Lili Marlene's Christmas Boiled Fruit Cake with Brandy

This recipe is largely based on the Boiled Whisky Fruit Cake on page 218 of Margaret Fulton's Creative Cookery Course, published by Octopus Books Pty Ltd in 1981. This is a different recipe from the Boiled Whisky Fruit Cake published in a recent book by Margaret Fulton of Christmas recipes. I believe that the characteristic smell of Christmas baking is primarily made up of a combination of the smells of brandy and cloves.
Lili Marlene's Christmas Boiled Fruit Cake with Brandy 750g mixed dried fruit (including mixed peel)
185g butter

¾ cup water

1 ¼ cups firmly packed brown sugar

¼ cup brandy and ½ cup brandy for sprinkling on cake when cooked

3 large eggs

1 cup plain flour

1 ½ cups self-raising flour

½ teaspoon bicarb of soda

½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground cloves
½ teaspoon nutmeg

(optional) blanched whole almonds and halved glace cherries for decorating

Grease and line with greased brown paper a very deep 20cm cake tin (made specifically for fruit cakes). Set the oven at a low to moderate heat (170-180C or less for fan-forced). You could use a larger tin, or bake two smaller cakes with less cooking time.

In a really large saucepan place the fruit, water, butter and brown sugar. Bring to boil slowly while stirring, then boil a couple of minutes. Leave it to cool till lukewarm (this may take some time, you may wish to speed up the process by sitting the lidded saucepan in cold shallow water).

Stir in the brandy with a wooden spoon, then mix in the eggs one at a time. Beat well with spoon. Sift all of the remaining dry ingredients together then stir it into the mixture. Mix well.

Place mixture in the prepared tin. Before baking decorate the top of the cake with blanched almonds and cherries arranged in a pretty pattern. If you only have unblanched almonds - just put them in hot water for a minute or two, drain and leave to cool, and the almond skins will come off easily. If you wish to ice the cake omit this stage. Traditional Christmas cake icing is a layer of marzipan covered in white royal icing made with egg whites.

Bake for 45 minutes, then reduce heat to around 160C and cook for a further 45 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean from the centre of the cake. Leave the cake to cool for a couple of minutes. Turn out carefully onto a wire rack. Remove the paper with care. Turn right side up. Sprinkle or brush cake with around ½ cup of brandy. You may wish to leave the cake a day before eating. This cake should keep well in an airtight container, in the fridge if necessary.

Lili Marlene's List of Delightful Children's Picture Books

Lili Marlene's list of delightful children's picture books to share with someone little and lovely (or to enjoy on your own)

The Owl and the Pussy-Cat and Other Nonsense Poems by Edward Lear, selected and illustrated by Michael Hague, North South Books, 1995.
The poems are classics and the illustrations are fascinating, beautiful and often grotesque. You might not find it shelved at your local public library in the same section as the picture books for young children. It might instead sit on the junior poetry shelves. Apparently modern notions of age-appropriateness are depriving toddlers and pre-schoolers from being exposed to the rather ornate language of Edward Lear. I love the way that the complex and silly illustrations so appropriately fit the style of language in the poems.

Haunted House by Jan Pienkowski, assistant illustrator Jane Walmsley, paper engineer Tor Lokvig, William Heinemann, 1979.
An all-time classic pop-up book by my favourite picture book illustrator. Be warned - you can frighten little ones with this book. One of the pop-ups still makes a sawing noise when you open the page all these years later. Wonderful!

The Meg and Mog books by Jan Pienkowski
I love the colours, the way the colours vibrate off each other, and the unforgettable black-outline drawings.

A Sausage Went For a Walk by Ellisha Majid and Peter Kendall, Fremantle Arts Centre Press, 1991.
A Western Australian classic which will make your thoughts turn toward breakfast foods, regardless of the time of day. Now available in the board book format. Referred to as "The shoshage book" by little ones.

Owl Babies written by Martin Waddell and illustrated by Patrick Benson, Walker Books, 1992.
I don't think you would need to have synaesthesia to be able to hear the silence and feel the stillness in these evocative illustrations of nocturnal life. A heart-warming abut mercifully brief book to read to little ones last thing at night. Should only be read aloud in a gentle, quiet voice.

The glorious mother goose selected by Cooper Edens with illustrations by the best artists from the past. Atheneum (Macmillan), 1988.
A feast for the eyes. The illustrations (in colour and black and white) are mostly from the late 1800s and the early 1900s. All of the essential nursery rhymes are here. Be warned - there is a picture of (the always grotesque) Humpty Dumpty in this book that can fill a young child's heart with dread. You may need to skip a page.

The land of nursery rhyme by Alice Daglish and Ernest Rhys with illustrations by Charles Folkard. Orion Books, 2008.
Based on a book of the same name that was published in 1932 by J. M. Dent & Sons. It includes a good selection of classic nursery rhymes and has charming drawings mostly in black and white. A good alternative to the above title.

Fox in Socks by Dr. Seuss. Collins, 1958.
Probably the silliest children's story ever written. This is the one with the tweetle beetles.

The very hungry caterpillar by Eric Carle. Puffin Books (Penguin), 1969.
How could I leave this one out? If you can fit a finger through the holes to make a wiggly caterpillar, you must be very little.

Caps For Sale: a tale of a peddler, some monkeys, and their monkey business by Esphyr Slobodkina. Harpercollins, 1968.
There are many opportunities for laughter if you read it out loud. Available in board book format.

Millions of Cats by Wanda Gag. Faber & Faber, 1929.
The story is perhaps a little dark in theme but thoughtful, and the black and white illustrations and handwriting font have a unique style.

Jane Hissey's Old Bear Stories by Jane Hissey. Hutchinson, 1994.
Comforting stories with beautiful, realistic illustrations of reassuringly familiar objects, suitable for pre-schoolers.

Spiders Spin Webs by Yvonne Winer and Karen Lloyd-Jones (illustrator). Charlesbridge Publishing, 1998.
Beautiful realistic illustrations and text that is a poem on each page. Spider identification guide in an appendix. An educational and enjoyable book that presents spiders in a non-negative light. Similar titles include Butterflies Fly, Frogs Sing Songs and Birds Build Nests.

Mr Pod and Mr Piccalilli by Penny Dolan and Nick Sharratt. Walker Books, 2005.
A pleasant story with enjoyable illustrations which I found rather interesting because something like the "bouba-kiki effect" can be found in the interaction between the text and the illustrations. There is a Wikipedia page explaining what the "bouba-kiki effect" is.

Copyright Lili Marlene 2009, 2010.