Wednesday 26 November 2014

Mincing away

Today was the day....the day I finally got my butt in gear to begin the process of making my Christmas fruit cake.
Months ago, my friend GB made his Christmas fruit cakes and I was so envious.
This year I was late to the party, I wasn't even sure I was going to bake my specialty cake but then my friends would have been upset....they look forward to my Christmas cake every year.
I knew if I didn't get the fruit all liquored up soon that the cake would not be tasty.
Usually my fruit is minced and liquored from around August, but not so this year.
Sooooo.....today was the day.
I headed off to the supermarket and chose a selection of dried fruits....raisins, currants, prunes, cherries and some mixed peel.   
Hustled home to get the process started.  Took out my inherited meat grinder (which I originally bought for my Mum to replace her old one), and spent the better part of an half hour grinding the fruit and adding liquor and spices. 
Fruit and Liquor
The tall bottle of white rum was made in St. Lucia and was a gift from last year.
It included three different blends...Coconut, Lime and Regular.
I only used the regular blend along with the Special Barbados Rum.
This year I decided to use both red and green cherries.
The prunes and cherries were cut into smaller pieces and added to the other fruit....it was all mixed together to make sure that the dry fruit was well mixed with the wet sticky fruit....it is easier to pass through the grinder this way.
The Meat Grinder being used as a fruit mincer....works well every time.
This was my job as a little girl, my Mum would allow me to turn the handle round and round and round until all the fruit was minced.
Minced fruit all liquored up.
Grated nutmeg, spice and essence was also added.
All finished and cleaned up until next time.
The metal pieces will be oiled before storage.

The fruit will remain in storage until around December 20th when it will be taken out and baked into a delicious Christmas Cake.....stay tuned.
 

8 comments:

  1. That's one powerful cake. I looked up your recipe. We don't have falernum here but thee are recipes to make it. It sounds nice as well.

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    Replies
    1. No worries if you don't have falernum, I didn't use falernum this year. Whatever liquor you have knocking around is fine.
      Checked out the falernum recipes....interesting. The ready made falernum we have here is white.
      Yes, the cake is super powerful.

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  2. ok seeing that meat grinder brought back some really nice memories. I didnt know anyone still had those around. I used to grind the fruits for my mum as a child as well. I think we lost one part or it broke or something like that a few years back and then we had to switch but man I love those thing.

    I like that three in one rum bottle very interesting

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think every mother had one of those grinders back in the day....they are still being sold.
      I like grinding my fruit with the old hand operated grinder, somehow the cake just doesn't taste right with fruit minced in a food processor.
      Remember the guy that used to make the baking pans out of tin, I still have my Mum's set of hand made tin baking pans....they bake the best cakes.
      The St.Lucian rum sample trio was a very interesting gift, and i saved it just for this purpose.

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  3. wow that is very interesting - I used to bake my cake six weeks before christmas and then douse it with rum once a week. You do it the other way round, soak the fruit and then bake the cake at the last minute. I dont bake a cake anymore as nobody eats it except me :(. My mom used to use her grinder to put leftover roast and veggies through, then pop it into a casserole and top with mashed potatoes. We often had it on Mondays after the Sunday roast.....

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    Replies
    1. I still douse my cake in lots of liquor after it is baked....it is very potent...I myself get drunk with just a small sliver.
      My friends tell me that I do not drink my liquor that I eat it.
      I'm still not understanding why you can't bake a cake just for you....is there a law that says you shouldn't that I don't know about?????

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  4. I don't use it Virginia but I, too, still have what we used to call a mincer. As for my Christmas cakes I put the marzipan on the first four this morning. I'm going off to the mainland on Tuesday and several have to go with me for presents.

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    Replies
    1. Your cakes look delicious GB and I'm sure that all those lucky folks on the receiving end enjoyed them thoroughly. I don't think my cakes would stick around that long for a marzipan topping.

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