My Christmas Cake

As soon as it gets towards the end of November, you go into any supermarket, and i can almost grantee you, there will be no currants, marzipan or royal icing left on the shelves, as everyone rushes to make there Christmas cakes, and Christmas puddings. So, if you're super organised, and haven't left the hunt for currants until now, and just looking for a recipe: I'm obviously biased, but this is my favourite one (even better than my college's, because wow,how much more booze can you fit into a cake?!).

With just the right amount of alcohol for most taste buds, soaked into the fruit it will please most people. If you like a bit more alcohol; Simple, just soak it in a bit more, and feed it with a bit more! I added the almonds as i love the surprise crunch against all the plump fruit, plus i just generally love almonds, but if you don't swap with an extra 50g of currants. 

And yes, you did read the title correctly, I was super organised last year and photographed the Christmas cake on the day, and saved it. Not that I was organised in writing the post, and still manage to be still writing it the night before, and morning.Though i will praise myself, for writing it and putting it up before "Stir up Sunday", this Sunday on the 22nd, which is traditionally the day you make the Christmas cake, and the pudding, so they both have time to mature before Christmas.

This recipe is super adaptable, if you don't like alcohol soak the fruit in the juice of 1 orange. Feed the cake as little, or as often as you like. I also swapped glacé cherries, for an extra 25g of raisins, and an extra 25g of sultanas, but feel free  to put them in, or sometimes i add in sour cherries which I prefer.

Ingredients

450g currants
200g sultanas
200g raisins
50g mixed peel
3 tbsp brandy
225g plain flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp mixed spice
50g chopped almonds
225g soft dark brown sugar
1 dtsp treacle
4 eggs
zest of 1 orange
zest of 1 lemon

apricot jam
royal icing
marzipan

1. the night before, mix the dried fruit and mixed peel, with the brandy and leave to soak overnight at least 12 hrs
2. cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy
3. gradually add in the eggs
4. gently fold in sifted flour and spices
5. stir in the fruit and peel, nuts, treacle and the zest.
6. spoon into a prepared cake tin, and level the cake
7. tie a band of paper around the outside of the tin, and cover the cake with a double layer of greaseproof paper with a 50p sized hole in the middle.
8. bake the cake at 140°, gas 1, for 4 1/2 
9. remove from the tin and leave to cool
10. make holes with a cocktail stick and feed, repeat every 2 weeks or as wished, leading up to Christmas day
11. when ready glaze the cake with warm apricot jam, to help the marzipan stick and cover
12. decorate as wished

Dark Chocolate Chip Brownie Cookies

If your looking for a seriously dark chocolate cookie, then this is definitely it. There so rich you wouldn't want them any bigger than this, or eat more than just one. These are also easy to make, so it's a great choice to make with the kids over Easter. Easter means one thing to me since I'm not religious, and that's a chocolate overload. Duh!

These the best/worst kind of biscuits to give to kids; as these are the kind of biscuits that end up all over their faces, because there just so good; but there the kind that keeps them quiet for awhile, whilst they chomp through chocolaty goodness. Whilst recently going through my recipe cut outs, i found a very similar recipe in an old magazine, so obviously, the crunchy exterior and soft interior, appeals so much that its in a food magazine.

Dark chocolate is my favourite, but feel free to use milk or white chocolate chips if you have kids.If you wanted you could also add nuts, e.g macadamia, hazelnuts or almonds, for extra crunch and another flavour. These would be great served with coffee, but, if you like coffee allot then you could swap the vanilla extract with coffee extract; Et volia you have chocolate, and coffee cookies. As with most chocolate recipes, the best chocolate and cocoa powder you can afford, use, it makes a massive difference in this recipe.

Ingredients 

400g dark chocolate chips

225g butter

200g caster sugar

200g dark brown sugar

1 egg

1 tbsp treacle 

2 tbsp vanilla extract 

450g plain flour

125g Cocoa powder

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1. Preheat oven to 170

2. Beat the butter and both sugars together until light and fluffy

3. Beat in the treacle, vanilla and eggs( be careful not to over beat)

4. Mix in the sifted cocoa powder, baking powder, salt and flour

5. Stir in the chocolate chips

6. Gently knead the mixture and shape into thick "sausages", chill for around 1 hr

7. Cut the dough with even sized thickness( the mixture can be frozen at this point and cooked from frozen)

8. Place on baking tray and bake for 10 mins or until starting to firm up ( it's the kind of biscuit that firms up more out of the oven)

9. Drizzle with white or dark chocolate if wished

10. Enjoy

Poppies, The Shard and Borough Market

If you haven't heard about the poppies at tower hill, then you must have been living under a rock!

So with them disappearing soon, we decided to pop over to tower hill to see the poppies. They really are beautiful and if you haven't seen them and can before they get taken down then defiantly do it. I order you to and of course take an abundance Instagram worthy photos, that it makes it difficult to chose which one to post!

The poppies have attracted large crowds so i recommend getting there before 10, otherwise you will be very restricted in viewing them and it will take you a long time to walk all the way along. I think very early morning on a nice with the sunrise would look particularly beautiful similarly at sunset, and night with the lights also looks beautiful.

^ Soldiers laying down poppies for the 888,246 British fallen soldiers of WWW1.

^A sea of red

We then popped up the shard as it was free for children(for my sisters) in half term, and great for me as a student as its cheaper than a usual. its quite pricey for adults, but you can go half way up for free and have a coffee.

^ The magnificent shadow of the shard

Personally I love the unfinished look of the shard, unlike my sister who kept complaining that it wasn't finished, and why weren't they working on it ! 

^ a hazy Battersea power station.

We then headed over to borough market for a late lunch. It's one of my favourite places, as I love all the hustle and bustle, but sometimes during weekends and holidays there are so many queues (i swear it didn't used to be as popular), let me know of any more food market recommendations. 

Obviously, a trip to borough market wouldn't be complete, without several pictures of the delicious fresh fish stalls, and fruit & veg stalls.

^Giant cookies are always so tempting. And great mounds of chocolate always without a fail get my mouth watering.

How gorgeous do these English muffins and brownies look, I'm glad i live about 1hr away, instead of about 5 minutes  otherwise i would have these every single day.full stop.

There are always new food stalls in borough market, and these gourmet scotch eggs with an incredibly runny yolk served sweet potato fries looked super inviting, and on my ever extending list to have next time.

An old classic of borough market Raclette, with potatoes and pickles.

^A scrummy smelling hog roast.

We decided to have chips from the fish place as they are always so good, we quite often have the fish as well, but we decided to try something that we hadn't before, and fill our tummies up until they couldn't (well i'm sure they could) hold anymore.

We tried the vegetarian option in the market. spiced potatoes, which were incredible.

With a cauliflower and pea curry and served with rice and an optional sauce.

We also had an onion bhuji each, they were nicely spiced but were disappointing as they were cold and not crisp as we were expecting them to be.

The main part was delicious and perfectly spiced and wasn't heavy or to filling and I would have it again if there weren't so many other things to try first!

Emma x