Christmas and Cakes 2012
Christmas felt kind of long this year, possibly because the family celebrations had to be extended to include the 27th due to scheduling issues. Also, several of Graham's family members came down with some illness or another and were either not present, or present while making for a somewhat sad sight, which put a bit of a damper on things. When we weren't attending some family get-together or another, I actually spent a lot of time gaming, mostly with my new guildies in SWTOR. They made for surprisingly good company even over the holiday period.
Anyway, let's get to the part we know everyone is waiting for: this year's Christmas Cake competition! That was actually the part that had to be moved to the 27th, so I didn't bother to bake a cake until Boxing Day. I didn't bother to put any thought into what to bake until Boxing Day either, which turned out to be a bit of a problem when we then had to find a shop that was open on Boxing Day so that I could buy some last minute ingredients.
Since I wanted to keep my cakes varied, plain bundt cake and pure chocolate cake were out as options this time as that's what I made the previous two years. Fortunately the BBC provided helpful inspiration again as they provided me with this recipe for Chocolate Marble Cake.
I'm definitely getting better with this whole baking thing, as I managed to split my batter into two parts like a pro and without making too much of a mess.
Alternating spoonfuls of chocolate and vanilla batter are a go!
Add some swirling to even it all out and improve the marbling.
Hey, that actually looks pretty good!
Of course then we got to the decorations and oi... I sure messed that up this year. :P The theme was "Christmas specials" (from tv, radio etc.) and I had zero inspiration, probably because I don't watch much tv. In the end I decided to go with the Star Wars Christmas Special for a laugh, even though I knew that nobody in the family would recognise it. I just liked the idea too much not to do it. I had this vision of making little wookiees out of chocolate but vastly overestimated my ability to mould chocolate into shape without making a big mess out of everything. My fingers ended up all sticky and the chocolate still ended up looking like random chunks piled on top of each other. It looked nothing like anything at all, but I didn't really care. I had put all the real effort into the cake and was happy with that.
This year we only had three competitors: me, Amber and Jono. Amber's entry is in the middle and shows the teletubbies (shudder) making snow angels. To the right we have some daleks made of icing attacking a toppled jelly Tardis (I think), next to the word "extermin8". (Jono: "I hated having to resort to text speak, but I ran out of space.")
Unfortunately Graham's Mum wasn't feeling well, so she had to drop out of the competition on short notice. She did draw up a little sketch of what she had had in mind for her cake (something about the royal family), which Graham then subjected to all the usual methods of scoring. Yes, that meant that he ate a bit of paper to test the taste. I'm engaged to a nutter.
The competitors waited for the judging to complete in the kitchen while yelling out the occasional objection when something unfavourable was overheard.
The stickability score was zero across the board this year, meaning that nothing stuck to the door and everything just fell to the ground. Good thing we had Ford there to clean it all up (though he didn't like the jelly).
The judges announce the results! Too bad Graham's Dad was missing, as he's usually one of the main judges, but he too wasn't well at all and had to stay home that day (the whole thing took place at Sarah and Jono's).
And the winner was... Amber!
My entry came last by quite a margin as my decorations were so poor this year, but I can't say that wasn't fair. The cake itself was delicious though, and as you can see it actually came out looking exactly like the picture on the BBC website! Everyone thought that it was scrumptious, and honestly, I'm happy with that. Never mind the failed chocolate wookiees. :P
Anyway, let's get to the part we know everyone is waiting for: this year's Christmas Cake competition! That was actually the part that had to be moved to the 27th, so I didn't bother to bake a cake until Boxing Day. I didn't bother to put any thought into what to bake until Boxing Day either, which turned out to be a bit of a problem when we then had to find a shop that was open on Boxing Day so that I could buy some last minute ingredients.
Since I wanted to keep my cakes varied, plain bundt cake and pure chocolate cake were out as options this time as that's what I made the previous two years. Fortunately the BBC provided helpful inspiration again as they provided me with this recipe for Chocolate Marble Cake.
I'm definitely getting better with this whole baking thing, as I managed to split my batter into two parts like a pro and without making too much of a mess.
Alternating spoonfuls of chocolate and vanilla batter are a go!
Add some swirling to even it all out and improve the marbling.
Hey, that actually looks pretty good!
Of course then we got to the decorations and oi... I sure messed that up this year. :P The theme was "Christmas specials" (from tv, radio etc.) and I had zero inspiration, probably because I don't watch much tv. In the end I decided to go with the Star Wars Christmas Special for a laugh, even though I knew that nobody in the family would recognise it. I just liked the idea too much not to do it. I had this vision of making little wookiees out of chocolate but vastly overestimated my ability to mould chocolate into shape without making a big mess out of everything. My fingers ended up all sticky and the chocolate still ended up looking like random chunks piled on top of each other. It looked nothing like anything at all, but I didn't really care. I had put all the real effort into the cake and was happy with that.
This year we only had three competitors: me, Amber and Jono. Amber's entry is in the middle and shows the teletubbies (shudder) making snow angels. To the right we have some daleks made of icing attacking a toppled jelly Tardis (I think), next to the word "extermin8". (Jono: "I hated having to resort to text speak, but I ran out of space.")
Unfortunately Graham's Mum wasn't feeling well, so she had to drop out of the competition on short notice. She did draw up a little sketch of what she had had in mind for her cake (something about the royal family), which Graham then subjected to all the usual methods of scoring. Yes, that meant that he ate a bit of paper to test the taste. I'm engaged to a nutter.
The competitors waited for the judging to complete in the kitchen while yelling out the occasional objection when something unfavourable was overheard.
The stickability score was zero across the board this year, meaning that nothing stuck to the door and everything just fell to the ground. Good thing we had Ford there to clean it all up (though he didn't like the jelly).
The judges announce the results! Too bad Graham's Dad was missing, as he's usually one of the main judges, but he too wasn't well at all and had to stay home that day (the whole thing took place at Sarah and Jono's).
And the winner was... Amber!
My entry came last by quite a margin as my decorations were so poor this year, but I can't say that wasn't fair. The cake itself was delicious though, and as you can see it actually came out looking exactly like the picture on the BBC website! Everyone thought that it was scrumptious, and honestly, I'm happy with that. Never mind the failed chocolate wookiees. :P