Hello everybody, hope you’re having an amazing day today. Today, I will show you a way to make a special dish, boozy christmas cake. It is one of my favorites. For mine, I am going to make it a little bit unique. This is gonna smell and look delicious.
Boozy Christmas Cake is one of the most well liked of current trending meals in the world. It’s appreciated by millions every day. It is easy, it is quick, it tastes delicious. They are fine and they look wonderful. Boozy Christmas Cake is something which I have loved my entire life.
To get started with this particular recipe, we have to prepare a few components. You can have boozy christmas cake using 26 ingredients and 11 steps. Here is how you cook it.
The ingredients needed to make Boozy Christmas Cake:
- Take For the fruit soaker
- Make ready 600 g luxury dried fruit (a mix of raisins, currants, sultanas, cranberries, mixed peel)
- Make ready 200 g glacé cherries, halved, rinsed and thoroughly dried
- Prepare 120 g pitted dates, chopped
- Prepare 80 g crystallised ginger, chopped
- Prepare Zest 1 orange
- Get Zest 1 lemon
- Take 250 ml brandy (Get at least one 70cl bottle, as you'll need the rest for the tipple/feed)
- Prepare 250 ml sherry or madeira
- Get 250 ml orange juice
- Take 2 tsp vanilla extract
- Make ready 2 tsp almond extract
- Take For the Cake
- Make ready 250 g butter, softened
- Take 250 g light or dark muscavado sugar
- Take 4 eggs
- Prepare 1 tbsp black treacle
- Make ready 75 g blanched almonds, chopped
- Take 250 g plain flour
- Get 1 1/2 tsp mixed spice
- Get 1 tsp ground ginger
- Prepare For the decoration/cake covering
- Make ready 150 g apricot jam
- Take 1 KG marzipan
- Get 1 KG ready-to-roll icing
- Take Icing sugar, for dusting
Instructions to make Boozy Christmas Cake:
- Get started on the soaker at least 7 days before you want to make the cake. Put all the soaker ingredients in a large bowl and mix very well. Leave covered in a cool, dry place for 7 days and give a stir every 2 days.
- After 7 days, grease and line a 23cm/9inch deep cake tin with a double layer of greaseproof paper (bottom and sides). Tip the fruit soaker into a sieve and leave to drain without pressing down (don't tip the liquid away! It's beautiful. Keep this and use for other things, make a syrup, or use in a mince pie filling!). Preheat your oven to 120 C fan.
- Put the butter, sugar and treacle into a mixing bowl and beat until pale and fluffy (15 mins). Slowly add the eggs one by one, beating for a few minutes between each egg. Add the almonds, flour, ground mixed spice and ground ginger and mix very gently. Fold in the soaker fruit.
- Pour the mix into the prepared tin and level surface. Bake in the centre of the oven for about 4 hours, or until firm, rich golden brown and a skewer inserted comes out clean.
- As soon as the cake is out of the oven, leave it in the tin and pierce the cake all over several times with a skewer and evenly drizzle around 5-6 TBSP brandy. Leave to cool completely on a wire rack in the tin and let it soak up the booze.
- When the cake is completely cold, remove from the tin without removing the lining paper and wrap in another double layer of greaseproof paper and then again in one layer of foil. (You don’t remove the lining paper when storing as this helps to keep the cake moist.) Pop in an airtight container and leave in a cool, dry place until 1 week before you want to serve, and keep feeding the cake with a few TBSP brandy once a week.
- 1.5 weeks before you want to serve, stop feeding the cake, to ensure its not too damp on the outside for decorating. The week before you want to serve, begin covering the cake.
- To begin covering the cake, unwrap it and discard the greaseproof paper and foil. Put your cake on a serving plate or board. Put your apricot jam in a small pan and bring to the boil. Brush the entire cake with the boiled jam
- Dust your work surface with a little icing sugar and gently knead your marzipan until its warm and pliable. Roll out your marzipan around £1 thick and large enough to cover the entire cake. Place it over the glazed cake and gently smooth it down so it sticks nicely.
- Take your icing and do exactly as you did with the marzipan (knead and roll only). Just before placing the icing on top of your cake, brush the marzipan with boiled water or a strong spirit alcohol (like brandy or whisky). This is to prevent the cake from going bad from any moisture and to allow the icing to stick. Place the icing over the cake and smooth down so this sticks. Trim the edges neatly for a clean finish.
- You will likely have leftover icing and marzipan. Feel free to get creative with this to add any further decorations on top. Enjoy!
Foods That Can Make Your Mood Better
Most of us have been conditioned to believe that comfort foods are not good and must be avoided. But if your comfort food is candy or junk food this is true. Soemtimes, comfort foods can be utterly nutritious and good for us to eat. There are a number of foods that really can boost your moods when you consume them. If you feel a little bit down and need a happiness pick me up, try a couple of these.
Eggs, believe it or not, are fantastic for helping you combat depression. Just make sure that you do not throw away the egg yolk. The yolk is the most essential part of the egg iwhen it comes to helping you cheer up. Eggs, particularly the yolks, are loaded with B vitamins. B vitamins can actually help you elevate your mood. This is because they help your neural transmitters–the parts of your brain that affect your mood–function better. Try eating a few eggs to feel better!
Put together several trail mix of nuts or seeds. Your mood can be raised by eating peanuts, almonds, cashews, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, etc. This is possible because these foods are high in magnesium which promotes your production of serotonin. Serotonin is a feel-good chemical substance that dictates to the brain how to feel at any given moment. The more serotonin you have, the happier you are going to feel. Not only that but nuts, in particular, are a fantastic protein food source.
If you want to fight depression, try eating some cold water fish. Salmon, herring, tuna fish, mackerel, trout, etcetera, they’re all chock-full of omega-3 fatty acids and DHA. DHA and omega-3s are two things that raise the quality and the function of your brain’s gray matter. It’s true: eating a tuna fish sandwich can actually help you overcome depression.
It’s not hard to fight your bad mood when you eat grains. Quinoa, millet, teff and barley are all truly great for helping increase your happiness levels. They fill you up better and that can help elevate your moods as well. It’s not hard to feel a little bit off when you feel famished! These grains can help your mood elevate because it’s easy for your body to digest them. They are simpler to digest than other foods which helps raise your blood sugar levels and that, in turn, elevates your mood.
Green tea is wonderful for moods. You just knew it had to be mentioned in this article, right? Green tea is rich in a specific amino acid referred to as L-theanine. Studies prove that this specific amino acid can actually induce brain waves. This will better your brain’s concentration while also calming the rest of your body. You knew green tea could help you feel so much healthier. Now you know that green tea can improve your mood as well!
As you can see, you don’t have to turn to junk food or foods that are not good for you to feel better! Try a couple of of these tips instead.
