Christmas Cake
| Published: 11th December 2007 10:50 |
Christmas cake
Now I will make no apologies for it this cake is very heavy on the booze, and for the best results it should be ‘fed' every week up until you ice it. I know there are some teetotallers out there so if you don't want to add the booze you can use the equivalent volume of strong Earl Grey tea.
- Servings: 8inch cake roughly 15 servings
- Preparation Time: 45 minutes, plus 5 - 7 days for soaking
- Cooking Time: 3 hours 15 minutes
Ingredients
For the pre-soak
3 tbsp Rum
3 tbsp Brandy
3 tbsp Cherry Brandy
3 tbsp Port
3 tbsp Ginger wine
1 ½ tsp Angostura bitters
1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
½ tsp Ground Nutmeg
½ tsp Ground Cloves
½ tsp Ground Ginger
½ tsp Salt
1 ½ tsp Vanilla extract
1 ½ tbsp Dark Brown Sugar
450g Raisins
225g Currants
125g stoned no-soak Prunes
50g Glace Cherries
125g Mixed peel
50g Chopped mixed nuts.
For the cake
250g Self raising Flour
250g Demerara sugar
250g Soft butter
5 Eggs
Method
1. Measure the alcohol (or 75ml of Earl Grey tea) in to a very large saucepan, add the rest of the pre-soak ingredients. Stir the mixture and bring gently to a simmer over a low heat, you kitchen will become filled with the scents of Christmas. Simmer gently for 15 minutes stirring occasionally.
2. Turn off the heat and place a lid or piece of foil over the pan and leave to cool completely. Once cooled place in a large sterilised glass jar and seal. Leave in the refrigerator to allow the fruits to become plump and juicy with booze, for 5 - 7 days turning occasionally.
3. Take the soaked fruits out of the refrigerator, preheat the oven to 140oC/Gas 1.
4. Line an 8inch (20cm) cake tin with greaseproof paper, cut out a circle for the bottom of the tin. Cut a strip about ½ inch taller than your tin but long enough to fit comfortably all the way around. Snip ¼ inch cuts at ½ inch intervals along one side of the strip. Lightly grease you empty tin and line the side with the long strip, making sure the frayed bottom sits in the bottom of the tin, line the bottom with the greaseproof circle.
5. In a large bowl beat together the sugar, butter, flour and eggs with either an electric whisk or a wooden spoon, when you have a creamy mixture gradually start to fold in the fruit, I usually do this in four goes, any liquid that's left at the bottom of the jar add as well. Stir until evenly distributed.
6. Spoon the mixture carefully into the lined tin. Use the back of a spoon to level off the mixture in the tin. Place in the oven for 3 hours, do not open the door for at least 2 ¾ hours, check in the usual way with a clean skewer.
7. Allow to cool in the tin for 45 minutes, then turn out on to a cooling rack and gently remove greaseproof paper. Once cool wrap in fresh greaseproof paper, then foil and store in a plastic sealable container.
8. To feed the cake, every 7 days until you're ready to ice your cake, unwrap it and make 6 - 8 holes in the cake using a cocktail stick and spoon a few tsp of brandy into the holes, wrap the cake back up and leave for another week. Leave one week between the last feeding and icing your cake.
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