185: Christmas pudding, p361

Finally made the Christmas pudding! Like the Christmas cake, this is the first time I've made my own Christmas pudding - and the first time I've steamed a pudding. I didn't have a suitable basin to use, so I ordered one from the wonderful Lakeland, but it only just arrived - the terrible weather having messed up deliveries over the past couple of weeks. Better late than never! I'm hoping it doesn't affect the pudding too much, not having so long to keep before Christmas. I'm probably going to save it for the day after New Year's Day when lots of the family are coming down to visit us - so made during 2010 but not actually consumed this year :) 

Easy peasy to make, but I halved the recipe - which called for 2x 1.5L pudding basins. Lakeland do a 1L and a 2L basin, so I decided that ordering the 2L and halving the recipe would be okay. One very shiny, scrubbed 50p tucked in the pudding, and it's currently bubbling away steaming for 3.5hrs in the biggest pan I've got. Fingers tightly crossed!

 **UPDATE 02/01/11: Absolutely spot on - definitely a recipe to repeat! Verdict from the massed family was that it was one of the best Christmas puddings they'd ever had :) And it also set light rather pleasingly (see below)...

177: Christmas cake, p364

My first Christmas cake. Don't really like fruit cake, like Christmas cake and wedding cake, too dry and heavy I usually find, but maybe this will be the exception! Fingers crossed. The mix was very stiff and difficult to stir, once the flour was added, so I 'had' to slosh in a good extra glug of brandy to loosen it up a bit. It was only after I had baked it that I realised I missed out the second lot of dried fruit listed in the ingredients - ooops. Am trying to keep hoping that 350 missing grams of fruit isn't going to have made too much of a difference... Eek. Will keep fingers crossed and keep feeding it brandy until Christmas Eve when I ice it...

 **Update on 26/12/10: well, it sure is dense... even without the extra fruit... In the end I didn't ice it. My parents liked it, but none of us are big Christmas cake eaters so it's going to be taken into work next week to be finished off :)

9: Double ginger cake, p15

Got a cake craving last night. Must have been the pilates class and 'light' dinner...

Potential problem is that I don't actually much like ginger. Not in sweet foods, anyway... It's supposed to be really good for nausea but I tend to feel a bit nauseous after eating sweet gingery things... But, it's in the book, it's got to be done!

Curious batter this, very fluid... Recipe says 'mixture should be sloppy' and Maggie Don's blog says that the ginger/fruit sank to the bottom because the batter was so floppy, but still a bit worrying... and it took a good 10mins longer in the oven that the 40mins in the recipe (maybe Nigel does have a fan oven after all). Ho hum. It smells delicious and hopes are high... if only one didn't have to wait for it to cool down a bit before diving in!!

No gym class this evening, in-case you hadn't guessed...

Cake-related disaster! Got a little bit stuck in the tin and so sides look a bit... eroded...

It is a nice, light, moist texture, has risen really nicely, but unfortunately, as predicted, it's a bit too sweet and super super gingery (that'll be the double ginger) for me to really like.

EDIT: actually, on second tasting (and a proper piece instead of all the overcooked crumbly bits that fell off/were left in the tin), it's actually quite nice! The ginger bits and raisins did sink to the bottom, and aren't for me, but this leaves lots of nice lightly gingery cake on top, hurrah!