Part 2 of Premium Christmas Fruit Cake : Baking the Christmas Fruit Cake

When you think of Christmas there is tons of things to eat. One of them is Chirtmas Cakes! They cost alot! This year we're making our own to give to both our family.


Ingredients A
300g All Purpose Flour
1 teaspoon of Baking Powder
0.5 teaspoon of Mixed Spice
0.5 teaspoon of Ground Cinnamon
0.5 teaspoon of Ground Nutmeg
0.25 teaspoon of Ground Ginger

Step 1 Measure and mix Mixture A well, and set aside.

Ingredients B
300g slightly soften Butter
150g Brown Sugar
0.5 teaspoon of Lemon Zest
6 lightly beaten Eggs
3 tablespoon of Brandy/Whiskey/Rum (you can use your left over from the marination process)

Step 2 It's time to take out your juicy alcohol marinated dried fruits to drain with a sieve.


Step 3 Cream the Butter with Brown Sugar until light and fluffy.
Step 4 Stir in the Lemon Zest.
Step 5 Add the beaten eggs a bit at a time, beating well after each addition.
Step 6 In another large bowl mix the drained marinated dried fruits with Mixture A.


Step 7 Fold Mixture A & B together until incorporated.
Step 8 Lastly fold in the alcohol.


Step 9 Pre-heat the oven to 150°C.
Step 10 Spoon the cake mixture into the prepared baking pan. Make sure there is no air pockets. Fill it up till slightly below the top.
Step 11 Use the back of a spoon and smooth the surface.


Step 12 Before putting in the oven, do a quick check and clean up if there is any smears of cake batter on the greeseproof or parchment paper to avoid the smears from burning during the baking process.
Step 13 Place it at the second lowest rack or lowest rack of the oven this will have to be bake for 3 hours in total. During the baking time avoid opening the oven door too often as it will cause the cake to collapse.
Step 14 At the 1.5 hours mark, do a quick check to see if the cake top is browning too rapidly, cover with a double layer greeseproof or parchment paper if it is browning. It should look lightly brown as in the below picture.


Step 14 After a total of 3hours, insert the cake tester. If it comes out clean remove the cake from the oven as the cake is done. If there is some sticky dough on place it back in the oven to cook a while more.
Step 15 Leave the cake to cool in the tin on a wire rack for 30mins then remove from the tin and leave it on the wire rack to cool completely.


Have to done your prep work of Part 1 process it's time: Step by Step Marination of Dried Fruits and Prepping the baking pan. Click Here.

When done with Part 2 process it's time for the Final Part 3: Feeding Time for the Christmas Fruit Cake. Coming Soon


HAVE FUN & ENJOY!!!!!!

Important Note:
- Baking time varies according to your size of the cake pan.
- This recipe fruit cake does not raise as it is packed with fruits.

Click here for our blog page Baking Classes for more recipes. Hope you will be inspired~


If you do not love fondant or mazipan, it can be replaced with nuts! Just arrange raw nuts before baking.

Part 1 of Premium Christmas Fruit Cake : Step by Step Marination of Dried Fruits and Prepping the Baking Pan

When closing to 2 months before Christmas, supermarkets will start to fill their racks with Christmas Fruit Cakes which are costly. We found a whisky Christmas Fruit Cake that cost S$16.90 for a 300g size cake and S$38.80 for 800g size cake.

Time for me to learn how to prepare and bake our own since deary loves Christmas Fruit Cake so much. It'll be a long while till I'll bake it again, so I'll be documenting it for the benefit of our readers and ourselves. Detail step by step process will be listed down here and further 2 or 3 more post that will come after. After this post the next will be preparing your baking pan then follow by baking and final one will be about feeding.


You can modify it but don't go so far off these measurements.

Below is what we're using for our 2013 Fruit Cake!

Ingredients that We're using
250g Black Raisins
90g Golden Raisins
125g Dried Cherries
75g Dried Mango
75g Dried Cranberries
10g Dried Peach
500ml of Whisky/Brandy

Below is what we're using for our 2014 Fruit Cake!

Ingredients that We're using
500g Mixed Fruits
125g Golden Raisins
1 cup Walnut (roughly chopped)
500ml of Whisky/Brandy


Whisky or Brandy is the most suggested options.
2013 trial we're spilting the receipe into 2 types of alcohol, Cointreau & Hennesy Cognac VSOP for our first Christmas Fruit Cake trial. Total of 1 Litre is required for this recipe we're baking.
2014 trial we used to Cointreau.


You'll need 1 or 2 glass jars depending on the size you have and 2 tea clothes. Do not use plastic cointainers as adviced by my friend. Cut up the big chunks of dried fruits and mix them up using a spoon. Check out the pretty colors.


Pour the alcohol till it covers the mixed dried fruits.


Marinating overnight will do. However, base on one of our friend she give us that her family secret was to soak for minumum one week and can go upto two months. For our 1st trial, we're going for one week.

Remember to give it a mix every day to loosen up the mixed fruits and give me more space to expand while they soak up the alcohol.

Here are the photos of a week old of marination. Clearly from the picture the alcohol have soaked into the dried fruits which smells amazing from a far to us and sharp and bitter when smell near. Between, deary and me, we can't drink! Hahaha...


A day before you want to bake the christmas fruit cake,prepare your baking pans.


Items needed
(x6) 5" x 1.5" baking pan
Vege Oil Spray
parchment or Greaseproof Paper
Newspapers


Line a baking pan with double layer of parchment or greaseproof paper with a double layer of newspaper wrapped inside. Tie with a cooking string or use stapler to hold the shape. The baking pan will have to stand on a double layer of newspaper in the oven too!

The reason is that Christmas Cake contains a lot of sweet, dried fruits and sugar. Also, cooking of the cake takes over 4 hours. Wrapping the cake tin, as standing the cake tin on a double layer of newspaper protects the bottom and sides of the cake. It prevents it from cooking too quickly and more importantly, burning during the long slow cooking.

Repeat until all your tins are wrapped.


When done with Part 1 process it's time for Part 2: Baking the Christmas Fruit Cake. Click Here.

After done with Part 2 process it's time for the Final Part 3: Feeding Time for the Christmas Fruit Cake. Coming Soon

HAVE FUN & ENJOY!!!!!!

Click here for our blog page Baking Classes for more recipes. Hope you will be inspired~

Lunch at Fukuichi Japanese Dining - TripleOne Somerset, Orchard

We've found that when eating out at Japanese places locally, there's not many good "mid range" places. There are great restaurants which cost an arm and a leg, and there are cheap restaurants which serve up mediocre food at best. Our search for good "in between" eateries brings us to TripleOne Somerset to try out lunch at Fukuichi Japanese Dining. These folks have a partnership of sorts with Shizuoka-based fishery Fukuichimaru, who ship the fish directly to Singapore where it's stored at ultra low -55°C temperatures before ending up on your plate.

So in theory, the fish and sushi/sashimi should be pretty good!

Out of curiosity we order the Corn Tempura ($15.00), which turns out to be pretty good, if a little pricey. We thought that the crunch of the tempura with the slight umami saltiness of the dipping sauce went very well with the juices from the sweet corn, and makes for a great appetizer.


The Assorted Premium Sushi costs $35 for 7 nigiri, a maki and a slice of tamagoyaki. We're ever so slightly disappointed that we only get akami and no chu toro - too much to ask at this price range, perhaps? In any case the sushi was pretty good, and well portioned with a generous ratio of fish to riceball, while still being the perfect size to munch in one bite.


We also order a Shiro Maguro Maki (White/Albacore Tuna roll, $22.00) - strips of slightly blowtorch'ed albacore tuna meat wrapped over rice, nori, cucumber and japanese pickles. We liked the addition of the pickles which gave an interesting semi-cruncy bite. Would definitely order this again.


The one letdown of our meal was perhaps the Grilled Tuna Collar ($30.00). We thought that although there was nice char and aroma from the grill, most of the meat was a bit dry and plain. Pricey, too.


So at a price tag of $122.40 for two people after taxes, Fukuichi sits firmly in mid-range restaurant territory both in price and quality of food served. If you'd like to 'test the water,' their lunch set menu's come in at around $15-$30 each which is probably a lot better value than ordering ala carte. Non halal.

Seaweed Shaker Fries - Why wonder and wait for McDonalds to have it again? Make your own at home!

Deary and me are addicted to McDonald's Seaweed Shaker Fries. We'll pop by to enjoy them when it's available. However, on days where there are other flavors of Shaker Fries we'll wonder when will the Seaweed Shaker Fries be back. Here we go..creating our own at home.


Ingredients
Peanut Oil (enough to deep fry)
1 bowl of Frozen French Fries
Salt
8 slices of Seaweed Snack
0.5 teaspoon of Garlic Powder
0.5 teaspoon of Chicken Powder

1. Use a grinder and grind the Seaweed Snack until Powder.
2. Place the Seaweed Snack Powder, Garlic Powder, Chicken Powder into a container.
3. Cover it tight and shake to mix well.
4. Heat up the Oil in a deep pan.
5. Place in a wooden chopstick to test the oil. It's ready when small bubbles start forming and bubbling up.
6. Gently pour in the Frozen French Fries in.
7. Deep fry the fries until golden.
8. Scoop & drain up the French Fries.
9. Sprinkle a pinch or 2 of Salt while it's hot. Do this step while gently tossing it to ensure all fries get some Salt.
10. Take a baking paper and fold it into a paper bag. Place the fries in.
11. Pour in the Seaweed Shaker Mix.
12. Fold the bag down leaving some air inside and give it a few good shakes like how you do it for McDonald's Shaker Fries.

Wahhhhlaaaaa......... Homemade Seaweed Shaker Fries!

Enjoy munching away~!!!

Click here for our blog page Cooking Classes for more recipes. Hope you will be inspired~