It's Official ~ the Silly Season starts tomorrow...

A delicious use of last year's Christmas Cake ~ as this year's Ice Cream Cake 

Well a big ho-Ho-HO to you! The end of November has fallen and finally about to be December here. Summer starts, SmallBoy is a year older, some Siblings will be aging also plus, of course, it is Christmas which makes the whole month 'silly'.  Meal wise, we hope to have Christmas lunch here as own little family, perhaps including Mudgut's friend, Husbands mum and/or my Dad. Planning for 6-8 regardless. The lawn and roof decorations are appearing on houses and those little coloured lights are putting some of that festive spirit out there!

Hands up who gets a Christmas Cake, a pudding and/or the mince pies each year? *imagines quite a few* Who cuts up and eats that cake, if only one slice? Actually, does any one have more than one slice of the cake? Who likes eating Christmas Cake each year? *imagines quite a few less* Has anyone got a Christmas Cake or Pudding in the pantry from last year(s) family lunch? Last year I made the most delicious Ice Cream Christmas Cake, using a combination of a rich and light Lions Christmas Cakes. Dessert needed to feed 8 adults and 9 children and this one was under $1 per head AND we had leftovers. I've been asked to make it again ~ lucky we were given a rich Lions Christmas Cake last year.

Dessert for 17 ~ what a selection

I loosely based it on a recipe in an old Simple Savings newsletter when the Destitute Gourmet Sophie Gray used to contribute. As we make ours 'two-tone', it's different and a lot more impressive in our opinion. We make an adult version and a children's version. Or one with alcohol and one without. You do need a little more freezing time however it looks so impressive as you can see. If doing a single flavour, use a good quality vanilla ice cream. Add dried fruits, nuts, choc bits, honeycomb, whatever...

You will need

250-400g Christmas cake - rich, dark or light; bought or homemade (check your pantry)
Spirits (eg. cointreau, frangelico, butterscotch schnapps, tia maria, brandy) or quality fruit juice (fresh OJ/Pine or breakfast blend types)

1 x 1L tub bought chocolate ice cream - love 1L Aldi 'double choc' or a mud choc type
1 x 2L tub of quality French vanilla ice cream (or 2 x 1L Aldi 'vanilla bean')
Frozen berries, shaved chocolate, fresh seasonal fruits to decorate

Use a clean, unlined Silicone Loaf form or line a metal/pyrex loaf tin with lots of plastic cling wrap to completely line the tin and have plenty of over hang to cover the top during freezing.

Have 2-3 large mixing bowls available, a silicone spatula or silicone spoon works best! 

Crumble the cake and drizzle over the spirits or juice, leaving to soak for at least two hours, preferably over night. The dark/rich cake is crumbled into a bowl with 2tbs - 1/4 cup of brandy or frangelico added, mixed through with a spatula and kept covered. This will be going in with the chocolate ice cream. 

In a separate bowl, crumble more dark/rich cake or alternate with a light cake soaked in cointreau for the vanilla ice cream. 

The kid's cake can be crumbled up and placed in a third large bowl before pouring over up to a third of a cup of fresh or bottled juice. Only vanilla ice cream with be mixed with this fruit cake mix.

Remove the vanilla ice cream from freezer and allow softening a little but not go runny or liquefying. Do one cake at a time, putting the required ice cream onto the cake mixture.  Put half the ice cream into the adults bowl, the rest back in the fridge or freezer. 

We put the vanilla ice cream with a light fruit cake soaked in cointreau; and the other half will be for the kids cake mix bowl. 

Combine the crumbled cake into the ice cream. Pour/ladle the mixture into the prepared tin and tap on the bench to let out air bubbles and fill in the corners. Fill to about 2/3 full, as there is still the chocolate base to add.  Fold excess cling film over the top and return to the freezer to re freeze. 

Tip:  do the kids one first to give the adults cake more soaking time while you practice *winks*

Wait at least two hours for the vanilla cake mix to refreeze, ideally wait overnight.

Take out the chocolate ice cream to soften but not liquefy. Add half to adult cake mix and combine as per the vanilla ice cream. Take the vanilla alcohol cake mixture from the freezer and fill the rest of the tin with the chocolate ice cream mixture. Return completed cake to the freezer covered with cling wrap for at least 24hrs.  

Take out the kids/non-alcoholic refrozen vanilla cake mixture tin and spoon remaining chocolate ice cream from the tub into the silicone loaf form or lined tin.  It's pretty much the same as the adult mixture with nothing to mix. 

Before serving have any fresh fruits or chocolate shavings cut and prepared. About 30 mins before serving, take out of freezer but leave in the tin.  If it is really hot, put this in the fridge. Leave frozen berries until the ice cream cake is on the serving plate.  

To serve, fold out the cling wrap on the top surface, turn the ice cream out of the tin onto a large serving platter, remove cling film and pile fruits/garnish on the top. Oooh and Ahhh as appropriate before cutting into thick slices. Or serve in slices with the fruits, chocolate shavings, a berry coulis and/or crème anglaise.

BUT LIFE'S NOT ALL ICE CREAM n CAKE...

More items have been added to our eBay account ~ yes mostly (all) Tupperware and some will be great as Christmas presents. If Tupperware doesn't float your boat ~ you will know at least two people who squeal when they see a new catalogue. Oh please please send them this link :  http://myworld.ebay.com.au/mandsmission   Please let them know we have items for sale and some are no longer available to purchase. It's all new, stored in a box in the original packaging having been bought, bought or won when I was a 'Tupperware Lady'. 

Anything sold Tupperware funds go straight to the credit card ~ no doubt that piece has contributed to the debt in some way. *sighs* Love Tupperware ~ but over the debt, over the clutter, over to you *grins* Posting more items for sale shortly...

Sausages, veggies and chips for dinner - for dessert we might have to have Christmas pudding and custard because writing out the recipe and remembering making the last one has set of a craving!  Boys are out in the vegetable garden planting in the tomato seedlings and possibly the beans or beetroot. Husband built a simple wire gate to keep the girls out and, once more seedlings go in it will be draped with netting to keep all birds (and cats) out but still let the bees in. We've meters of this black netting in the garage which will for a treat.

A productive day today ~ had breakfast together at the table, a great way to start the day. SmallBoy is having a wider variety in his lunch box and it will be interested to see what got eaten. Several loads of laundry has been washed, dried, folded AND put away, plus eBay pictures were taken. The kitchen is ready for dinner preparation to begin - which it is now time for.  Will leave you hear and catch up tomorrow.

Financial Report  ~ the Mission's first audit  ~ it is very exciting you know.