Happy Holidays To All

Peer pressure finally got me. Every Blog I was visiting for the last couple of days was filled with the rich aroma of baking and though I am a bekaar Baker I finally gave in.

We do not celebrate Christmas as per se. That means we do not put up a Christmas tree, do not frantically buy last moment Christmas presents or bake for Christmas. However I enjoy the Christmas season because of the joyful spirit that you feel in the air, the long long weekends, the heavy discounts at the stores, the Christmas carols on the radio.

When I was small I loved the “Enid Blyton” Christmas. What intrigued me most was the ritual of hanging up of stockings and the stockings being filled with toys by Santa. I could never fathom how so many toys could go into a measly stocking and I always felt maybe stockings those “English” kids had were way better than mine.

But I guess that was the real essence of Christmas, of giving and being happy with small gifts and not asking for an Xbox or a PlayStation which would really really need a XXL stocking.

My little daughter who is usually scared of Santa at the mall has only asked for a small YoYo which would easily fit into her stockings :).

Back to baking I wanted to try out the scores of the cake recipes at all your wonderful blogs but decided to stick with something simple. So went for a Christmas Cranberry Cake. I followed the recipe from here . I am not reiterating the entire recipe here but just jotting down the notes.

What I learnt

Melt the Butter and mix the butter and sugar first
Then add the eggs and mix
Next the sour cream
Now go for the flour
The recipe I followed said a small sour cream and I really got the smallest one. This resulted in the mix being pretty thick at this point. So I added 1 more egg and half quarter of melted butter (in all I used 3eggs and 1 and ½ quarter of butter) to the mix to make it the right consistency, maybe I should have added some more sour cream.
I used a can of cranberry sauce (whole berries)

What I shall not do next time

I added Almond Extract as the recipe said but the flavor was not liked by the family much so I am going to give that a miss next time
Make a topping

The result was pretty ok, considering this is the second time I baked a non-boxed cake :)
The cranberrys in the cake gave it a slight tartness not making the cake very sweet.

Why Cranberries are good for You
Cranberries exhibit a level of tannins, in addition to antioxidants. Tannins have anti-clotting properties, and may help reduce infections in the urinary tract and reduce the amount of plaque-causing bacteria in the mouth, thus being a prophylaxis for gingivitis.

Enjoy the cake and the joy this season brings. Happy Holidays to all of you.

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