Show Cooking

I quite like cooking.  It's in my blood. My mum is a good cook, as were my nana and grandma. My Mum has done a bit of show cooking over the years, and has won quite a few awards during that time. The most recent being for "My Favorite Cake", for which she used a Stephanie Alexander recipe consisting of lots of currants, a bottle of stout, a bit of flour and some eggs.  Way to go Mum !  So I'm following in her footsteps and have begun show cooking.  The year before last was my first. I didn't win any prizes (not that I was expecting to), but I was happy with the feedback from the judges and with how my cooking looked (except for my after dinner treats - chocolate ganache filled dates, which were then covered in the same ganache and rolled in cocoa powder.  They tasted delicious. But looked like poo. The judges comments went along the lines of "they taste delicious, but presentation needs to be considered") 

This year I'm entering a dark fruit cake (not a rich fruit cake, a dark fruit cake - I'm not sure what the difference is, but obviously there must be one), a carrot cake (using the recipe which my sister cooked whilst she was staying with us in July and was delicious), lemon curd and, possibly, apple jelly.  The good thing about show cooking is that the entries only cost $4 each, so if you decide you can't enter a particular item it's not a terrible loss.  Although the dollars spent practising are wasted! And you miss out on the prizes!

Getting my fruit cake just right has been a journey.  First off I tried the Joy of Cooking fruit cake recipe only to discover, after it turned out really weirdly, that they had left the eggs out of the recipe, and had put too much brandy (for soaking the fruit) in. Thank goodness. (It also might account for why I picked it up as a bargain years ago...)  I didn't think I was that bad a cook and the guys at work dutifully ate the results. 

My mother-in-law was a Show cake judge, so she knows a bit about show cooking as well.  I rang her (after some prompting from my hubby) and she dictated her tried & trusted fruit cake recipe.  The only snag was that she usually cooks it in her wood stove or convection microwave and I don't have a wood stove or a convection microwave. I also wrapped the tin in a double layer of paper (from a butchers paper bag - they're stronger), turned down my oven and didn't use the fan.  Test cake 1 was terrific. Dark, moist, delicious! Test cake 2 was OK (it was a bit light). I think the problem was overbeating the sugar and butter which led to a paler cake than I was after. However one of the guys said it tasted like his gran's cake, which I took as high praise!

So this weekend is get the fruitcake done weekend.  It takes about 4 hours to cook so I'm not planning on going anywhere tomorrow afternoon. I've cut up the cherries (sob, sob, I love biting into a whole cherry, but I conferred with people who know and everyone said cut them, so they're cut) and they're mascerating along with currants, carefully separated raisins, and some lightly crystallized ginger (in place of peel).

So, fingers crossed, my cake is on track to get at least a place.