1b cherries, glb mixed peel, 4-lb almonds one orange, half teaspoonful baking powder, one teaspoonful spice (a mixture of cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg may be used), five eggs, a litle milk. Pre. pare the fruit, wash, dry, and pick the currants, cut the peel in small pieces, halve the cherries, blanch the almonds and chop them up finely, or, if liked ground almonds may be used. Beat the butter and sugar to a cream, udd the eggs beaten, and mix thoroughly. Add the flour, baking powder, and spices, mix, then add the currants, cherries, peel, almonds, and enough milk to moisten — about a quarter of a teacupful. If a rich cake is wanted add another egg and omit some of the j milk. Paper a mediiun-sized tin, put in the mixture and bake in a mederately hot oven for two and a-half or three hours. 3. — Ten eggs, 11b butter, 2^-cup.s of flour, two cups currants, one cup of raisins, two wfcups of brown sugar, onc cup of mixed peel, half a cup of chopped almonds, one wineglass of brandy. Cream the butter and sugar well, then add t-he ingredients, the eggs weH beaten first. Bake in a moderate oven for two hours. Line the baking tin with ,a ivell-greased paper, and if the cake browns too quickly cover with paper. 4. — With four teacupfuls (11b) of flour mix a small quarter teaspoonful each of salt, bicarbonate 01 soda, and cream of tartar. Slightly warm threequarters of a pound of butter; then beat with it uriti] thick and smooth three barely-filled teacups (|!b) of soft brown sugar. Add five eggs, each one separately, with a teaspoonful of flour, a pound of plumped currants, a pound of sultanas, a half-pound of shredded mixed peel, a small teaspoonful of mixed spice, and a teacupful of warm dark treacle. Add the remainder of the flour and a- little milk if necessarv. Bake in one large or two srnaller buttered and paper-lined tins in a moderate oven. 5. — Four ounces of flour, two ounces of maize flour, two ounces of ground rice, two ounces of chopped dates, two ounces of chopped figs, one ounce of stoned raisins, 0110 ounce of preserved ginger, four ounces of butter, one dessertspoonful of sugar, one dessertspoonfui of golden syrup, quarter teaspoonful of carbonate oi soda dissolved in a little milk. Sift the flour and maize flour, and mix with the ground rice. Rub in the butter. Add the chopped fruit, halved raisins, sugar, and ginger cut in small pieces. Lastly, add the golden syrup, and the milk in which the carbonate of soda has been dissolved. Line a cake tin with greased paper, and bake in a moderate oven for about an hour and a-half. This cake may at first seem to need rather a nurnber of ingredients, but it is, of course, only intended for a special occasion. 6. — Christmas Cake without eggs.— One pound of flour, half a pound of currants, quarter-pound mixed peel, half a pound moist sugar, six ounces dripping, a teaspoonful of spice, a teaspoortful of cream of tartar, half a teaspoonful of carbonate of soda, half a pint of sour milk. Mix the carbonate of soda and cream of tartar with the flour, also the spice, then rub in the dripping, and add tho currants and sultanas, the sugar, and the peel, cut up finely, pour on the milk, mix quickly, and put in a papered cake-tin, bake in a moderate oven for two hours. Christmas Plum Pudding (Rich). — Mix together ^lb of finely chopped suet,

5oz of hreadcrumbs, 3oz of fme sif ted flour, 6oz currants, |lb of stoned and halved raisins, 6oz of mixed candied peel, loz of chopped sweet almonds, 4oz of Demerara sugar, half the grated nutmeg, and a little mixed spice ; beat up three eggs with a dessertspoonfui of brandy, and add this to the other ingredients, with enough milk to mix it well. Boil eight hoarg or more in a well-greased mould. Pour a little brandy, rum, or kirsch round, and set it alight just as it is\being sent to the dinner table, and serve with almond sauce. CAKES AND PUDDING S. Thou,gh the practice of making Christmas cakes and puddings is perhaps more popular in England than in New Zealand, where the festival falls in the summertime, yet almost everyone .likes to make some kind of a good fruit-cake at least for the Christmas seasori. Moreover, the custorn has revived considerably with the cessatipn of war, especially as people can now procure many ingredients hitherto unobtainable. The successful construction of a big Christmas cake involves. a good deal of labour, but it may be made well ahead of tlie day. There is, indeed, everything to be gained by baking the main cake some time before Christmas. If properly made it will be mellow and is much nicer than a freshly-baked cake. The following hints may be found useful in making Christmas cakes and puddings : 1. To clean currants without damping, sprinkle with a little flour, and rub n a clean cloth ; then pick the currants, and rub on the cloth to free them from the flour, or turn on to a sieve, and rub lightly to allow the flour and stalks to pass through. 2. To stone raisins for Christmas cakes and puddings, place the raisins 011 a dish in front of a fire eo that the heat can melt the sugar that surrounds the fruit. if done in this way, you will find the stones come away quite clean and easily, and all the inside of the raisin remains. 3. To prevenfc Christmas cake from burning "This will be found very useful. Make a stiff paste of flour and water, roll out to size of bottom of the cake tin, then place greased pa.per on the top of it, and round the sides of tbe tin. This method will keep cake from burning. It will be quite moist and a light brown. 4. See to the fire, so that the oven will be the right heat when the cakes are ready to be put in. If a gas stove is used light the gas and turn it full on about 15 minutes before the oven is required. 5. Weigh out all the ingredients. These must be carefully weighed or measured and all the utensils required gathered together. Sievo the flour, salt, and any raising ingredients used.