This is very inconvenient. I have two traditional British Christmas cakes to bake this weekend. And while my husband bakes them by hand, he is not here, and I do not have the arm-power to cream brown sugar and butter in those quantities... Disappointed. Cakes will not be as good if they don't get to snuggle in their cake tins and sip brandy for a month before we serve them to our families.
The elusive stand mixer is also going to help me reconnect with my traditional Norwegian self, specifically the baking of the magical 7 kinds of 'julekaker' in preparation for Christmas. Norwegian Christmas kakes are more like biscuits and small kakes, each a mouthful only. Which 7 varieties one choses to bake is left to your own preference, guided by family tradition and - perhaps crucially these days - preparation time and effort. In my family we never made 'Fattigman', a delicious deep fried diamond-shaped delicacy. My mother wasn't comfortable with the idea of deep frying - hot oil with children jostling around wasn't a reassuring thought, and worse even, our hair would smell of 'smult' afterwards. We concentrated on non-dangerous baking: 'Serinakaker', 'Berlinerkranser', 'Mor Monsen', 'Pepperkaker', mince pies (my father is British, hence the mince pies and Christmas cake), 'Krumkaker', 'Sandkaker'... none of which need to bathe in the deep-frying pan. Each weekend in December was dedicated to baking two types of cakes, which were stored in Christmas-patterned tins until we would crack them open on the 23rd December.
So just come on and deliver that silly mixer! I have work to do.
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