For our first Christmas, I have been carefully meal planning for the big day, and today I have been making two of the not so traditional elements to our first Christmas dinner, Tunis Cake and an Apricot and Chocolate sponge pudding. Neither David or I are fond of the traditional fruit equivalents of these desserts, so I decided to make something different.
The Tunis cake was first baked in the 1930's in Scotland, a traditional sponge cake covered with a thick layer of chocolate. Subsequent versions had marzipan fruits added as decorations, however I stuck to a traditional recipe of a moist madeira sponge cake with almonds and lemon zest, a thick and luscious chocolate ganache topping and white chocolate piped decorations. They're rather rustic, but I like them!
The cake was very simple to make and was baked in a basic 8" cake tin. Once the cake had cooled completely I covered it with a thick layer of chocolate and cream and allowed that to set again. Then to finish it off I piped some decorations on using white chocolate and allowed it all to set completely before removing it from the tin and onto a serving plate. A cake lifter or a couple of fish slices are essential at this point, as you can't turn it upside down to get it neatly onto a cake board, you'd end up with a very chocolatey hand and ruin all of your hard work.
I came across the Apricot and Chocolate pudding on the internet, and thought that it would be a perfect end to our Christmas dinner. It involved soaking apricots in brandy, (Honestly, it's awful!) then putting half at the bottom of a greased bowl, then chopping the rest into the chocolate sponge mixture along with extra chocolate chunks and ground almonds. As this is a steamed sponge pudding, it needs a double layer of buttered greaseproof paper tied on with string then a layer of foil over the top. This is very challenging if you don't have another pair of hands and as I tried practically lying on top of it to keep the paper in place whilst I anchored it with the string, I thought of an idea!
Put an elastic band over the top of the greaseproof to keep it in place. Then tie your string tightly around the bowl to secure the greaseproof paper, pulling it taught like a drum across the top. You can then snip off the elastic band with a pair of scissors and you're all sorted! Then cover everything with a layer of foil and tuck the ends up under the greaseproof paper.
To steam the pudding you can either use a large saucepan, or I used my slow cooker. First pre-heat the slow cooker empty on high for 15 minutes, otherwise you risk the bowl cracking when you pour in the boiling water. Place the pudding into the body of the slow cooker and pour boiling water halfway up the sides, then put the lid on and leave it to steam on high for the time stated in the recipe.
As I write the pudding is currently steaming away. This dessert can be made up to two days in advance, then on the day I shall add it back to the slow cooker, again pre-heating it and adding boiling water and steaming for an hour, before serving with chocolate sauce and vanilla ice cream, I can't wait!
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