Christmas Cake

Anything missing?

Just when I think I'm starting to get the hang of the cookery thing I make a blunder. For the first time this year I looked at a selection of Christmas cake recipes instead of just using the same one as normal, carefully selecting one to try. I bought the ingredients in advance. I soaked the fruit in brandy for two days. I lined the tin before hand in Blue Peter style instead of doing once the batter was mixed. I had a roll of greaseproof paper that didn't run out and string to tie it around the tin with (well an old shoelace but it did the trick). Get me looking like a proper grown up, organised experienced baker. A far cry from the novice I was two years ago.

Oops

Then I make a comical error. There is my cake, in the beautifully lined tin, with its extra double layer of greaseproof paper wrapped neatly around it. I'm just about to pop it in the oven when I spot the unopened boxes of glacé cherries and mixed peel.  My heart sank. I was so tempted to just shove it in anyway and make believe all was well, but my adult self took charge. So out of the tin came the cake mix, the extra ingredients were added, I re-lined the tin (a fiddly annoying job the first time, never mind the second) and popped the now complete cake into the oven. Phew. Happily I also managed to cook it without burning it.

So neat

Cooked cake wrapped in foil

My ingredient debacle aside the cake went rather well. I went with the Nigella Lawson Time Honoured Christmas cake recipe, from her 'Feast' book, although I think its in Domestic Goddess as well. She gives a table of ingredients that is adjusted for different size tins. So useful.  My cake is wrapped up and cooling, ready to be sloshed with more brandy every few days for a couple of weeks until the icing adventure begins.

Time Honoured Christmas Cake
Ingredients Table

	110g	225g	350g
sultanas raisins currants glacé cherries mixed peel brandy or sherry butter brown sugar orange zest grated lemon zest grated large eggs marmalade plain flour mixed spice cinnamon nutmeg almond essence salt tin: round or square temperature	350g 110g 50g 50g 50g 60ml 110g 90g 1/3 teaspoon 1/2 teaspoon 2 1 tablespoon 250g 1/2 teaspoon pinch pinch 1/2 teaspoon pinch 18cm 15cm 150ºC / gas mark 2	700g 225g 110g 110g 110g 120ml 225g 195g 1 teaspoon 1 teaspoon 4 2 tablespoons 350g 1 teaspoon 1/4 teaspoon 1/4 teaspoon 1 teaspoon pinch 23cm 20cm 150ºC / gas mark 2	1kg 350g 175g 175g 175g 180ml 350g 300g 11/2 teaspoon 11/2 teaspoon 6 3 tablespoons 525g 11/2 teaspoons 1/4 teaspoon 1/4 teaspoon 1 teaspoon 1/4 teaspoon 251/2cm 23cm 150ºC / gas mark 2 reduce to 140ºC / gas mark 1 after 1 hour
cooking time	2-2.5 hours	3-3.5 hours	4-4.5 hours

Method

Place all of the fruit in a large bowl, and add the brandy or sherry. Cover and let the fruit soak overnight.

Preheat your oven to 150ºC/gas mark 2. Line your tin with a double thickness of brown paper, then line again with baking parchment, both to come up a good 10cm above the rim of the tin.

Cream the butter and sugar, then beat in the orange and lemon zest. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition, and then the marmalade. Sift the dry ingredients together, then mix the fruit alternately with the dry ingredients into the creamed mixture. Add the almond essence and combine thoroughly.

Put the cake mix into the prepared tin and bake following the table above, or until a cake-tester comes out clean.
When the cake is cooked, brush with a couple of tablespoons of extra liqueur. Wrap immediately in its tin – using a double-thickness of tin foil – as this will trap the heat and form steam, which in turn will keep the cake soft on top. When it’s completely cold, remove the cake from the tin and rewrap in foil, storing, preferably in an airtight tin or Tupperware, for at least 3 weeks.

Link to recipe here where someone else has already reproduced it.