A Peace of Cake: Week 5, Mince Pies

In the run-up to Christmas the team at Peace Direct decided to set up our own Great Christmas Bake Off! Each week we have been baking a series of Christmas-themed cakes, and posting our pictures and recipes online to give you some cake inspiration and get you in the Christmas mood. Following on from Lorena’s delicious chocolate cake, this week Mathew, our Head of Operations, baked our final instalment; some Fruit Mince Pies. We’d love to hear from our supporters too so get involved and send in your own snaps and recipes!

Week 3: Mince Pies

Baked by Mathew van Lierop, Head of Operations

Mathew has been with Peace Direct for almost 3 years, overseeing the financial and operational aspects of the charity.  This week he baked some delicious mince pies, which the team ate every last crumb of.

Ingredients
Puff pastry
Icing sugar

Fruit Mince mix:
250g of raisins
125g of currants
125g sultanas
1.5 cups of brown sugar
2 tsp of mixed spice
2 tsp of cinnamon
750g of tart apples, peeled, cored and chopped into small dice
125g of mixed candied peel
125g of chopped almonds
Zest and juice of 1 lemon and 1 orange
250ml of brandy
125g of grated suet

Directions

1. Put all of your fruit mince mix into a food processor and mix together.
2. Pour the mixture into jars and leave on the side for as long as you can spare, turning the jar every few hours.
3. When ready to make the pies pre-heat the oven to 180C.
4. Roll out the puff pastry and cut into circles.
5. Put the pastry into a shallow base cupcake tin.
6. Fill each pastry cup with the already prepared mince mixture.
7. Place a pastry lid on top of each pastry cup and squeeze the sides to seal it (you can cut your lids into stars like Mathew has.)
8. Brush with egg and sprinkle castor sugar on top.
9. Bake for around 20 minutes until golden brown
10. Leave to cool and then dust with icing sugar.

Any good Cake recipes? We’d love to hear from you! Comment below with your ideas.

If you enjoyed this like and share it with your friends to spread the Christmas spirit!