Mince Meat

Seens as December is upon us, I thought I'd make the mince meat for my Christmas Eve batch of mince pies. It's good to make your mince meat early to allow it to rest for a few weeks, but, if you run out of time in the lead up to Christmas - don't panic - leave it to sit for a couple of hours and it'll still taste delicious. Making it early did give me an excuse to indulge in that festive buzz without feeling too guilty about it so go on whip out your wooden spoon! 

I love my mince meat to be nutty, full of fruit and to have a real boozy kick so I have carefully chosen the following set of ingredients... 

250g Flaked Almonds

300g Raisins

400g Sultanas 

250g Currants

2 large cooking apples (grated)

Zest of one orange 

Zest of half a lemon 

Juice of half an orange 

1 250g box of shredded beef suet 

200g Dark Muscovado Sugar 

150g Demerara sugar 

1 tsp mixed spice 

1 tsp cinnamon 

200ml Brandy  

100ml Cointreau 

You can substitute and other flavoured liquore for Cointreau - disaronno works well, or, you can simply add a further 100ml of brandy. 

To make the mince meat, simply empty all of your ingredients into a large bowl and mix. Leave the bowl sitting for approx six hours - giving it a little stir each time you pass by. After the six hours have passed, fill your sterilised or dishwashed jars with the mix. 

The meat will last for upto six months at it's best.

Flour-less Chocolate Cake

So last weekend myself and the college girls decided to have a get together for a much needed catch-up. We had originally planned on having a dinner party, but in the end we decided to order a cheeky Chinese Take-Away. However, I still couldn't resist baking something Yummmmyy for dessert. I wanted to bake a proper cake and seens as it was the end of Lent and seens as all of the girls LOVE chocolate, I decided to go for a Rich Chocolate Cake.

There are two ways of making this cake - one with flour and the other without. I've started to realise over the last little while that I haven't been sharing any recipes specifically for people with allergies, so, this can be my first :)

Here goes...

Ingredients...

300g/10oz Dark Chocolate (chopped)

250g/9oz Butter (softened)

300g/10oz Caster Sugar

6 Eggs (lightly beaten)

110g/4oz Ground Almonds 

OR if you would like to use flour, use 55g/2oz Ground Almonds and 55g/2oz Plain Flour

Ground Almonds work as a substitute for Flour for this recipe

Method...

1) Preheat the oven to 160C/ 325F/ Gas Mark 3

2) Grease an 8 inch round cake tin with melted butter and also add a piece of baking paper to the bottom to make sure your cake doesn't get stuck

3) Put your chocolate, butter and sugar in a large bowl over a pot of simmering water & stir until melted

4) When the mixture is fully melted, remove the bowl from the heat and stir in the lightly beaten eggs

5) Fold in the ground almonds or your ground almonds and flour combination

6) Pour the mixture into the cake tin and bake for 40-50 minutes, until the centre is set.

7) Leave the cake to cool in the tin while you make the frosting

For the Frosting...

* You will need to melt 300g of Chocolate (dark or milk - I usually do half and half) , 90g Butter and 6 tbsp of Milk over a pot of simmering water. 

*Once all of the ingredients are combined, leave the mixture to sit until the cake is cool and you're ready to frost it.

We served the cake with both Ice-cream and Cream 

And it was devoured!!!