Christmas Cake
An essential part of Christmas for me. This recipe makes a rich, moist, dark fruit cake. Soaking the fruits is essential to get deeper notes from the red wine and whiskey. I’ve tried lots of different ways of baking a good Christmas cake and I prefer long, slow cooking to ensure a really moist cake. Yes, it is time consuming. But it is one of the easiest cakes you will ever make.
Method
First, if you haven’t already you need to prepare your fruit. Put all the fruit ingredients into a large bowl, give it a good stir, cover with cling film and let it sit for a couple of days. Once it has finished soaking discard the cinnamon stick, star anise and slice orange and lemon. If you come across any cloves remove them too, but don’t worry too much. The long soaking and long cooking will soften them.
Pre-heat your oven to 120º fan (yes you really want it this low!) and prepare your tin by greasing the sides and base and lining with baking parchment. You will then need to create a double layer of parchment taller than the tin and wrap this around the outside of the tin, using string to secure. Finally create 2 more circles of parchment the size of the base of your tin and cut holes in the top of these. We will place these on top of the cake to protect it during the long cooking time. I’ve included photos below to show you what your finished tin should look like.
Put the butter and sugar into a bowl and beat until the mixture is creamy and light. Slowly add in the egg a bit at a time, beating it all in as you go. Don’t worry too much it starts to curdle.
Add in the black treacle and stir until it is combined.
Sift in the flour, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and mixed spice and stir thoroughly.
Finally slowly mix in your soaked fruit, chopped nuts, and lemon and orange zest. If you have some juices left in the bottom you can add in a tablespoon of these for extra flavour.
Spoon the mix into your prepared cake tin, and top with your final circles of baking parchment and place into your oven for 4 hours (seriously!). It might take a bit longer, the cake is ready when a skewer inserted into it comes out clean.
Cool the cake in the tin for 30 minutes, then transfer onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Once cold, give the cake it’s first feed. Make small holes in the top using a skewer or toothpick and spoon on a couple of tablespoons of the alcohol of your choice. Brandy is traditional, but you can also use amaretto or whiskey to match the flavours in the fruit.
Wrap the cake up in baking parchment, and then tin foil and store somewhere dark and cool.. You will want to feed it a couple more teaspoons of alcohol every other week until Christmas to help develop the flavours.
Ingredients
For the fruit
175g sultanas
175g raisins
450g currants
60g prunes, roughly chopped
50g dried cranberries
50g candied mixed peel
50g glacé cherries, halved
2 glasses red wine
1 shot amaretto
1 shot whiskey or bourbon
1/2 orange, sliced
1/2 lemon, sliced
1 cinnamon stick
2 star anise
5-6 cloves.
For the cake
225g dark brown soft sugar
225g softened butter
4 large eggs, beaten
2 tablespoons black treacle
225g plain flour
½ teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg, freshly grated
1 teaspoon ground mixed spice
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
50g chopped almonds (skin on)
zest of 1 lemon
zest of 1 orange
You will also need a 20cm, round, loose bottomed cake tin.
Top tips
Soaking the fruit in spices and alcohol is the key to a rich, dark cake. But if you do not wish to use alcohol you can cover the fruit, orange and lemon, and spices with warm water and let it sit for 2-3 hours until the fruit is plump. Discard the spices, lemon, and orange just like in the recipe, and drain the fruit in a sieve to remove any leftover water.
It won’t have the sane flavour, but the fruit will be plump and juicy.
Cakes without alcohol do not keep as well as the alcohol helps to keep the cake moist and preserve it. If you are not using alcohol I suggest making it no more than 2 weeks in advance and storing as above. Alternatively this cake will freeze really well, just defrost overnight at room temperature.
