Christmas sago pudding

My aunty has made this pudding for years (though not in recent years, I guess that's why I'm craving it) so at long last I have made my own. Usually called 'Sago Plum Pudding' for reasons unknown to me, as there are no plums or prunes in it - I included cranberries and almonds to make it a little more festive.

Sago Pudding
2 TBL sago (found in the jelly crystal aisle of the supermarket; it is just tapioca starch)
1 cup milk
(Wash the sago then stand it in the milk overnight so it absorbs)
20g butter (1 1/2 TBL)
3/4 cup sugar
1 scant tsp baking soda
1 cup day-old bread, broken into small bits
1 1/2 cups mixed dried fruit (raisins, cranberries, cherries, currants - and I guess you can use prunes!)
a handful of sliced almonds
1/4 cup brandy
pinch salt

Cream butter and sugar. Dissolve baking soda in the sago mixture then add to the butter mixture.
Fold into bread, fruit, salt and brandy (alternatively you can soak the fruit in the brandy overnight).
Grease a pudding basin and pour in the mixture. Any size will do - the cooking time is important.

Wrap the pudding basin:
Here's the interesting part - get a piece of cloth long enough to wrap under the bowl then back around to twist the end to make a handle. Tie the top with string then tie the handle to the top at both sides.
This is a good tutorial for tying up a pudding. I guessed at it and it turned out fine. The handle is just to get the pudding out of the pot once cooked.

Steam the pudding:
In a large soup pot (big enough to fit the basin with a little room) place a saucer in the bottom and fill about one third of the way. Bring to the boil and place the pudding in so the water comes halfway up the side of the basin (roughly level with the pudding mixture). Cover.
Steam for 2 1/2 hours. You should be able to hear the saucer jiggling in the pot the whole time, but not so vigorous that the lid jiggles as well.

Serve with ice-cream, fresh cream, or brandy cream or sauce.

It really is delicious. You can eat it right away or it will keep in the fridge for about 2 weeks, if well wrapped. Not sure about freezing.

Cake

Here is the final product. I started making the cake weeks ago (it improves with keeping) and a couple of days out from Mum's birthday it was time to ice it.

This time I decided to make it a long, thin cake. Cut in half and put ends together, it ends up like this.
The almond icing was hard to do, as the cake has two extra sides to make (that's right, remembering maths class, the surface area can increase when you change the shape of an object). It was a bit of a patch job, but I made it.
Then the butter icing - added a drop or two of red food colouring and about 1/2 teaspoon of lemon essence and I got this peachy colour.
It has a messy finish because, frankly, I'm a messy person and it seemed to suit it. So there you go.
The russian dolls were part of the 'theme' (though mum insists they were Irish gypsies, as were some of our ancestors) and the photos from the invitations I made here. The flowers are false, couldn't come up with a way to keep fresh flowers fresh, so...
Yes, Mum loved the cake. And it was delicious. And my brothers and co ate it all up within days. Just as it should be! Did I mention the party was an amazing big family do like the old days, everyone, everyone loved it, and we all NEEDED it.
Another two cakes now waiting to be iced for my birthday and for Christmas presents.

a special cake

 I'm making this cake for my mother's 50th birthday, which is coming up in a few weeks. The cake improves with keeping so I thought a good 6 weeks would do nicely. This is the third time I've used a Christmas cake recipe from this book and it's a good one! (Just discovered the author has provided FREE recipes online). It makes a huge cake (fits a 10 inch tin well) as it uses a pound each of flour, sugar, butter, raisins, sultanas, currants and a whole lot of extras.

I adjusted the ingredients slightly, substituting fresh NZ walnuts and some pistachios in place of the almonds. I also used some glorious huge golden raisins, some raz cherries, goji berries, cranberries and various other types of raisins. Yep, the ingredients for this cake cost a lot, including the 9 eggs (yes, 9!) but I think my Mum's worth it.

You can see some of the brands I used here:

I especially love the Angas Park brand, the figs I used here, but all their range is fantastic, juicy, yum.

Did I mention it makes a big cake? I had to borrow my aunty's baking bowl again. It's so tough to stir at the end they recommend using your hand, and that was truly the only way to get through it.

Cooked for 4 hours.

 My handy helper, he actually cracked every one of the 9 eggs himself, without spilling.

Smells amazing. The odours emanated from the cake the next day, then I wrapped it up in waxed paper.
I'll post again when I ice it - the usual almond paste icing topped with white butter-cream. I need to get creative with the decoration, perhaps fresh flowers for once, or some pearlised icing balls around the base...

a slice of early Christmas

Earlier this week I made a batch of this slice, altering it slightly by using walnuts and hazelnuts in place of pinenuts, and icing it with coffee butter icing instead of the sickly sweet white chocolate ganache. 

 Had some leftover mixture so I dunked those in some melted white chocolate because that's my husband's favourite and when that ran out I used coconut.  
 Completely unintentionally, they looked fit for Christmas after-dinner treats with the white snow effect. I thought I could do these specially for the big day, despite the fact we don't have snow here at Christmas. See the tiny peeps of green and red from the pistachios and the cranberries? So Christmas.

Anyway, I boxed some up to take to a dinner party. They looked so cute! The Russian fudge was just an extra smack of sugar I really didn't need, but I had a spare half can of sweetened condensed milk to use up. What's a girl to do? Surprisingly I have fit into a new (tiny) pair of jeans this week, so perhaps eating what you like is good for you? Of course it is. 

Dutch treat

We made a gingerbread house. The second one in my lifetime (my uncle made one with me and all my cousins when we were young) and this one was made with no particular occasion in mind - just some fun for the kids.  

  The recipe is a family favourite for gingerbread boys. The idea is to let the children create as if it were playdough to make biscuits resembling boys and girls, animals, and basic shapes. Here is the recipe, a family one, I think from my Great-grandma's days. I have played around with it through years of making these reliable goodies. 

Flour - 2 1/4 lb (1 kg)Brown sugar - 1 lb (1/2 kg)
Ground ginger - 1 oz (30g packet)Butter - 1/2 lb (450g) Golden syrup - 1 tin (1kg)

Mix together in a really large vessel (I use a soup pot) the dry ingredients (flour, sugar and ginger). Grate the butter into this and rub it together until it resembles bread crumbs (much like how you'd make scones). You can do this in batches to make it easier.  Warm the syrup by placing the opened tin into a shallow pot of water, bring to a simmer on the stove and turn it off. Should take a few minutes only, don't let the syrup get hot, stir it often with a table knife. Mix the syrup with the rest of the mixture until it forms a stiff dough. You can do this in stages by adding enough syrup to make the dough by guessing and checking. It is not an exact science...

It's ready to roll, or get the kids busy making their 'boys'. I like to use currants for eyes, buttons etc, and any marks made by a fork or knife will stay put. The dough doesn't rise much, it expands ever so slightly as it cooks. Ensure the cookies are between 3 and 10mm (1/8-3/8 inch), the thinner the crunchier. Also, not too large as the middles won't cook through so well. You might need to 'squash' the children's creations to make them fit the height restrictions. Here is an example my daughter made. 
 I also like to roll out some of the dough and use cookie cutters to fill a tin with crunchier biscuits to go with cups of tea. These I make a bit thinner than the handmade kind, closer to the 3mm height.

Bake at 150 degrees C until cooked through, usually 15-20 minutes. Cool then store in an airtight container.

Apparently it isn't easy to come across tins of golden syrup like we have here in NZ. The brand is Chelsea and if you can't find any, try molasses or treacle instead??

Anyway,  back to the gingerbread house. We are part Dutch and always like to get some dropjes (Dutch liquorice, often salted) from our local Dutch shop. We went for colourful ones this time. They made cool roof tiles.
This cake isn't as pretty as it could be if I'd made it alone, but the kids sure enjoyed getting stuck in and decorating it. I like to think they will enjoy it more for having played a part in making it. They helped with all stages of the dough making and cutting too.

Wicked! Now, to think about who to share it with and when to eat it... Coffee on Saturday afternoon with the grandparents sounds good. Check.