Sunday 9 December 2018

O Christmas Tree!



This was a big hit with the family.

The mould is from Lakeland. The recipe is from their blog, but it has some incorrect measurements that I've corrected below:

Preheat oven to 180C
Butter mould well and lay on a cookie sheet.
Add 60g butter; 60g dark muscovado sugar; 50g treacle and 50g golden syrup to a small saucepan and warm until ingredients melted and combined.  Cool.
In a medium sized mixing bowl combine 120g self-raising flour, 1 teaspoon ginger and 1 teaspoon mixed spice (or a combination of cloves, cinnamon and allspice). 
Combine sugar and butter mixture with dry ingredients. Add in 1 beaten egg and 60 ml milk.   Mix well. 
Pour into mould and bake 20-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the biggest segment is clean when removed.
Let cool before removing the sections.  Trim them flat if they've risen too much. 
Assemble, using a stiff icing in a piping bag.  Try a blend of 200g icing sugar; 2 teaspoons orange essence and 2 teaspoons water.   It should be quite stiff.  Add the icing generously. I was too stingy above and had lots left over.
If decorating with sparkles etc add them right away, as the icing hardens quickly.