The theme for this month’s Cakes and Bakes was ‘Festive Flavours’. This time of year is such an exciting time for homebakers so we were all excited to try something new, or share family favourites with each other. Not only did our bakes reflect Christmas traditions and flavours, but our meeting on 12th December also happened to fall on the
first day of the Jewish festival of Hanukkah so Mandy treated us to latkes – a deep fried treat eaten with either soured cream or apple sauce. Fried food is traditionally eaten at Hanukkah since it is a festival which celebrates the miracle of the oil. Mandy explained that a small group of Jews, fighting for their religious freedom, found themselves in hiding with only enough oil for one day of heat and light but miraculously this oil lasted for seven days. Now, Hanukkah is celebrated with lighting of candles and lamps, and eating of foods fried in oil. It was interesting to hear this story and be introduced to this festival, which most of us knew very little about.
After starting with the lovely latkes (which Mandy managed to get to us warm, despite terrible traffic problems!), we had some more savouries to enjoy before diving into the sweet treats. Jayne made a festively decorated Christmas tree of Cheese, Bacon and Cranberry scones (which were so delicious some of us may have indulged ourselves with more than one..) and Tracey put in a huge amount of effort, making her own filo pastry for her sausagemeat, brie and cranberry parcels. I’m not sure anyone else fancies trying filo as frankly not even professional chefs make their own, so we’re glad that Tracey has tried this and reported back to the rest of us!
Once we’d sampled the savouries, it was time to dive in for the sweet stuff.
Our bakers treated us to a cornucopia of Christmassy flavours including marzipan, dried fruits, spices, nuts, ginger and of course just a little bit of booze. We were thoroughly spoilt for choice (not to mention thoroughly stuffed) after sampling Banana, Pecan and Rum Caramel self-saucing pudding, Stollen, Rum and Cranberry Cheesecake, Christmas tea loaf cake and Lebkuchen.
It was one of those months where nearly everyone had something go slightly wrong with their bake, from putting in too much of one ingredient to leaving out an ingredient, textural issues and minor collapses due to time pressure – but it didn’t matter in the least. Everything was really tasty and since we’re just people who enjoy baking (and eating) it wasn’t in the least a problem that some bakes weren’t perhaps as perfect as we may have hoped. Actually, it was very funny as everyone arrived looking downcast, worried that they’d done something wrong. We all started to laugh in the end as we realised we were all in the same boat!
We were also supposed to have been able to enjoy an actual Christmas Cake from Faye, but sadly she was ill and unable to join us at the last minute. She sent us this photo though:
It looks delicious so it was a shame we were unable to try it, but hopefully Faye will make a quick recovery and be able to join us again in the new year. Our January meeting is ‘Something New’ so we’re all looking forward to trying out a bake we haven’t made before. I don’t know about everyone else but my problem is going to be selecting just one recipe from the huge list I’ve built up of recipes that I’d like to try one day!
Merry Christmas all! We’ll be back with more bakes in 2018.
The full list of bakes from our Festive Flavours meeting was:
Mandy – potato latkes with sourced cream or apple sauce
Tracey – Sausagemeat, Brie and Cranberry Filo Parcels
Jayne – Festive Cheese, Bacon and Cranberry Scones
Louise – Banana, Pecan and Rum Caramel Self-Saucing Pudding
Chelsea – Stollen
Vicky – Christmas Tea Loaf Cake
Jan – Rum and Cranberry Cheesecake
Cat – Lebkuchen (soft spiced gingerbread biscuits)
Faye – Christmas Cake
Winchester Cakes and Bakes 