It's Time to Prepare the Christmas Cake

If you want to make an impression this Christmas, or want a challenge, making the perfect Christmas Cake is definitely a great way to impress. Now you may wonder why we're writing a post about Christmas Cake in the middle of November, but the truth is, Christmas Cake needs time to rest for up to three months and you need to feed the cake at intervals throughout this time with brandy. It's more complicated than you think!

The Christmas Cake ingredients:

Currants
Sultanas
Raisins
Glace Cherries, rinsed, dried and quartered
Dried apricots, snipped into pieces
Candied peel finely chopped
Brandy, plus extra for feeding the cake
Plain flour
Nutmeg
Ground mixed spice
Softened butter
Muscovado sugar
Eggs
Almonds
Black Trecle
Lemon zest
Orange zest

To prepare the cake:

1. Put the currants, sultanas, raisins, rinsed, dried and quartered cherries, snipped apricots and chopped mixed peel in a large bowl. Stir in the brandy, cover the bowl and leave in a cool place overnight.
2. Lightly grease a 23cm/9 in deep round cake tin. Cut a strip of non-stick baking parchment to fit twice around the sides of the tin, fold the bottom edge of the strip up by about 2.5cm/1 in creasing it firmly, then open out the fold and cut slanting lines into this narrow strip at intervals. Put a circle of non-stick baking parchment into the base of the tin, lightly grease the outer edge and then fit the prepared strip of parchment with the snipped edge in the base of the tin to line the sides of the tin. Place a second circle of non-stick baking parchment in to cover the cut part of the paper. Preheat the oven to 140C/275F/Gas 1.
3. Put the flour, grated nutmeg, mixed spice, butter, sugar, eggs, chopped almonds, black treacle and the citrus zest into a large bowl and beat well to mix thoroughly. Fold in the soaked fruits.
4. Spoon the mixture into the prepared cake tin and spread out evenly with the back of a spoon. Decorate the top with the whole blanched almonds and glacé cherries, pushing them lightly into the top of the cake mixture. Cover the top of the cake loosely with a double layer of greaseproof paper. Bake in the pre-heated oven for about 4¼-4 ¾ hours, or until the cake feels firm to the touch and a skewer inserted

Remember to let the cake rest and feed it with brandy in intervals up till Christmas!

 

Find Mary Berry's recipe here.