Creole Christmas Cake ... YUM !!

So this year I decided ... it is my first Christmas in my new home, my first Christmas ever in my own home; I am going to do this properly!

Christmas pudding, Christmas cake, Mince pies, Home-made Stuffing Terrine to go with the Turkey and roast potatoes and roast parsnips and brussel sprouts and yorshires and gravy and all the other masses of gorgeousness that we shove on our plates on Christmas day !! :) 

Home-made of course ... well I'm going to try ... I'm doing dinner for 7 people so it's probably going to be half and half ... shop bought some bits ... the Christmas pudding is one of those things ... I'd love to attempt my own ... maybe next year ... I don't know ... but there is too much going on this year to be able to do that too! 

What I am making home-made is the Christmas cake! 

I am following Delia this year. 

I stumbled upon this wonderful recipe at my friend Evelyn's house in France. She was my English neighbour and we became good friends. She absolutely swore by it. And me vary wary of traditional Christmas cake tried it and was won over instantly! This is how much her and her husband like this cake ... they make it in April and she makes about 8 and stores them wrapped up in the cellar. They eat them all throughout the year now! 

I'm not quite that bad and I followed Delia's recipe closely which was no feeding and said only make it a month before. 

Here's the link for Delia's recipe ... mix it up this Christmas ... try Creole instead of traditional ... It's moist and lighter and totally transforms the traditional heavy stodgy in your face insane bitter flavour of the traditional! 

Delia's Creole Christmas Cake

Try it and let me know what you think !! 

Mine is baked and stored away ready for icing just before Christmas ... you will have to wait until then to see the finished product ... 

Chipotle Chicken Pizza

I love saturdays ... it means I have time to think about what I want for dinner, get ahead of the game and "pootle" round my kitchen slowly!! 

My lovely man had been out at church all day serving at a wedding so I wanted to do him something I knew he would really love for when he got in. 

That's where the home-made pizza came in ... pizza is his favourite thing. Normally we have shop bought as we both work full time. But home-made is just the best. So much better for you and you can control the ingredients so you know what's in it and you can definitely knock off a few hundred calories off the numbers on a shop bought pizza which to be honest are just scary. 

So then it came to choosing flavours ... I wanted chicken and I wanted flavour. 

I had a bottle of Chipotle Sauce kicking around in the fridge so I marinated 2 chicken breasts and whacked them in the over for 35 mins on 200 degrees. Once cooked, I then shredded the chicken into small pieces. 

I did buy the packet pizza dough, but it's so nice and fairly low cal so I always cheat with the pizza dough. So I made that up as per the instructions and let it prove for a few minutes to rise. 

I used tomato puree as the base and spread probably about a tablespoon on to the dough. 

I then threw my chipotle chicken on top and added rings of red onion and sweetcorn (I used a small red onion and about 2 tablespoons of sweetcorn - but really you can put as much or as little on as you want). 

I covered it all with a handful of mature cheddar cheese, it has a fairly strong flavour so you don't need loads and loads. 

It was utterly delicious and the perfect feast for a Saturday night in front of the rugby. 

Holiday Food

So ... i have been meaning to share with you the absolute gorgeous plates of food i was served up on a recent trip to Aix en Provence !!

Enjoy x 

Goats Cheese Salad ... french style

Caramelised Apple Crepe with Chantily Creme and Vanilla Ice Cream ... HEAVEN!

Slow cooked Lamb Shank with ratatouile and creamy mash ...

A wonderful holiday ... with wonderful food and wonderful wine ... I am blessed !!

simple bakes for crazy lives ... fat free apricot tea loaf

mmmm i must start with an apology ... again !! 2 months have practically gone by and i have given you one whole blog !! Wowza !! anyway ... life is fairly hectic ... and i have done loads of cooking and i've got photos for blogs coming out my ears ... but actually sitting down here to blog seems fairly rare ... 

This one is a hugely simple and easy to do recipe (I can remember the recipe in my head and am blogging from my desk at work its that easy). You just need to be in to have the oven time and soaking time, but the actual method is easy !! 

One absolutely gorgeous moist tea loaf ... making it your own as well is so simple, you can used spiced tea's or different fruit. Generally i use raisins or mixed ... my mum tried it not so long ago with a chai tea ...

See mums recipe 

but this is a long standing family recipe ... fat free but lets be honest with the amount of sugar thats in this bad boy we can't really claim it's a healthy bake !! lol The diet goes out the window again !!

heres what you do ...

use a mug to measure all your ingredients ...
preheat the oven to gas 4//180 degrees

Firstly take a mug of fruit (raisins, mixed dried fruit, apricots, dried cherries)
pour it into a mixing bowl
Then measure a mug full of sugar and stick it in the same bowl
(I actually found it a little sweet last time so next time i would use maybe 3/4 of a mug of sugar)
Then make black tea in the same mug (do not use milk), boil it up then let it brew for a few minutes and add to the bowl
leave to soak for at least 30 mins
rinse and leave the mug to dry at this point

pop off and do a bit of shopping or some ironing ... then ...

add to the bowl (using the same dry mug) 2 mugs full of self raising flour
and 1 egg ...
Mix ...

Stick into a greased loaf tin ... and bake for about an hour ... it really will depend on what you've put in there, so keep your eye on it and check with a skewer to check it is cooked through.
If not ... leave it in for a few more minutes ... it's so moist it won't dry out unless you bake it for ages ... so don't be worried about leaving it for a few more minutes ...

et voila ... one squishy fruity tea loaf ... ready for your family to scoff (Oh and did i mention - it's fat free !! LOL)