FRUIT CHRISTMAS BOMBE

A good dessert for a hot climate! This is a spectacular dessert which is not difficult to make but looks and tastes great.

Ingredients

150ml china bowl: suitable for freezer storage.

Glad wrap

2 tubes of marzipan paste

1 jar of Robertson Fruit mince or another soft fruit of your choice -fyi I substituted raspberries last year and it was lovely.

1 sponge cake

Tub of good quality vanilla ice cream

Sherry or port

Meringue Egg “Pavlova Magic” 125 g - or you can make your own meringue

Method

Take your china bowl and very lightly spray with oil.

Line the bowl with glad wrap – leaving enough plastic wrap to completely cover all of mixture before freezing. This will also protect the pudding in the freezer. Try to make the glad wrap lining as wrinkle free as possible – no gaps allowed.

Next line the bowl with the marzipan. Roll out the marzipan into thin heets.

Place a circle of the marzipan into the base of the bowl to cover the base of the bowl, continue to line remainder of bowl with the remaining marzipan. Again no gaps allowed. Ensure that you have enough marzipan to cover the final cake layer at the top of the basin of the pudding.

Next mix the Robertson’s fruit mince through the ice cream.

Putting the Pudding Together

Place a wedge of sponge cake into base of bowl.

Sprinkle the cake with a little brandy or port.

Next place a layer of the combined fruit mince and vanilla ice cream.

Continue in this way until the bowl is full making sure you end the process with a layer of cake.

Cover this last layer with a thin piece of rolled out marzipan.

Bring the glad wrap over the last layer of cake/marzipan and cover securely – remember no gaps.

Freeze.

This stage of the dessert can be prepared earlier if yoiu wish, however if you decide to prepare this dessert closer to the day you are going to serve it remember uou will need to allow at least 48 hours for the freezing process to occur before cooking on the oven.

Preparing The Meringue: the easy way

To cook – follow the directions on the “Pavlova Magic” meringue egg.

While whipping up the meringue mix pre heat the oven as per directions given on egg.

Remove pudding from freezer and from bowl by unfolding the top layer of the glad wrap and lifting out gently. Peel away all glad wrap. (this is where the use of the glad wrap eases the removal of the pud from the bowl)

Place the frozen pudding onto silver foil in a baking tray and cover with the meringue mixture. Place in pre heated oven.

Cook as per “Pavlova Magic” directions and serve immediately.

For a more traditional and time consuming method for making the meringue I have included the following recipe.

Meringue: the traditional mixture

From The Cook’s Companion written by Stephanie Alexander

Ingredients

2 egg whites (at room temperature)

120 grams castor sugar

¼ teaspoon of pure vanilla

Method

Pre- heat your oven to 150 degrees.

18Line a baking tray with baking paper or silver foil.

Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form, then add sugar, a little at a time, still beating. Beat in vanilla.

See above recipe to prepare Fruity Bombe up to the meringue stage.

Get Bombe out of freezer and decant.

Using a spatula cover the Bombe with the meringue and place in oven. Approximately 40 minutes – 50 minutes for a full meringue but for the bombe place into pre-heated oven and check every so often,once meringue has started to slightly tinge to a light fawn remove and serve.

Tips

1. Keep the egg whites from making your mayonnaise to prepare this meringue recipe.

2. I use silver foil. to cover a flat baking tray with silver foil and place the Christmas Fruit Bombe onto it before cooking just in case it becomes impossible (after the baking process) to move across to a serving plate. It can if needs be - served from the tray that is ever so slightly glammed

for more Christmas hubs please go to

http://hubpages.com/hub/HubMob-Weekly-Topic-A-Revolutionary-Christmas-In-Rhythm--Rhyme

http://hubpages.com/hub/HubMob-Weekly-Topic-Christmas-Countdown

http://hubpages.com/hub/Christmas-Food-Planning-For-The-Big-Day

http://hubpages.com/hub/Christmas-Day--Your-Food-Plan

 What did the reindeer say before launching into his comedy routine?

This will sleigh you.

What do lions sing at Christmas?

Jungle bells!

What do you call the fear of getting stuck in a chimney?

Santaclaustrophobia

How do snowmen get around?

On their icicles.

What does Santa call reindeer who don't work?Dinner.

This is our family version of the ubiquitous trifle! No jelly allowed.

This recipe has traditionally been passed down from the Great Aunts, from their mother to our Mother and so on to all the members of our Family.. A beautifully easy dessert to make and a great favourite with everyone – even those die-hards who don’t eat dessert!!!

Ingredients

2 Swiss jam rolls.

Raspberry jam

1 punnet raspberries

Sherry or port

Vanilla custard

Whipped cream

Method

Take a large glass bowl and line it with the sliced Swiss Cake Roll. Carefully sprinkle the sherry or port over the cake. Allow a couple of minutes for alcohol to soak in. Melt a good 2 tablespoons of raspberry jam in the microwave or on your stove and again drip carefully across the cake. Tumble your punnet of raspberries over the cake. Pour the vanilla custard over the mixture of ingredients. Place into fridge overnight. Before serving whip cream and cover top of trifle – decorate with raspberries or strawberries.

Looks stunning and is totally delicious.

In our family's ignorance we thought it a trifle adapted by the family over the generations so imagine my surprise when I found our recipe in an old Scottish Cook book and called "Tipsy Laird's Cake" and as my great grandmother was a Scot it has a ring of truth as to where "our" recipe originated from.

FRESH TROPICAL AND SOFT FRUIT SALAD

Ingredients

Tropical or soft fruits of choice: Strawberries, raspberries, in fact all the berries, pineapple, mango, passionfruit, bananas etc.

Vanilla Essence

Castor Sugar

Fresh Cream

Ice Cream of choice – goes well with the Raspberry Ice Cream below.

Method

This dessert is best made on the day it is to be eaten. Buy your tropical fruits of choice - in season – leave out the citrus and the apples etc. Peel and chop into bite size pieces and put altogether into a lovely large glass/china bowl. Example: Strawberries, raspberries, in fact all the berries, pineapple, mango, passionfruit, bananas etc. To extend amount of fruit required you could include a can of tropical fruit salad to the mix. Gently fold in the castor sugar to taste and a few drops of vanilla essence. Leave including the bananas into the mix until the last minute as they will brown if left exposed to the air too long. However if you must add the bananas at the time of preparation then squeeze a little lemon juice over them to slow down the oxygenating process.

Serve with whipped cream also given the castor sugar and whipped cream treatment.

To me Christmas is all about the rich colours of red and green so I like to add this ice cream to the selection of desserts just as much for the colour as the taste.

Ingredients

Raspberries – 1 tub

Commercial (good quality) Ice Cream

Method

I would love to find the time to make home made ice cream - however this is what I do and it is really easy and quite quick to do. Buy a tub of good quality ice cream and some fresh raspberries or even the frozen de-frosted – mash together so that the raspberries meld through the ice cream fairly evenly and re- freeze.

You can do this some days before Christmas so that it is a job completed and the ice cream is well and truly frozen.

I tend to freeze into a log shape so that the ice cream can sliced rather than scooped. It’s all a matter of choice.

 Rich Christmas Pudding

Recipe from pocket gourmet series – Festive Fare – page 106 - Serves 10

This pudding will keep for many months. For this quantity you will need a 1.7 litre (7 cup) pudding bowl, or you can make 2 puddings using two smaller basins.

250 grms raisins

60 grms mixed peel

250 grms sultanas

200 grms currants

125 grms blanched chopped almonds

3 tablespoons of rum or brandy

250 grms of unsalted butter

1 ¼ cups of light brown sugar

Grated rind of one orange

1 cup of plain flour

1 cup of sugar

1 teaspoon of mixed spice

1 teaspoon of ground ginger

4 eggs beaten

2 cups of white bread crumbs

Put all the fruit and nuts into a large bowl, sprinkle with the rum and leave overnight. Cream the butter until soft, add the sugar and orange rind and beat until light and fluffy. Sift the flour and spices together. Add to the butter and sugar alternatively with the beaten eggs.

Stir in the breadcrumbs and all the fruit. Put the mixture into a well greased and base-lined pudding basin. Cover the pudding with a double thickness of foil with a pleat in the middle to allow for any risings.

Tie firmly with string. Make a handle of string and lower the pudding gently into the boiling water and steam, covered for 6 hours. The water should come halfway up the side of the pudding bowl. It is a good idea to sit the pudding on an old upturned saucer. Top up the water level with boiling water from time to time.

Remove from the water and cool, and then cover with fresh foil and string. Store pudding in the refrigerator until required.

On Christmas Day steam again for 2½ hours. Turn out the pudding onto a heated plate. Warm a tablespoon of rum or brandy, light and pour over the pudding at the table.

Serve accompanied by Custard Sauce, Brandy Butter or heavy cream.

True Story - Rudolph loses his sparkle

A plastic reindeer in a South African shopping mall's display lost the shiny golden Christmas tree baubles hanging between its hind legs after complaints from shoppers.

Stages of Christmas

When you consider Christmas, there are four stages in your life:-

You believe in Santa

You don't believe in Santa

You are Santa

You look like Santa

Christmas Warnings

19 people have died in the last 3 years from believing that Christmas decorations were chocolate.

31 people have died since 1996 by watering their Christmas tree while the fairy lights were plugged in.

 

 Sweet Sauces

Recipes from “pocket gourmet series” – Festive Fare: page 116.

Brandy Butter

(a traditional accompaniment to Christmas Pudding)

Beat 185 grms unsalted butter until creamy, then add 2 cups of sifted icing sugar, beating light and fluffy. Add 1 tablespoon of brandy gradually. Beat 1 egg while until soft peaks form and fold into the cream mixture. Pile the sauce into a bowl and chill.

Makes about 2 cups.

Note: If liked ½ cup of ground almonds can be substituted for a cup of the icing sugar, and 1 tablespoon of vanilla essence instead of the brandy

Hard Sauce

Cream 125 grams butter and add 5 tablespoons of icing sugar one at a time; then ½ cup brandy by degrees. Spoon into mounds with a dessertspoon and refrigerate until hard.

Serve piled into a glass bowl.

Mascarpone Sauce

Sweeten a tub of Mascarpone with sugar and Marsala to taste.

Serve in a pretty bowl.

Chantilly Cream

Sweeten a bowl of cream (35 per cent milk fat) with vanilla sugar and whip until it forms soft peaks. Brandy can be added if desired.

Brandy Sauce

Mix 1 teaspoon arrowroot with a tablespoon of brandy until smooth, add 3 more tablespoons of brandy, 1 cup of boiling water, 1 tablespoon sugar, 1 tablespoon butter. Mix over a moderate heat until smooth and the arrowroot cooked.

Serve hot.

When shall I marry? This year, next year, sometime, never.

What will my husband be? Tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor, rich-man, poor-man, beggar-man, thief.

What shall I wear? Silk, satin, cotton, rags.

How shall I get it? Given, borrowed, bought, or stolen.

How shall I get to Church? Coach, carriage, wheelbarrow, cart.

Where shall I live? Big House, little house, pig-sty, barn.

from Schott’s Food & Drink Miscellany: Ben Schott. 2003. page 15

Now after all the planning, preparing, cooking, serving and washing up I find the following comment from Jane Seabrook’s “Furry Logic” A Guide To Life’s Little Challenges quite refreshing!

 "It’s been lovely - but I have to scream now"