Ba Humbug

So Christmas cake (3) was not an overwhelming success. It would be fair to say that it was a little overcooked with charcoal-ish tendencies on the extremities. I’m going with the theory that a sharp knife and a boatload of icing fix most baking issues. Perhaps xmas cake with a hint of smoky flavour will catch on? Now that’s optimism.

Christmas cake (1) went into the oven at 8am this morning (the wonders of pre-prepared fruit) with a heavy-duty foil layer around both the tin and the top. As a result this one is a far more appealing golden brown.

Christmas cake (2) has just commenced its mammoth 4 ½ hours o baking. This recipe was monstrous – I ended up having to split it between two humongous bowls. Not that the Edmonds bothered to indicate this. I could have probably guessed by the size of the tin the booked suggested to use. If the book had suggested a tin size that is. Apparently in the 60’s women were born with an innate ability to make up half a recipe and didn’t require such piffle as tin sizes, temperatures and times. So I crammed as much of the mixture as I could into my tin and threw the rest in the bin. Ba humbug.

On a non Christmas cake related note I have churned out a couple of other recipes as well. Last nights dinner was corned beef (boiled to the Edmonds specifications), with boiled potatoes (again a la Edmonds) and mustard sauce (no surprises where the recipe was from…) It got the big thumbs up from the husband but then he is a generous soul. The generosity has not spread to dishes yet.

For lunch today I churned out a couple of “Eggs with Spinach and Cheese”. Now there were surprisingly good. Take ramekin, put cooked spinach in, add grated cheese, break in egg, more spinach, more cheese. Bake. Ground breaking stuff but surprisingly good – almost like a little quiche in a cup. The husband’s opinion was that they were ok but that you might as well just poach the eggs. I would think it would be quite nice done with sautéed mushrooms and a bit of blue cheese. Mmmmmmm.

While the eggs were baking I whipped up a batch of honey snaps. They turned out to be the sort of thing that you can just whip up on a moments notice, a sort of thin honey and ginger biscuit. Not bad but not terribly exciting. Unfortunately they also turned out to be the sort of thing that you can leave in the oven and forget about while you eat your eggs with spinach and cheese. As a result the second batch of honey snaps looked like a biscuit version of Christmas cake (3). Oops!