December 6, 2009

The First Day of Baking!

Well, the day has come -- Sarah's Christmas Cake is in the oven! I can't stop grinning; there is something euphoric about the almost-culmination of an 18-year-old dream! My excitement has overcome my fears of jinxing things by celebrating too soon. Life is too short to curb our joy over victories (large or small), so success glows bright in my heart, way ahead of actually crossing the culinary finish line.

Fruitcake Footnotes
Some feedback for those of you who may have looked at the recipe but have not taken the plunge. Here are a couple of things I noted/noticed that are not really spelled out in Sarah's recipe:

1) Strain the fruit before adding it to the cake batter -- less than 800 ml of fluid remained -- so over 2 liters absorbed into the dried fruit mix!

2) I now see the importance of chopping all of the fruit fine -- the tidbits swell considerably after their boozy baste session!

3) I used two large spring form pans instead of a set of three (small, medium and large) -- my reasoning was that they would finish baking closer to the same time; but time will tell, right?

To be continued...
In approximately one hour and forty-five minutes my darling treasures should be baked and the first brandy kiss awaits! My nine-year-old son was just heading off to bed when the cakes went in the oven and he asked if he could be the first to taste the cakes -- I explained a bit more about the process and also let him know that the alcohol in the fruit would evaporate while the cakes baked, but that a daily dousing of alcohol was part of the finishing steps for this recipe. He thought this was quite wicked ;) Anyway, I salute his adventurous spirit and he will be my first taste tester -- although it will be a sugar cube sized serving!