Howdy all! Hope you’ve been having a nice weekend. On a random side-note, I have literally just painted my nails and am typing like a right idiot trying not to smudge them. I hate painting my nails as they never last that long with me as I always chip them. And the waiting around while they dry drives me mad. I’m not a person who can sit still and do nothing…so here I am typing like an idiot.
This weekend has been jam-packed and I feel shattered! But I only have a three day week next week (can I get a woohoo!) as I’m off from Thursday. It’s our work Christmas do Friday and Saturday and we’re off to Bruges! And partners are allowed to come as well! So excited. But from what I’ve heard about the Christmas parties (as I wasn’t here last year), they are quite wild. So watch this space…
Today I finally made the Christmas cake. Yes, yes most people have made theirs by now…but this weekend was the only time we could really do it. It’s quite a lengthy process. We used Ben’s mum very old (from 1949!) cook book for the recipe.
It’s become a lovely tradition to make this cake. Before we had moved out, we watched Ben’s mum make it and then one year we helped her make it. And last year we made it on our own for the first time. And everyone will be able to enjoy it at Christmas. Basically we’re carrying on the tradition!
So this morning I got cracking. For once nothing went wrong (though saying that, it is currently still in the oven so…touch wood).
[Check me out being all Christmassy with PicMonkey]
Christmas Cake
- 350g (3/4lb.) butter
- 350g (3/4lb.) brown sugar
- 6 eggs
- 500g (1lb.) flour
- 500g (1lb.) sultanas
- 500g (1lb.) currants
- 100g (1/4lb.) raisins
- 150g (6 oz.) candied peel
- 50g (2 oz.) cherries, chopped
- 100g (1/4lb.) chopped almonds
- 1/2 tsp. mixed spice
- 2 tbs. dark treacle
- 1 small glass of brandy
– Preheat oven to 140C.
– Using a very large bowl, beat sugar and butter together until well combined.
– Beat in eggs one at a time until combined.
– Stir in the sifted flour, fruit, almonds, spice treacle and brandy. Mix well.
– Transfer to a tin well lined with baking paper. Bake for 6 hours and 20 mins.
Mixing all the ingredients together is like an arm workout. Seriously it’s so thick by the end. And our bowl was almost too small to contain it all!
The cake is still in the oven and the smell is deeeelicious. But when it comes out we’ll need to cut the top bit off it as this will be very crispy and might even be burnt. Then we’ll get a lovely square cake which we’ll let cool and then wrap up for at least a week until we then marzipan and ice it.
As there’s always too much mixture for the tin, we tend to do a mini loaf. Though this year I wanted to make something a bit different…
Mini Christmas cakes! Christmas cake muffins if you like. They themselves took an hour to cook! That’s how beasty and dense the cake batter is.
And this weekend I also went for a solo off-road run in my brand, new, amazing off-road trainers. I can’t stress just how much I adore these shoes.
Check out those amazing treads!! Technically they’re a Christmas present from my sister…but I was allowed them early. So I ran a nice and easy (read: I didn’t go fast) 6 mile this morning to test them out.
And my trainers rocked.
[Before and after]
Not looking quite as shiny as before now but who really buys trainers to keep clean??
And a while ago now I was sent some Greek yogurts to try out: Total Greek Yogurt split pots (honey, blueberry, strawberry, and raspberry with pomegranate).
I’m not a massive fan of snacking on Greek yogurt, or yogurt in general I must say. I prefer to add them into things to thicken up sauces etc. I’m not too keen on the taste of Greek yogurt on it’s own. That being said…the idea of adding something sweet and fruity to the yogurt appealed to me.
The yogurt was very thick and creamy and adding in the fruit/honey compote made them much more exciting I found. The sugar content is quite high for each yogurt (around 11g per 100g and they’re 170g pots) but they were very tasty. And very filling (8g protein)!
A lovely afternoon treat I’d say 
Right I’m off to make dinner – baked chicken with plums! Nom nom nom.
What have you been up to this weekend?
Are you making/have you made a Christmas cake this year?
Do you like to run on roads or off-roads?
I got distracted while it was in the microwave. Whoops.
