Christmas Cake on Minimum Wage

Many thanks for the positive feedback regarding how you can still enjoy your Christmas season meals without breaking the bank. To be honest, I don't know how so many people survive on a minimum wage of $15,000 or less per fortnight or $5000 per week for those who get this meagre sum.

After all, they have to pay for cable, buy phone credit, pay bus fares for themselves and the children, buy food, pay rent/mortgage and find the daily lunches. On top of that, these same people throw a daily or weekly partner, buy Cash Pot, get the latest hairstyles, buy the fashionable outfits and some still have a little left over to buy bleaching creams and go to the stage shows and parties. They should be running the country!

So, as I contemplate all the above (which adds up to more than minimum wage), I am grateful that I had soaked my fruits for the Christmas cake from last year. Just looking at the prices of the ingredients for this 'must have' item, gave me a headache.

INGREDIENTS

n Flour

n sugar

n butter

n eggs

n Red Label wine

n white rum

n browning

n baking powder

n raisins

n currants

n prunes

n vanilla

n cinnamon

n nutmeg

n rind from one orange

n grease proof paper to line my baking tins and

n some breadrumbs, are the essentials.

n pinch of salt

I usually add some molasses, use caramel instead of browning, and marmalade or strawberry jam, some dates and mashed nuts or honey instead of sugar, are a must. Instead of water or more rum and wine, I use cold tea brewed from teabags as my liquid (about 6 tea bags per quart of water). You will need at least 10 eggs for each pound of butter and sugar and you do not have to use mixed peel at all.

To ensure that you have at least one nine-inch cake in your home this Christmas, gather all your friends and family and find the one among you who makes the best fruit cake ever. Since that person will be supplying her time, cooking gas, oven space,

electricity and home, the rest of you should simply choose three or four items from the list of ingredients above. Just remember that a one- pound mixture (1lb each of butter and sugar), can produce three nine-inch cakes, depending on the quantity of fruits. You will need about two and a half pounds of flour for this mixture.

To make things easy for the

designated baker, all other 'Christmas cake partners' should take along their own baking tin (s). And, just so you keep an eye on things, you could chip in and help to grease the tins or cut the grease paper, rub up the butter and sugar or even clean up the kitchen afterwards.

Now, I never use a recipe for my cake, years of practice just give me the knowledge to gauge how much of each ingredient to add, so if you need a recipe, simply Google: How to make a Jamaican Christmas cake, and do your thing.

I wish for you and your families a happy, healthy and crime/accident and violence free Christmas and a healthy and prosperous New Year.

(barbara.ellington@gleanerjm.com)