Fond-[ant]-ly Remembering Christmas 2010

Actually Written: Term 4 2010

At the end of 2010, our food tech class went absolutely nuts! My teacher is brilliant, creative and totally not lazy so she organised a ton of awesome
Christmas cooking activities! Thank You, Mrs D!!!

One such was a Christmas fruitcake (non-alcoholic ;P)
It was such a cute, adorable little baby with a brilliant recipe (we gave the pretty cake to our neighbour so I only tasted the batter – not really a shame)
The fondant rolling, colouring and just general working was absolutely brilliant though!!! It was such a new experience that was messy and all hands-on (a.k.a I
LOVED IT!)

 

Chez moi, we don’t really do fancy, we do presentable it is true, but fancy is not our thing – When I say ‘our’, I mean my mum and
grandma. This is why I often don’t make too many decorated cakes with interesting tops and do not EVER use fondant (because really, if you eat it,
you will be sick!)

But truly, for those living on your own and who have the ability to live more so as desired (i.e no parents), I recommend trying fondant
decorating for sure!

Christmas Fruit Cake
From: School Recipes

Makes: 2 deep 10cm cake tins

Ingredients

• 250g butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 4 eggs
• 2 tbs sherry/apple juice (non-alcoholic)
• 1 kg mixed dried fruit
• 2 cups plain flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder (cake is dense and
  heavy and not light and rising)
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ginger
• 1/2 tsp allspice
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg (I like it, so I added it in)
• Fondant decorating set
• 1/2 cup warmed jam (any flavour)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.
2. Grease and line tins – grease once on the bottom and line with 2 layers of brown paper, grease again and cover the sides and base with one layer of greaseproof
   paper
3. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy
4. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition
5. Sift flour, baking powder and all spices together in a large bowl
6. Mix the fruit into the flour to ensure it is well coated (otherwise it will sink to the bottom of the cake)
7. Mix sherry/juice into butter-sugar mixture
8. Add flour and mix well with a wooden spoon
9. Pour cake into prepared tins
10. Place tins on a baking tray. Cover both with a brown paper bag
11. Bake for two hours – remove brown paper bag and bake for 1 hr – There is a process of checking throughout this time since otherwise it can burn with 5 minutes
    difference
12. Remove from oven and wrap in a damp tea towel while cake cools
13. Roll out fondant according to instructions. Make a large white sheet of fondant.
14. Brush cool cake with warmed jam all over. Gently drape the fondant on top of the cake and pat into place at the sides – Do not attempt to life up and drape again due
    to the jam going everywhere and ruining the effect of white fondant
15. Using alcohol-colours (they are better coloured), make designs on the fondant and decorate cake as desired.