A couple more cakes

This Christmas has been a very busy but enjoyable time. I made many foodie things for Christmas including this boozy christmas cake. After Christmas I made the piano cake for a joint birthday. I'm quite pleased with the piano cake and looking forward to doing a christening cake later in the month. 

What I ate over Christmas!

 



 

Happy New Year! I hope you all had lots of festive fun and food over the holiday. I'm a little late, I know, at wishing everyone a happy new year but I've been back at work since the 28th December, so I've been busy. 

What did I eat over Christmas? Well, far too much is the short answer. It is a distinct possibility that Royal Mail will issue me with a post code all of my own any day now. Desperate times call for desperate measures. I have decided it's celery and a handful of laxatives all the way to June so I can slip into my two piece (don't try this at home kids!) I don't want Green Peace throwing buckets of water over me and desperately struggling to heft my bloated form off the beach and back into the sea as soon as I lie down on my beach towel. There will be WWF leaflet campaigns, telethons and rallies all because I ate two slices of Christmas cake and not just one.  

Before I get into all the good things I'm going to delicately chew 10 times before I swallow, I will recap on a few of the lovely, naughty things I gorged on.

Christmas day consisted of all the usual lovely things. A bronze turkey, moist and delicious served with freshly made cranberry sauce, chippolata sausages, crisp roast potatoes and parsnips, stuffing and brussels sprouts boiled and then fried in a little butter with breadcrumbs and chunky chopped brazil nuts. Christmas pudding then followed with rich brandy butter melting over the top.



I think my Dad went over the top a little and made about five puddings, so I took some back with me and made a nice dessert. I simply crumbled up the christmas pudding into small chunks and gently fried them in a little butter, then topped with some ice cream. I made the ice cream myself and flavoured it with a syrup made from orange zest, juice and brandy, but vanilla would work just as well, especially with a little brandy, cointreau or amaretto drizzled over the top. 



While I was at home for Christmas, Graeme decided to make some rocky road, a la Nigella Lawson. We had seen it on her Christmas programme and thought it looked really nice. I made him promise to leave me some for when I got back after Christmas. I tucked in as soon as I got through the front door and three pieces later I was feeling rather sick, but in wonder of the beautiful thing I had just consumed. It was DELICIOUS! 

The last thing I really enjoyed was on new year. I had never had goose before but was really keen to get one. We ordered one from our trusty farm shop and it was lovely. I think it was even more lovely because I just sat down and enjoyed it and didn't have anything to do with the cooking of it at all as I was at work all day. Sadly we didn't a good picture of it before carving but you can see from the gleaming carcass that there wasn't much left of it. 



The diet starts tomorrow, fingers crossed.

Quick Christmas trifle

I really love trifle but I hate the ones with jelly in them. I'm probably being a bit snobby but I think jelly is a bit tacky and I also don't really like the texture. This recipe is really quick and easy, which is a must for around Christmas when you have run out of time or can't face any more slaving over hob.

Ingredients

• 1 box of Trifle sponges


• 500ml ready made custard (get the best stuff you can or make you own if you like)


• 250g Mascarpone cheese ( I found a reduced fat one which made me feel less gluttonous)


• Ground cinnamon


• 280ml Whipping cream


• Frozen berries 300g (anything you like)


• Brandy


• Juice and zest of 1 orange


• 4 tblsp Golden caster sugar

First cut the trifle sponges in half and use them to line the bottom of the trifle bowl. Put a splosh of brandy (it is really up to you how much you want to add) into a bowl and add half the juice of the orange and the zest. Pour this over the trifle sponge base and leave to soak in. Put the berries into a saucepan with the caster sugar and heat until the berries have melted and the sugar has dissolved. Leave to cool and then pour over the trifle sponge base. Take the custard and add the mascarpone cheese and a couple of tsp of cinnamon, whisking together until combined. Pour this over the top of the fruit and let the trifle set in the fridge for a while. Whip the cream until soft peaks and use to decorate the top of the trifle. Serves 6-8