Christmas Cake

It's Christmas time, mistletoe and wine and I'm not home  for Christmas this year. Sad face. Tosakanth is sad. Christmas is my favourite time of year to be in Sri Lanka because my family and the extended jingband all go for a Christmas breakfast at a family friends place. It's the bestest thing ever. AuntyChurchVillage makes the best breudher ever ever. I personally hate breudher because it's always really dry and full of raisins and stuff that I don't like. But this lady's breudher is to die for. I look forward to this day the whole year and I eat till I pop. Second most awesomest thing about Christmas at home is Christmas dinner at my friend BigMommaR's place. I've been attending her Christmas dinners now for about 6 years I think and it's so much fun. A bunch of fun fellas having homemade Christmas dinner and then afterwards playing havoc with  firecrackers. Our favourite thing to do is sweep the bambara chuckra (the spinny wheely thing) with a broom as far as we can using our hockey skills. best times. sigh.  So anyway, this time I won't be enjoying any of those fun stuff because I'm all alone in Sydney. To numb the pain (and also because I love throwing parties) I decided to have a Christmas Jingle at my place for all those orphaned loners who are in Sydney with me. I wanted to do something authentically Christmassy for dessert. So decided to make Christmas pudding. My mother always fusses and says what a painful task it is because it takes so long to make and all the ingredients are really expensive and stuff. But I think I managed to do a super job of it. although I did want to make pudding and not cake, once I had finished making the batter I decided to bake it instead and make it a cake because steaming it would take forever and I didn't have forever. But O.M.G. the cake is divine. It is soooo moist and rich that I myself am very impressed by how it turned out. 

Your Challenge: This cake is all you will want for Christmas. Trust me. Mariah Carey is lying to you.

  

 

             

Ready --- Steady --- Bake!

Christmas Cake
(Serves 10)

INGREDIENTS: 

100g sultanas 

100g raisins 
100g currants

50g glace cherries, chopped 
50g candied peel
50g ginger preserve, chopped

50g mixed glace fruits. chopped
50g pineapple, Chopped
50g chopped nuts (almonds, cashew, hazelnuts, walnuts etc)

125ml (1/2 cup) brandy 

125g butter, softened 

155g (3/4 cup, firmly packed) brown sugar 
50g white sugar

60ml (1/4 cup) golden syrup 
30ml Honey

2 eggs 

125g good quality dark cooking chocolate, melted 

75g (1/2 cup) plain flour, sifted 

55g (3/4 cup) breadcrumbs

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg 

1/2 teaspoon allspice 
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

2 tbs brandy, extra, to serve

 

METHOD:

1. Preheat the oven to180°C.

2. Line cake pan with baking paper. (two 9-inch cake pans)

3. Combine the fruits (sultanas, raisins, currants, candied peel, pineapple, ginger, cherries, nuts and glace fruit) in a glass or ceramic bowl. 

4. Place brandy in a heatproof, microwave-safe jug. Cover with plastic wrap and heat on High/800watts/100% for 1-2 minutes or until hot. 

5. Pour brandy over fruit mixture and stir to combine. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside, stirring occasionally, for 30 minutes to macerate.

6. Use an electric beater to beat the butter, sugar, honey and golden syrup in a large bowl until thick and pale. 

7. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.

8. Add the melted chocolate and beat well

9. Add the batter into the fruit mixture, and stir until well combined. 

10. Add flour, breadcrumbs, cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice, and stir until well combined.

11. Spoon the mixture into the prepared tray and bake for about 35 minutes until toothpick comes out dry. 

12. serve with a brandy butter cream cheese icing.

Note: if you want to make Christmas pudding instead

Cover with 2 layers of baking paper. Tie unwaxed white kitchen string under the rim of the basin to secure. Cook on Defrost/350watts/30% for 20-30 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the pudding comes out clean. Drizzle with extra brandy and set aside for 15 minutes. Turn pudding onto a plate and cut into slices to serve.

Challenge Accepted ???

Have yourself a MERRY LITTLE CHRISTMAS, my internet buddies!

Enjoy!

Tosakanth

 

Mixed Berry, Yogurt & Lemon Smoothie

Week 2 of Tosakanth's diet: Fruit and Soup week. I'm meant to have a fruit smoothie for breakfast. The initial one I made had Peaches, Oatmeal, Yogurt, Milk, Acai berry (grose!), Cranberry, Honey and Sugar. It was pretty bad. The oatmeal, although wholesome and filling made it taste pretty bad. I know Acai berries are meant to be good for you, yardi yardi yar,  but it tastes foul doood! not cool. It has this really grose oil taste to it which made the smoothie pretty inedible/indrinkable. I sucked it up and drank it because I was super focused on this diet. Since that was a very bad first smoothie experience, I was thinking of other smoothie flavours that I could whip up and actually enjoy drinking, and that's how I made this commonly awesome smoothie.

Ps: Tosakanth's diet plan is proving to work. 2kg's lost with just a change in diet. Yeehaaa! and then I went and ate chocolate! sigh. and I don't even like chocolate.

Your Challenge: A smooth Smoothie recipe to soothe thee!

 

 
                     

                           

Ready --- Steady --- Blend!


Mixed Berry, Yogurt  & Lemon Smoothie
(1 Serving)


INGREDIENTS:
10-15 pieces of mixed berries (25g)
1 tablespoon sugar
30ml milk
60ml yogurt
20ml water
1 tablespoon lemon juice

METHOD:
add all the ingredients into a blender, and blend for 30 seconds. Voilà!

Note: if you want a thicker smoothie, add more yogurt or fruit.

Challenge Accepted ???

Enjoy!

Tosakanth

Tosakanth's Sangria

Sangria is my new favourite chillaxing drink. Since Spring is finally coming along and the sun is out, I like whipping up some Sangria to relax to after a long day of doing nothing.

As usual, I used a sangria recipe to get the general gist of ingredients, but I make my own easy -6 ingredient- sangria for my daily merriment. 

What I pretty much do is put what ever I have at home into a pitcher and call it Sangria. Do observe:


Your challenge: Give it a go and let me know which one you prefer. I bet it's Tosakanth's Sangria that is more dear..

Ready --- Steady ---Drink

Tosakanth's Sangria

INGREDIENTS:

1 Granny Smith apple

1 Orange

few squirts of Lemon juice to taste

1/3 bottle Red Wine

1/3 bottle White Wine

1 can of Energy Drink (preferably V or Redbull)

METHOD: 

1. Cut the orange and apple into 0.5cm slices

2. Squeeze the juice from the orange into the pitcher and put the pieces in too

3. Add the apples in to the pitcher

4. Add the Lemon juice to taste

5. Add the Wine

6. Add the Energy Drink

7. Mix and chill in fridge

The Original Sangria Recipe:

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 Bottle of red wine (Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Rioja, Zinfandel, Shiraz)
• 1 Lemon cut into wedges
• 1 Orange cut into wedges
• 1 Lime cut into wedges
• 2 Tbsp sugar
• Splash of orange juice or lemonade
• 2 Shots of gin or triple sec (optional)
• 1 Cup of raspberries or strawberries (may use thawed or frozen)
• 1 Small can of diced pineapples (with juice)
• 4 Cups ginger ale

PREPARATION:

1. Pour wine into a large pitcher
2. Squeeze the juice wedges from the lemon, orange and lime into the wine. 3. Toss in the fruit wedges (leaving out seeds if possible) and pineapple. 
4. Add sugar, orange juice and gin. 
5. Chill overnight.
6. Add ginger ale, berries and ice just before serving. 

If you'd like to serve right away, use chilled red wine and serve over lots of ice. However, remember that the best Sangrias' are chilled around 24 hours in the frig. - allowing the flavors to really marinate into each other. 

Challenge Accepted ???

Enjoy!

Tosakanth