Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Bake-A-Long!

No knitting content in this post I'm afraid. This is mainly a picture shoot for Claudia ;-) (and anyone else that wants to see how you bake a 'Christmas Cake'.

Ready to get started....


My little helper . . . look at the concentration on her face!


Kristen helped crack the eggs and weigh out all the fruit . . . but the best part for her was licking the spoon, or in this case the whisks!


She took this picture of me, just to show I 'helped' too . . .


Ready for the oven. . . .


And here's my cake out of the oven (upside down in this pic, as I'd just poured a tablespoon of brandy in to the holes I made on the bottom)

So now we 'feed' the cake each week (which is adding a tablespoon, or more, in to the holes on the bottom of the cake). Next week I'll cover the cake with marzipan, which will not effect the feeding, then a few days before Christmas I will decorate it with icing.

Claudia, fyi - I baked my cake for 3 hours at 225 like the recipe said, but after 3 hours it was very 'uncooked'! so I turned up the heat to 275 and baked a further 45 minutes. I was worried it might still be undercooked when I took it out of the oven that night, but the next day it was very firm to the touch. . . . so of course now I'm worried it's over cooked! Time will tell ;-)


9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yum!!! Happy thanksgiving to you!

Annie said...

Ok, so maybe I would try your Christmas Cake especially if you keep pouring brandy on it :)
Happy Thanksgiving !

CelticCastOn said...

ahhhh the ole christmas cake!
Haven't had one of those in a loooooooooong long time!

Anonymous said...

Looks like you had a great day baking! Yay for licking the spoon!

Ann said...

The cake looks yummy ! Happy Thanksgiving.

Claudia Bugh said...

You are the best!!!!! What fun to actually see how a pro does it - and now I know if mine doesn't come out it's because I didn't have a little helper to help me :)

Do I gather that you did not pre-soak your fruit in brandy? I used almost a full bottle to presoak mine ~ whoo hoo ~ LOL

I feel slightly better that you also had to cook your cake longer at a higher temp - except I cooked mine for an additional 2 hours. Still hopefully it will be okay, but then I'm an optimist my nature.

Thanks for all your help and fun post!

Mary said...

Oh, looks like it will be delicious!

a friend to knit with said...

oh yumm!
i have never made one before.

hope your thanksgiving was wonderful. my mother was here, and she was putting together her red hat bag! :)

Anonymous said...

Oh, she looks so adorable helping her mommy! What a great tradition.