Kentucky fried chicken & strawberry shortcake

[melonpan]

hiroyuki, those cakes are cute!

i am going home for the holidays...

i just realised that i forgot to ask my mom to go out and purchase my favourite cake... oh well (in case any one is wondering, although i doubt anyone would be who is reading the japan forum, the cake is burnt almond cake from dicks bakery in san jose, ca -- DE. VINE)...

no tradition of having any xmas cake, but you know, it sounds really good. i think i may try to convince some members of my family to drive out to one of the markets and get one. :D (i checked. they are open on xmas eve and xmas day!)

It sounds silly for me to say this, but I've got to say this,

"Merry Christmas, everyone!!"

merry christmas, hiroyuki.

and merry christmas to you too, everyone!

[helenjp]

Congratulations Hiroyuki! You and your family must have had a wonderful Christmas Eve.

To my surprise, my kids said they didn't want a Japanese Christmas cake this year. They recalled that I mentioned that we sometimes have Christmas icecream in New Zealand so I am making something similar to this "cassata icecream" recipe

[Hiroyuki]

hey...  how about that recipe for the chestnut cake?  even a link to a recipe in japanese would be greatly appreciated.  thanks!

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Recipe?? Sorry, I have no recipe to share for this one. I just mashed the peeled and boiled chestnuts and added margarine (not unsalted butter, as I previously mentioned). And yesterday, I added some milk (not cream) to make the paste soft and easy to spread. I placed some light, salted rice crackers on the plate. Then I put the paste and shaped it like a mountain, and added whipped cream to simulate a snow-capped mountain. That's all. Regrettably, I forgot to use the un-mashed chestnuts for ornaments.

I must admit that these two cakes, especially the chestnut cake, don't look very delicious, but believe me, they are more delicious than those cakes in the price range of 3,000 to 5,000 (8,000?) yen that you can buy from a cake shop in Japan. It's exactly because I was fed up with the high-priced and low-quality store-bought cakes that I started to make them at home. In particular, I can't put up with the bland taste of cheap cream of vegetable oil. I looove the rich taste of real cream.

[Hiroyuki]

Congratulations Hiroyuki! You and your family must have had a wonderful Christmas Eve.

To my surprise, my kids said they didn't want a Japanese Christmas cake this year. They recalled that I mentioned that we sometimes have Christmas icecream in New Zealand so I am making something similar to this "cassata icecream" recipe

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You must be missing a Christmas on the beach.

We are enjoying a white Christmas here in the Snow Country.

[torakris]

no christmas cakes in our house.....

We got togther with some friends yesterday and made a whole bunch of gingerbread men though.....

I was at Costco yesterday (Christmas Eve) and in their cake corner the only thing they were selling were Christmas cakes, normally they have sheet cakes, cheesecakes, variety cakes, etc. Almost every cart I went past had one inside they were selling them for 1500 yen ($15) -- they only had one kind-- and they were much bigger than any Christmas cake I had ever seen in Japan.

They were also taking orders for their roasted chickens and a huge line was at the pizza take out counter....

[Hiroyuki]

Last Saturday (Dec. 18), Saturday Night Chubaw featured a Christmas chocolate cake.  Unfortunately, as of today (Dec. 20), the  English version of the site has not yet listed it.

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The recipe has been translated into English.

http://www.tbs.co.jp/chubaw/en/rec20041218.html

[Hiroyuki]

It's that time of year again. What is your Christmas cake this year?

I have already ordered a chocolate cake from Seven-Eleven. My son still insists that we make a Christmas cake at home, so I'm thinking of making a chestnut cake.

[torakris]

We are heading to Bali for Christmas this year, so no Christmas cakes, no Kentucky fried chicken....

I can't wait to see pictures of the cakes others have made/bought though.

[Hiroyuki]

We are heading to Bali for Christmas this year, so no Christmas cakes, no Kentucky fried chicken....

I can't wait to see pictures of the cakes others have made/bought though.

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This is the Christmas cake that my son (9) made last Saturday at a cooking class designed for elementary pupils. He did all the decoration.

The fee was 800 yen per person.

[torakris]

Hiroyuki,

that is beautiful!

a nice article on Japanese shortcake

[Kiem Hwa]

After looking at pictures of Christmas cake for the past few weeks, I couldnt resist making one of my own.

Heres a chocolate one (Chocolate cake + Chocolate-flavored cream), with strawberries and raspberries.

This is our first Christmas away from home, so my BF and I decided to go for the Fried Chicken and French fries also.

Merry Christmas!!!!

[helenjp]

I made a hot milk sponge cake, split it and filled it with white chocolate ganache and crushed strawberries, then covered it with a softer white chocolate ganache flavored with a strawberry liqueur that comes out every Christmas. A few strawberries went on top.

Last night my husband came home looking for leftover cake, and found only three guilty faces. He said he regretted not emailing us from work...at the time, he apparently thought it would be too uncool to email his family to reserve his share of the leftovers! I thought he didn't like sweet things too much, but apparently ganache falls into a special category.

Meanwhile, we just cut the very last of the fruitcake...and put my husband's share on a plate. It goes remarkably well with a nice can of Ebisu black.

[Cadbury]

I made a hot milk sponge cake...

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Helen, can you give a recipe for hot milk sponge cake? I'm curious having not come across it before.

[Hiroyuki]

Meanwhile, we just cut the very last of the fruitcake...and put my husband's share on a plate. It goes remarkably well with a nice can of Ebisu black.

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I'm interested in your fruitcake. Tell me a little bit more about it. As for Ebisu black, did your husband agree with your opinion??

[helenjp]

This is a recipe my sister gave me, from one of her favorite cookbooks:

Evelyn Rose, The New Complete International Jewish Cookbook

I have the old edition, but I assume it's in this new edition too. It is basically reliable standard British food, but my sister HATES to cook anything that even MIGHT not work out, and this book is reliability made reality. Apart from that, I find that UK cake recipes work well with Japanese (haku-riki) flour.

Hot Milk Sponge Cake

3 large eggs separated

150g fine sugar

100g cake flour (or 75g plain and 25g katakuriko)

75ml hot milk

grated rind 1/2 lemon, optional but a great addition!

1 level 5ml tsp Baking Powder

1 pinch salt

20cm round tin, or larger ring tin, brushed with oil, shake a little extra sugar and flour round the tin and throw away any loose remaining sugar/flour.

Preheat oven to 200deg. C

Sift dry ingredients, grate lemon rind on top.

Whisk whites with a pinch of salt until stiff and glossy.

Break up yolks and add one by one alternating with sugar, a little at a time, till you have a pale mousselike mixture.

(I actually don't use this method, I whisk the whites, then whisk the eggs till pale and fluffy with the sugar, and then fold together, but it's possible that the original method produces a more tender cake).

Heat milk till it just bubbles round the edges.

Place flour gently on top of egg mixture, pour hot milk carefully down sides of bowl and immediately fold all together gently with a large spoon till no white flour can be seen. Pour into cake tin, and sprinkle a little granulated sugar over the surface.

Put cake into oven and reset temperature to 180degC and timer to 45 minutes. Check at around 30 minutes - if surface is firm and cake is just beginning to pull away from sides, it should be ready. Japanese ovens tend to run hot, and also are often fan-assisted, so the cake could be ready in 30 minutes, especially in a ring tin. If the cake has pulled well away from the sides of the tin, it's probably a bit overdone.

Leave in tin for 10 minutes then turn out - I actually invert it like a chiffon cake.

Fruit Cake - a type of fruit cake known as a "boiled fruit cake" or a porter cake is a great introduction to fruit cake - moist, without the strong perfume of a very dark fruitcake matured for several months.

BBC recipe for Porter Cake Any dark beer will do instead of porter.

This is my favorite quick fruit cake, though a real matured fruit cake would have at least twice this much dried fruit!

Brandy and Ginger Fruit Cake

500-600g dried fruit (about half raisins, about 50g dates, and about 50g candied peel if possible, a knob of fresh ginger, shredded if you like)

115cc dry ginger ale (Canada Dry is better than Suntory for this)

25cc brandy (shochu would do)

50g cake flour with 1/2 tsp baking powder

115g butter, softened

115g fine sugar

2 eggs

50g glace cherries for decoration, optional

Soak dried fruit in ginger ale and brandy overnight.

Grease an 18cm round cake tin, line the INSIDE with baking paper folded in 3, Put a butter paper on the bottom of the cake tin and a circle of baking paper cut to fit. Or, use a disposable cardboard cake mold. A ring shape used for chiffon cake makes it easy to cook the cake evenly.

Cream butter and sugar, gradually add eggs together with a little of the flour to prevent separating.

Mix in fruit and liquid.

Pour into tin, make a depression in the middle and push the mixture more to the sides.

Press cherry halves around top if you like.

Place a piece of baking paper loosely over top of cake.

Bake 160degC for 2 - 2 1/2 hours, until a skewer comes out clean.

Remove from oven. Stand in tin for 30 minutes to cool.

If you want to, you can poke holes all over the cake with a skewer, and gently spoon more ginger ale and/or brandy over the cake. When lukewarm, wrap tightly in foil and keep at least overnight before eating.

...And Hiroyuki, my husband doesn't agree with me about eating fruit cake with Ebisu Black at all, sadly!

Edited December 27, 2005 by helenjp (log)

[Cadbury]

Thanks Helen, for the sponge cake recipe. I've made sponges with all sorts of variations in the method (melted butter, hot water etc) but not hot milk so I'll have to give it a try. Once I've recovered from Christmas that is.

I don't have access to my dictionaries at the moment so I'm not sure what katakuriko is. Do you think good quality plain flour would do? I should add that I live in the middle of nowhere in the Western Australian wheatbelt so "weird ingredients" (shop keepers words, not mine) are a little hard to find.

[helenjp]

katakuriko - was once "dogtooth violet root flour" but is now potato starch! Use cornflour, wheaten or corn, as you prefer - cornflour (US cornstarch) is simply harder to find in Japan, so I use katakuriko here.

If you're using Australian flour, probably adding some cornflour is a good idea. Good luck with the recipe!

P.S. I like your name - I had a great aunt who worked as a typist (in the days when they were referred to as "female typists") for Cadbury in NZ, and was regarded as very fast, because she was the only one in the office who would go flying in the manager's son's little aeroplane!

[Hiroyuki]

Fruit Cake - a type of fruit cake known as a "boiled fruit cake" or a porter cake is a great introduction to fruit cake - moist, without the strong perfume of a very dark fruitcake matured for several months.

BBC recipe for Porter Cake Any dark beer will do instead of porter.

This is my favorite quick fruit cake, though a real matured fruit cake would have at least twice this much dried fruit!

Brandy and Ginger Fruit Cake

500-600g dried fruit (about half raisins, about 50g dates, and about 50g candied peel if possible, a knob of fresh ginger, shredded if you like)

115cc dry ginger ale (Canada Dry is better than Suntory for this)

25cc brandy (shochu would do)

50g cake flour with 1/2 tsp baking powder

115g butter, softened

115g fine sugar

2 eggs

50g glace cherries for decoration, optional

Soak dried fruit in ginger ale and brandy overnight.

Grease an 18cm round cake tin, line the INSIDE with baking paper folded in 3, Put a butter paper on the bottom of the cake tin and a circle of baking paper cut to fit. Or, use a disposable cardboard cake mold. A ring shape used for chiffon cake makes it easy to cook the cake evenly.

Cream butter and sugar, gradually add eggs together with a little of the flour to prevent separating.

Mix in fruit and liquid.

Pour into tin, make a depression in the middle and push the mixture more to the sides.

Press cherry halves around top if you like.

Place a piece of baking paper loosely over top of cake.

Bake 160degC for 2 - 2 1/2 hours, until a skewer comes out clean.

Remove from oven. Stand in tin for 30 minutes to cool.

If you want to, you can poke holes all over the cake with a skewer, and gently spoon more ginger ale and/or brandy over the cake. When lukewarm, wrap tightly in foil and keep at least overnight before eating.

...And Hiroyuki, my husband doesn't agree with me about eating fruit cake with Ebisu Black at all, sadly!

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Thanks for a detailed description of your fruitcake. I'll ask my wife if she's interested. As for a combination of sweets and sake..., I think it's hard for you to find someone who agrees with you in a country where there are such silly notions as amatou and karatou. I can eat Christmas cake with shouchu, though.

[Cadbury]

katakuriko - was once "dogtooth violet root flour" but is now potato starch! Use cornflour, wheaten or corn, as you prefer - cornflour (US cornstarch) is simply harder to find in Japan, so I use katakuriko here.

If you're using Australian flour, probably adding some cornflour is a good idea. Good luck with the recipe!

P.S. I like your name - I had a great aunt who worked as a typist (in the days when they were referred to as "female typists") for Cadbury in NZ, and was regarded as very fast, because she was the only one in the office who would go flying in the manager's son's little aeroplane!

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Thank you. I had wondered if cornflour was the necessary ingredient.

In regards to my name, I'm not sure if NZ had the Prof Sumner-Miller ads for Cadbury choc where he refers to "a glass and a half of full cream milk in every block of choc" I'm ashamed to admit that my name comes from the time when I first met my husband and unaccustomed to drinking, a glass and a half of beer would have me on my ear, hence the "Cadbury" - didn't take long to rectify the situation though

[GlorifiedRice]

A few years back Christmas was celebrated more like valentines day for young Japanese couples as mentioned in the link, splurging on a very nice meal, expensive gifts and staying in a luxury hotel, all courtesy of the boy. I think the fad all of a sudden died and I don't think it is as common anymore.

Valentines day in itself is the reverse, on february 14 the girl is supposed to give chocolate to "every" man she knows, romantically linked or not. I think something like 90% of all luxury chocolates in Japan are sold in February.

Maybe less than 1% of Japanese are christian, but they take on a lot of christian traditions in their own way, mostly weddings.

The Häagen-Dazs shop in Roppongi (one of Tokyos major entertainment areas) was converted into a Christian Wedding Chapel.

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This is so interesting to me...

How much money do women spend on Valentines Day in Japan?

I live near the oldest chocolate factory in the USA (NOT Hersheys) Ashers and I buy chocolate lollipops for my sons class and teachers for each holiday and those cost $2.50 a pop. It gets expensive and my sons class is only 8 kids and 4 teachers.

OY!

Kristin? Do you have this years KFC and 7-11 Christmas pages?

[GlorifiedRice]

Christmas is still one of the biggest date nights of the year (next to Valentine's day), they tend to spend less money now because most people have less to spend.

On the other hand, New Year's Eve is a time to spend with your family.......

Christmas is completely commercial in Japan, there is nothing religious to it, I am curious to know how many Japanese even know the true meaning behind Christmas.

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Kristin? MOST Christians dont know the true meaning behind Christmas.

Santa, a Tree, Presents etc are Pagan symbols.

The Christians took the Pagans holidays over to seem more friendly and similar.

Same with Easter Eggs and Bunnies.

LOL, where in the Bible did Jesus say..."On the date I rose from the dead you shall go forth and eat ham and potato salad and horseradish with beets!!!....and always bite the chocolate bunnies ears off first!!!"

(???)

Christians have no true idea when Jesus' birthday really was, so they picked December 25th to make it easier to convert the Pagans to Christianity since a Pagan holiday already existed on that day...

BTW Kristin? What do people do in Japan for Halloween?

[GlorifiedRice]

I am really with smallworld on this one,

Japanese sweets blow the socks off anything from North America.....

That being said though I have never eaten Christmas cake, I am a Christmas cookie girl.

I do find it interesting though that my Japanese friends are always shocked to hear Americans don't eat strawberry shortcake on Christmas, they all assume it is an American thing for some reason....

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hhhhmmm!

I remember ALWAYS buying a strawberry shortcake from Kyj's bakery in Brookhaven Pa before driving to my grandmas house on Christmas eve.

Maybe its a Russian Immigrant thing?

BTW I met Colonel Sanders as a child....

Edited November 1, 2006 by GlorifiedRice (log)

[Hiroyuki]

I am really with smallworld on this one,

Japanese sweets blow the socks off anything from North America.....

That being said though I have never eaten Christmas cake, I am a Christmas cookie girl.

I do find it interesting though that my Japanese friends are always shocked to hear Americans don't eat strawberry shortcake on Christmas, they all assume it is an American thing for some reason....

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hhhhmmm!

I remember ALWAYS buying a strawberry shortcake from Kyj's bakery in Brookhaven Pa before driving to my grandmas house on Christmas eve.

Maybe its a Russian Immigrant thing?

BTW I met Colonel Sanders as a child....

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By strawberry shortcake, torakris meant Japanese strawberry shortcake, that is, strawberry sponge cake.

[GlorifiedRice]

I am really with smallworld on this one,

Japanese sweets blow the socks off anything from North America.....

That being said though I have never eaten Christmas cake, I am a Christmas cookie girl.

I do find it interesting though that my Japanese friends are always shocked to hear Americans don't eat strawberry shortcake on Christmas, they all assume it is an American thing for some reason....

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hhhhmmm!

I remember ALWAYS buying a strawberry shortcake from Kyj's bakery in Brookhaven Pa before driving to my grandmas house on Christmas eve.

Maybe its a Russian Immigrant thing?

BTW I met Colonel Sanders as a child....

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By strawberry shortcake, torakris meant Japanese strawberry shortcake, that is, strawberry sponge cake.

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Yeah, Kyjs was more of a spongecake then usual shortcake.

But posters were wondering where the Japanese got the idea that Americans had strawberry shortcake for Christmas and I added that my family always bought one on Christmas eve... Might have been a total coincidence, maybe not.

[torakris]

Yes, you can starting placing your orders for Christmas cakes now! Here are the ones 7-11 is offering this year.

and don't forget your dog at Christmas, 7-11 is also selling special dessert/cookie sets just for the dogs. While you are at it keep scrolling down and you will see that you can buy an osechi (traditional new years dishes) set for the pooch as well.