By Gordon…
My annual Christmas cake has now been placed to macerate in preparation for eating in the festive season.
This year’s recipe had many ingredient adaptations to give it a truly unique Myanmar flavour. Experimenting with what I could find has been fun.
Some of the local products I swapped included – treacle for palm jaggery, Scotch whisky for award winning Myanmar whisky and flaked almonds for fresh Mandalay walnuts (still in their shells).
Students assisted with the mise en place which was used as a lesson on measuring and weighing ingredients (thanks again to Lisa and Les for the electronic scales) and following a recipe.
The cooking and finishing was not as slick as previous years with the improvised baking paper surrounding the cake tin catching fire in the oven. Luckily we were able to put it out quickly… and had another impromptu lesson on safety!
On top of all the above challenges we also had a power blackout and the generator can’t power all larger electrical equipment. Fridges and freezers take priority.
This meant the oven was off for a while… luckily it wasn’t a sponge!
However, despite these hiccups the smiles and joviality in the kitchen more that made up for it.
Please note the cake (may) contain eggs, flour, nuts, dried tropical fruit, dairy products, substantial amounts of alcohol, spices, sugar, salt, fresh air and lots of love!
Undoubtedly delicious.
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Yum!! But what’s a wheat flour option in Bagan?
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mmm yummm. Bob and I will miss Gordon’s delicious xmas cake.
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Fantastic. A great tale. I love the pics.
Great to know you guys were able to extinguish the fire. Very impressive.
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What is the green dried fruit? It will give a different colour than you are used to!
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My mouth is watering and……….I am hoping there is a slice for me for when I get there!
I love the improvisation ideas – and despite the various hurdles – I bet it tastes fabulous.
Anita
xx
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There will be more than a slice for you my dear.
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I wish you luck Gordon and team – last year i improvised for Patrick’s glazed fruit cake…..instead iof enjoying a slice with a cup of tea or coffee .. It was a crumbled mass that was eaten with custard or ice cream!!!
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That’ll make it through customs if you mail me some .. won’t it? 😉 yum.
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