My Christmas cake
I've been making this cake for over 10 years. Each year it changes slightly - whether just the alcohol I soak the fruit in or sometimes something else (one year I made my own mixed spice - it was great but I could never replicate it!)
Ingredients
Serves: 16
- 450g mixed dried fruit
- 350ml alcohol of choice (whisky, rum, stout, etc.)
- 100g butter
- 100g dark brown soft sugar
- 3 medium eggs, beaten
- 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon mixed spice
- 100g self-raising flour
- 50g ground almonds
- 50g chopped almonds (optional)
Method
Prep:30min ›
Cook:3hr ›
Extra time:1day marinating ›
Ready in:1day3hr30min
- Place fruit in bowl and cover with spirit of your choice and leave to soak at least overnight. Keep bowl covered with cling film if soaking longer.
- Preheat oven to 170 C / Gas 3. Grease a 20cm tin and line with greaseproof paper.
- Cream the butter and sugar. Add the beaten eggs to the butter and sugar and mix.
- Add spices to flour and sieve into the mixture and fold in.
- Add almonds (ground and chopped), fruit (including any leftover liquid) and remaining ingredients, mixing through. Put mix in tin with a small well in the middle. (I usually have a small amount of mixture left over which I use to make individual cup cakes which the family can 'test'.)
- Bake for 1 hour. Turn the oven down to 140 C / Gas 1 and bake for a further 2 hours. Check progress after about an hour.
- Check with skewer to ensure fully cooked. The skewer should come out dry and clean.
- Once cooked, leave to cool. This should then be stored in an airtight container. About once a week, 'feed' the cake with 1 or 2 teaspoons of your chosen alcohol by sprinkling onto the base. This ensures a nice moist cake.
- You may decorate any way you choose. I traditionally use marzipan and icing.
Icing and decorating your cake
Look at our handy guide to Icing and decorating a Christmas cake to learn how to prepare your cake, ice it and decorate it!
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Reviews & ratings
Average global rating:
(5)
Reviews in English (5)
how long do you make this cake before christmas - 27 Nov 2013
I tried making this in a 22cm heart shaped tin and it came out burnt and was a complete failure. So I doubled up on the quantity, added a tsp of bicarb and cooked it for about 5 hours at 140 degrees centegrade. It looks much better, just hope it tastes as good as it smelt while it was cooking. - 15 Oct 2011
Came out lovely! - 05 Apr 2018