Tuesday 18 September 2012

Christmas stuff

Hello everyone,

Today I am talking about Christmas (some of you may be appalled and would perhaps like to return to this post in about 3 months time, but you'll be sorry......) HEHE



I am notoriously a bit of a scrooge at Christmas time, let's call it too many years of miserable family members, put together in a room, screaming children who are so materialistic that they don't appreciate anything you give them, or understand the magic of the season, who only want the latest future landfill craze that lasts 2 minutes before it is broken or cast aside.

So it is with great happiness that this year will be different. I am not going to be there. My very very good friend (the American one who came to stay with me last March, (remember, when the weather was good, seems such a long time ago) is working in Germany this year and she has nothing to do between 18th December and 28th December and no one to do it with and so I have invited her to come and stay with me, for a traditional British Christmas, one that will not involve endless hours of shopping, screaming spoiled kids or any sort of misery, if I can help it.  The joy of this particular friend is that she is wonderful with food, both cooking it and eating it. She is non materiel and will enter into the true spirit of the season with me.

So with no time to spare when it comes to proper traditional food preparation, I got on with it today. I am going to be wholly traditional and cook everything from scratch and much of it in advance, trying to find the frugal way of doing things.

So with that in mind today I started preparing my Christmas cake and some cherry brandy.

Now I made cherry brandy a year or so ago and it was one of the best and most worthwhile things I have ever done. So delicious to drink, the cherry's themselves becoming a delicious desert ingredient.

I won't repeat the recipe, because here it is from a past post, only to say that it is well worth trying:
Cherry Brandy

So having bought a bottle of very cheap Aldi brandy, I decided to start on my Christmas cake. Now I have to admit that I was inspired to do this, it being years since I made a Christmas cake, by a new blog I have been reading called Being Penny Wise (and I recommend it). Mrs Penny Wise over there is making a Christmas cake using the cheapest value ingredients, to see how it comes out. Well, I am all for this so thought I would do the same.

This is her post on the subject.

Now, we all have our slightly different ways of making cakes, so I will be doing my own version, but basically the premise is the same, using value dried fruit, value brandy, value flour, etc I will make a lovely large cake for as little money as it is possible to do.

So today I put 2 packs of value dried fruit (1KG), asda in my case, into a bowl and added the remaining brandy (after making the cherry brandy) for it to steep in for the next week. After this I will make my cake and show you how it turns out.

So it is going to be a season of good food, prepared well in advanced (well come on, how many of us actually like supermarket shopping in December and horrendous last minute panicking?), home made well thought out presents (yeah, need to start thinking about that) and a celebration of the true joy of the season.

Will I finally get the Christmas I have always wanted? Let's find out.

28 comments:

  1. I made my Christmas cake a couple of months back, dangerous in our house because it got eaten within a couple of weeks. I will be making two more, one for now and one for Christmas.

    I used to live in Germany and spent two wonderful Christmases out there, one of them with thick snow. Have you considered going there instead? The Germans really know how to celebrate Christmas.

    I love reading your posts.

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    1. I know that I could easily be tempted to eat it before Christmas too but I absolutely will not! Even if I have to lock it away. I love Christmas cake though. We did consider be going there instead, but because she is only working there temporarily she doesn't really have anywhere we could stay.

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  2. Hi Dan reading about your Christmas cake brought a story to mind ,my mum had made her Xmas cakes as she did every year when my dad was alive.This particular year they had both been feeding the cake with brandy and neither knew the other was doing this.It wasn't until a friend said the cake isn't like u usually make it ,the bottom was soaked in brandy . i liked it lol

    Lisa x

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    1. Double brandy christmas cake! can't be bad!

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  3. I make a cake every year, usually I try to make it in November but I have forgotten and made it in December. My younger son loves the cake and eats most of it. I use my grandmother's recipe, but I was interested to see the treacle used in the recipe you link to. That would give the cake a nice dark colour.

    When we moved to the US we discovered that fruit cake is not appreciated much, in fact it is the butt of many jokes. Because of that I never let my friends know about our Christmas cake, but one year they saw it and wanted to try it. They accused me of holding out on them.

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    1. I love the cake and I seem to be in the minority within my family, which is why I have done without making one for years.

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  4. Yum - I'm salivating at the thought of Christmas cake LOL I make a brilliant Christmas cake in my solar oven. Couldn't be easier. But I realize that you won't have enough sun at that time of year to even consider that.

    Perhaps you and your American friend can share different traditional Christmas dishes - that way, next year, when perhaps she is not there, you can make a dish of hers in memory of this year?

    Yeah, agree - it's sad that the Spirit of Christmas has gone out of the window as far as most kids are concerned. The latest "must have" gadget, which will be tossed aside after a week or two. For us, half the fun of Christmas was trying to catch "Father Christmas" (our dad) in the act... Never did though, but it didn't stop us trying LOL And the Christmas pudding with sixpences in them... :)

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    1. We are planning on sharing the different traditions and food. She will be making me her pumpkin pie recipe and other yummy things.

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  5. Yum yum I made our 3 in April and still tucked away everyone loves christmas cake.

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    1. I am going to send you a very expensive and materialistic christmas card!!!!

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    2. I will look forward to it John!
      Welsh Poppy, that is what I call making it early!

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  6. When we were on our war ration way of eating, Christmas was just as good as we took many months to squirrel away what we needed. One small cake and war time pudding, 2lb of home made mincemeat, a dozen sausage rolls, paper chains made from pretty pictures out of the Radio Times saved throughout the year and a tree decorated only with small edible things so that by the end, the tree was empty. Some of our best Christmas times!

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  7. I started making my own Christmas cake the year Delia sprung into action in Waitrose to challenge myself to make it cheaper. I did and it was delicious.. Previous to that I made mini Christmas cakes from a school recipe, only problem was I made the cake on a Friday and and ate it on the Saturday!

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    1. There is something so wholly satisfying about making your own, I know i could just go out and probably buy a small cheap value sort of cake, ready made, but it would never give me the same pleasure as eating my own.

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  8. Thanks for the link - I too will bake a cake. A Merry Christmas to you!
    Love from Mum
    xx

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    1. I love the feeling of wise people up and down the country making christmas cakes.

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  9. I will not make a Christmas cake. DB and his son don`t like it. They don`t even like my traditional German Stollen, so will not be making any of that either. We will not be indulging in many biskuits or chocolates. We are saving up to have a Christmas lunch out somewhere. I will have no stress or left over Turkey to worry about, not alot of washing up to do either. We will have a party tea on Christmas eve with buffet style cold meats, cheeses and breads. A simple Christmas shall be had. I`d rather go out on a crisp day to walk across the South Downs to marvel on the wintery scenes. We have no gifts to worry about. All our grown up kids get a small amount of money each in a card, and that`s them sorted. This way they can decide what to use the money for and don`t end up with something they might not want or need. My Christmas present for my friend and neighbour has already been sorted. I shall have no Christmas hassle at all this year. Our decorations will also be minimal this year. Next year will all be slightly different as I will have to get presents for my first grand child who shall be 9 month old by then.

    Have a lovely time preparing all your goodies for your Christmas.

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    1. I can't believe they don't like your Christmas Stollen! I love stollen and have never had home made, must be delicious.

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    2. I usually buy a small Stollen from Aldi for my Christmas treat, as this one is very close to home made.

      By the way. If you like a decently home made Christmas Pudding I do recommend the recipe given on the following site.
      Titli`s Busy Kitchen; Just look the recipe up by this link:
      http://titlisbusykitchen.com/archives/christmas-pudding

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  10. I'm glad I'm not the only one making Christmas preparations. I've bought/made most of my gifts already as that way I have time to find or make something special within my budget, rather than going into last minute panic mode. I'm going to try making Christmas cake (value ingredients all the way), a nut roast that can go in the freezer and a couple of quick brew wine kits to supply all our festive booze. Oh, and cherry brandy now I've read this!

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    1. Hi Crafty - do you have a reliable nut roast recipe? I've always wanted to try making one but wouldn't know where to start!

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    2. Here here, good nut roast recipes are always welcome.

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  11. Wow you pay me a great compliment by linking to my blog. Thank you! I can't believe the traffic you sent my way today! I hope the cake turns out well for you! I'll be watching for an update to see how it goes! What other prep are you doing for christmas??? Penny x

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    1. Glad to hear it and you are welcome. You inspired me to make my Christmas cake, because, to be honest, I don't think that I would have bothered if I hadn't read your post. Always thought it would cost too much to bother. Well, with regard to other prep, not anything yet! I have some limoncello still that I made last year and that will go into the Christmas stock pile. This next couple of weeks I will put my thinking cap on and start working out what presents I need to start making. I am too poor this year to spend much at all, so will have to be very imaginative.

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  12. I am excited about planning Christmas. Everyone seems to be talking about it! I am definitely going to try Mrs. Penny Wise's cake. I've never made one before! (My Nana usually makes one for us!)

    Your Christmas plans sound lovely! What does your traditional British Christmas entail? We seem to eat lots and sing to silly songs, haha!

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  13. I love Christmas.
    We have a simple one too as I can't stand the commercialism of it.
    I don't really do anything special but will bake some yummy mince pies and think I will try the cake you mention.
    We have a nice Christmas dinner but nothing crazy.
    I love the atmosphere at home when my son brings me a real Christmas tree (he works outdoors in the Peak District) and we all get to decorate it.
    The log burner will be on and I like having chunky candles burning too.
    Might also partake of a couple of mince pies and a glass of something cheery.

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  14. I have fed my christmas cake with vodka, port, brandy, sherry and when I have run out of all of the alcohol in the house, I have even fed it with sweet cold tea.

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