You need to start your Christmas cake in October as you need lots of brandy in it which you feed into the cake as often as you like after the cake is cooked until you are ready to decorate it.
This is based on Delia's classic Christmas cake. I was trying to follow it perfectly but I made a couple of mistakes, One was I put my grated orange and lemon zest in to soak over night with the rest of the fruit and also once I'd put the cakes in the oven I realised I hadn't put the chopped almonds in-oops!! Also I made enough for 2 cakes (one large, one small). But it's not like I forgot the currents so it's just a nutless Christmas cake!
This blog will be edited after is it decorated and eaten so I can let everyone know if it tastes ok even though I forgot the nuts!!
INGREDIENTS:
(I found it easier to weigh in "old money" but you can look at Delia's recipe for a conversion-remember I did the recipe-plus half again)
1.5lb currents
9oz sultanas
9oz raisins
3oz glacé cherries, chopped
3oz mixed peel
5 tablespoons brandy (plus extra for feeding after the cake is cooked)
12oz plain flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon mixed spice
12oz unsalted butter
12oz soft brown sugar
6 eggs
3oz chopped almonds (which I didn't put in)
2 desert spoons black treacle
zest of 1 lemon
zest of 1 orange
EQUIPMENT:
3 large bowls
one large jug
a tea towel
hand blender
wooden spoon
sieve
8" round cake tin
7" loaf tin
lots of parchment or greaseproof paper
METHOD:
(the bold words are so I can remember which order everything is meant to go for next year!!)
The night before you want to make the cake you need to weigh all the fruit, currents, sultanas, raisins, glacé cherries and mixed peel (I also added the zest of the lemon and orange although the original recipe says to add these at the end). Then pour on the 5 tablespoons of brandy and stir. Then cover with a clean tea towel and leave for at least 12 hours (I left it for about 17 hours)
NEXT DAY
Line your cake tin
Weigh out the flour, salt, nutmeg and mixed spice and sieve together
Weigh out the sugar and butter and cream those together in your biggest bowl with the blender. This takes a while and is actually really hard work!!
Crack your eggs into the jug and whisk with a fork
Gradually add your eggs into the creamed butter and sugar a little at a time until all the egg is combined.
Fold the sieved flour and spiced into the sugar/egg/butter mix
Add the fruit, nuts (which I forgot about) and treacle and fold those in (this again is pretty hard work!!)
Then spoon the mixture into the prepared cake tins and smooth it so it's level. The cake isn't intended to rise but it will slightly.
I cooked it on 140oC for 2 1/2 hours for the small cake and 4 1/2 hours for the big cake
Once the cake is done, put it on a cooling tray and leave to cool in the tin for half an hour before removing it from the tin and paper and leaving to cool completely.
Once fully cool prick the cake several times all over with a cocktail stick. This is so when you feed the cake more brandy it can get into the holes. Then wrap it in more parchment and keep in a cake tin.
Once a week (r more if you like your cake boozy) remove the cake from the tin and parchment and carefully cover it in brandy then recover it and store away. Do this every week until you want to decorate it
SO..
2 months later after weekly stabbing with a cocktail stick and "feeding" with brandy the cake is ready to decorate. As I take the cake out of the box it's been in for 2 months I can smell the brandy so I'm recommending anyone who eats it does so when they don't have to drive!! (ignore the mess in the pictures, I am also making many other Christmas food items at the same time!!)
You will need:
Apricot Jam
Marzipan
Fondant
Decorations
First cover the cake in a layer or melted apricot jam
Roll out the marzipan and cover the cake, remove excess
Add another layer of apricot jam
Cover in fondant
Decorate
I took inspiration from THIS CAKE but you can do it how ever you want. There are no rules on this part!
THERE WILL BE ANOTHER EDIT WITH IT CUT AND HOW IT TASTES!
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