BRIDIE'S FAVOURITE COINTREAU XMAS CAKE RECIPEThis recipe is easy and it doesn't use too many different ingredients. Some have lots of different dried fruits but I like the traditional mixed fruit combo and you don't have to spend hours cutting up fruit. You do need to be prepared though. The fruit needs to be soaked for 24hrs before and the cake needs 24hrs to come to room temp before serving. Here it is:
Bridie's Favourite Cointreau Xmas Cake Recipe
250g Butter, softened
250g Brown Sugar (or dark brown sugar if you want it richer)
4 eggs
2 Tbsp Orange Marmalade
1.5kg Mixed Dried Fruit (use good quality, you can tell the difference)
225g Plain Flour
75g Self Raising Flour
2 Tsp Mixed Spice
125ml Cointreau (or Gran Marnier or Triple Sec or try Brandy or Sherry for a different flavour)
Extra Cointreau (or alcohol of your choice) for pouring when cake cooked
Soak the fruit in the cointreau 24hrs before making the cake.
Preheat the oven to 150 degrees celcius, if oven is fan forced you may want to reduce this a little, say 10 to 20 degrees.
Prepare a deep 19cm square cake pan or 22cm round cake pan. Line the base and sides of the pan with baking paper 3 times so it is 3 thicknesses bringing the sides at least 5cm above the top of the pan. All of this helps with stopping burning. Cooking spray is great to help with all of this paper sticking.
Beat butter and sugar with mixer until just combined; beat in eggs, one at a time, until just combines. Mixture may look curdled but it will come together in the end.
Scrape this mixture into a large bowl; add marmalade and the fruit (with any excess alcohol left). Mix this thoroughly with one hand. Sift flours and spice over mixture and mix well with your hand - all good xmas cakes and puddings are mixed by hand!
Drop dollops of the mixture into the corners of the pan - this will hold the paper in place. Spread the remaining mixture into the pan.
Drop the cake pan onto the bench to settle the cake and remove any large air bubbles. Level the surface of the cake with a wet metal spatula or spoon.
Bake cake in the oven for about 3 hours. Skewer should come out relatively clean, no uncooked mixture. If during the cooking process the cake is getting too dark on top put foil loosely over the top of the cake. Also turn the cake a few times during cooking.
Remove the cake brush or pour over extra alcohol (depends on your taste) and cover tightly with foil and leave on the bench, if pouring put skewer holes first for the alchohol to soak into. Allow 24hrs for the cake to come to room temp. This cake can be frozen up to 12 months or wrapped tightly in cling wrap then foil then kept in a cool dark place for up to 3 months. If using over the next few weeks keep in a tin or tupperware container.
Decorating is left up to your imagination!
Good luck to all who try this recipe, I hope you like it.
AWW CUT KEEP BUTTER CAKEThis recipe is such a fantastic basic. Throw everything in the mixer at the same time, no creaming butter and sugar, no separating eggs, so easy and a great result everytime!! Change it up, make into cup cakes with buttercream frosting. Put in some citrus zest for a zing or make into a tea cake by pouring melted butter on top straight from the oven and dust with sugar and cinnamon. Good luck and I hope you find it as good as I do.INGREDIENTS
125g butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1¼ cups (275g) caster sugar
3 eggs
1 cup (150g) plain flour
½ cup (75g) self-raising flour
¼ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
½ cup (125ml) milkMETHOD
Preheat oven to 180°C/160°C fan-forced. Grease deep 20cm-round cake pan; line base with baking paper.
Beat ingredients in medium bowl on low speed with electric mixer until just combined. Increase speed to medium; beat about 3 minutes or until mixture
is smooth and pale in colour.
Spread mixture into pan; bake about 1¼ hours. Stand cake in pan 5 minutes before turning, top-side up, onto wire rack to cool. Dust cake with sifted icing sugar, if desired._________________________________________________________
BRIDIE'S FAVOURITE COINTREAU XMAS CAKE RECIPE
This recipe is easy and it doesn't use too many different ingredients. Some have lots of different dried fruits but I like the traditional mixed fruit combo and you don't have to spend hours cutting up fruit. You do need to be prepared though. The fruit needs to be soaked for 24hrs before and the cake needs 24hrs to come to room temp before serving. Here it is:Bridie's Favourite Cointreau Xmas Cake Recipe
250g Butter, softened
250g Brown Sugar (or dark brown sugar if you want it richer)
4 eggs
2 Tbsp Orange Marmalade
1.5kg Mixed Dried Fruit (use good quality, you can tell the difference)
225g Plain Flour
75g Self Raising Flour
2 Tsp Mixed Spice
125ml Cointreau (or Gran Marnier or Triple Sec or try Brandy or Sherry for a different flavour)
Extra Cointreau (or alcohol of your choice) for pouring when cake cooked
Soak the fruit in the cointreau 24hrs before making the cake.
Preheat the oven to 150 degrees celcius, if oven is fan forced you may want to reduce this a little, say 10 to 20 degrees.
Prepare a deep 19cm square cake pan or 22cm round cake pan. Line the base and sides of the pan with baking paper 3 times so it is 3 thicknesses bringing the sides at least 5cm above the top of the pan. All of this helps with stopping burning. Cooking spray is great to help with all of this paper sticking.
Beat butter and sugar with mixer until just combined; beat in eggs, one at a time, until just combines. Mixture may look curdled but it will come together in the end.
Scrape this mixture into a large bowl; add marmalade and the fruit (with any excess alcohol left). Mix this thoroughly with one hand. Sift flours and spice over mixture and mix well with your hand - all good xmas cakes and puddings are mixed by hand!
Drop dollops of the mixture into the corners of the pan - this will hold the paper in place. Spread the remaining mixture into the pan.
Drop the cake pan onto the bench to settle the cake and remove any large air bubbles. Level the surface of the cake with a wet metal spatula or spoon.
Bake cake in the oven for about 3 hours. Skewer should come out relatively clean, no uncooked mixture. If during the cooking process the cake is getting too dark on top put foil loosely over the top of the cake. Also turn the cake a few times during cooking.
Remove the cake brush or pour over extra alcohol (depends on your taste) and cover tightly with foil and leave on the bench, if pouring put skewer holes first for the alchohol to soak into. Allow 24hrs for the cake to come to room temp. This cake can be frozen up to 12 months or wrapped tightly in cling wrap then foil then kept in a cool dark place for up to 3 months. If using over the next few weeks keep in a tin or tupperware container.
Decorating is left up to your imagination!
Good luck to all who try this recipe, I hope you like it.
AWW CUT KEEP BUTTER CAKE
This recipe is such a fantastic basic. Throw everything in the mixer at the same time, no creaming butter and sugar, no separating eggs, so easy and a great result everytime!! Change it up, make into cup cakes with buttercream frosting. Put in some citrus zest for a zing or make into a tea cake by pouring melted butter on top straight from the oven and dust with sugar and cinnamon. Good luck and I hope you find it as good as I do.1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1¼ cups (275g) caster sugar
3 eggs
1 cup (150g) plain flour
½ cup (75g) self-raising flour
¼ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
½ cup (125ml) milk
Beat ingredients in medium bowl on low speed with electric mixer until just combined. Increase speed to medium; beat about 3 minutes or until mixture
is smooth and pale in colour.
Spread mixture into pan; bake about 1¼ hours. Stand cake in pan 5 minutes before turning, top-side up, onto wire rack to cool. Dust cake with sifted icing sugar, if desired.
Nan's Sponge with Lemon Curd & Cream
Hi all,
Thought I'd share one of my favourite recipes with you, my Nan, Eileen Sheehan's, famous sponge recipe.
Back in the day these sponges were known all around the district and as far as I am concerned, better than CWA - big call I know! Mum continued the tradition and I'm now taking the batton. The sponge is such a classic, often overlooked for more complicated, fancier 'cafe cakes' but I don't think you can go past the light and fluffy sponge, freshly whipped cream and a sweet filling like homemade jam, add a nice cup of tea and what a perfect afternoon treat.
For all the things that I am confident cooking the idea of cooking Mum/Nan's sponge always daunted me. I'd tried some sponge recipes a couple of times when I was younger but always ended up with something that sunk when it came out of the oven, but for some reason I had never tried Nan's recipe.
So on my first Mother's day without my mum (she passed away Nov 2008) I was determined to make this sponge, I suppose as a tribute to my mum. Why, I don't know, lots of pressure and emotion and god help anybody who might be around if it flopped! But to my surprise it didn't, it was huge, light as air and tasted magnificent. I was proud as punch and for the next month I went a little sponge crazy, morning tea, a birthday - I'll bring a sponge. You bought a new fridge? lets celebrate, I'll bring a sponge! Anyway I slowed down on the sponge making eventually. So I now feel that I have earned the right to join the club of great sponge makers and get requests for this yummy treat often.
Eileen Sheehan's Famous Sponge Recipe
4 Eggs
3/4 Cup Sugar
1 Cup Cornflour (make sure it's not wheaten cornflour then the sponge will be gluten free)
1/2 tsp bi-carb soda
1 tsp cream of tartar
Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees celcius a little less if you have a hot fan forced oven.
Grease two 20cm round sponge tins and place a square of baking paper on the bottom of each.
Separate Eggs. Beat egg whites until light and fluffy, add sugar gradually then beat in the yolks. Sift cornflour, soda and cream of tartar and fold into the mixture. A good trick is to use a palette knife or butter knife to do this, keeping as much air in the mixture as possible. Divide mixture evenly between the tins. Bake in the centre of the oven trays and have good clearance above because these babies really rise! Bake for 20 mins or until golden on top. Don't let them sit too long before turning out. Sometimes they can be a little sticky to the sides, simply run a thin sharp knife around the edge.
Place one sponge on the serving platter and spread filling of your choice on top of the sponge. I love a homemade jam or lemon curd especially, bought or homemade. Whip some cream with a little sugar and vanilla and spread over the filling. Place the second sponge on top. Dust with a little icing sugar and ta daa!! Yummo.
Thought I'd share one of my favourite recipes with you, my Nan, Eileen Sheehan's, famous sponge recipe.
Back in the day these sponges were known all around the district and as far as I am concerned, better than CWA - big call I know! Mum continued the tradition and I'm now taking the batton. The sponge is such a classic, often overlooked for more complicated, fancier 'cafe cakes' but I don't think you can go past the light and fluffy sponge, freshly whipped cream and a sweet filling like homemade jam, add a nice cup of tea and what a perfect afternoon treat.
 |
| Mum and I serving up one of mum's many sponge variations. |
For all the things that I am confident cooking the idea of cooking Mum/Nan's sponge always daunted me. I'd tried some sponge recipes a couple of times when I was younger but always ended up with something that sunk when it came out of the oven, but for some reason I had never tried Nan's recipe.
So on my first Mother's day without my mum (she passed away Nov 2008) I was determined to make this sponge, I suppose as a tribute to my mum. Why, I don't know, lots of pressure and emotion and god help anybody who might be around if it flopped! But to my surprise it didn't, it was huge, light as air and tasted magnificent. I was proud as punch and for the next month I went a little sponge crazy, morning tea, a birthday - I'll bring a sponge. You bought a new fridge? lets celebrate, I'll bring a sponge! Anyway I slowed down on the sponge making eventually. So I now feel that I have earned the right to join the club of great sponge makers and get requests for this yummy treat often.
Eileen Sheehan's Famous Sponge Recipe
4 Eggs
3/4 Cup Sugar
1 Cup Cornflour (make sure it's not wheaten cornflour then the sponge will be gluten free)
1/2 tsp bi-carb soda
1 tsp cream of tartar
Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees celcius a little less if you have a hot fan forced oven.
Grease two 20cm round sponge tins and place a square of baking paper on the bottom of each.
Separate Eggs. Beat egg whites until light and fluffy, add sugar gradually then beat in the yolks. Sift cornflour, soda and cream of tartar and fold into the mixture. A good trick is to use a palette knife or butter knife to do this, keeping as much air in the mixture as possible. Divide mixture evenly between the tins. Bake in the centre of the oven trays and have good clearance above because these babies really rise! Bake for 20 mins or until golden on top. Don't let them sit too long before turning out. Sometimes they can be a little sticky to the sides, simply run a thin sharp knife around the edge.
Place one sponge on the serving platter and spread filling of your choice on top of the sponge. I love a homemade jam or lemon curd especially, bought or homemade. Whip some cream with a little sugar and vanilla and spread over the filling. Place the second sponge on top. Dust with a little icing sugar and ta daa!! Yummo.
