Oh God She's Talking About Christmas Already

Yes I am, I'm sorry. No I'm not. Or maybe I'm not sure. Still the last few days of September is the time to start really thinking about it.

More regular readers will be familiar with my Christmas cake. It's part obsession part tradition and for me it really marks the run to the festive season. I suspect it's the weekly feeding (rum, so much rum) and inevitable naming of at least one of the cakes. I also sort of feel like the making of Christmas cake legitimises the rest of the Christmas prep. Though as I type a few of my friends have already bought all their gifts. I am in awe of them. Seriously way to over achieve folks. I was feeling really smug about last year's tree being in a pot out in the garden looking even greener and lusher than it did last year. Oh well....


So it's time to break out a note book, spread sheet or the back of an envelope and write down what needs to be done, what you want to make, what needs to be bought etc. Then have a cup of tea and a breather. Now cull the list, while mittens for all the children you know is a lovely idea I suspect the reality would be pulling a Yarn Harlot (sorry Steph you are magic but I am not so dedicated) and knitting like a mad bastard on Christmas eve when you could be doing something with everyone you love like going out on a traipse to looks at all the Christmas lights or midnight mass or you know just curling up on the sofa and drinking your body weight in hot chocolate. The whole point of this planning exercise is to minimise last minute madness so you can actually enjoy the holiday rather than implode from stress. There's also a money saving aspect to this which is also rather handy.

So I figure out:

1. Who I'm knitting/sewing for
2. Who I'm baking for
3. Who gets bought gifts (pretty much just the kids on my list)
4. If Christmas cards are being sent this year (a first class stamp will be 62p by Christmas. Yikes!)
5. What sort of state are the Christmas decorations in. Does anything need updated, repaired or replaced? Do I want to add anything?
6. Will we be entertaining? what needs doing there? Recipe testing, spare room in need of a bit of tlc?

And then I cull the excess, prioritize and work my way through my list.

So what does your list look like? Spotted any cute patterns or tutorials you'll be using? What's your favourite Christmas tradition? Yes I tottally am prodding you all for ideas. So please spill!

Minnie xoxo


p.s. Christmas cards- are you doing them?

Holidays

Wow, the past two months have been crazy. Winding up the semester and getting ready for the holidays it's been pretty hectic. But I managed to get all my Christmas knitting done and then some. Granted my goals weren't particularly lofty. Still an achievement to be proud of.

The Christmas cake was a hit this year again. I covered it in lemon butter cream and royal icing. Tasty. As you can see my cake decorating was pretty minimalist but it's an upgrade from last year when the cake didn't survive long enough to be iced. Progress. (The coal is put on with an edible food safe pen, I have this one.)

We had planned to head up north to the islands to see family for Christmas  but the weather has been so wild the ferries haven't been running. We had a pretty awesome day all the same, Bloke made a MASSIVE roast beef dinner and we had a film marathon. And because Bloke is awesome he got me a new camera for Christmas so this should be the last post with crappy phone pictures. Well probably.

How was your holiday? Ready for the new year?

Minnie xoxo

Living Vicariously Through Others

Or even knitting vicariously through others. It's awesome.

Tasha over at By Gum By Golly is having a follow along, sharing the process she goes through fitting and knitting a 1940s knitting pattern. I am still knitting the grey stretch monstrosity for bloke. Mostly because it's really bloody dull and I banish it to the spare room for months on end. I am determined to have it finished before Christmas though. So here's the fancy button and link:

I do love me a red jumper. Alas the hair it is rather ginger these days. Perhaps in a nice shade of blue? Or a nice Kelly green. What ever happens I'm sure it'll look fab. If I ever finsh the one for bloke...

Also I'm never knitting an all rib jumper for my husband that isn't in the round. Just no. At this moment in time I'm refusing to believe I'll have to sew it up. Fairies will come in the night and do it for me right?

Just pat my head and make me tea while I sit here in denial,
Much appreciated
Minnie xoxo

Presents vs Gifts

So, the cake has been made so we're officially in the run up to Christmas. Granted we're still at the marathon stage not the sprint. But still the totting up of budgets is happening, the slow panic is building. Last night Bloke was watching Dave Gorman's new show Modern Life Is Goodish. And he made a brilliant point. There's a difference between Gifts and Presents.

Its quite a simple concept "presents" are things that you would actually buy for your self: books, clothing, perfume etc. "Gifts" are those things that are created especially for giving and are not something you'd not buy for yourself: miniature foods, mini sets of *anything*, the dad centric desk gifts and the myriad of joke presents available in the run up to Christmas. Now I can hear your "But bath sets are useful!" Well yes and no, how many selections of bubble bath are actually used? It really comes down to how familiar you are with the persons bath/shower time habits. I fully admit to buying my husband a nice shower set or posh soap every gifting holiday but I do so knowing that it's something he'll actually use. The same cannot be said for anyone who doesn't share a bathroom with me.

Now, this is not to say that presents will be what the person wants. But there is something far more personal about it. And the whole point of presents is the thought you've put into it.

And presents don't have to be about shopping. I cannot emphasise this enough. I only buy things for a very select few, and honestly most of them are children. Every one else gets food at Christmas. Bloke and I spend a few days making a section of edible goodies. we can't guarantee you'll like them, but you can feed them to any of your guests, we don't even mind if you pretend to your Aunt Mabel that you made them yourself.

And if cooking isn't your thing, don't sweat it. Use your talents! If you want to. This is just a plea against wasting your money because you have to buy some one a gift.

 If you can't think of anything, go for the best sort of gift- the charity gift. Oxfam do a wonderful range. How about some Chickens for the animal lover in your life? Or if your budget is a bit bigger you could help a vulnerable child.


So, this isn't a campaign for no gifts ever, just "Let's stop buying pointless crap, yeah?" I promise I'm not a grinch.

Minnie xoxo

Christmas Cake 2013

So this is only a slight improvement on last year's series of posts. There's more rum in the fruit soak, more spice and for the sake of clarity this year the cake making is being condensed into one post for the sake off ease &  of print-ability.

I really love this cake, it was born out of necessity ( I have a nut & dairy allergy) but with a lot of experimentation I settled on a good dense, sweet and spicy cake that smells heavenly without being too filling or dry. Dry fruit cake is the pits. It's great iced or plain. Alas the alcohol content is very high so it is not suitable for every one. However an alcohol free version can be easily made a few days before Christmas- just soak the fruit in cold black tea or fruit juice (orange or cranberry juice would be lovely. )

Christmas cake can seem super daunting, baking something so far in advance spoilage can be a worry but that's the important role the alcahol plays preserving the cake and allowing the flavours to deepen and develop.

What you'll need:

• 200g glacé cherries, chopped (I like French style best, if dayglo red and green are you're thing I won't judge you too much)
• 200g candied peel (often referred to as mixed peel) 
• 1kg sultans, raisins or currants (a mix or just the fruit you like best, i usually just use raisins because I like them best and we tend to have them in the pantry anyway.)
• 1 litre bottle of dark rum (this will serve you from start to finish and leave you some to spare, supermarket own brand is fine)
• 30ml/1 table spoon of vanilla extract (never essence if you can help it)
• 250g very dark brown sugar
• 250g butter (I use a dairy free margarine, as long as its okay for baking it'll work in the cake)
• 6 medium eggs
• 400g plain flour
• 1/4 of a teaspoon of salt
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
• 100g ground rice or ground almonds
• 1 teaspoon of nutmeg
• 3 teaspoons of cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons of mixed spice
• 1 teaspoon of ginger 

Its Autumn and that means Christmas cake.

So.... We're half way through September. How did that happen? Oh yeah getting married, moving and starting back at uni does then to be a time suck like that. Who Knew? Every one but me, obviously.

I'm still getting to grips with the new house, and uni and I still have a ton of stuff to wrap up from after the wedding. But that's tottally beside the point because September means its Christmas cake time again!

If you missed it last year, I make my Christmas cake at the end of September and feed it with rum for month and months so that come December its a lovely juicy, spicy cake that's so full of alcohol people think they love it. Its cheap and easy to do and doesn't take more than two hours in the oven or contain any crazy expensive ingredients. I'll be blogging the recipe and method again this year with better pictures and more direction because of the awesome feed back I got last year. (Mostly the cake jacket, I'll hold my hands up that was super vague.)

So back on point, lets make it a proper cake a long. No need to use my recipe, or *any* recipe for that matter. Do you make a cake? Do you buy one? Who sells the best cake for those who don't want to/don't have the time? What do you hate about Christmas cake? Is the marzipan a requirement or the devil's work? Is any icing even required (we didn't get that far next year. This year I'm making multiples)? Or is Yule log where its at for you? Will you be my new best buddy?

So who's up for it? Will you blog/ bake along, or just cheer us on in the comments?

Minnie xoxo

4 Days To Go

I think I've admitted defeat with regards to bloke's jumper. I am not the Yarnharlot, as lovely as she may be I can't drop everything to knit. There are other fun things to do like decorate the tree!

Its a very tiny tree. Bloke surprised me with it and a few new decorations. Our old ones are still missing. Alas. The topper is a free printable from Jolly Allsorts. I am rocking lots of free printables this year. Mostly on photo paper because it makes them look a bit more polished. 

The lovely shiny baubles have been padded out with some salt dough pals. When I was a teenager I was very into art, painting drawing and the like. The talent has not stayed with me, so I just painted them block bright colours with acrylic paint and did a little fancy gold flecking with a little shiny paint and a dry brush.

Salt dough is easy peasy! Here's how you make it:

You just need half a cup of salt, half a cup of tepid water and slightly more than a cup of plain flour. Work the dough until its smooth , roll it out, cut out some shapes with a cookie cutter. Jab a hole with a cocktail stick or an old pen and bake in a low oven for a few hours until hard. Then you just paint and add some ribbon or string and hang on the tree. If you are particularly proud of your work seal with a water based varnish or pva glue. And just to be clear salt dough is not for eating.

Making salt dough ornaments is one of those things that is usually reserved for small children only, but its a lot of fun and I highly recommend it as a cheap and fun way to pad out, update and personalise your tree. With some patience and a little more imagination and some stunning results could be achieved, but I'll be honest I'm pretty proud of my simple stars, hearts and circles. I'm easily pleased.

I hope you all aren't too stressed by the run up to the big day!

Minnie xoxo

Get Down And Ceilidh On!

Tonight Bloke, Dad's girlfriend and I are going to the Vatersay Boys in the Barrowlands ballroom!

Excited doesn't even cover it. Its the perfect way to kick off the festive season.

I'll tell you all about it tomorrow!

Minnie xoxo

The anti gift guide

This morning I read this article in the Guardian. Just how much of what you buy survives after christmas? Does it continue to be used? Hell can you even remember what great aunt Maude got you last year? Why do we put ourselves through this?!

Gift that are needed or are genuinely enrich the giftees life are wonderful. Flannel pjs for that friend who has moved to the cold north, a stand mixer for your sweetie or a beautiful hard back copy of a much loved often lent out and lost book for the giftee to cherish for ever and clutch while gleefully while they cry "Get thee to the library, this is mine and I love it!" I recommend a nice copy of Good Omens for this last one.

What I'm trying to say, in the nicest possibly way, if you aren't a child chances are I'll be giving you some kind of food based product. That I made myself. Because nothing says "I really care about you" like gout.  Gout and high blood sugar. And if you are a child chances are its educational, made of wood and most definitely does not make a noise. I am a meany.

Filling each others homes with random, expensive tat really is wasteful. "Look I really do care about you! I spent 20 quid on this thing I hope you'll like" doesn't quite have a wonderful ring to it. Now I'm not saying we should give at all. Gifts are wonderful, they make us all happy. Its a lovely feeling taking the time to search for that perfect thing. To wrap it up, stash it away and then to pass it into excited hands. The perfect piece of jewellery, or a nice set of tools. A stylish hat or a life changing piece of music. All wonderful things. I'm just asking that we put a stop to stuff for the sake of stuff. 

A bubble wrap tie for example. How long is that going to last? Also its costs a fiver! A waste of money and resources. That's an awful lot to simply say "hahaha you work in an office and I presume its dull." Er right. Time to rethink?

Anyway I have more baking to do. I promise I'm not the Grinch.
minnie xoxo

Christmas cake progress.

So I still can't find my camera cable. I am going to have to admit defeat soon and properly unpack all our boxes instead of leaving them in the spare room and pretending they don't count. Anyway...

Back to the bake along!

I've been feeding it a little rum once a week, that is just brushing it over lightly with some rum. The rest of the time I've been keeping it in an air tight package of baking paper and cling film, (I don't have a cake box that's big enough.) The fruit is starting to get really plump and the smell is just amazing. Its so utterly christmassy. Spicy and rich. 

Now is the time to start thinking about how, if, you want to ice it. Do you like marzipan and rolled royal icing? Or perhaps a dusting of powdered sugar is more your style? I usually go for a layer of lemon whipped icing with a rolled royal icing on top. The cake won't be decorated until just before its served (on the day or the day before) so there's plenty of time to decided what you want to do. 

Only 34 days to go till the big day! How are all your cakes going? 

Minnie xoxo

What we lost in the move

Our christmas decorations. Yes really. Its daft and random, and a really stupid thing to be upset by because we have no room for a real tree. For a while I was convinced I'd just put them some place safe, but then I had a proper look and Bloke had a proper look. Nope. They are some where between here and Loughborough but they are most definitely not here.

They must be somewhere so I'm not going to replace them (just yet anyway- I live in hope), but I still want the flat to look festive. The solution required some serious patience on my part. Paper crafting. I am utterly, completely terrible at anything beyond the making of paper chains. So please be very, very impressed with what I have to show you. I made this! It only took an evening!

I used this tutorial for the wreath. I did use a few staples to keep the individual pieces tight and did use a glue stick to make it sturdy enough to survive the festive season fixed to the door.  A 36 pack of designer paper for scrap booking was enough to make one large wreath, a long paper chain, a decent length of heart shaped chain and a few gift tags.  The whole endeavour cost much less than £10 including staples and glue.

Huzzah! Cheap, cheerful and festive. I'm rather proud. So I had to share.

Minnie xoxo

Further christmas preperation

I made a teeny tiny tree! We don't have the space for a real tree this year. Tiny flat is tiny. I used this tutorial off the martha stewart site.  It was pretty simple, there was a Murder She Wrote marathon on and my tiny tree only took two episodes from start to finish, so less than two hours! A few little pompoms and some glitter and it'll be even more festive. It might be a little lopsided but I'm quite proud. 

Minnie xoxo

Christmas Cake!

So yesterday was the big day! I had class in the morning and cake home and spent the afternoon baking. The cake does take a wee while to do from start to finish so set the best part of the day aside for it, but don't worry a good chunk of it is spent waiting for the cake to bake so I recommend getting a few Christmas films in to get you in the mood. Edit. This is a process of two days, the day before cake day you want to soak the fruit, here's the post on it.

So, Lets get started! First off the ingredients and supplies list:


200g of glacé cherries

200g of candied peel (some times referred to as mixed peel)

1kg of currants and sultans mixed

(if peel and cherries are not your thing just sub with more dried fruit)

175ml of dark rum (just buy a bottle of the super market own brand, as we'll need more to feed the cake weekly)

25ml of vanilla extract or essence

250g v. dark brown sugar

250g butter (I actually use a butter substitute)

6 medium eggs

400g plain flour (all purpose)

1/4 of a teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

100g ground rice or ground almonds.

2 teaspoons of cinnamon

2 teaspoons of mixed spice (pumpkin pie spice)

A large (23cm or so) spring form pan (or two if you prefer a shorter cake)

A roll of grease proof baking paper

Some kitchen string

A flat baking tray that's wider than the cake tin

A large bowl to soak the fruit and mix the cake in.

A pastry brush

A kebab skewer

A wooden spoon

A large cake tin or cling film (this will make more sense at the end of this post. i promise.)

And an oven obviously and a cooling rack is also handy!

Its best to prepare the tin first, so grab your self your spring-form pan, the string, the tray and the baking paper and a pair of scissors. You'll need a good amount of space to so this. You need to basically put your cake in a jacket. Trace the base of the tin, cut out with about an inch extra all around. Snip into this extra inch at intervals of about half an inch all round. Pop the circular piece of paper into the completed cake pan.

Next measure the circumference of the pan and cut a sheet of baking paper to this length and then fold it in half length wise, now this is the trickiest bit of what you have to do we want to slip the paper over the sides of the tin, like a brown crinkly hard to wrangle jacket. I use a shorter piece of paper to stabilise the whole job.

It should end up looking something like this:

The paper acts as insulation and adds stability. The cookie sheet and the baking paper on it act as insulation against the base of the cake burning.
Don't worry too much about the fiddlyness, the paper needs greasing with butter or oil so folds and kinks get worked out easily. Just use a pastry brush or a scrap of scrunched up baking paper to aid with the greasing.

Check the shelves in the oven, you'll probably have to move their position to fit the tin in it's jacket.

Now, go and turn the oven on, medium heat.


The actual process of making the cake is a very simple one, sift the dry ingredients together and set aside. Cream the butter and sugar, slowly add the eggs in till well combined. Add the dry ingredients in a little at a time, will well combined. Slowly fold in the fruit with a big spoon, don't agitate it too much to keep the fruit whole.

Spoon into the cake tin, level mix off gently with your spoon.

Pop it in the oven. It should take about 1 1/2 to 2 hours to bake. One a skewer comes out clean and it's a nice golden colour its ready to come out!

Let it cool slightly before attempting to take the tin apart and the paper off.

Once its cool, prick all over with a clean skewer, brush all over with a little rum. Wrap it in baking paper and pop into an air tight container. (If you don't have a tub large enough just wrap in baking paper and enough cling film to make the package air tight.) Store in a cool dark place. Take it out once a week and brush over with rum!

Pat yourself on the back, you've made a Christmas cake!

I'll cover decorating it much closer to the time. If any of that didn't make any sense feel free to drop me an email or a comment and I'll try and help!

Minnie xoxo

P.S. sorry for all the instagram pictures but I'm afraid I can't find my camera cable :(

Fruit!

So do you all remember this post about Christmas cake?

Well, brace yourselves, there are 90 days till christmas. Yeah you read that right. 90 days. So its time to get this cake rolling and out of the way!

First things first, we need to prepare and soak the fruit at least a day in advance. We really want the fruit to soak up the alcohol to help the cake keep well for the next 90 days or so. So for this we need:

200g of glacé cherries (I used French style because they are cheaper here and I prefer the way they taste)

200g of candied peel (some times referred to as mixed peel)

1kg of currants and sultans mixed

(if peel and cherries are not your thing just sub with more dried fruit)

175ml of dark rum

25ml of vanilla extract or essence

So messy job first. Take your cherries and snip them in half. Its a messy sticky job but it serves two purposes, the cherries go further and you can be quite sure that there are no stones that have been missed during processing left in the fruit.

I just snip them right into a large mixing bowl before adding the dried fruit and peel. Give it a wee mix then add the rum and vanilla. Mix again, cover the bowl with cling film and pop in the fridge over night.

It doesn't look like much, but believe me it smells amazing.

And don't worry if this is all too early for you , I'll be posting the recipe as a whole too!

Take care, Minnie xoxo

Christmas cake!

So in the spirit of poverty, and giving people some time to find out what kind of cake every one likes I am going to post the ingredients and supplies list today. (Don't worry this will all be posted together at the recipe stage again.)

You probably have at least some of the things you need in the pantry. Don't worry, if you have to purchase some of the more expensive items, they are all staples in standard holiday baking, so any left overs can be used later in the year quite easily. We aren't going to be working with anything horribly complicated or unusual.

So, ingredients wise you will need

200g of glacé cherries (French style are best but to be honest it won't make much difference in this cake)

200g of candied peel (some times referred to as mixed peel)

1kg of currants and sultans mixed

(if peel and cherries are not your thing just sub with more dried fruit)

175ml of dark rum (just buy a bottle of the super market own brand, as we'll need more to feed the cake weekly)

25ml of vanilla extract or essence (NOT flavour. Flavour isn't real vanilla and lets just not go into what it is)

250g v. dark brown sugar

250g butter (I actually use a butter substitute as I've got a dairy allergy)

6 medium eggs

400g plain flour (all purpose)

1/4 of a teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

100g ground rice or ground almonds.

2 teaspoons of cinnamon

2 teaspoons of mixed spice (pumpkin pie spice)

See! Nothing scary there at all!

So any special hardware?

A large (23cm or so) Spring form pans (or two if you prefer a shorter cake)

A roll of grease proof baking paper

Some kitchen string

A flat baking tray that's wider than the cake tin

A large bowl to soak the fruit and mix the cake in.

A pastry brush

A kebab skewer

A wooden spoon

So far so good? Any questions yet?

Now given that my recipe is the way I like my christmas cake, so I'm going to link to the classic christmas cake.

Delia smith's christmas cake is a really traditional cake, it's smaller than mine and made with brandy, treacle and chopped almonds. Still quite simple.

But a quick search will bring up any number of versions of the classic! Not all are made as far in advance, this is because my cake is quite a dry cake and the rum keeps the cake and adds much needed moisture.

We won't be starting for a few weeks yet so we've all got plenty of time to buy the ingredients and supplies with out breaking the bank. So don't feel panicked into buying everything at once!

I hope that wasn't too over whelming minnie xoxo

The Christmas count down begins.

"Ha! That's ages away you crazy lady!" I hear you scoff but it's less than 18 weeks till Christmas! 18 weeks people! 122 days. Yikes. I love Christmas, and we're usually quite ahead by now, but I'll be honest this year I'm not even ready for Bloke's birthday next month much less Christmas. The move, the wedding planning, my depression, uni. Everything has been so intense this year. So its time to take a massive step back. Do an august spring clean and hunt out the christmas cake recipe. Which brings me to my point, who's up for a Christmas cake along? Anyone? we'll bake it in september feed it over the months and decorate in December. And I'll post an alcohol free version in December too. I strongly encourage recipe swapping and any questions with regards to technique I will answer as best I can, with videos even! Most importantly a good, tasty christmas cake does not have to be expensive (really!) or full of weird green glacé cherries unless you like that sort of thing, you weidos. And if you don't like fruit cake don't worry, there will be plenty going on as we get a bit closer to the festive season! Now I'm off to have a cup of tea while I try to pretend like I'm not the crasy person who just brought up Christmas/Yule cake in August... Take care, Minnie x