Home Economics 

Christmas cooking:  

Recipe: Christmas cake (one large cake or several smaller ones.) 

The senior elective cooking group learned how to prepare ingredients to make a Christmas cake. They took their time to prepare the tins, measure, and mix ingredients and spread the mixture evenly in the tins. Next week they will follow the video instructions to cover their cakes with Royal icing. Then the following week, students will decorate their cakes. 

Ingredients: 

2 kg mixed fruit, chopped.

250 g butter                                               

1 ½ cups brown sugar, firmly packed

1/3 cup golden syrup

2 cups of fruit juice 

4 eggs, lightly beaten.

2 cups self-raising flour

2 cups plain flour 

2 teaspoons mixed spice

Method:

1. Line a deep 23cm round or 20cm square cake pan with three layers of baking paper, bringing paper 5 cm above edge of pan. (8 small tins.)

1. Soak the fruit with the juice. Add the fruit, butter, sugar, golden syrup to a large saucepan. Bring to the boil stirring, reduce heat, cover simmer five minutes.
2. Cool to room temperature. Stir in the eggs, one at a time and sifted dry ingredients.
3. Spread mixture evenly in the prepared greased tin(s). 
4. Bake in a moderately slow oven 160 C for about one hour for small cakes, or two hours for a large cake until cooked. Check with a skewer. Cover hot cake with foil, cool in pan. 

To ice and decorate: 

1. Upturn the cake and place it on a board.
2. Warm apricot jam in a saucepan. Use a brush to spread apricot jam over the cake.
3. On a surface lightly dust with cornflour, roll out Royal icing twice as large as your tin, to cover the top and sides of the cake. Drape icing over a rolling pin and lift icing over the cake. Cut away the excess, use a scraper to rub the surface and sides of the cake until smooth. 
4. Decorate with coloured icing or small cake decorations.