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

On knitting for men

There are millions of patterns out there that proclaim to be "FOR MEN", intricate jobs that are filthy with cables or colour work. They are utterly beautiful works of art. I am in serious awe of the designers of said pieces, but here's the problem. They are designed to be interesting to knit. Not to be worn. While fashion has granted us knitters a boon by making texture knits and tweed quite fashionable, it does nothing for those knitters who love people who like clean and simple lines (both men and women, but there is far more choice in the lady knits dept.)Bloke likes his jumpers very simple in colour and construction, pockets and buttons are too fussy by far. Miles upon miles of stockinette or in my case fancy rib. Fancy rib makes it sound less endless.

See its "fancy". What I'm knitting is one of Cascade's free patterns, its Men's Pullover (W353) I have grand (read:insane) plans to finish it in two weeks, well before Bloke's birthday. Ha! I'm knitting it from a large mystery aran ball so I should have enough yarn. But really, who knows?! Anyway I best get knitting. Take care! Minnie xoxo

Surreal.

So like I said the Tall one is moving out, so after a busy if unproductive morning (phone companies I'm looking at you!) We thought sod it, and headed off to Ikea. It was dead. There were less than twenty other customers there. Yeah it was a sunny evening in May, in Scotland. But it felt like we'd crept in after hours, I do recommend trying for a quite day. It was brilliant. I think we were in and out in less than two hours. Madness. Pretty much everything in this flat(and storage) that's new new and not just new to us, is from Ikea. We didn't buy that much, or anything particularly exciting, but I will be doing something fairly cool (and cheap, we like cheap here) with the sofa as a result of today's trip. Exciting! I'm going to start my reading for next semester super early, mostly to take my mind off my exam result. It doesn't matter how well it went on the day, I always feel woefully inadequate in the days afterwards. Here's hoping I've passed. Hope you're all enjoying the sun! Take care, Minnie xoxo

Moving!

Well, sort of. In to the bedroom next door anyway. The Tall one is in the process of moving out (to just across the road actually!) The semester is done with, my exam went (hopefully) quite well. So this week is for applying for jobs, giving the flat a deep clean and just getting everything sorted out. Fighting a ridiculous urge to move everything around just because I can, there's no point till the land lord takes his furniture away so we can move ours in. I have missed my own bed so much! Extra firm mattresses are where its at.

Our engagement present off the Tall one and M, too cute. I'm afraid my life has been pretty much been all uni all the time, so there's not much to report. I hope every one is enjoying the weather! Minie xoxo

What Procrastination Looks Like

Bloke and I went out on a drive yesterday and got thoroughly lost.

It was lots of fun actually.

I'm a little obsessed with instagram, can you tell? (yeah late to the party, I've got an Android.)

I've still got no idea where we went. Alas no time to dwell on it. I have a ton of studying to do. I promise I'll post a nice comprehensive novel of an update after my exam. Take care, Minnie xoxo

Procrastonation

Still gets me, even when I'm really interested in what I'm writing about. Who knew?

I do how ever have all the caffeine and I promise to put a proper, move filled post once this essay is handed in. Promise. The weather is of course gorgeous, so I'm missing the huge garden parasol we put into storage while I'm doing my first semester back. I burn too easily, even with sun cream. Sigh.

i know its a super short one, after weeks of silence, sorry. I've been super busy!

Hope every one is having a more exciting Saturday than I am!

Minnie xoxo