A Christmas Cake As Good As Homemade
Over the past few years I have always tried to make my own Christmas cake. Firstly, it's a great thing to do on a really cold dark winters day as it turns your kitchen into a sweet, spicy and warm exotic location and I do really love a traditional fruit cake at Christmas - packed with dried fruits and nuts and with a hint of brandy too. It has become my Christmas therapy but I am lucky my family does appreciate it.
So with making my own I am certainly not the expert on shop bought cakes. Generally I like to know all the good ingredients have gone into the mixture, I like a moist cake and I think in the past when I have sampled cake in the supermarket or at friends over Christmas it tends to be dry or less flavoursome. I have generally steered away from shop bought as I will admit to being disappointed and maybe become a little too confident with thinking my homemade is best.
That is until I discovered Tipple Tails (in Yorkshire speak Tipple Tails means head over heels or bending over backwards to do something) and I have to say Jane Stammers, Head Cook and bottle washer at this Sheffield based company has done just that with her range of festive cakes.
By the time I met Jane at the Spirit of Christmas Fair this year I had tried so many cakes, biscuits, chocolate and drinks that day I was exhausted and my taste buds were asleep! But Jane's Tipple Tail cakes jumped out at me with such flavour, and was so crammed full of delicious things, I stood back and had to agree that this was either as good as my homemade or maybe better.
Jane makes all the cakes in her own kitchen with all the love and enjoyment that I think we all wish to put in our baking. She uses local ingredients and has sourced some unusual but very special tipples that make these cakes exceptional. Tipple Tails have a variety of four different cakes (ginger, apple, cherry and chocolate) these are all a clever twist on a traditional Christmas fruit cake and I have been lucky enough to try all of them. As the name implies they have all been steeped in a delicious tipple to suit their name.
Coco Bazaar is the chocolate fruit cake with exotic flavours of pistachios, honey, cardamom and a tipple of heady rose geranium and Turkish delight liqueur. I had this with a cup of coffee but agree that it would be delicious with a glass of Prosseco
Cinnamon Pippin is a apple twist on the traditional fruit cake. It was really nice full of apple, cinnamon and hazelnuts. I love all the fruit and the pieces of nut, its crammed full of lovely ingredients. I had a piece of this with some cheese one lunch time and it really was a fantastic combination.
Ginger Tingle is a rich moist cake packed with stem ginger. My mother in law is a huge fan of ginger so I know she is going to absolutely love this for Christmas. I loved the walnuts and the ginger liqueur and again had a small piece with a coffee but would work with a wedge of cheese.
Then the cake I tried last was my true favourite… my husband's words were 'this is better than yours' and actually I didn't mind, as I agreed. Packed full of traditional vine fruits like the others but cherries, almonds and the not so secret ingredient is cherry bakewell tart liqueur, Wow - just the best Christmas treat!
If you would love to make your own but are running short of time, or just have too many things on the list with Christmas fast approaching I would highly recommend placing an order with Tipple Tails. Beautifully presented and delivered to your door it makes a great Christmas gift or a present to yourself and family which tastes as good as it gets. View now at: www.reallygreatfruitcake.co.uk/fruit-cake-shop