CHRISTMAS CAKE HECKFIELD PLACE, ENGLAND

For wintertime cheer at its finest, the bucolic English countryside cannot be beat, with its snowglobe-style scenery, quintessentially British atmosphere and Heckfield Place, the Georgian manor house-turned-luxury hotel in Hampshire located on 438 acres of land. Renowned chef Skye Gyngell, the Culinary Director at Heckfield Place, has created the below recipes, ideal for any Christmas table across the world:

INGREDIENTS

1 cup Plain flour

½ teaspoon salt

½ tsp ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon grated nutmeg

1 ½ cup sultanas

½ cup prunes pitted and chopped 1 cup seeded raisins

1 cup amerena cherries, half chopped 1 cup blanched almonds blitzed

1 cup candied peel

¼ zest lemon

½ zest orange

3/4 cups muscovado sugar

4 eggs

¾ cup butter, melted

⅓ cup brandy

METHOD

- The day before, mix together sultanas, raisins and cognac; allow to soak overnight. The next day, drain the cognac from the fruit and set the juice aside. Place fruit in a mixer, add almonds, candied peel, zest of lemon and orange and the muscovado sugar. In a second bowl, combine cherries and prunes.

-Mix sugar and fruit very well; then add cherries and prunes. Next, sift the dry ingredients into another bowl, and add the butter, eggs and cognac. Now add the batter to the fruit mixture and mix very well. - Butter your cake tins and fill them with the cake mix. - Bake for 1 to 2 hours, until the cake is firm to touch and dry when tested with a toothpick in the middle - Cool the cake.

https://www.heckfieldplace.com/

INGREDIENTS

125g refrigerated vegetable shortening or extra virgin coconut oil

375ml white bread flour

½ teaspoon salt

15ml castor sugar

15ml iced water

METHOD

- First, add the flour, sugar and salt to the food processor. Pulse a few times to combine.

- Add the cold cubed vegetable shortening or pieces of solidified coconut oil. Pulse, until the texture resembles that of breadcrumbs.

- With the food processor running, add a few tablespoons of ice water, until the pastry begins to clump together.

- Transfer to a lightly floured surface, and work the dough into a ball, don’t use your hands too long or it will warm up the fat.

- Roll out the pastry to about 3mm diameter.

-Transfer the dough onto a greased pie plate by wrapping the dough around the rolling pin and carefully placing it on the plate.

- Push the dough into the edges of the pie plate gently. - Trim off any excess, and replace any broken areas.

- Let the dough rest for 30 minutes in the fridge and blind bake for 20-25 minutes at 200oC / 392oF.

COCONUT CARAMEL

INGREDIENTS

1 cup coconut cream ½ cup white cane sugar ½ teaspoon salt 1 tablespoon cornstarch 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

METHOD

- Caramelize the sugar in a shallow saucepan taking care to fold in the edges to avoid burning.

-Mix together the coconut cream, cornstarch and salt and whisk into the caramelized sugar away from heat.