FOR FESTIVAL TIME

New Zealand Listener, Volume 3, Issue 77, 13 December 1940, Page 52

FOR FESTIVAL TIME

Bake Some "Specials" Well In Advance

ERE are some good cake recipes _for the Christmas and New Year holidays. We can’t eat Christmas Cake all the time; and ‘yet we do like to have a few nice "specials" put away in the tins, It is such a restful feeling to know that there won’t be any baking to do, Cherry Christmas Cake This is from Flintshire, England. It is a lovely cake, and the longer it is kept the better.

Two and a-half pounds of currants, 14 Ib. small mixed peel, % Ib. glace cherries, 1 lb. butter, 1 1b. flour, 1 Ib. granulated sugar, 2% grated nutmeg, 8 eggs, 2 tablespoons rum, whisky or brandy, and a good pinch of salt. Cream the butter and sugar together, beat in ‘the eggs one at a time, add the flour and other ingredients, bake in a moderate oven for 5 hours, Never Fail Gingerbread This is an Irish recipe. Quarter of a pound of butter, 4% Ib. of sugar, 2 cups flour, 4% cup of treacle, 1 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda, 2 eggs, 11% teaspoons of mixed spice, 2 teaspoon of ginger, and % cup of boiling water. Cream the butter and sugar, add the eggs well beaten, flour, ginger, and spice. Lastly add the treacle, and the soda ‘dissolved in a little boiling water. Put into a well-greased square tin, and bake for 30 minutes. When cool, cut into squares. Danish Christmas Cake — This is made with compressed yeast, and is quite interesting and worth -trying. If. wanted quickly, you may use 2 teaspoons of baking powder instead of the yeast. One pound of flour, ¥ Ib. butter, 1 cup currants, 1 cup sultanas, 1 oz. yeast, 2 eggs, 2 tablespoons of sugar, 4 ozs. candied peel, 4% pint of milk, and some almonds. Mix together the dry ingredients, except the sugar and the almonds. Put the yeast and sugar in a basin and work them together with a wooden spoon, add the milk, and with this and the beaten eggs make all into a dough, Put it to rise, then knead and let it rise again. Roll it out-make it first into a long roll, and then into the shape of an "S." Brush over with egg, sprinkle with chopped almonds, and bake. Lintzer. Cake This is a very sustaining and delightful cake. A Hawera lady, travelling in the mountains of Austria before the War was given some of it and found it so unusual and delicious that she begged the recipe. Half a pound of butter, a pinch of salt, 4 ozs. of fine white breadcrumbs, the yolks of 2 eggs, 2 teaspoons spice, a good pinch cayenne ‘pepper, 1 teaspoon ‘rum, which is ‘optional, 6 ozs. flour, % Ib. sugar, 8 ozs. of finely ground walnuts or hazelnuts, the rind and juice of a large lemon, a teaspoon of finély ground coffee, a small half teaspoon of carbonate of soda. Put all the dry ingredients on a board and the mixture ae Sovak Sel ST aapberty

jam, and make a trellis of thin strips of the paste-not too many. Bake in a moderate oven for about one hour. Lindy Lou’s Cake This has an unusual method of mixing. It needs only 2 eggs. One pound of flour, ¥% lb. of butter, 4 ozs. sugar, 4 ozs. golden syrup, 8 ozs. currants, 8 ozs. sultanas, 2 ozs. lemon peel (almonds if liked), 2 eggs, % teaspoon only of bicarbonate of soda, and about a teacup of milk. Dissolve the sugar in the milk. Sieve the flour and soda, rub in the butter till it is like breadcrumbs, add the peel and the fruit. Beat the eggs, add the syrup melted, then sugar and milk, add to the flour, fruit, etc., and beat well. This is very important. Bake in a moderate oven 2 hours. " Jumbles," A.D. 1485 This recipe was sent to me by "Jane" of Wanganui, who found it in an old English cookery book, which she came across when spring-cleaning this year. It is said to have been picked up on the Battlefield of Bosworth, 1485, having been dropped by the cook of Richard Ill! Half a pound of sugar, 6 ozs. of butter; 1% lb. of flour, and 1 large egg. Rub all

together, and stir in the egg. Cut into pieces the size of a walnut. Make into the shape of an "S,." Put on a hot tin ‘and bake in a medium oven to a pale brown, Imperial Cake "A. Tauranga "link" sent in this one, which she makes frequently and recommends. Two cupfuls of mashed potatoes,

2 cups of raisins, 1 cup of chopped walnuts, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, 4 well beaten eggs, 1 teaspoon of ground nutmeg, 2 teaspoons of baking soda, 2 cups of sugar, 2 cups of flour, 1 cup of butter, 14 cup of cocoa or 144 cup of chocolate, 1 teaspoon of ground cloves. Cream the butter and sugar, then add the eggs. Beat well. Sift all the dry ingredients well together, add them to the liquid, mix in the mashed potatoes, lightly. Lastly add the chopped walnuts. Put into a prepared tin, and bake 2144 to 3 hours in a moderate oven, Highland Potato Bun This is an authentic recipe, sent in by a lady living in South Canterbury. For the filling: Take 14 Ib. of freshly mashed potatoes, 1% Ib. flour, 1 tablespoon of taw grated potato, ¥ Ib. of sugar, 1 Ib. of raisins, 1 Ib. of currants, 4% Ib. of peel, 4 lb. sultanas, 4% lb. of almonds, 1 teaspoon each of ginger and cinnamon, 1 tablespoon of grated apple, a pinch of cayenne pepper, 1 teaspoon of golden syrup, 1 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda, 114 teaspoons cream of tartar, 1 breakfast cup of milk, and if plentiful, 1 egg. Now make a short crust with 42 cup of mashed potatoes, 1 cup of flour, and 1% teaspoon of baking powder, sieved together. Rub into this 6 ozs. of butter, and make into a rather stiff pastry with water. Roll out, and line a greased cake tin with this pastry, reserving one third for a lid. Method for the filling: Sieve mashed potatoes, flour and rising together, add grated potato and apple. Mix and add sugar, then fruit and spice, and chopped peel. Mix with the milk, golden syrup, and egg, if using one. Stir well together, and turn into the lined tin; roll out the remainder of the pastry. Wet the edges, then flatten the mixture smoothly, and cover with the thinly rolled pastry lid. Prick all over with a fork. Glaze with egg. Bake in a moderate oven 3 to 3% hours. Turn out, and keep for 3 or 4 weeks before using. It improves with keeping.