Boil Christmas Cake

Adapted from : http://www.themotherhubbardscupboard.com/boiled-fruit-cake/

Ingredients

375g Mixed Fruit (pre packed mixed dried fruit or your own concoction)

7 Dates

7 Dessert Figs

2 Tablespoons of Fig Jam

1 Cup Brown Sugar (160g)

1 Cup Water (250g)

125g Butter

3 Eggs

1/2 cup Brandy (optional)

1/2 teaspoon Bicarbonate of soda

1 Cup Plain Flour

1 Cup Self Raising

1. Place pitted dates and figs into the bowl, chop 3 seconds/speed 7.

2. Place butter,  mixed fruit,  jam, sugar, and water into the mixing bowl and cook 13 minutes/100 degrees/reverse/speed 1.

3. Add rum (optional) and bicarbonate, stir for 30 seconds/reverse/speed 3. I omit alcohol for this time

Leave to cool for almost 4-5 hours.

4. When mixture is completely cool and you are ready to cook. Preheat oven to 120 degrees and prepare cake tin (20cm round) with 2 layers of baking paper on the bottom and sides (this is to stop the cake from drying out.

5. Place eggs and flour into the cooled fruit mixture and 1. mix 2 minutes/reverse/speed 3 then pour out into prepared tin

oven for 2 hours or when a cake skewer comes out clean. Leave in the tin to cool (As stated, I normally turn off the oven after 2 hours and leave overnight to cool)

7. When cake is cold, wrap in aluminium foil then plastic wrap and keep in the fridge, it is a very moist cake and will get mouldy if left out! Then you can wrap it all nice and pretty and give it to friends.

Gingerbread Cookies

Adapted from:
http://thermobliss.com/the-best-thermomix-gingerbread-recipe/

I doubled the recipe

INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 cup of golden syrup
• 1/2 cup of brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons of ground ginger
• 2 teaspoon of cinnamon
• 2 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
• 250g of butter - chopped into cubes
• 2 egg
• 4 1/2 cups of plain flour

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat your oven to 180 degrees and line two baking trays with paper.
2. Place the golden syrup, sugar, butter and spices into your Thermomix bowl and cook for 5 minutes at 50 degrees on speed 2.
3. Add the egg and mix for 3 seconds on speed 3.
4. Add the flour and bicarbonate of soda and mix for 10 seconds on speed 5 or until combined.
5. Knead for 2 minutes before turning the dough out onto your Thermomat and lightly knead to form a ball.
6. Flatten the dough into a disc, cover with cling wrap and place in the fridge for 30 minutes.
7. Roll the Gingerbread dough between two sheets of baking paper until approximately 5mm thick. Use cutters of your choice to cut out shapes and place on baking trays. Bake for approximately 9 - 11 minutes - please note baking times will vary depending on the size of the cutter used.
8. Allow the gingerbread to cool and decorate as desired.

* I had to add a it more flour as mixture was too wet. After resting in the fridge for 40 mins, it was much workable but became soft quickly. Had to put inside fridge to make it workable again.

Baking was fast, 11minutes was perfect for mine cookies. I used the large gingerbread cookie cutter as it will be used for decorating.

Christmas Bark

I love reading Karen Cheng's blog and especially love it when she post simple and creative recipes on her blog. This christmas bark is adapted from her blog: http://www.karencheng.com.au/2013/11/27/amazing-chocolate-bark/

I like to call it Christmas bark as it has all the nice bright colors to match the festive season and also, it was part of a lazy attempt to get easy dessert out for our Christmas lunch.

Ingredients:

- 1 packet of Malt and Milk biscuits from Arnotts.

- Pretzels

- Oreos cookies

- Lollies

- Pistachio nuts, lightly pounded into small pieces

- Chocolate chips

- M & M

- 1 bar of baking chocolate (melted)

Method:

1. Melt chocolate bar in microwave in 30 seconds interval. I manage to melt my chocolate within 60 seconds

2. Line a rectangle tray with foil and arrange the biscuits nicely on the tray

3. Pour the melted chocolate over the biscuits and then start decorating

4. You can put any yummy goodies you like in this bark. I just make used of all our leftover candies, biscuits and nuts. The more salty items the better it tastes.

5. After decorating, place in the fridge overnight for it to set.

6. Just break it into pieces to eat. The kids will enjoy this colorful, fun dish.

These are the stuff I used for my Christmas bark. You do not need alot, just small bowls of each treat as the bark can get really heavy with all the toppings.

 2 trays of biscuits

 

All done. Easy peasy