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Have your cake

I was stood at the kitchen table, wearing one of Beanie's aprons, when the treacle tin exploded. I had warmed the treacle in the oven's bottom shelf, as instructed, so it would mix more easily into the flour, sugar, fat, spices and fruit. Unfortunately, after putting the treacle inside the oven, I forgot all about it and left it too long. By the time we needed treacle, the tin was so hot I had to use gloves to remove it from the oven. I carried it over to the table and put it down. It was then I made my big mistake; using a fork I prised the lid open. Hot, black gloop spurted out like lava from a volcano, bubbling up uncontrollably over the oven gloves, the table and the cake mixture. The explosion left a layer of caramelised tarmac over the recipe, preserving it like a relic from the Cretaceous Period. A sticky, sweet-smelling relic.

Despite this set-back, making the Christmas cake (well, two of them, actually, as we made an extra one for Granny) was a delight; the flat was filled all weekend with that evocative smell of baking fruit, nutmeg and cinnamon. The cakes are now packed away tightly in tins, wrapped in layers of grease-proof paper to marinate for three months. The plan is to feed them with brandy at intervals before December 25, dripping alcohol in via holes made by knitting needles. Cake-making: an honourable exception to the evil of premature Christmas preparations, worth braving exploding treacle tins for any day.

Posted 05 October 2009 10:34

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Comments

Zornhau said:

ROFL!

I remember years ago that panic over exploding microwaved cups of coffee: Gran phoned in a bit of a panic to warn us. My sister and I - teenagers - then spent an hour trying dropping teaspoons into superheated mugs trying to create the gesyer of scalding beveridge. No luck, alas.

Posted 05 October 2009 15:01

Catriona 2 said:

We must suffer to be proper Super Mums

Posted 05 October 2009 16:06

iota said:

I love that volcano description. My children regularly enjoy producing the same effect with bicarb of soda and vinegar - but it doesn't smell as nice.

Posted 05 October 2009 19:35

Catriona said:

Next time please please please take the lid off before you warm the treacle!

Posted 05 October 2009 21:48

Helen said:

Zornhau, that would explain my residual fear of microwaved coffee.

Catriona, my Super Mum grading is low, alas, based on this weekend's performance. But no-one was harmed in the making of this Xmas cake.

Iota, half wish you hadn't told me that, as am now tempted to experiment.

Catriona, take the lid off before warming the treacle? Now that would be an idea.

Posted 06 October 2009 10:01

Working Mum said:

OOops! (Next time just warm the spoon on the hob not the tin in the oven) Now, don't tell me I'm behind already with my Christmas preparations, I was planning on making my Christmas cake at half term!

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