Today being the first of September I have started my cooking for Christmas. This is the first time in a few years I have been able to make my own Christmas cake since I am unable to stir the mix due to my arthritus. As James is moving to live here in less than a forthnight I'll have someone to do the stirring of the cake mix for me.
I like to soak the fruit for the Christmas cake for 2 1/2 months before baking. I have weighed out the fruit (just under 2lb of raisins, peel and sultanas) and put them into a rumtopf. I then threw in 70cl of brandy.I didn't drink any - honest.
I stir the fruit/brandy on a daily basis for a fortnight and then just once per week until mid November. After the first fortnight I'll be adding another 35cl of brandy. It is a lot of brandy I know, but I make good use of it. When it comes time to bake the cake I drain the brandy through a sieve into a large container. I then set up a jelly bag and pour the liquid through that. This step means that all the little bits have been removed from the liquid. I then pour the liquid into a decorative bottle and store it until December.
The plain brandy turns into a fairly potent and fruity liqueur. The perfect after dinner tipple for the winter months.
I'll do a full post just for the fruit liqueur and show you the results in a couple of months.
No comments:
Post a Comment