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Susan’s Special Rich Boiled Fruit Cake

Posted in Creativity, Life, Love, Magic, Recipes, Uncategorized, tagged #cooking with love, #Susan's Special Boiled Fruit Cake, birthday treats, boiled fruit cake, celebrations, Family, Food, happiness, Love, recipes, special treat on September 8, 2014| 12 Comments »

Cake coming up for the special celebration

I started a family tradition when I met my ex-husband, and later it was more for the children, as they loved the fruit cakes I made and so it was always a birthday special to have a ‘special’ boiled fruit cake then.

I hope you enjoy it as much as we do, its easy to make and delicious to eat.

Special Rich Boiled Fruit Cake

There is something so deliciously special about this super moist cake and it has remained a favourite with guests and family for more years than I care to remember. So when my husband was having his birthday at the beginning of this month, for the first time in ages I felt well enough to do some serious baking. Serious only in so far as I simply haven’t felt well enough to do anything too extra ordinary as I thought I’d end up in the oven with the cake.

Needless to say I had to rush out and buy all the ingredients. One doesn’t have much in the pantry if you’ve stopped baking. So here it is, the cake to make your mouth water and want for more. It was all the more special this time as he had never tasted my boiled fruit cake. Apparently I’ve given his Mum a run for her money with this one. Oops

Boiled Fruit Cake – Susan’s Style

Ingredients

I Cup of sugar (or substitute)

¾ cup water

110 grams (¼ lb) butter

1 teaspoon mixed spice

1 teaspoon Bicarb-Soda

I packet mixed fruit (good quality please)

I packet of glace cherries – for the mix and

1 packet to decorate (I just love them!)

I packet of slivered almonds for the mix,

Reserve some for the top if you like to make a nicely finished off cake.

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Place all of the above in a saucepan and boil for approximately 5 minutes. Allow to cool

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All the ingredients in the pan, stir well

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Bring all the ingredients to a boil

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The Bicarb-Soda makes the foam rise to the top of the pan

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Remaining ingredients

2 large eggs, beaten (700 gm eggs free range are best)

I cup of Plain flour

I cup of Self Raising flour (or Self-Rising flour)

½ cup Sherry (optional)

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Alternately add the beaten eggs, plain flour and self-raising (or rising) flour and sherry. Mix well.

2 eggs beaten, S/R and Plain flour and the Sherry!

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Add eggs, flour/s and sherry alternately

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Mixture is ready for the last stage

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Oh – I nearly forgot the Sherry 🙂

Nothing much left here after all those cakes

Place the mixture in a lined cake time in a moderate oven (320 degrees Fahrenheit or 160 degrees Celsius) for approximately 1 hour.

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One decorated cake ready for the oven

Test with a wooden skewer – if it comes out clean it is done.

Depending on your oven, test the cake after 45 – 50 minutes.

Allow to cool in the paper. (It also keeps the sherry in.)

The Special Touch of Decadence

With a pastry brush, and whilst the cake is still hot, paint the top of the cake with additional sherry. The heat makes the cake absorb the sherry immediately.

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Depending on whether your mixture was a little dry you can repeat this process after you have tasted the first slice – I have to admit that I usually paint it again and wrap it in alfoil and then a plain tea towel to keep the moisture in.

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Sherry to add that extra decadence

(Treating it like a Christmas cake really allows the flavour to seep into the fruit deliciously.)

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Cooking up a storm

Adding that extra dollop of flavour

Cake remains beautifully moist for a couple of weeks – if you can get it to last that long!

Almost ready to eat…. who needs it to cool down?

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OK – I should have let the sherry soak in a little more but YUM!

Yes! He’s a happy chap! Happy Birthday!

I usually have to make two cakes, (at least), to get a chance of savouring it after the first couple of days – even with the two of us! The little uns still love it!

Enjoy!

Blessings, Susan ♥♥♥

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2014 – A New Beginning.

Posted in Abundance, Blessings, Creativity, Gratitude, Love, Magic, Moon, Philosophy, Self Development, Uncategorized, tagged 2014, a great year, A New Beginning, celebrations, Ceremonies, Goodbye to 2013, Language of Letting Go, New Moon, New Year Eve, Setting up 2014 on December 31, 2013| 19 Comments »

Happy New Year courtesy Facebook.com

“Make New Year’s goals. Dig within, and discover what you would like to have happen in your life this year. This helps you do your part. It is an affirmation that you’re interested in fully living life in the year to come.

Goals give us direction. They put a powerful force into play on a universal, conscious, and subconscious level. Goals give our life direction.

What would you like to have happen in your life this year? What would you like to do, to accomplish? What good would you like to attract into your life? What particular areas of growth would you like to have happen to you? What blocks, or character defects, would you like to have removed?

What would you like to attain? Little things and big things? Where would you like to go? What would you like to have happen in friendship and love? What would you like to have happen in your family life?

What problems would you like to see solved? What decisions would you like to make? What would you like to happen in your career?

Write it down. Take a piece of paper, a few hours of your time, and write it all down – as an affirmation of you, your life, and your ability to choose. Then let it go.

The new year stands before us, like a chapter in a book, waiting to be written. We can help write that story by setting goals.”
― Melody Beattie, The Language of Letting Go: Hazelden Meditation Series

Today, January 1st 2014, is a New Beginning for everyone.

I don’t usually go in for really long quotes but I think it’s all been said here. It encapsulated what we’ve done over the past month getting ready for the new year to arrive, getting our plan made for 2014 to be a great year and also reflecting on what we did in 2013. After all, if something worked really well you don’t toss it out just because you turned a page. A New beginning is like that.

This year is a special year. We have already had the great New Year’s Eve celebrations, which we watched from home since I can’t drink – not a single drop! Truthfully, after the past several years I’m not missing it at all. I used to feel slightly left out at parties, but it’s been so long now that I don’t miss it any longer. At least I can remember what I did the night before and I don’t have to worry about spiked drinks. In fact, the only spiking I was likely to see was if I stabbed myself with a toothpick from the fruit in my drink! A dangerous life but a New Beginning.

So this year we have followed the same pattern as the previous few which has been our own New Beginning. We have our own celebration, a releasing of the old energies and a welcoming in of the new; wishes for the coming year for both ourselves and for the world. It’s a quieter night, but there is a huge amount of peaceful gratitude when we have finished.

This year is even brighter with a New Moon falling tomorrow night. We have another ceremony planned, with the powerful energies from the heavens to boost the ceremony of tonight. If you want to talk about being on a high, well we’re certainly feeling that. Surrounded by fireworks as we concluded our ceremony earlier and in the right head space for the next ceremony, it is a beautiful feeling to begin the year.

Australia greets the New Year before anywhere else so, I’ll wish everyone else a wonderful New Year’s Eve and a great New Year’s Day. If you’re having a New Moon ceremony, I wish you as wonderful a ceremony as we have planned. Let 2014 be a year of peace, laughter, fun and harmony, and “The Messenger” will bring the beauty in.