The making of the Christmas Cake - Part 2
There will come a day when we get to the wrapping - but today is about Raisins and Sultanas...
Sultanas - ready to be chopped.
The Cashews are chopped and ready - now comes the messy bit. Cutting the raisins and sultanas... Now. We've been doing this for YEARS, but just to get my facts straight for this article, I double checked what they actually were!
Cutting them down to this size leads to very sticky fingers!
The sultanas add juiciness to the cake. They are plumper and juicer than your average raisin and come from Turkey (the country, not the bird - thankfully!) which is the main supplier of sultanas. I believe that the sultanas also add a depth of colour to the finished cake, giving it its rich colour.
The raisin - the sponge of a grape!
Rraisins on the other hand have a very special property - they absorb flavours. Being dried white Moscatel grapes, they have a dense texture that adds to the overall mouthfeel of the cake - but to return to the important bit. They suck up flavours! So the Amaretto (a recipe modification that my mother came up with) and the Cherry Brandy are absorbed straight into each of these little pieces - and they are little. Like the cashew, the raisins and the sultanas are cut into a quarter the size of your pinkies nail!
It may seem big - but that's because of the zoom lens used to capture the shot!
A heads up though. There will be a time where the Making Of The Christmas Cake will stop - and this is only because the mixture is wrapped in heavy cloth and left to rest. You have been warned! 😇
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Comments (2)
Amaretto soaked raisins 😍. This cake is looking promising!!
It is!😇