Christmas cake
| Published: 5th November 2007 10:05 |
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.
Decorating Christmas cakes
Not as difficult as it sounds there are two methods which I use to get around having to try and be neat. The first is by far the easiest.
Fruit and Nut adorned glazed Christmas cake
Using fruit and nuts to decorate your Christmas cake, I think is prettier than icing it is a tempting promise as to what's inside. You can use pretty much any candid fruits and nuts; you can also use dried figs or prunes.
To cover one 18cm square or one 20cm round cake.
Ingredients (approximately)
15 Whole blanched almonds
45 Walnut halves
6 Glace cherries
1 slice Candid orange
200g Apricot jam
2 tbsp Brandy
Christmassy cake frill or tall ribbon
Method
1. Place your cake on a serving plate, or what I tend to do is put it on the lid of a biscuit tin so I can keep the cake in the upside down tin over Christmas. Brush the surface lightly to remove any loose crumbs.
2. Place the jam in a small saucepan and heat gently until completely liquid. Stir in the brandy.
3. Brush the top and sides of the cake with the melted jam; be careful the jam is very hot. Now working from the centre out arrange your fruit and nuts over the cake.
4. Brush over the decoration with some more of the melted jam, if it has started to set again or is difficult to spread just heat it a little.
5. Wrap the out side of your cake in the frill or ribbon.
There a pretty cake, with little fuss! If you're artistic or adventurous you can try making your own design, snowflakes or holly leaves look particularly good. I however stick to concentric circles which are just a pretty.
Snow storm iced cake
This is another amazingly simple way to decorate your Christmas cake. The icing is spreadable and can be used with out marzipan, although I do use marzipan for two reasons, one because it stops any crumbs from finding their way on to the finished pure white surface and secondly my husband would probably ask for a divorce if I deprived him of marzipan on his Christmas cake.
To cover one 18cm square or one 20cm round cake.
Ingredients
500g Icing sugar, sifted
3 Egg whites
1 tsp Glycerine
250g Marzipan (optional)
100g Apricot jam (if using marzipan)
2 tbsp Brandy (if using marzipan)
Method
1. Place your cake on a serving plate, or what I tend to do is put it on the lid of a biscuit tin so I can keep the cake in the upside down tin over Christmas. Brush the surface lightly to remove any loose crumbs.
2. *Place the jam in a small saucepan and heat gently until completely liquid. Stir in the brandy.
3. Brush the top and sides of the cake with the melted jam; be careful the jam is very hot.
4. Dust work surface with icing sugar and roll out the marzipan to approximately 5mm thickness. Using your rolling pin to help you lift the rolled out marzipan, lay it carefully over the top of the cake. Smooth down and trim off any excess. Remember you won't actually see this so, if there are any holes patch them up, and don't worry too much if you have creases on the sides.
5. Place the egg whites in a bowl, stir in the sifted icing sugar a little at a time until you have a thick dropping consistency. The amount of icing sugar you need will depend on the size and freshness of your egg whites. Whisk the icing with an electric whisk for 10 minutes until the icing stands up in stiff peaks, now add the glycerine.
6. Spread the icing over the prepared cake, try and be as even as possible. If you haven't used marzipan this step will be a little more difficult, try putting teaspoonfuls of the icing mixture all over the cake and then spread them out, this will minimise the amount of crumbs you get in your icing.
7. Now with the back of your pallet knife create swirls or little peaks to texture the surface. You can add silver sprinkles, glitter dust or silver lustre to create a sparkling cake. Christmassy figures such as carol singers, Santa with sleigh or holly leaves also look good with this icing for a more fun cake. Or simply allow the icing to set and then wrap the sides in a cake frill or ribbon.
* If you're not using marzipan, then go straight to step 5.
Once you've got the basics you can experiment with different textures and decorations to make your Christmas cake truly beautiful.
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