Traditional rich Christmas cake
A super moist, rich, traditional Christmas cake
Equipment
- 25cm square, loose bottom, cake tin
Ingredients
- 450 g currants
- 450 g raisins
- 450 g sultanas
- 450 g cherries rinsed to remove any syrup, then halved
- 450 g peel rinsed to remove any syrup
- 100 ml rum
- 1 orange zest & juice
- 450 g dark soft brown sugar
- 450 g butter softened
- 300 g eggs approx. 6 med eggs, beaten
- 450 g self raising flour
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp mixed spice
- 1 tsp nutmeg
- 1 tsp ground cloves
- 450 g ground almonds
- 2 lemons zest
- 40 g treacle
- 40 g glycerine
To decorate (optional)
- 600 g marzipan
- 600 g sugarpaste plus a little extra if making snowflakes
- gold food dust
Instructions
Pre-prep
- Soak the dried fruit in the rum, orange zest and juice of orange in large, round plastic cake tin (10”) for a minimum of 24 hours; 2 to 3 days is better. I actually soak mine for about a week! Leave it on the counter top; it doesn't need to go in the fridge. Give the container the odd shake to ensure all the fruit is coated with the rum and orange juice as the liquid will initially sink to the bottom.
- Prepare the cake tin:
- a. first line the base and sides of a loose bottomed 25cm square tin with a layer of baking parchment.
- b. to line the outside of the tin, cut strips of double thickness brown paper the height of the tin and enough to go right round the tin. Once the tin is filled with cake mixture, this will be put around the tin and fastened in place with string.
- Prepare a 28cm (11 inch) square piece of cardboard or brown paper to form a ‘lid’ to be put over the cake whilst cooking to prevent burning.
- Prepare a 25cm (10”) square cake drum board covered with foil which will be used to store the cake on once baked.
METHOD
- Place oven shelf on the bottom rung and heat the oven to 125C.
- Cream the sugar and butter in a large stand mixer.
- Sift the flour and spices.
- Add the beaten egg a little at a time to the creamed mixture. Mix well after each addition to avoid curdling.
- Add the flour, spices, ground almonds, lemon zest, glycerine and treacle and mix well.
- Add the soaked fruit – if the mixture is too much for the stand mixer handle altogether you may need to mix in batches or complete the final mixing by hand.
- Spoon mixture into the lined tin ensuring the mixture is pushed right into the bottom corners of the tin. Level with the back of a spoon or wedged palette knife.
- Place on bottom shelf of oven and bake for 2½ hours uncovered. Cover with the square cardboard lid and bake for further 2 hours.
- Remove from oven and leave to cool for 10 mins. Demould the cake from the tin, and place onto a cooling rack. Leave to cool for 8-10 hours or overnight without removing the base of the tin that the cake is still resting on. Once completely cold, remove the base of the tin and the lining paper and place cake centrally on cake board covered with foil.
- Baste the whole cake, top, sides and bottom with brandy (approx. 2 tablespoons should do it) using pastry brush. I don’t pierce with a skewer as this creates concentrate pockets of brandy.
- Wrap cake in foil tightly and place in an airtight container. ‘Feed’ every 2 weeks 4 times leading up to Xmas over 10 weeks. You want to leave at least 2 weeks between the last feed and actually eating it to allow the brandy to mature a little.
- Decorate with marzipan and sugar paste icing if required or leave the cake as it is.
