Oh, fudge!

It is immediately obvious which page has been most loved in my family's copy of The Edmonds Cookbook. The page for chocolate fudge has been ripped out completely, and, while other pages are pristine white, this page is yellowed with a good number of fudgey stains across it:

The way well-loved recipe books should look

Fudge is brilliant fun. It doesn’t take long, doesn’t use any fancy ingredients, and – of course – is delish. For the starving student, homemade fudge makes a grand Christmas gift: it comes from the heart, costs you next to nothing and you’d be hard-pressed to find the relative or friend who doesn’t like it.

The trickiest part of making fudge (which is pretty easy anyway) is getting it to the soft ball stage. You fill a wee bowl of cold water and spoon a tiny bit of fudge in. If it’s at the soft ball stage, you can form it underwater into – you guessed it – a soft ball. It should hold its shape out of the water too. Testing for this is fun because you get to eat all the failed balls. Excellent.

Mmm failed balls

Inspired by Edmunds Cookbook: Mocha Fudge

2 c sugar

1 Tbsp honey - I used manuka

2 Tbsp cocoa

25g butter

½ c milk

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 shot coffee - or 2 tsp instant coffee (dissolve in wee bit of water before adding)

Combine the sugar, honey, cocoa, butter and milk in a saucepan. Heat gently on stove, stirring constantly until all sugar is dissolved. Make sure all the sugar is dissolved by tasting the fudge and feeling for sugar granules with your tongue. Once sugar is dissolved, bring to boil and do not stir. Boil until fudge reached the soft ball stage. Remove from heat, add vanilla, and rest for 5 minutes. Butter a tin while fudge rests. When time’s up, add coffee then beat until thick. This takes a while, but don’t rush it! Fudge is ready when it starts to harden around the edges and the pattern the beaters leave behind remains. Pour into tin fast. Mark into squares and allow to set. Voilá!

By the time you've finished pouring it into the tin, the fudge left in the saucepan have turned crunchy. If your fudge doesn’t set right, or you’re impatient to get eating, stick it in the fridge for a bit.

Insert Christmas Pun Here

November seems a tad early to be thinking about Christmas but shops have been playing their carols and stringing up tinsel for weeks by now. It’s my mum’s tradition to make at least three Christmas cakes every year because they invariably get scoffed before the big day. The added bonus is that when you make the cake early, it needs to be soaked in booze to preserve it. How very jolly!

The cake post-boozing.

Ooo just look at those fabulous fake colours. Om nom nom.

And now the Christmas fruit has been snowed on!

Alison Holst has been a constant in my cooking education. Her recipe for paprika chicken was the first thing I learnt to cook for dinner so the family ate that on a weekly basis for a long time. Mum and I make her pineapple Christmas cake bi-annually, alternating with another of Alison’s recipes.

We mixed the leftover pineapple juice with ginger ale and Pimms to sip while the cake cooked and I thrashed Mother at a game of Kings.

Alison Holst’s Pineapple Christmas Cake (From Alison Holst’s Kitchen Diary)

225 g butter – room temperature

1 c sugar

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 tsp almond essence

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ginger

1 tsp mixed spice

1 tsp coriander

½ tsp cardamom

¼ tsp nutmeg

6 eggs – room temperate

Mixed fruit – I used 1kg mixed fruit, ¼ c sultanas, 2 handfuls prunes

1 c drained crushed pineapple – reserve juice

3 c plain flour

¼ c brandy/whisky/ etc.

Line a cake-tin with several layers of newspaper, with a layer of greaseproof paper on top. Allison recommends leaving the paper higher than the tin, to save the cake from browning too quickly. Preheat oven to 150°C.

Beat butter and sugar until light and smooth. Add essences and spices, then beat one egg in at a time. Inbetween each egg add a little of the measured amount of flour to prevent curdling.

In a larger bowl add the dried fruits, drained pineapple and remaining flour. Stir the egg mix into the fruit mix using a wooden spoon. The batter should be moist enough to drop off the spoon, so add extra flour or reserved pineapple juice if needed.

Spoon mixture well into the corners of the cake tin to ensure the lining paper doesn't shift. Spoon in the rest of the batter.

Bake at 150°C for two hours, then lower temperature to 130°C and bake for 1.5- 2 hours more. The cake is finished when an inserted knife comes out clean. As soon as cake is ready, pour your spirit of choice over it. The fumes are boozey!  Leave cake in tin until cool enough to touch, then pop it on a rack to finish cooling.

Pour the same amount of spirits over the cake once every couple of weeks if baking well in advance of Christmas and ice around Christmas Eve ish.

Thunderbirds are go!

Hi there!

My name is Grace and I'm a full-time arts student, part-time food enthusiast, embarking on the voyage of food blogging.

The stereotype goes that students = poor, and therefore survival depends on 2 minute noodles and the cheapest beer about. It doesn't need to be that way! My goal is to eat well on a student's budget. Sometimes. I'll splash out on a fancy ingredient (like cream, what up) or pop home and 'borrow' my parents' flash food. But most of the time, I'll be focusing on turning cheap ingredients into delicious food and sampling the tasty treats of Wellington.

I've always enjoyed writing and cooking, although until now, always separately. Starting this blog seemed like the best way to combine these two passions, and to help me document my culinary adventures.

Guten Appetit!