Christmas preparation: Mincemeat, part two

Oops!  I forgot that I had shown the first step, but not the finished jar!  When it's matured for a while, I will be using it to make Delia's Christmas Mincemeat cake.  The recipe from her original Christmas book does not appear to be online, the similarly-titled one on her website requires pre-soaking of fruit and has some different ingredients.  For this original version, you literally add mincemeat to the cake-y ingredients (flour etc), mix and bake.  If you can get hold of the book, I would recommend it highly just for this recipe - borrow it from a friend if you have to!

Just for good measure, I have started two more fruit vodkas - blueberry (left) and blackberry :-)

These should be ready to strain and drink just before Christmas.  That should give me enough time to find some nice bottles..... LOL

Christmas preparation: Mincemeat, part one

I haven't made this mincemeat for a couple of years, because I have discovered that Waitrose's all-butter mince pies are much better than the ones I make :-)  I do also use it to make a Christmas cake, but last year I had enough left to be able to do that.  Now that I have finally run out, I need to make another batch!

This is Delia's mincemeat recipe, which you can find here.  I miss out the almonds because I don't like nuts and I also peel the apples - she says you don't have to, but I don't like the little bits of peel in my teeth LOL.  I also can't recommend her suggestion that veggie suet is just as good, because the result is just horrendous and I had to throw it away.  Other peoples' experience may differ, of course ...... :-)

Here are all the ingredients mixed up and ready for the oven:

 

It'll take some time to cool enough to pot up, so I'll share the finished result with you tomorrow.  In the meantime, my house smells wonderful :-)

Extreme Baking Week - Sunday

I should have posted this last night, but was so tired at the end of a busy weekend! I will try to post every day from now on, hand on heart :-)

I decided to get a little headstart on the week by starting on Sunday. Mincemeat slices and small Christmas cakes, both from Delia's Christmas book. I also started off her mincemeat recipe, which will be finished off today.