CHRISTMAS CAKES

New Zealand Listener, Volume 19, Issue 493, 3 December 1948, Page 22

CHRISTMAS CAKES

OW is the time to make the richer kind of Christmas cake. Speaking generally, a good Christmas cake will take four to five hours to cook. If less butter and eggs, three hours> will probably do; but this again depends partly upon how deep a cake you make. Cooked in a square tin, like a meat-dish, a cake will take only about 212 hours, while the same mixture in a deep, round tin would need 34% to 4 hours. As a general rule, however, have the oven at 350 degrees (or regulo 4). In an electric range have the top off and bottom at low, and put the cake just under the middle, and in a gas oven place the cake | just above the middle. A teaspoonful of glycerine mixed in with the creamed butter will keep the cake moist, and does away with the necessity for spirits, A tiny sprinkling of cayenne pepper is another good hint, or a quarter of a teaspoonful of good curry powder, Ginger Ale Cake This is definitely a "best" cakequite expensive. One pound of sugar; 14%4lb, butter; 11441b, flour; 1lb. currants; 1lb. sultanas; 4o0z. cherries (or imitation cherries); 1 tablespoon glycerine; 1 grated nutmeg; pinch salt; 12 eggs; 1 teaspoon cinnamon; 1 bottle ginger ale; 1lb. raisins; 141b. peel; 4oz. ground almonds; 2 tablespoons brandy. Cut up fruit very fine, and soak all night in ginger ale. Cream the butter and sugar, add eggs well beaten, little by little, not to have the mixture curdle, and beat well. Then add flour and spices, fruit, and lastly, the glycerine and brandy. Cooking: About 414 hours. Electric oven, put it at 400 degrees, bottom element low; when temperature comes to 300 degrees put top element on for a while. For gas oven, the same time for cooking, shelf 3 ledges from the top all the time, regulo 3 for an hour, then down to 2 for the remainder of the time.

Dunedin Christmas Cake This is an old, proved recipe, and simple. Half a pound of butter; 'lb. sugar; 5 eggs; 14oz. flour; 2b. fruit (or as much as you wish); pinch of salt. Mix as usual. Bake on regulo 3 to start; after 142 hours turn to regulo 2 and after 1 hour more, to regulo 0, for 4 to 5 hours, according to depth of cake. Al. though the original recipe has no rising, the Dunedin Link always adds just a shake of baking powder. The oven need not. be pre-heated. | College Christmas Cake This cake is a prize-winner. Cream the butter and sugar and mix as usual. Bake about 3142 hours. Eighteen, ounces of flour; %4lb. butter; %4lb. sugar; 6oz. lemon -peel; 60z. almonds; 441b. cherries (or imitation); 7 eggs; 1 dessertspoon

treacle; %41b. each of raisins, currants, sultanas; 42 teaspoon salt; essence of lemon, vanilla and almond. A little brandy is optional. Cold Oven Cake For the past five Christmases this cake has been made very successfully by another Link. She puts her oven-rack on the bottom rung of her electric oven, and then a slide on that; and then a piece of corrugated cardboard under her cake-tin. Put.in the cake, and turn the bottom element on to low. It takes about 74% hours. If not quite brown enough when nearly cooked you may turn the top element on to low for a while, but watch that it does not get too brown. One pound of butter; 1lb. brown sugar; 10 eggs; 144lb. flour; 1 packet seeded raisins; lb, currants; lb. cherries; ¥21b. almonds; 1lb. sultanas; 1 teaspoon cinnamon; 1 teaspoon mixed spices; juice and grated rind of 1 orange; t tablespoon brandy (optional). Mix in usual way as for any cake, but put in orange juice before eggs and flour. Apple Nut Cake One cup sugar; half a grated nutmeg; 12 cup chopped walnuts; 2 small teaspoons baking soda; 2 cup sultanas; 2 cups flour; 3 dessertspddns cocoa; 1% teaspoon spice; % cup butter; % teaspoon cinnamon; 112 cups stewed apples (warm, ‘unsweetened and sieved). Cream butter and sugar, dissolve soda in warm apple, and add to creamed butter and sugar. Add other fruit and spices, lastly flour with a small teaspoon of baking powder. Cook in a baking dish for % hour in a moderate oven, and leave in~ tin till quite cold. Ice with butter and vanilla icing, or butter and lemon icing, and sprinkle with chopped nuts. Mrs. Jimmy’s Cake. ° This one is cooked in an 81-inch tin with a lid on, lined with greasy butterpaper. Keep the lid on until nearly cooked. It is a good one for sending overseas. Six eggs; %4lb. butter; 34lb. castor sugar; 1lb. flour; 3lb. mixed fruits,

raisins, sultanas, etc.; %44lb. imitation cherries; 441lb. peel; 4%4lb. almonds; 2oz, angelica if available. Beat butter and sugar with hand, add unbeaten eggs alternately with flour till all used up. Break the eggs into a bowl, put everything ready; wash the fruit thoroughly the previous night and leave to dry. Bake about 4 hours at 400 degrees elec. tric oven, top off, bottom low. Dark Fruit Cake This is a Pukekohe recipe, with honey. One pound of flour; % cup dripping; 1 teaspoon essence; 1 cup boiling milk; 1 teaspoon baking soda; pinch of salt; 2lb. mixed fruit; 1 _cup melted honey; 2 tablespoons golden syrup; 2 teaspoons lemon juice. Rub dripping in flour, add honey, syrup and essence. Put soda into boiling milk and add to other mixture, then add fruit and mix well. Bake in a moderate oven approximately 2 hours, *