Christmas Cake!

[Guest Biker]

Hope someone can help here!

I can remember a few years ago(well quite a few to be honest)making lovely Christmas cakes with the children.

Christmas is kicking in this week and I would really love to do this with my group.They so love to cook!

Can anyone give me a nut free recipe?

Thanks

Biker

[JacquieL]

hopefully someone will post the recipe soon. A good time to make Xmas cake as it is Stir up Sunday tomorrow!

[Guest]

we are making ours next week and my recipe is a bog standard one minus nuts and we use chopped dates instead. I can pass the recipe onto you when I'm in on monday if you like. We make individual ones in small bean tins and the children ice and decorate them ready to take home at the end of term.

[narnia]

we simply omit the nuts. You could put in a few extra cherries, or ried fruit. We'll be making ours soon too!

[Guest Biker]

Thanks guys,

Can't wait to get started !

Bikerx

[Guest]

Hope someone can help here!

I can remember a few years ago(well quite a few to be honest)making lovely Christmas cakes with the children.

Christmas is kicking in this week and I would really love to do this with my group.They so love to cook!

Can anyone give me a nut free recipe?

Thanks

Biker

 

Hope this is helpful - just omit the ground almonds!

When decorating the cake, you could use ready to roll icing instead of marzipan and then coat with less royal icing so it is not too sweet. The children provide their own Christmas cake decoration (and baked bean tin). The cake is put on a 4" (10 cm) cake board and then in a cellophane sweet bag and tied with florist ribbon.

We always make spare cakes and give one to Father Christmas, our head teacher (!) and anyone who has visited the nursery over the year (e.g. the fire brigade).

This year we have had donations (ingredients) from Asda, Waitrose and Marks and Spencer - so the cakes have cost very little.

Our children make their cakes individually. They are made in a baked bean tin and are very successful - I have used this recipe for over twenty years!

Good luck.

Recipe__Card___Christmas_Cake.doc

[Deb]

Does anybody have the measurements for the individual baked bean tin sized cake and cooking time? We generally convert our recipes into tablespoons, teaspoons etc.

[Guest]

We usually get a group of children to prepare a batch of cake mix as per a normal 12" christmas cake, they then individually put the mix into their own tins, I have never tried making individual mixes so well done you Deb if you do. One tip, if you use ring pull tins the cake can get stuck under the rim left by it when trying to remove the cooked cake. turn the tin upside down and remove the base with a tin opener and then put this in on top of the rim to create a loose bottom tin which makes removal really easy. I cook these cakes in batches of 10/12 and they take an hour

Edited November 20, 2011 by max321

[Verona]

For a few years I have meaning to get the children to make individual Christmas cakes. Unfortunately AGAIN I have left it too late to find 40 small bakes bean tins.

Apart from small foil dishes, which are not really the right shape, can you think of anything else?? ....... apart from plan for it earlier next year!!

 

Thanks

 

Sue J

[Inge]

you could bake it as one large square one and cut it into small squares for each child - they don't have to be round.. just dont make it too deep..

[Guest]

For a few years I have meaning to get the children to make individual Christmas cakes. Unfortunately AGAIN I have left it too late to find 40 small bakes bean tins.

Apart from small foil dishes, which are not really the right shape, can you think of anything else?? ....... apart from plan for it earlier next year!!

 

Thanks

 

Sue J

 

We will be starting ours on 5th December - we spend all week cooking (well usually about 3 or 4 days) in groups of 6 children. The following week the children marzipan and ice their cakes. I always put a reminder about tins in the newsletter in September and again after half-term - but it's still a problem getting them all in on time, but we always manage it somehow; though sometimes staff will save tins and bring them in. If you can get the parents to save and bring in as many tins as possible you might manage it! The tins can be used more than once. It's well worth it!

[Guest]

sue,

You could just eat a lot of beans! or maybe give each child one to take home to eat and bring the tin back. Once you have them, they can be kept. I have 15 which I have had for 10 years, we cook them in batches so this has always been enough, this year we have made 45 in 3 batches

[Guest]

Hi

First time to submit on here...but here goes,

This is my first experience of reception - 11 years in year 6 so suffering from shock, but am going to do Christmas cakes and I have bought rectangular cake holders from asda - they are called - mini loaf cake bkeable cases - 10 in a pack, less than £3 a oack - hope that helps, i'm not sure if I'm mad for trying it in my first year, but we'll see!!

Caz

[Guest Biker]

Hi All,

Just wanted to let you all know we have had lots of fun this week making Christmas cakes.

We used muffin cases and they worked well.I think the bean tins would give them a nice round shape though,will try that next year.

Happy baking everyone.

Biker

[narnia]

I keep my bean tins year after year, just give them a good wash in hot soapy water before storing them away ( I dry them thoroughly in the oven on a very low temperature for an hour or so) then wash and dry them again before use.

[Deb]

For a few years I have meaning to get the children to make individual Christmas cakes. Unfortunately AGAIN I have left it too late to find 40 small bakes bean tins.

Apart from small foil dishes, which are not really the right shape, can you think of anything else?? ....... apart from plan for it earlier next year!!

 

Thanks

 

Sue J

 

 

Still searching for that elusive recipe for a single individual Christmas cake recipe (will probably just work on ratios such as 2 tablespoons of flour to 1 of butter etc, that's what we normally do to recipies and they usually work), anyway the point being that I've seen some Christmas cake recipies using 150 ml ramekin dishes. Can't vouch for their effectiveness as I haven't tried it but it's perhaps worth a thought. We're going to do our cakes next week, and we've only got the two tins that I brought in myself so far! Fingers crossed!

[Guest]

Deb,

The recipe I use to make 10 small cakes downsizes to this to make 1;

20g butter

25g dark brown sugar

1/2 beaten egg

15g raisins

25g sultanas

40g currants

10g chopped dried dates

10g glace cherries

1 teaspoon orange juice

pinch mixed spice

 

Might be worth a trial run!

and let me know if it works, might be brave enough to try it this way next year

[Inge]

Deb,

The recipe I use to make 10 small cakes downsizes to this to make 1;

20g butter

25g dark brown sugar

1/2 beaten egg

15g raisins

25g sultanas

40g currants

10g chopped dried dates

10g glace cherries

1 teaspoon orange juice

pinch mixed spice

 

Might be worth a trial run!

and let me know if it works, might be brave enough to try it this way next year

 

 

flour?

[lashes2508]

Hope this is helpful - just omit the ground almonds!

When decorating the cake, you could use ready to roll icing instead of marzipan and then coat with less royal icing so it is not too sweet. The children provide their own Christmas cake decoration (and baked bean tin). The cake is put on a 4" (10 cm) cake board and then in a cellophane sweet bag and tied with florist ribbon.

We always make spare cakes and give one to Father Christmas, our head teacher (!) and anyone who has visited the nursery over the year (e.g. the fire brigade).

This year we have had donations (ingredients) from Asda, Waitrose and Marks and Spencer - so the cakes have cost very little.

Our children make their cakes individually. They are made in a baked bean tin and are very successful - I have used this recipe for over twenty years!

Good luck.

 

Fab idea for cake tin - as we made large one last year and then cut out small circles so quite some waste, i take it this is the smaller bean tin , washed and greased like an ordinary cake tin - i love recycling so this is a top tip thanks, so good that you asked for donationds from supermarkets, i will def use this for next year.

[lashes2508]

Still searching for that elusive recipe for a single individual Christmas cake recipe (will probably just work on ratios such as 2 tablespoons of flour to 1 of butter etc, that's what we normally do to recipies and they usually work), anyway the point being that I've seen some Christmas cake recipies using 150 ml ramekin dishes. Can't vouch for their effectiveness as I haven't tried it but it's perhaps worth a thought. We're going to do our cakes next week, and we've only got the two tins that I brought in myself so far! Fingers crossed!

 

tuna tins ?? i assume you can use any smaller size tin ??

[Guest]

flour?

 

 

 

Duh! it is friday afternoon!

25g plain flour

[Deb]

Deb,

The recipe I use to make 10 small cakes downsizes to this to make 1;

20g butter

25g dark brown sugar

1/2 beaten egg

15g raisins

25g sultanas

40g currants

10g chopped dried dates

10g glace cherries

1 teaspoon orange juice

pinch mixed spice

 

 

Thanks Max, these are roughly the same as what I came up with so I must be on track. Will let you know how we get on.

Might be worth a trial run!

and let me know if it works, might be brave enough to try it this way next year

[Deb]

tuna tins ?? i assume you can use any smaller size tin ??

 

Thanks Lashes for your suggestion. I remember reading somewhere (not sure if it was on here or another website) a reply that advised against using empty fish tins because of the lingering smell. I can't comment on that though as I haven't tried it. I wonder if the smell would linger if they were washed thoroughly?

[lashes2508]

Thanks Lashes for your suggestion. I remember reading somewhere (not sure if it was on here or another website) a reply that advised against using empty fish tins because of the lingering smell. I can't comment on that though as I haven't tried it. I wonder if the smell would linger if they were washed thoroughly?

 

try sprinkling tins with bicarbonate soda , it's great for deodorising fridges to footwear !!!

[Inge]

Tuna tins are fine if you put them through a dishwasher.. come out non smelly, but small baked bean tins are fine, or small pineapple ones can be the same size as the tuna ones,

 

also recommend lining the tins with paper too..

[Guest]

For the tuna tins if you don't have a dishwasher, I used a lot of hot soapy water, and then bicarb. Following that I baked any slightly smelly ones in the oven sprinkled with Christmassy spices, and then washed again. That finished off the scent of fish. TK Maxx also sell small round and loaf shaped tins in packs of 4 for about £4.

[narnia]

yes, we use small baked bean cans...............but you can use normal sized ones too, they're a bit fiddlier to line and fill, but work just the same......................just don't overfill or you end up with a cake like a chimney stack!

[Guest]

I've used ramekin dishes for years to make the small cakes, I have 10 and know all the other staff/ parents I can borrow them from. Have to admit I stopped making them last year as I always made them as a present for the children to take home and after no thank you's or comments from parents decide the extra workn involved was not worth it so now make truffles instead!

[Deb]

The feedback from parents has been so good to our Christmas cakes that I thought I would post the focus plan here in case any of you would like to try them next year.

 

We made them a fortnight ago, then froze them, defrosting them as needed to decorate.

 

I'm going to make some next week for family members, not quite sure when yet - probably inbetween cleaning the entire house and shopping!

Making_individual_Christmas_cakes.doc

[narnia]

why did you freeze them? They keep really well if you wrap them in greaseproof paper........... then in airtight container