Microwave Chocolate Sponge Pudding - P is for...Pudding

Microwave Chocolate Sponge Pudding

I love Christmas Pudding. It really is a once a year treat. The one I shall be eating this year was in fact made last year. For some years now we have been deliberately making a Christmas Pudding and storing it carefully for over year. All this came about when one year whilst getting the ingredients together to make that year's Christmas Pudding my Father found on the top shelf a carefully wrapped Christmas Pudding. We could only think we had made two the previous year so to have one when guests came over just before Christmas but it was never used. No wonder my Mother had spent a year thinking where one of her Pyrex bowls had gone...We made another Christmas Pudding but not ones to waste anything we cooked the year old pudding on Christmas Day (in our slow cooker as usual) and it was delicious. It's no surprise now that 'vintage' Christmas Puddings cost so much more.

With the additions to my family over recent years it seems that the love of a traditional Christmas Pudding has not been passed on. I wouldn't want to leave them out but at the same time there's enough going on during Christmas Day to have the perfect excuse not to make something just for them. The solution is this recipe which I used to make when I was at University and spent three years cooking with no oven. It's a basic sponge mix but needs just basic equipment to make and takes just 5 minutes to cook.

Equipment: 2 pint/1 litre Pyrex bowl, scales, sieve, electric whisk

Ingredients

4oz (100g) Unsalted butter, softened or baking spread

4oz (100g) Caster sugar

2 Eggs

3oz (75g) Self-raising flour, sifted

1oz (25g) Cocoa powder

2-3 tbsp (30-45ml) Milk for mixing

Method

1. Grease the bowl.

2. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

3. Add the eggs one at a time with a tablespoon of the sifted flour and cocoa.

4. Gradually add the milk and remaining flour and cocoa.

5. Put the mixture into the bowl and level the mixture across the top.

6. Cook in the microwave on High for 4½-5 minutes (based on a 750w microwave).

Serve with your choice of cream, custard, ice cream or yoghurt. My top thrifty tip is one packet of Value, Basics, Savers Instant Custard mix (15p) plus 1tbsp of Cocoa powder equals very cheap and quick chocolate custard.

Chocolate Orange Bundt Cake - O is for...Orange

Chocolate Orange Bundt Cake

Oranges became popular in the USA in the 1880s with the expansion of the railway system. This meant that oranges from California and Florida could be transported around the country and the tradition of having fruit in the bottom of your stocking began. This idea was not a new one though and for its origins we have to return back to St. Nicholas. When he was still a lowly Bishop he heard of a poor man with three daughters. They were unable to marry as their father could not afford the marriage dowries. The next night Nicholas decided to find the poor man's house and drop three bags of gold down the chimney. The three daughters had hung their stockings by the fire in order to dry them after being out in the freezing snow all day. The bags of gold happened to land in each of the three daughters' stockings and then turned into balls of gold. In religious icons and paintings St. Nicholas is often pictured with three balls of gold or symbolized by three oranges.

Although the tradition of putting an orange, clementine, tangerine or satsuma in the bottom of a child's stocking may not be so popular today oranges are still used in a symbolic context in Christingle services. Since 1968 The Children's Society has been organizing Christingle church services. The orange given to each child symbolizes the world. The red ribbon round the orange is the blood of Jesus, the four cocktail sticks with sweets and dried fruit the four seasons and the candle or glow stick the light of Christ.

As an alternative Christmas cake for a Clandestine Cake Club meeting I made a Chocolate Orange Bundt cake. The idea was to replicate the flavour of a well-known brand of chocolate oranges that are always on sale at this time of year. If you are a bit unsure of making a Bundt cake do try this one as it is one of the easiest recipes to make.

Equipment: 10-cup/26cm Bundt tin, electric whisk.

Ingredients

6oz (175g) Plain flour

1 tbsp (15ml) Baking powder

6oz (175g) Unsalted butter, softened or baking spread

6oz (175g) Caster sugar

3 Large eggs, beaten

1 tsp (5ml) Orange extract

2 tbsp (30ml) Cocoa

2 tbsp (30ml) Milk

Icing

2½oz (70g) Icing sugar, sifted

1 tbsp (15ml) Cocoa

1 tbsp (15ml) Water

½ tsp (2.5ml) Orange extract

Method

1. Prepare the Bundt tin by greasing it and then shaking flour around it. Tip out the excess.

2. Pre-heat the oven to 160°C/Gas mark 3.

3. In a large bowl sift together the flour and baking powder. Add the butter, sugar, eggs and orange extract and beat well using an electric whisk.

4. Mix the cocoa and milk together and stir it into the mixture.

5. Spoon the mixture into the tin. Bake for 45 minutes until a skewer comes out clean.

6. Leave in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out to cool on a wire rack to cool completely.

7. Once cooled mix the icing sugar, cocoa, water and orange together. Beat well until the icing is smooth. Spread over the cake and leave to set.

Clandestine Cake Club 3rd Birthday Party

I had the great honour of attending the Clandestine Cake Club birthday party in Liverpool last weekend. It's now three years since Lynn Hill hosted her first secret gathering in Leeds and my, look how much cake love has been shared since!

It was off to the Novotel in Liverpool I went, with Debs, the Newark & Sherwood group organizer. As you may know I am a member of the Newark & Sherwood, Chesterfield, and Sheffield groups and I was proud to fly the flag for us. Liverpool was chosen as our host city because the party was held in conjunction with Renshaw Baking who are based in Liverpool.

When we arrived at the Novotel we brought out our cakes and soon the table was full with our offerings. When you walked into the room you could smell the sugar and chocolate rising up enticing us in!

Lynn Hill inspecting our cakes

There were too many cakes to go through individually but I will mention a few in dispatches (because I scoffed them). The Phantom of the Opera cake was made by Debs. All the decorations she make herself including the fabulous mask.

The Honey Nut Bundt was made by Rachel of Dolly Bakes and organizer of the Bolton Clandestine Cake Club. Sharon made the Streusel Wreath cake. She is the organizer of the Pudsey Clandestine Cake Club and chronicles her cake making and post box spotting at Humbugs House. It was lovely to finally meet Sharon and her husband and have a chat about life's important matters (yes cake, post boxes and football). Both Rachel's and Sharon's cake would make wonderful Christmas cakes as an alternative to the traditional fruit cake.

Since it was a 3^rd birthday party I made a cake which I knew a three year old would love. I have great recent experience in this matter! It was a chocolate sponge covered in orange buttercream and then decorated with chocolate fingers and buttons. I picked out '3' in white chocolate buttons.

Renshaw decorated each table with a cake displaying some amazing decorating skills. We were wondering how the fluffy towel effect was created and apparently it was achieved by using a nail brush!

Although we had plenty of cake to share around it won't have been a proper birthday party without a showstopping birthday cake. This magnificent cake was made by Terry Tang Designer Cakes, who are based in Liverpool. Can you identify some of the Clandestine Cake Club members?

Not being one for cake decorating myself I was a little daunted by the thought of a demonstration by Renshaw but I was quite engrossed by it. We were shown by Claire how to marzipan and ice a traditional fruit cake. There was a number useful tips I picked up. To calculate the amount of marzipan needed to cover a fruit cake the formula is simply half the weight of the cake. The reason we need to boil the apricot jam and water to brush across cake and marzipan is to blitz away any bacteria and to stop the jam from fermenting. The finished decoration was a very easy to make Christmas tree made by snipping branches with a pair of small scissors.

After a nice buffet lunch, designed to gently line our stomachs, it was time to test the cakes! Since we only had small plates I obviously had to go back twice to restock my plate. Afterwards there was a terrible scene of cake devastation!

We each got given a goody bag from Renshaw containing a selection of their marzipan, coverings and icing. After that we cut the big birthday cake, which seemed a terrible shame but it was made to be eaten! After saying our goodbyes and a big thank you to Lynn and Renshaw it was time to head home.

N is for...Noel

Xmas as a shortened version of Christmas can seem rather harsh so it is no surprise that Noel has been popularised as an alternative. The simple origin of the word Noel is that it is just French for Christmas but spelt Noël, and us Brits have never been very comfortable with accents or in this a diacritic. Noël itself comes from the Latin natalis meaning birthday.

As a first name it is often given to babies born on Christmas Day or in December. One famous example is Sir Noël Coward who was born on 16^th December 1899.

The Christmas carol The First Noel could date from as early as the 13^th Century. It first started to gain popularity in the 16^th Century but its current arrangement was put together in the 18^th Century. It never started off as The First Noel as the original first Cornish version published in 1823 was, “O well, O well, the Angels did say”. By 1871 this had been changed to, “The first Nowell the angels did say” Nowell in this case being the ancient English Anglo-Saxon spelling of Noel. An American version of the Carol published in 1916 had the first line as, “The first Noel, the angels say”.

Spiced Cranberry and Apple Oaty Crumble

Spiced Cranberry and Apple Oaty Crumble

It doesn't matter what the weather is like a oaty crumble is always a welcome at JibberJabber Towers. Throughout the year we have changes in the fruit and what we serve with it – cream, yoghurt or custard but the oaty topping remains.

With a nod to the festive season and my role as this month's host of Feel Good Food I felt it time for some cranberries to make an appearance in our Sunday crumble. I decided to combine them with some Bramley apples and the result was it was nice. That's it – nice. Not something that is going to inspire you to rush out and buy the ingredients for this recipe. It didn't have the juiciness of plums or the luxury of freshly picked blackberries. I was then flicking through my copy of Leon Friends & Family: Book 4 which I received as a from Louisa at Eat your veg. In it was a recipe for a cranberry and apple crumble with a bit of added zing. That recipe had a flour based topping which I never make because my husband isn't that keen on flour crumbles and oats are far better for you anyway. I've reduced the quantities to fit my crumble dish and of course added by own oaty crumble topping.

I am sending this over to Vanesther at Bangers & Mash for this month's cinnamon themed The Spice Trail challenge.

Obviously this is my own entry for Feel Good Food that I am hosting this month on behalf of Victoria at A Kick At The Pantry Door.

Jen at Blue Kitchen Bakes is also doing a fresh cranberry link up.

Equipment: Oven-proof dish (mine measures 17cm x 23cm)

Ingredients

2 Bramley apples (should weigh around 400g), peeled, cored and cut into slices.

100g Fresh cranberries

25g Demerara sugar

Zest and juice 1 orange

¼ tsp Ground cinnamon

¼ tsp Mixed spice

Grating of fresh nutmeg or ⅛ tsp ground nutmeg.

Topping

140g Porridge oats

28g Ground almonds

85g Demerara sugar

55g Unsalted butter, cut into small pieces.

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C/Gas mark 4.

2. Place the apples and cranberries into the dish. Sprinkle the sugar, orange zest and juice, and spices over the fruit.

3. In a separate bowl weigh out the oats and add the almonds and sugar.

4. Put the butter into the bowl and stir so all the ingredients are mixed in and the butter is covered with the mixture.

5. Spoon evenly over the apples and cranberries until it is all covered.

6. Cook for 20 minutes until the oats on top have browned.

M is for...Mince Pie

Hotel Chocolat Christmas Goody Bag - Review

Hotel Chocolat Christmas Goody Bag

L is for...Last Posting Dates

In recent years there has been a decline in the amount of Christmas cards and mail in general that is being sent. There are a number of reasons for this – environmental, high cost of postage, the increased use of email, social media and internet messaging services and the basic fact that some people simply cannot be bothered to write or send cards.

For many of us we still can't escape the need to send post at this time of year and get it in the letter box by the dreaded last posting date to ensure a Christmas delivery. Most of the lasting posting dates for abroad have already gone but if you're quick you'll be able to get those precious cards sent in time. Here's a rundown of those vital dates:

USA – Friday 13^th December 2013

Airmail to Static BFPOs – Friday 13^th December 2013

Western Europe (excluding France, Greece, Poland as these were 10^th December) - 14^th December 2013

UK Second Class Mail and Signed For – Wednesday 18^th December 2013

UK First Class Mail and Signed For – Friday 20^th December 2013

Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed – Monday 23^rd December 2013

So that's all your Royal Mail post sorted but what about all that online shopping? There's too many companies for me to list here but I have found a rather handy website called Last Post For Christmas that has trawled the internet and complied all the information for you.

This panic is all a far cry from when the postal system as we know it today first started in Victorian times. In London there were between six and twelve deliveries each day. Letters posted in London were usually delivered on the same day. The last posting date was Christmas Eve and there was even a single delivery on Christmas Day.

K is for...Kings

After Jesus was born the Gospels mention he has a variety of visitors of which one set brought him the gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. Since Jesus was given three gifts it is always presumed that it was three people who came although the exact number is not stated. By the time they had travelled hundreds of miles by following the star to find Jesus they locate him him in a house and as a child rather than a baby. The traditional nativity scene always shows these three men present just after Jesus' birth in the stable when it fact they probably arrived when Jesus was about one year old.

The Bible refers to these men not as 'Kings' but as 'the Magi' who had come from the east. As the Magi are called to a secret meeting by an actual king, Herod, to find out where Jesus has been born it is unlikely that they were kings themselves. The idea they were kings has been popularized over the years including the 1857 Christmas carol We Three Kings of Orient are. An explanation for describing them as kings is in Psalm 72:10 which states, “ The kings of Tarshish and of distant shores will bring tribute to him; the kings of Sheba and Seba will present him gifts.”

The Magi are also referred to as 'the Three Wise Men' and this is more likely that this is what they were. They would have been scholars in astronomy and royal advisers. Although their names are not mentioned in the Bible, in Britain and other parts of Europe they are known as Melchior, Caspar and Balthazar.