INCREDIBLY EASY CHOCOLATE FRUIT CAKE

INCREDIBLY EASY CHOCOLATE FRUIT CAKE

I think it's hard to improve on this cake: dark, damp, squidgy and luscious; you don't taste the chocolate full-on - the cocoa just leaves a hint of smokey richness. Nor, I should add, do you taste the prunes. When I was making this cake for my TV programme, the cameraman, Wee Nev (Neville Kidd, the eminent DOP, for all IMDb-addicts) said with force “Eugh, I HATE prunes!” But when he ate it, later, he proclaimed it to be the best Christmas cake he'd ever had. And he asked for the recipe so that he could ask his wife to make it for Christmas. I don't mean to crow; it sounds so undignified. But it's important that you know how universally seductive this cake is, for all that it starts off "350g prunes".
I don't know what it is in the prunes that gives the cake its damp bounciness; all I know is that it works. You don't need to make this in advance, although you can, and you don't have to do anything much to make it, either. You just melt everything together, give or take, in a saucepan, pour from saucepan to cake tin and bake. It needs no icing, though I have suggested -- see p.267 if you need help with stockists -- a little festive decoration, below.
And there's no reason why you couldn't vary this method to make a Plain Dark Fruit Cake: just replace the Tia Maria with rum (or brandy if you prefer), making up the sweetness by adding a heaped tablespoon of marmalade; take out the cocoa, adding 2 tablespoons of flour to the 150g; and decorate with a sprig of holly or any of the suggestions below.
- Nigella Lawson

Ingredients

350g prunes, scissored or chopped
250g raisins
175g currants
175g soft butter
175g dark muscovado sugar
225g (175ml) honey
125ml Tia Maria or other coffee liqueur
juice and finely grated zest of 2 oranges
1 teaspoon mixed spice
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
3 eggs, beaten
150g plain flour
75g ground almonds
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

FOR DECORATION:
25g dark chocolate-covered coffee beans
approx. 10 edible gold stars
edible gold mini balls
edible glitter, in Disco Hologram gold

Preheat the oven to 150°C/gas mark 2 and prepare a 20cm x 9cm deep, round, loose-bottomed cake tin by lining the bottom and sides with a double layer of baking parchment, as for the Traditional Christmas Cake on p.172 (though I find that if you use one layer of that tough, reusable silicone baking parchment, my beloved Bake-O-Glide, it does the job well enough, and as the cake is so dark, you don't see if it catches a little).
Put the fruits, butter, sugar, honey, Tia Maria, orange juice and zests, spice and cocoa powder into a large, wide saucepan and gently bring to the boil, stirring as the butter melts.
Simmer the mixture for 10 minutes, then take off the heat and leave to stand for 30 minutes.
When the 30 minutes are up -- it will have cooled a little, but you can leave it for longer if you want -- add the beaten eggs, flour, ground almonds, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda, and stir with a wooden spoon or spatula to combine.
Pour the fruit cake mixture into the prepared cake tin. Place in the oven and bake for 13/4--2 hours, by which time the top of the cake should be firm but will have a shiny, sticky look. If you insert a cake tester or skewer into it, the cake will still be a little gooey in the middle.
Put the cake, still in its tin, on a wire cooling rack -- it will hold its heat and take a while to cool; once cool, take it out of the tin and, if you don't want to eat it immediately (like any fruit cake it has a long life), wrap it in baking parchment or greaseproof paper then in foil and store in a cake or other airtight tin.
To decorate, though this is optional, place the chocolate-covered coffee beans in the centre of the cake and arrange the gold stars around the perimeter of the top. Then sprinkle some gold mini-balls over the whole cake, and the edible glitter over the top, not minding that you will be a-glitter yourself for a while.

Makes at least 10 generous slices

MAKE AHEAD TIP:
Make the cake up to 2 weeks ahead and wrap in a double layer of greaseproof paper and then a layer of foil. Store in an airtight container in a cool, dry place. Decorate when needed.

FREEZE AHEAD TIP:
Make the cake and wrap as above. Freeze for up to 3 months. To thaw, unwrap the cake and thaw overnight at room temperature. Re-wrap and store as above until needed.

CHRISTMAS SPICED CHOCOLATE CAKE

CHRISTMAS SPICED CHOCOLATE CAKE

There are few more popular ways to end a dinner party than with a fallen chocolate cake – the cakes are so called because they are compact and flourless and, when cooling out of the oven, their rich centres drop and dip a little. It is into this dip, not so dramatic as to be called a crater, that you drop or scatter the sticky nut topping.I serve this with Cointreau Cream, made simply by whisking 250ml double cream until softly whipped, whisking in about 45ml of Cointreau (or Triple sec or Grand Marnier, of course) to taste at the end.
- Nigella Lawson

Ingredients

For the cake
150 gram(s) dark chocolate (chopped)
150 gram(s) butter (soft)
6 medium egg(s)
250 gram(s) granulated sugar
1 teaspoon(s) vanilla extract
100 gram(s) ground almonds
1 teaspoon(s) cinnamon sticks
1 pinch of ground cloves
1 zest of clementines
4 teaspoon(s) espresso coffee

For the topping
1 juice of clementines
15 gram(s) butter
1 tablespoon(s) caster sugar
¼ teaspoon(s) cinnamon sticks
50 gram(s) flaked almonds

Method

Take anything you need out of the fridge to bring it to room temperature. The only truly important thing, however, is that the eggs aren’t cold, so if they are, just put them into a bowl (I use the KitchenAid bowl I’m going to whisk them in later) and cover with warm water for 10 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4. Butter the sides and line the bottom of a 23cm springform tin.

Melt the chocolate and butter together in a heatproof bowl, in a microwave according to the manufacturer’s instructions, or suspended over a pan of simmering water, and set aside to cool slightly.
Beat the eggs, sugar and vanilla together until thick, pale and moussy. They should have at least doubled in volume, even tripled. If you’re using a freestanding mixer, as I do, this is effortless.
Gently fold in the ground almonds, cinnamon, cloves, clementine/satsuma zest and espresso powder, taking care not to lose the air you have whisked in, then, finally, pour and scrape in the melted, slightly cooled, chocolate and butter, folding gently again.
Pour into the prepared tin and bake in the oven for 35–40 minutes, by which time the top of the cake should be firm, and the underneath still a bit gooey.
Remove from the oven, and sit it on a wire rack, draped with a clean tea towel, to cool completely.

To make the topping for the cake, put the clementine/satsuma juice into a small, preferably non-stick, frying pan with the butter, sugar and cinnamon and melt everything together, then let it sizzle for a minute or so and begin to caramelize before adding the almonds.
Stir everything together, and occasionally tip the pan to keep it all moving; what you want is for all the liquid to disappear and the nuts to look shiny and be coated thinly in a fragrant, orange-scented toffee.
Remove to a plate and cool.

Unspring the cake and transfer to a cake stand or plate; I am brave enough to take it off its base sometimes, but don’t if you’re scared. Remember this cake, however intense and elegant within, has a rather ramshackle rustic appearance on the outside.
Scatter with the almonds, mainly letting them pile up in the centre of the cake, but drop a few here and there all over the top. And serve with the cointreau cream.

MAKE AHEAD TIP:
Make the chocolate cake up to 3 days ahead and store in an airtight container. Make the nut mixture and store, on baking parchment, in small airtight container or wrap in a loose “bag” of foil.

FREEZE AHEAD TIP:
Make and freeze the chocolate cake up to 1 month ahead. Thaw overnight in a cool room.

YULE LOG

YULE LOG

A traditional French bûche de Noël always looks just the right side of cutely enchanting, and there is nothing hard to like about its tender, melting chocolatiness. But I warm to it most of all for the rich pagan symbolism: it is no less than a cake-emulation of the log that the Norsemen would drag home through the streets to burn in celebration of the winter solstice and to honour the gods and hope, thus, to cajole from them a good year to come. But always, too, it is about bringing fire and light to cold and darkness; this, too, is the gift of the winter kitchen.
I know the recipe looks finicky, and I can’t promise it’s a doddle, but it works easily and you will soon find you are rolling chocolate logs without a care. In fact, if you have a lot of people coming round, and you can find a serving dish or board long enough, it might be worth making 2 cakes and sitting them end to end, to look like a really long log. But even if you’re making just one log, I advise at least a freestanding mixer or a hand-held electric whisk: I wouldn’t contemplate this by hand.
Now, it doesn’t look anything like a log when it is just a bald roulade, but once you’ve spread on the chocolate icing, made approximations of wood- markings on it (I use the sharp end of a corn-on-the-cob holder for this) and all, it does look quite impressive. I don’t go as far as the French, and make sugar mushrooms to adorn it: this is not only because I lack the talent, but also because a light snowfall of icing sugar is all this yule log really needs to complete its wintry perfection.
- Nigella Lawson

Ingredients

For the cake
6 medium egg(s) (separated)
150 gram(s) caster sugar
50 gram(s) cocoa powder
1 teaspoon(s) vanilla extract
4 teaspoon(s) icing sugar (to decorate)
For the icing
175 gram(s) dark chocolate (chopped)
200 gram(s) icing sugar
225 gram(s) butter (soft)
1 tablespoon(s) vanilla extract

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4.
In a large, clean bowl whisk the egg whites until thick and peaking, then, still whisking, sprinkle in 50g of the caster sugar and continue whisking until the whites are holding their peaks but not dry.
In another bowl, whisk the egg yolks and the remaining caster sugar until the mixture is moussy, pale and thick. Add the vanilla extract, sieve the cocoa powder over, then fold both in.
Lighten the yolk mixture with a couple of dollops of the egg whites, folding them in robustly. Then add the remaining whites in thirds, folding them in carefully to avoid losing the air.
Line a Swiss roll tin with baking parchment, leaving a generous overhang at the ends and sides, and folding the parchment into the corners to help the paper stay anchored.
Pour in the cake mixture and bake in the oven for 20 minutes. Let the cake cool a little before turning it out onto another piece of baking parchment. If you dust this piece of parchment with a little icing sugar it may help with preventing stickage, but don’t worry too much as any tears or dents will be covered by icing later. Cover loosely with a clean tea towel.

To make the icing, melt the chocolate – either in a heatproof bowl suspended over a pan of simmering water or, my preference, in a microwave following the manufacturer’s guidelines – and let it cool.
Put the icing sugar into a processor and blitz to remove lumps, add the butter and process until smooth. Add the cooled, melted chocolate and the tablespoon of vanilla extract and pulse again to make a smooth icing. You can do this by hand, but it does mean you will have to sieve the sugar before creaming it with the butter and stirring in the chocolate and vanilla.

Sit the flat chocolate cake on a large piece of baking parchment. Trim the edges of the Swiss roll. Spread some of the icing thinly over the sponge, going right out to the edges. Start rolling from the long side facing you, taking care to get a tight roll from the beginning, and roll up to the other side. Pressing against the parchment, rather than the tender cake, makes this easier.
Cut one or both ends slightly at a gentle angle, reserving the remnants, and place the Swiss roll on a board or long dish. The remnants, along with the trimmed-off bits earlier, are to make a branch or two; you get the effect by placing a piece of cake at an angle to look like a branch coming off the big log.
Spread the yule log with the remaining icing, covering the cut-off ends as well as any branches. Create a wood-like texture by marking along the length of the log with a skewer or somesuch, remembering to do wibbly circles, as in tree rings, on each end.
You don’t have to dust with icing sugar, but I love the freshly fallen snow effect, so push quite a bit through a small sieve, letting some settle in heaps on the plate or board on which the log sits.

MAKE AHEAD TIP:

Make the Yule Log up to 1 week ahead and store in an airtight container in a very cool place.

FREEZE AHEAD TIP:

Make the Yule Log and freeze in a rigid container for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in a cool room and store in an airtight container until needed.

CHRISTMAS MORNING MUFFINS

CHRISTMAS MORNING MUFFINS

I have never quite understood how people can go in for vast, rich breakfasts on Christmas morning.  I am hardly a modest eater by anyone's standards, but even I can't quite accommodate a platterful of buttery scrambled eggs with smoked salmon before the gargantuan Christmas feast.  And I speak as cook and eater on this one. I do, however, see the need to make breakfast special in some way, and these muffins do that. What's more, if you measure out the dry ingredients the night before and put the muffin cases in the muffin tin, you don't need to do anything more labour intensive on Christmas morning itself than preheat your oven, whisk up a few runny ingredients in a jug and stir them into the waiting bowl.  Then dollop the batter into the prepared muffin cases and all's sweet - and smelling of cinnamony, orange-scented Christmas.  A last, heartfelt, note: Christmas, as I've said often, is about ritual and tradition; we inherit some, we invent others.  But even those we invent are not sacrosanct.  These muffins were my way, years back, of establishing a Christmas routine as a grown-up, and I have no desire to change things - essentially - now.  But I've improved the recipe, and give you its new, evolved form here.  In the kitchen, as in life, it is possible to play with tradition, without turning away from the past.
- Nigella Lawson

Ingredients

250 gram(s) plain flour
2.5 teaspoon(s) baking powder
½ teaspoon(s) bicarbonate of soda
100 gram(s) caster sugar
1 teaspoon(s) cinnamon sticks
¼ teaspoon(s) ground nutmeg (or good grating of fresh nutmeg)
2 rasher(s) clementines (or satsumas)
125 ml full fat milk
75 ml vegetable oil (or melted butter left to cool slightly)
1 medium egg(s)
175 gram(s) dried cranberries
3 teaspoon(s) demerara sugar (for the topping)

Method

Preheat the oven to 200°C/gas mark 6. Line a 12-bun muffin tin with muffin papers or (as I have here) silicone inserts.
Measure the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, caster sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg into a large bowl; grate the zest of the clementine/satsuma over, and combine. If you are doing this in advance, leave the zesting till Christmas morning.
Squeeze the juice of the clementines/satsumas into a measuring jug, and pour in the milk until it comes up to the 200ml mark.
Add the oil (or slightly cooled, melted butter) and egg, and lightly beat until just combined.
Pour this liquid mixture into the bowl of dried ingredients and stir until everything is more or less combined, remembering that a well-beaten mixture makes for heavy muffins: in other words a lumpy batter is a good thing here.
Fold in the cranberries, then spoon the batter into the muffin cases and sprinkle the demerara sugar on top.  Bake in the oven for 20 minutes, by which time the air should be thick with the promise of good things and the good things themselves golden brown and ready to be eaten, either plain or broken up and smeared, as you go, with unsalted butter and marmalade.

PEANUT BRITTLE WITH ART AND SOUL

PEANUT BRITTLE WITH ART AND SOUL

This title isn’t a boast, but a name to denote provenance. It’s a recipe given to me, at my greedy request, by the cook-and-a-half, Art Smith. True, I’ve slightly simplified it, but only because I don’t have his deserved confidence, so I make my batch smaller, and leave out the difficult technical bits.
But even so, what this makes is fabulous: you really have to steel yourself to give it away.
- Nigella Lawson

Yield : Makes approx. 10 oz.

Ingredients
1 cup sugar
¼ cup water
½ cup light corn syrup
1 cup salted peanuts
1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
1 tablespoon soft butter
1¼ teaspoons baking soda

Method

Get out a large sheet of parchment paper or aluminum foil, place on a cookie sheet, and butter or oil it. Sit it by the stove, waiting to receive the brittle once it’s ready to pour.
Put the sugar, water and syrup into a saucepan, bring to the boil gently, then turn up the heat and let it boil for 8-10 minutes, swirling (but not stirring) the pan a couple of times, until the syrup has turned gold in color. It will be smoking by then, so be warned!
Take the pan off the heat and, with a wooden spoon, stir in the nuts, followed by the vanilla, butter and baking soda. You will have a golden, frothy, hot and gooey mixture.
Pour this briskly onto the waiting parchment or foil, using your wooden spoon to coax and pull it to make a nut-studded sheet, puddle-shaped though it may be, rather than a heap.
Leave it to cool, then break into pieces and store in at airtight container or box; or bag up to give at once as presents. You’ll get about 1 pound in total, and it’s up to you how much you want to put in each bag, really. I find it easier to do several small batches like this, rather than multiplying quantities as I cook.

GOATS MILK FLAPJACKS

GOATS MILK FLAPJACKS

We use apricots in this recipe but use any of your favourite dried fruits for a tasty classic flapjack.
- St Helen's Farm

Ingredients

75g St Helen's Farm goats' butter
75g soft brown sugar
75g oats
75g muesli
1 tablespoon golden syrup
25g dried apricots - chopped

Method

Melt butter and syrup, add oats, apricots and muesli. Mix well.
Press into 18 cm square baking tin and bake at 170°C, Gas 3 for 20-25 mins or until just brown.
Cool and cut into fingers.

VANILLA GOATS MILK ICE CREAM

VANILLA GOATS MILK ICE CREAM

A lovely vanilla ice cream, using fresh double goats' milk cream

Ingredients

300ml (half pint) St Helen’s Farm goats' milk
Half a vanilla pod
4 egg yolks
100g (4oz) caster sugar
250ml St Helen's Farm double goats' cream (2 x 125g pots)

Method

Pour the milk and the half vanilla pod into a saucepan and bring to the boil. Remove from the heat and leave to infuse for a few minutes.
Beat the egg yolks and sugar together in a bowl and then carefully add the milk and beat well.
Return the mixture to the saucepan, heat gently and stir continuously until the mixture thickens and forms a film over the back of a wooden spoon. DO NOT BOIL.
Remove saucepan from the heat and leave until cool. Remove the half vanilla pod. Add cream and then stir into the mixture.
Pour into ice cream maker and follow instructions. Alternatively, turn the mixture into a freezer tray or basin and freeze until mushy.
Remove from the freezer and whisk for about 2 minutes. Return to freezer until firm.

Makes 750ml of ice cream.