Get Ready for Christmas

It’s hard to avoid it though when the shops are putting up their Christmas displays as early as September.

Here at Real Foods we would like to give you a helping hand in your preparations, so for what it’s worth here are a few ideas taken from my own experiences of trying to get ahead.

One reason for writing this article now is that October half term is a great time for kicking things off by involving the children in making the Christmas cake. There are many recipes out there and most regular bakers will have their favourite. For a beautifully tasty gluten free version you should try Real Foods recipe. I tried this for the first time last year and the smell as it was cooking was every bit as good as any other recipe I’ve tried. For me, this is the first happy moment of Christmas. I just love the smell! (Incidentally, the taste was great too)

Whatever recipe you choose to use I recommend soaking your dried fruits overnight. Dried fruits are as the name suggests dry, so if you put them in your cake without soaking them first they will suck up all the liquid you use and you will not get a moist cake. You can soak the fruit in water, or try cider. Soaking overnight is ideal, but don’t worry if you forget – I often do and find that by using boiling water and leaving the fruit for just and hour or so I get almost as good a result.

The other thing I would strongly recommend is coating the drained dried fruit in a little of the flour from the cake mixture before mixing it all together. This will stop the fruit sinking to the bottom of the cake.

Now your cake is cooking in the oven, the kitchen has been cleaned, the dishes have been washed, sit back and savour the wonderful aroma of mixed spices and molasses while you enjoy a refreshing, reviving cup of herbal tea. The only worry is how to know if your cake is cooked. It’s horrible to cut into your cake on Christmas day and discover a soggy bit in the middle! My tip here is to forget all those instructions about poking the middle and it springing back – invest in a ‘Cake Tester’. This is really a very fine skewer. Push into the centre of your cake and pull out again, if it comes out clean then your cake is cooked, if it has little globes of cake mixture on it then the cake needs a little longer in the oven – simple.

To store your cake wrap it first in grease proof paper and then in foil – for recycled versions of both visit our shops either in town of on line – and put it in a cool, dry place until it’s time to decorate it.