Each person has their own list of must have foods for Christmas. For me, one of them is a Fruit Cake.
Baking a Fruit Cake for Christmas will always bring back memories of my mom. She always baked a cake for each of our siblings.
To us Christmas is just not the same without it!
If you would like to get this recipe click here.
Fruitcakes for Christmas
Last Saturday my sister from flippenblog and I set out to bake our annual batch of fruitcakes!
Fruitcakes are often served in celebration of weddings and Christmas.
The earliest recipe from Ancient Rome lists pomegranate seeds, pine nuts, and raisins that were mixed into barley mash. In the Middle Ages, honey, spices and preserved fruit were added.
Fruit cakes soon proliferated all over Europe. Recipes varied greatly in different countries throughout the ages, depending on the available ingredients as well as (in some instances) church regulations forbidding the use of butter, regarding the observance of fast, Pope Innocent VIII (1432–1492) finally granted the use of butter, in a written permission known as the ‘Butter Letter’ or Butterrief in 1490, giving permission to Saxony to use milk and butter in the North German Stollen fruit cakes.
Starting in the 16th century, sugar from the American Colonies (and the discovery that high concentrations of sugar could preserve fruits) created an excess of candied fruit, thus making fruit cakes more affordable and popular.- Wikipedia
As I said before in a previous post, Christmas in our family is not the same without a fruitcake or 2……… That being said, we managed to bake 11 of them! ( click on the links for the recipes!)
Between mixing and waiting for the boiled fruit to cool down, we had time to admire the glorious weather and views from her balcony!
Now all we have to do is to wait for our other sister and her husband to join us this year for Christmas!!
Ingredients
8 Eggs
½ cup cream
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
1 cup fried bacon bits
¼ cup greenpepper (can use yellow, red and green)
¼ cup finely chopped onions.
Whisk the eggs and cream in a large mixing bowl. Stir in the cheese, bacon, greenpepper and onion.
Spray and cook a 20 cm square dish and pour the mixture into that.
Bake at 200˚Celsius for 20 min or until golden brown. Serves 6 people
This low-carb microwave bread is a compromise. It’s not true bread, of course. But if you’re trying to control your carbs, or need to avoid gluten, this microwave bread adds a nice variety to breakfast and lunch. The “bread” is ready in less than five minutes, and has a spongy texture that readily soaks up butter or honey . It’s also good topped with cream cheese and smoked salmon, or with mustard and ham.
6 x eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 c cheese
Salt en pepper
1/2 c other filling (Rosa tomatoes, green pepper, ham, fried bacon, mushrooms, etc)
1. Oven on 180°C
2. Mix all ingredients and put mixture ( ¾ full) in a greased muffin pan.
3. Bake for 20 minutes.
I always wanted to put all our family recipes in a book form but never got to do it!!
Therefor I have posts on this blog of the food I like to make….
Here are a few:
A cup of tea is never the same without scones – served with freshly whipped cream, grated cheese and jam, of course.
Last year I had a challenge to bake perfect scones for my sister’s birthday. I tried 3 different recipes and was still not really 100% satisfied with the results.. So this is yet another recipe I had to try!! 🙂
Scones
2½ cups all-purpose flour
10 ml castor sugar
20 ml baking powder
2 ml salt
200 ml (180 g) butter, cut into small pieces
100 ml milk, plus extra for brushing
1 large egg
Preheat the oven to 200 C and line a baking tray with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Cut in butter. Mix the egg and milk in a small bowl, and stir into flour mixture until moistened.
Turn out onto a lightly floured work surface to complete bringing it together with your hands. Roll the dough out into a rectangle.
Cut into rounds and place on the prepared baking sheet. Bake for minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden brown.
I found this recipe for chocolate hot cross buns on this blog and decided try it.
Chocolate Hot Cross Buns (sweet)
Prep time: 10 mins
Cook time: 17-20 mins
Makes: 8
Ingredients:
4 eggs
1/2 cup coconut milk
1/4 cup honey
1/4 orange juice
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/4 cup cacao powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarb soda
1/4 cup sultanas (golden raisins)
For crosses: 2 egg whites 1+1/2 Tablespoons coconut flour
Instructions:
I changed the recipe a bit and decided to turn them into cupcakes!:-)
Ingredients:
4 eggs
1 cup coconut milk
1/4 cup honey
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/4 cup cacao powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarb soda
1/4 cup dates, chopped
1 can asparagus tips, drained – reserve the liquid
1 small onion or 4 spring onions finely chopped
3 large eggs
125 ml cream
125 ml reserved liquid from asparagus
chopped parsley
½ t salt
½ t black pepper
2 ml mustard powder
250 ml grated cheese
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celcius.
In a bowl, add the parsley, Dijon mustard, eggs, heavy cream , reserved liquid, a large pinch salt and a large pinch black pepper. Whisk together until well combined.
Put the asparagus into the pie dish, top with the Cheddar cheese and the spring onions. Pour the egg mixture over the asparagus mixture.
Bake until the eggs are set, about 35 minutes. Remove from the oven, cut into slices.
1.
2 cups (500ml) flour
1tsp (5 ml) bi-carb
1 tsp ( 5ml ) baking powder
pinch of salt
1tsp (5ml) mixed spice
3/4 cup (180ml) brown sugar
2.
1/2 slab of dates
1 cup raisins
1tbl (15ml) butter
1 beaten egg
1 cup boiling water
add any of these:
coconut
grated carrots
nuts
bananas
cherries
cranberries
cake mix (fruit)
Mix 1
Mix 2
Combine 1 and 2
Bake in preheated oven (180 degree C) for 15 – 20 mins.
