Granny's Christmas Cake

Each year that my Nan visited us from England, she would come with practically a full suitcase of English chocolates, candies and presents. She would usually stow away a few homemade things to bring to us. It may be some Victoria plum jam from the plum tree in the back garden or homemade cake. The cakes were not sugary frosted cakes, but instead more dense fruity cakes typically wrapped in layers of parchment and foil. One of the cakes was known by all as 'Granny's Christmas Cake.' I always thought it was called this as we sometimes called my Nan "Granny" when we were younger, but this cake had been made my my mum's Granny for years also. My mum would typically receive Granny's Christmas Cake and proceed to hide it in one of the drawers in the refrigerator by placing many vegetables in front of it thinking we would never find it. We inevitably did and would sneak a piece here and there.

My Nan gave me her cookbook when I was in England. It was kept in its original box and I treasured the fact that it was passed down to me. My first recipe to use? I wanted to recreate Granny's Christmas Cake for my mum one Christmas and I remember talking with Nan on the phone from my home in the U.S. I confirmed some of the ingredients that were unfamiliar to me, like semolina.  While she confirmed some of the ingredients, I did not confirm the quantities. Well, I came to realize that there were dozens of version of Granny's Christmas Cake in her cookbook and I struggled to figure out what one would make the appropriate amount of cake. I tried making it one year to surprise mum. She thought it was good, but not quite the same. I know she appreciated the thought though. 

We lost my Nan a little over six years ago and when my mum visited me, we reviewed through her cookbook and had fun reminiscing about all the recipes she had written out by hand. We looked through the different versions of the cake with plans to try it again. When I visited her this past Thanksgiving and had a little extra time together, I was set on us making Granny's Christmas Cake.  After a trip to the grocery store to pick up items we wouldn't normally keep in the pantry we were ready to bake. 

We reviewed Nan's recipe to ensure we used all her ingredients and also referred to 2-3 other recipes online for other similar fruitcakes or sojee cakes to confirm the quantities of each ingredient. 

I always remember Nan putting almonds that made a pretty design on the top of the cake so I did just that. 

We tested it frequently, the house was smelling lovely and we were excited with how it turned out. 

Now to cut the cake and sit at the table with a lovely fall view and a cup of tea.  Mum agreed this one was pretty close, but she thought we needed even more brandy in our next one. 

Cheers to Nan and Granny. 

Ingredients

8 oz./1 Cup Semolina

8 oz./1 Cup Ground almonds/almond flour

8 oz./1 Cup Light brown sugar

4 oz./ ½ Cup All-purpose flour

2 t. Baking powder

2 sticks/1 C.Unsalted butter, softened

6 Eggs, separated

3 T. Brandy

1 oz. Ginger, grated

8 oz. Mixed peel (lemon/orange), finely chopped

½ t. Cardamom

½ t. Nutmeg

½ t. Cinnamon

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Separate egg yolks and egg whites. Beat softened butter in mixer with brown sugar until combined.  Add the yolks to butter/sugar mixture one at a time until combined.

Mix together dry ingredients (Semolina, almond flour, AP flour and baking powder, cardamom, nutmeg and cinnamon) and blend with a whisk.

Add dry ingredients to butter mixture a little at a time until combined. Add the brandy and mixed peel to mixture and blend together.

Beat egg whites until there are soft peaks and fold in gently.

Place cake mixture in a round buttered cake tin and bake at 375 for 1 ½ hours.

Charming England, Memories of Nan, Afternoon Tea and Custard Galore

It was a bittersweet trip to England this past week, but mostly sweet.  We enjoyed lots of time with family, shared memories of Nan and celebrated her life.  I enjoyed this cup of tea with my Aunt who reminded me these were my Nan's favorite cookies.  I had actually made her some of the traditional palmiers for her last birthday. We had a nice visit with Auntie Vera and she gave us her version of the recipe for "Granny's Christmas Cake" and told us the whole history of when they originally started making it back in India. We'll see how it turns out for Christmas this year!

We had another stop at a nice cafe with my Aunt and Uncle to enjoy some treats and coffee (and an espresso sized milk for Audrey).

Dinner one evening brought us to the Giant's Rest, my favorite pub, where I used to study by the fire with a glass of red wine the winter I went to school there. I was anxious to review their chalkboard of puddings available for the day. 

We chose the butterscotch and apple crisp to share.  It comes covered in custard and we actually asked them to hold back a little on the custard, so they just doused half the dessert with it.  Audrey enjoyed an entire bowl of mandarin organge sorbet.

My cousin and godmother, Ann, always makes nice desserts.  They made a chocolate sponge cake the evening we were there for dinner.  And, again there was more custard.  This was such a yummy warm dessert! 

The day before we left we were able to make it to Alfriston for afternoon tea.  It's our favorite spot and where we often came with Nan.  In fact, we were seated at the same table we always sat with her and I sat in the same chair that I remember her being in when she last went there with us.  We shared a ploughman's lunch and had cream tea with scones.  The clotted cream is amazing!

The Singing Kettle is just a little tea room, but so quaint.

Here are a few sights as we walked around Alfriston that afternoon.  This was such a neat old watering can and the flower arrangements everywhere are gorgeous.

I love the custom painted house numbers.

The shops are full of amazing things and the general store counter is filled with fun pastries, candies, teas and jams.

The streets are miniscule in this town and there are beautiful views of the downs.

You don't see these too much anymore!

There are many days that I think about the quiet and sweet little town of Alfriston.  Why couldn't I just live in this beautiful Rose Cottage and walk up the road to run one of the tea rooms?

Chai Teacupcakes

I got these adorable little silicone cupcake molds for my birthday and just couldn't wait to try them. Of course, since they are shaped like teacups, I wanted to make a cupcake that was reminiscent of tea and thought chai would be perfect. I researched several recipes and ended up using the Martha Stewart one from her Cupcakes book.  It was meant for mini cupcakes, but adapted well to making regular sized ones with just a little more baking time.  However, her recipe included a condensed milk icing and I wanted to swirl some buttercream on top, so I came up with this yummy cardamom-cinnamon buttercream and sprinkled just a little cinnamon on top.  Just like they would when you order a chai latte from the local cafe, right?

This is the box of the cupcake molds that are made by Fred.  They make all kinds of fun stuff! 

I even used my matching pink Reiss milkpot to warm the milk and make the black tea infused milk to use for the recipe. I just wanted to drink that, but resisted and used it for the cupcakes.

The batter had LOTS of spices in it and I've never smelled such a fragrant flour mixture!  I liked the Martha recipe as it called for using each and every spice that is in Indian chai vs. cheating and using one of the pre-made chai mixes. This has cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, clove, and freshly ground nutmeg.  It smelled like fall or like I was ready to make a pumpkin pie. 

I was hoping I didn't put too much batter in the cupcake molds and since I have just these four, there was lots more batter to make other cupcakes.  It felt so boring just putting the batter in cupcake papers!

Here are my chai teacupcakes fresh out of the oven. I probably could have used a little less batter in the molds, but they rose nicely and I was so exciting to frost them!

The buttercream came together so nicely and was easy to pipe on. It had these pretty little specks of cardamom and cinnamon in it and I sprinkled them with a bit more cinnamon as well.  I thought the bright white buttercream looked so pretty with the white molds as well.  Almost too adorable to eat!  I shared them with four very special friends and showed off the fun cupcake molds.

I had lots more cupcakes and lots more buttercream so I sampled one to make sure they were good and sent the rest off to be enjoyed by others.

Recipe for Cardamom-Cinnamon Buttercream

2 sticks unsalted butter (room temperature)
1 tablespoon real vanilla extract
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
5 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup milk

Cream the butter in an electric mixer until light and fluffy.  Add the vanilla, cardamom and cinnamon and mix thoroughly.  Continue beating on low speed while adding the sugar a cup at a time and alternating with a little milk, beating smooth between each addition and scraping the bowl as needed.

Scones with Strawberry Jam

I have written about the scones we enjoyed in England last summer and the awful scones we had at the Crown & Crumpet in San Fran, but I've yet to write about my own scone recipe. My scones are more of the English style scones that are a biscuit like shape and texture. I don't much care for the triangular shaped scones that most cafe's and bakeries have and they always seem to be very dry, tasteless and covered in huge crystals of sugar. What's special about mine? I always use pure full fat unsalted butter. It's best to use unsalted to control the amount of salt in the recipe and most scone recipes don't call for much sugar, so it's good not to overdo it on the salt, especially for fruit scones. You also must use baking raisins. Most people don't know they exist, but you can buy Sunmaid baking raisins in 1 cup pouches in most grocery stores. They are much juicier for baking unlike those dry pebbles of raisins that come in boxes. They are great for scones, but also for oatmeal raisin cookies and even to put in your morning oatmeal. I use a scalloped biscuit cutter and you can also make different sizes. I usually do this to make some smaller ones more suited for afternoon tea vs. the bigger "breakfast size" scones with the larger biscuit cutter. When baked just the right amount of time, they are moist but not doughy, rise nicely and break apart perfectly without the need for a knife...aside for spreading on the clotted cream and strawberry jam! I enjoyed afternoon tea with Audrey last weekend and used the last of my homemade strawberry jam.

Shortbread and Tea

Each Christmas for the last several years, I've made homemade shortbread. It's an icebox shortbread recipe that is very easy, but I've been told that it rivals Walkers. You can make the dough, roll it into a log shape and refrigerate or freeze it and then slice it and bake it later. This year I made cherry, pecan, chocolate and plain shortbread. I've used it to package in cellophane bags or pretty boxes to give as gifts. But, I always keep some extra to have with a nice cup of hot tea. In fact, I just indulged in one of each flavour while I sat in front of the fire with my book and cup of tea. This is one of my favorite china cups in the photo - a toast and tea set that my Auntie Vera in England gave to me a few years ago to add to my collection.

The Best Autumn Bread

Several years ago, I found an apple bread recipe to try when I had a bunch of extra apples in the fall. We instantly loved it and it has turned out to be a family favorite. In fact, I recently cut up extra apples so I could make it for my brother this weekend as he's the one that always requests it. The recipe makes two large loaves and I often times make one large loaf and two mini ones so I can send them home with people. It always reminds me of autumn and is the best with a cup of hot cider or tea. Sugar and spice and everything nice!

Tea at the Crown & Crumpet

On a recent visit to San Francisco, I made Sean take me to Crown & Crumpet, a fairly new yet very highly publicized tea "salon" in the famous Ghiradelli Square. It has a very fun menu, decor, retail shop and tea time experience. They blend their own teas and we tried the Paris tea (with a hint of vanilla) and their own house black tea blend. The tea was lovely, especially served in their customized cups and saucers with witty tea quotes. However, we were not that impressed with our meal. For a place with "crumpet" as a part of their name, our crumpets were so very dry and rubbery that I could barely cut it with my knife. And, while I do think my scone recipe is quite good, it was miles better than the scones they had that were very dry and crumbly (not to mention small). Crown & Crumpet did a great job of catching my eye and providing a good experience (as well as much inspiration for my future endeavour). But, it didn't do a very good job of pleasing my palette.

Afternoon Tea for Two Weeks

On our recent visit to England with Audrey, we vowed to try to find somewhere to have afternoon tea every day we were there. Audrey always has an afternoon snack, so going out for afternoon tea would allow us to find a place for her to have her snack and we could enjoy afternoon tea and scones each day and take a breather from sightseeing. For the most part we succeeded in having afternoon tea most every day and it ranged from the quaint tea rooms of Alfriston, the Pump Room in Bath to a café in Caerphilly. I was surprised to discover that most places didn’t offer fruit scones with raisins, so we primarily had plain scones and always tried to get the sinfully good clotted cream and strawberry jam to go along with it. Here are some photos of the scones we enjoyed. The English strawberries with cream were fantastic at the Pump Room. But, my favorite is still The Singing Kettle in Alfriston.