Winter has arrived!!!

Monday was a glorious day.  Windows and doors were flung open to let  the crisp, sparkling air pervade the house and trick it into thinking it was still early autumn.  Perhaps even spring.  At any rate it was as though we were being reminded that even though winter was peaking round the corner we could treasure the memories of those days that made you think that it was a perfect world after all.

Tuesday arrived.  Overcast, dull, almost bleak looking.  Not so cold but it wasn't the day before either.  The forecast was for a cold change the next day and a cold, windy, wet long weekend.  I have always found that the cold hits after the June long weekend.  This year it has arrived early.  Since Tuesday night though, the forecast has changed a tad and they have pushed the rain back a few days.  Subsequently, as I write, the sun is shining brilliantly and the sky is an uninterrupted sea of blue but the wind has a decided bite to it. 

Winter is actually my second favourite month of the year. Autumn is the absolute best. 
 Crisp mornings.  Gorgeous colours in the liquid ambers which are my very favourite trees.







 Anyway, on to the cooking.  I have an order for a fruit cake that needed to be covered with fondant mid June so early in May I set about the ritual of putting my own special mix of dried fruit into a bowl with a good slug (or 4) of rum, stirring really well with my hand, which I find separates the pieces of fruit so that they can all soak up the liquid individually, covering it well and tucking it away to brew and plump up.

Every so often I pull it out and give it a good stir with a metal spoon.  Many times I do forget this process especially when doing the batch for Christmas cakes.  I tend to put this together some considerable time before Christmas which ensures that I forget about it.  This doesn't really matter if it is initially well stirred but it is like touching base with the mix and ensuring that it is really going nicely.  I haven't begun talking to it yet but it's always on the cards.

So, this one only had 3 weeks to brew before I pulled it out and began the next process of making the cake.  The recipe is one I have been using for over 30 years.  It was given to me by a girl I worked with in my very first full time job.  Her mother made this cake all the time for her family.  There were six children so I guess the cake tins needed to be kept filled. 

 Although it is a simple boiled fruit cake and the only one I have used in that time for all fruit cake needs including any wedding cakes that have been covered in fondant well ahead of the day, I spent about 15 of those years experimenting with the types and amounts of dried fruit that appealed to me.  There is no strict rule about which fruit has to have the upper hand, it is more a personal taste thing.  The reactions of people eating my cakes influenced me greatly and as I don't like mixed peel they didn't get a look in.  Instead I use grated fresh lemon and orange rind.
I find the process of making a fruit cake one of those timeless tasks that link me to every woman over the centuries who has carefully prepared her fruit for a special cake.  Some of them would have had very limited resources, the fruit they were using having been carefully saved, dried and sometimes pitted from their summer harvest. Butter had to washed, I don't know why, sugar cut from loaves. We are so lucky in the time we live in, perhaps too lucky.  Off to the shops we go when it is time to bake and carelessly  pluck packets off the shelves, rarely giving thought to how they got there.  I know there is a growing slow food movement now which will make those of us who are interested more aware but on the whole I think we will continue to expect the provisions and take it for granted.

But back to the cake!!!  I did some research on the history of fruit cakes.  It is amazing how something that something that is so much a part of certain celebrations comes about.
Apparently the earliest mention of fruit cakes come from the Egyptians who placed a version in the tombs of loved ones, perhaps as nourishment for the afterlife! 
It was not common however, until early roman times when pomegranate seeds, pine nuts, raisins and barley mash were mixed together to form a ring shaped dessert.  Due to it's ability to remain edible for long periods, roman soldiers often took fruitcake with them to the battlefields. During the middle ages preserved fruit, spices and honey were added to the mix, gaining popularity with the crusaders.

In the 1400's dried fruit from the Mediterranean became available in England and these were added to the fruit cakes, beginning a love affair for the English which continues to this day.
 
During the 16oo's when the colonies (also known as America!!)  were able to provide cheap raw ingredients, fruitcakes soon contained sugar which contributed to it's density.  Nuts also soon found their way in this mixture which was becoming heavier and richer by the century!

Slices of the cake used to be handed out to poor women who went from  house to house in the bitter winter nights before Christmas, singing carols.
In Europe a fruit cake  was made with nuts from the recent harvest  for the winter solstice and kept till the beginning of the next harvest in the hope this would ensure another good harvest.

The early 18th century saw the cake outlawed in Europe as it's 'sinful richness" was seen to be far too  decadent.  By the end of this century there were laws restricting the use of "Plum Cake" as it was also known. 
Fruit cake really took off early 1830's and no Victorian afternoon tea would have been considered complete without this
delicacy. 

 It was also the custom to put a slice from a wedding cake under your pillow if you were unfortunate enough in that era to still be single, thus giving you a dream of your future spouse.  This was still popular when I was quite young and I can assure you it didn't work!!!!!

Even so, it remains popular for wedding cakes along with the more contemporary dark, white and caramel mud cakes, carrot, banana and others. 

Keeping the top tier of your wedding cake for either your first anniversary or the birth of your first child was a tradition which has mostly fallen by the wayside from what I can gather.  Fruit cake would be the only sort that would keep unless you froze other flavours.
Regardless, the cake I made turned out well and has 4 weeks to brew before it is eaten. 

I'll let you know the what the verdict is when it is finally eaten.

Have you given any thought to putting some dried fruit into a container, preferably porcelain, well sealed, well moistened with some alcoholic beverage of your choice, of which there are many, and leaving it to brew for several months before Christmas? 
If you haven't tried this before, look out your favourite recipe, buy your fruit and try it.  I can guarantee you will enjoy the results. 

Here is the basic recipe for:

BOILED FRUIT CAKE

*125gm butter
*750gm mixed fruit - soaked in alcohol at least overnight
*1 1/2 cups brown sugar
*1 cup strong hot coffee
*1 tspn mixed spice
*1 tspn vanilla essence
*1 tspn bicarbonate of soda
*2 tblspn golden syrup
*grated rind of 1 lemon and 1 orange
*125 gms of nuts of your choice

*combine mix and bring to the boil
*let simmer for about 10 minutes
*take off heat and stir in bicarb
*the mixture froths up quickly so make sure
  that your pot is big enough to not spill over
*cool then stir in the rinds

*Beat in:

*1 1/2 cups self raising flour
*1 cup plain flour
*chopped nuts that have been lightly dusted in some of the      flour
*2 eggs

*Mix well, using your hands with fingers spread toward the  end as this ensures that any lumps of flour aren't missed and enables you to get into the corners of the pan.
*Grease and line  a 25cm tin - this size may vary depending on the shape of your tin and on whether you want to make several smaller cakes
*I always wrap several layers of newspaper around my tins to help prevent the outer edges becoming overcooked.

*Bake for 30 minutes on 160 deg C
*Turn it down to 150 deg C and check after an hour if in a large tin
*If not cooked by this time check every 15-25 minutes, depending on how firm it was the first time.

*Leave to cool for 10 minutes, then pour over 1/4 - 1/2 cup, depending on the size of the cake, of the same alcohol you used to soak the fruit in.
*Leave to cool in the tin and if keeping for some time, leave wrapped in the lining paper, plus gladwrap and then foil, storing in a cool, dark place.
*You can give it several small drinks of alcohol if you plan to keep if for 3 months or more.


Till next time, enjoy your kitchen
Jo