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RICH PORT CHRISTMAS CAKE

Fresh lemon and ruby port impart a delicious flavour to this virtually sugar-free fruit cake, cover with icing for our traditional decoration, or if you prefer just marzipan, try the cherry topping.

Makes one 23cm (9in) cake, cuts into 24

485 Calories a slice

CAKE:

575g (1¼lb) mixed dried fruit

225g (802) sultanas

175g (6oz) stoned chopped dates

2 medium lemons, grated rind and juice

150ml (¼ pint) ruby port

225g (8o2) butter, softened

250g (9oz) plain flour

4 eggs

1 tbsp black treacle

1 tsp each ground cinnamon and mixed spice

100g (3.53oz) packet pecan nuts

100g (3.53oz) packet blanched hazelnuts

175g (6oz) glace cherries

TRADITIONAL DECORATION:

4 tbsp apricot jam

675g icing sugar, sifted, plus extra for dusting

450g (1lb) white marzipan

2 egg whites, at room temperature

2 tsp glycerine 

½ small lemon, juice only

30cm (12in) round cake

1 tbsp brandy

125g (402) silver sugar almonds

sprig of holly, washed and dried

First Line a 23cm (9in) round, loose-based cake tin with greaseproof paper. To make the cake, put all the fruit except the cherries in a saucepan with the lemon rind, juice and port. Bring to the boil, stirring all the time. Remove from the heat and stand the saucepan in a bowl of cold water to cool the fruit quickly.

Place the butter, flour, eggs, treacle and spices in a large bowl and beat together well. Fold in all the soaked fruits and the nuts until well combined. Finally, stir in the cherries, being careful not to break them up. Turn into the lined tin and flatten the top.

Bake at 150”C (300F) gas 2 for 3 hours or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Cool overnight in the tin. Turn out the cake and remove the lining paper. For a traditional decoration, heat the jam with 1 tbsp water and brush on to the outside of the cake. Dust a clean work surface with a little icing sugar, roll out the one-third of the marzipan to fit the top of the cake, trim away the excess and then roll the remaining marzipan to fit around the sides. Leave to dry overnight.

To make the icing, beat together the egg whites and glycerine (this prevents the icing becoming too hard). Add the icing sugar 3 table spoons at a time, beating well after each addition. After adding half the icing sugar beat in the lemon juice. Continue adding the remaining icing sugar until it forms stiff peaks. Place the marzipaned cake on the cake board, then brush with brandy. Spread the icing over the cake with a palette knife then use it to make peaks all over the cake. Decorate with almonds and, just before serving, top with a sprig of holly. The cake will keep undecorated for up to 1 month, although it is ready to cut the next day.

Cherry Topping 

If you are not fond of icing, its difficult to think of new ways to decorate a Christmas cake. We’ve used cherries and marzipan, which looks stunning and is not as rich as our iced version. Makes one 23cm (9in) cake, cuts into 24. 335 calories a slice.

One 23cm (9in) Rich Port Christmas cake 

To decorate:

4 tbsp apricot jam

1 tbsp icing sugar

225g (8oz) white marzipan

6 glace cherries, halved 

30cm (12in) round cake board

1 metre (40in) red satin ribbon, 4cm wide

Sprig of holly, washed and dried.

To decorate the cake, heat the jam with 1 tbsp of water and brush a little over the top of the cake. Reserve any remaining jam. Dust a clean work surface with icing sugar and roll out the marzipan just big enough to fit the top of the cake. Trim off any excess and then make 24 indentations with your thumb round the edge of the marzipan. After every other thumb mark score the marzipan gently with a sharp knife into slices. Place under a heated grill for 2-3 minutes until lightly browned, rotating it once or twice, but take care not to let the cake ‘catch’. When cool dip each half cherry into the reserved jam and put two in every alternate slice. Tie the satin ribbon around the cake, making a large bow at the side. Decorate with a sprig of holly. To Freeze: wrap the marzipan topped cake in greaseproof paper then foil. Use within 3 months. To serve: Thaw overnight in a cool place. Grill and decorate as above.

Easy Pistachio Sables – delicious served with drinks

15g shelled unsalted pistachios

40g strong white flour

40g unsalted butter at room temperature

40g grated parmesan

pinch of cayenne

Chop pistachios quite small. Mix all ingredients into a ball. Form a sausage shape approx 18 cm long. Wrap and chill until firm. Cut into 0.5cm slices and bake on a baking tray at 180 degrees for 13 – 15 minutes. Cool on a wire tray.

For their final Craft Club meeting of the year, members met for a fun packed festive themed morning, making baubles, cross-stitched motifs and cards. What a lovely way to round off 2022 and look forward to trying a selection of new crafts in the year ahead. Many thanks to Gail for her enthusiasm and planning for all of the events.

Mum’s Cheese Straws from Sally

200g Gruyere grated

80g mature cheddar grated

75g Parmesan finely grated 

220g plain white flour 

150g butter

Large pinch cayenne pepper (optional) 

Salt and pepper

Flour for rolling

A beaten egg

2 baking sheets lined with baking parchment

Preheat oven to 180C° / gas mark 4 / fan oven 170C°

Put the flour, Gruyere, cheddar, 25g Parmesan, butter cubed and seasoning in a good processor and made a dough. You may have to bring it together by hand at the end. If you haven’t got a food processor rub all the ingredients together by hand and bring together. 

Flour a work surface and kneed the dough lightly until more pliable. Cut in half. 

Roll one half into an oblong shape approx 20 cm x 30 cm. Cut dough into two oblongs measuring approx 10 cm x 30cm.

Brush the two oblongs with beaten egg and sprinkle evenly with Parmesan. 

Now cut the dough into straws measuring between 0.5cm to 1cm (or whatever you prefer). 

Place the straws on the baking sheets and spread them out slightly.  

Bake them for 15 minutes swapping the baking sheets over and turning them round half way through the cooking time. 

When cooled transfer to a wire rack to cool. 

Repeat with the other half of the dough. 

Either store in a airtight tin or freeze in an old ice cream container and get out what you want to eat to defrost, they don’t take long to defrost but they are yummy. 

Di’s Mincemeat and Cinnamon Bars

225g cold unsalted butter, diced, plus extra for greasing

225g plain flour

100g semolina

100g caster sugar, plus 2 tbsp

½ tsp vanilla extract

75g pecans or walnuts coarsely chopped

a sprinkle of icing sugar, to dust

a sprinkle of cinnamon, to dust

Mincemeat mixture

450g good-quality mincemeat

1 dessert apple, peeled, cored and cut into tiny pieces

1 tbsp brandy (optional)

1 tsp mixed spice

finely grated zest of 1 small orange

1. Preheat the oven to 170°C, fan 150°C, gas 3, and grease a shallow baking tin (about 18cm x 28cm)
2. Put the mincemeat into a bowl and stir in the chopped apple, brandy (if using), mixed spice and orange zest.
3. Put the plain flour, semolina and the 100g sugar into the bowl and rub with the fingertips until the mixture just begins to stick together into pea-sized lumps to form a crumble mixture. (This is much quicker if done in a food processor).
4. Tip half the mixture into the baking tin and press firmly over the base in an even layer using the back of a metal spoon.
5. Spread the mincemeat mixture over in an even layer. Stir the chopped pecans or walnuts and the remaining 2 tablespoons sugar into the remaining crumble mixture. Sprinkle it evenly over the top of the mincemeat.
6. Bake for 50-60 minutes until golden brown. Remove the tin from the oven; leave to cool.
7. To remove, carefully run a knife around the edge of the tin to loosen, then cut into 12 bars and remove from the tin.

Delicious with a dollop of clotted cream or at Christmas brandy cream.

The book for November was ‘An Elderly Lady must not be Crossed by Helene Tursten’.   Everyone enjoyed the book and the overall score was 9 – many gave it a 10.     Several of us laughed out loud at the antics of the elderly lady. Stories follow 88 year old Maud as she prepared for and then goes on a safari trip to Africa (from the UK), a trip she has been planning for a long time, but also looking forward to right this moment because she is under suspicion for murder. The author said, of the book “She learned that it was smart not to reveal that all her senses were in full working order.    Instead she allowed people to act in accordance with their own preconceptions.   This was often a useful source of information and Maud could form her own opinion and situation.” (Pat G)

This poem was found by a member of our WI, but we don’t know who wrote it. Let us know if it was you!

THE GHOST OF MURLEY HALL

We know she’s at our meeting though she doesn’t pay her fee

We know she’s at our workshops though her work we never see

She never is a tea hostess, nor the raffle winner

Neither does she come along to our Christmas dinner

The committee meets without her, she doesn’t join our trips

No jam nor Jerusalem now passes through her lips

It was very different once – though her name we can’t recall

The Women’s Institute member who is the Ghost of Murley Hall

On a gloomy November evening, members of Crowlas and Ludgvan WI, along with guests and some prospective members gathered in The Murley Hall for a choc-tastic couple of hours. After the business part of the meeting, an update on the sub groups activities and news of a trip to Truro for late night Christmas shopping, out came bowls of chocolate. Everyone was then encouraged to taste the three varieties and try to work out the cheapest, most expensive and highest cocoa content. Then we were joined, via Zoom, by the speaker for the evening, Jane Napper from Simply Chocolate Whitstable. Jane explained how chocolate can be tempered in the microwave, then demonstrated how to make a stunning chocolate Christmas Tree, and gave other ideas on chocolate gifts for the festive season. The chocolate themed evening finished with hot chocolate and, of course, a selection of chocolate biscuits. (pics Jane Napper)

https://www.simplychocolatewhitstable.co.uk/

This book was chosen by Hazel, for our October read. The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy. Some of us found it rather difficult to understand with the various customs and culture in the south of India (Kerala region).

Hazel wanted to come along to the meeting to explain to us why she had chosen this book, having worked with Indian people for several years she had come to understand and appreciate their culture and found them to be gentle folk. In fact, with her explanations it made the book and meeting  come alive and some of us will be rereading the book.

The book opens in the year of 1969 in the state of Kerala on the southernmost tip of India when a sky blue Plymouth car with chrome tailfins is stranded on the highway amidst a Marxist workers demonstration.   Inside the car sit two-egg twins Rahel and Esthappen.   

Armed only with the invincible innocence of children, they fashion a childhood for themselves in the shade of the wreck that is their family – their lonely, lovely mother Ammu ,who loves by night the man (Velutha) her children love by day.   Their blind grandmother Mammachi (who plays Handel on her violin) their beloved uncle Chacko (Rhodes Scholar, pickle baron, radical Marxist, bottom pincher) Ammu’s brother, their enemy Baby Kochamma (ex-nun (her love life did not work out as she wished) and incumbent grandaunt, and the ghost of an imperial entomologist’s moth.

When their English cousin Sophie Mol (Chacko’s daughter) and her mother Margaret Kochamma arrive for a Christmas visit, Esthappen and Rahel learn that things can change in a day.   Their lives can twist into new, ugly shapes even cease forever when their cousin Sophie Mol drowns in the river.  The book takes on love, madness, hope and infinite joy.

A critic writes that apparently Arundhati Roy has given people a book that is anchored to anguish but fielded by magic and wit.

The book club members gave it a 8. (Pat G)

One of our most popular Sub-Groups is Meet and Eat. Every month Karen books a different venue in the local area for a tasty get together and a chance to try somewhere that you might not have been to before. November’s Meeting was at Trevena Cross Garden Centre, a magical place to visit at this time of year, with a fantastic array of Christmas decorations and lights, as well as they well stocked plant nursery. The Garden Kitchen Cafe prides itself on serving locally sourced, reasonably priced food, from all-day breakfasts to Sunday roasts.