Oh dear. Not my best by a long shot. Far too much brandy. I make my Christmas cake in October and every week until I put on the marzipan in mid December I always used to stab it all over with a cocktail stick to make deep holes, then lavishly brush in brandy with a pastry brush. The cake would be scrumptious by Christmas, well doused with mature flavour. However, I have been finding lately that the cocktail sticks aren't up to this. They are thin and they just snap, so I used a kebab skewer instead this year. Well, this must have made wider holes which soaked up more brandy because the cake is too wet and the sides had even crumbled away when I came to do the marzipan. It just tastes of brandy and little else. I don't even much like brandy and because hubby can't drink alcohol at the moment, he doesn't want to eat it either. Actually the further I cut into it the less brandy-ish it is - sort of- so I might just about manage to get through it. I daren't offer it to anyone else. It just isn't nice enough and I would be too embarrassed to own up to having made it. In feeding a Christmas cake, remember 'less is more'!
And do you know - all that effort put into home made marzipan, which I don't even like. I only made it for hubby, then I remembered he can't have raw egg just now, so I just peel it off and chuck it in the fire with the icing, which I don't really like either! Oh dear. Not a cake year this year. Maybe I should give it to the local animal sanctuary.
If that was me, I'd have it as a Pud. with custard! :)
ReplyDeleteOh well, we all have episodes when things don't quite work in the kitchen sometimes and you don't have too many failures. Why don't you just throw it and make yourselves another one which you both can enjoy.( for the birds perhaps?)
ReplyDeleteWe've just thrown out a whole leg of ham which we bought on sale a while ago and froze. When it thawed it had become very salty and the meat had the texture of straw ( I guess from the frozen water in the cells expanding and damaging the cells). So our cheap ham became an expensive lesson. We won't do that again!!
Bernard: Good idea. I'm just eating it 'raw' because although I like custard I don't like it enough to want to stand over the cooker every time I want cake, and to have to wash the pan afterwards.
ReplyDeleteHelsie: Oooh, do I not have too many failures? Thank you kindly. I just don't declare them. But messing up Christmas cake is a biggie. Actually it isn't tooooo bad. Not bad enough to waste on birds. Hubby isn't eating cake at the moment. There are lots of things he either just doesn't fancy or hasn't the appetite for. :( Very sorry to hear about your ham. What a disappointment.