{"id":29857,"date":"2023-10-01T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-01T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.janespatisserie.com\/?p=29857"},"modified":"2024-10-09T14:56:50","modified_gmt":"2024-10-09T13:56:50","slug":"christmas-cake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.janespatisserie.com\/2023\/10\/01\/christmas-cake\/","title":{"rendered":"Christmas Cake!"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the most iconic bakes that exists, the christmas cake… homemade and scrumptious filled with fruit, and soaked in brandy! <\/h2>\n

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Christmas baking<\/h3>\n

So lets the honest now, I\u2019m mentioning Christmas in\u2026 September. I know, it\u2019s extremely overkill, but once you realise this is about a Christmas Cake hopefully you will understand why!<\/p>\n

Christmas baking is one of my favourite things to do as I adore the theming of Christmas, but this recipe is something that has been waiting for years and years, as I just don\u2019t really like Christmas cake\u2026 yup.<\/p>\n

So, I know that\u2019s not the best thing to start with on a recipe post, but genuinely? I\u2019m not the biggest fan. However, my family adore Christmas cake and they have no tested and tasted SO MANY CAKES so I could post this recipe.<\/p>\n

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Christmas pudding<\/h3>\n

I have a cheats Christmas pudding in my second book, as typically with bakes like this you need to take your time. They are recipes that develop over the time because of the alcohol that you put into the bake.<\/p>\n

However, for the cheats Christmas pudding I thought about the people who, like me, often forget to create a bake like these within the time frame. This Christmas cake recipe however?! Oh that\u2019s the opposite. I am bang on the correct time for this beauty.<\/p>\n

If you don\u2019t like Christmas cake or Christmas pudding though, and you want an amazing showstopper, you can try my other bakes such as my Rocky Road Christmas Pudding – this is my go to.<\/p>\n

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Christmas Cake<\/h3>\n

Christmas cake? Yes, Christmas cake. There\u2019s a lot of opinions on when is best to make it, so its entirely up to you. Yes, it will work if you make it slightly later on in the year, but it\u2019s best to crack on as soon as possible.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve always been told whether its from the notes in my Granny\u2019s baking bible, or just by word of mouth, that 12 weeks before Christmas is the best time to create a Christmas cake. And guess what, it\u2019s 12 weeks now.<\/p>\n

You can do it 10 weeks before, 8 weeks, 6 weeks etc\u2026 just the nearer to Christmas you make it, the less feeding time you have. You can store and wrap the Christmas cake really well after feeding in parchment paper and tin foil, in a metal cake tin (plastic tubs may make them sweat).<\/p>\n

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The fruit<\/h3>\n

When it comes to the fruit of the Christmas cake, you can cater it more to what you prefer, but I used a broader amount as that\u2019s what works best for my trusty taste testers, as it gives more flavour and textures. I use a combination of raisins, sultanas, currants, dried cranberries, glaze cherries, and mixed peel. The total weight is about 1075g worth of fruits, which is a lot – but you need a lot for a decent Christmas cake!<\/p>\n

If you don\u2019t have slightly the correct amount of something, you can use other fruits as well. You can also buy ready mixed dried fruit for fruit cakes so if you don\u2019t want to buy a lot of separate packets, then that is totally fine. If you buy a bag of pre-soaked fruit, you can just add that into the mixture and skip steps 1-4 of the method. Instead, melt the butter and add the sugar, treacle, lemon zest and juice to a bowl and mix. Then, add in the pre-soaked fruit and stir in and continue with the rest of the recipe. <\/p>\n

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The other ingredients<\/h3>\n

When it comes to the rest of the ingredients, it does sound like quite a bit. I like to add the zest and juice of lemon for a zingy flavour, as well as flavours such as mixed spice, ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon. I also add a bit of vanilla. These flavours are optional and adaptable. <\/p>\n

The butter is important, but I melt it into the fruity mixture so that it melts down well. The sugar is light brown soft sugar, and I use some black treacle (you can use golden syrup). The flour is standard, and some ground almonds. You can use the self raising flour method like I often do, or you can use plain flour + 1tsp baking powder. <\/p>\n

If you don\u2019t want to use nuts, you can replace the ground almonds with more flour (match the weight of the almonds).  Also, mix through the eggs\u2026 I use 5 medium, but four large eggs will also work super well.<\/p>\n

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The alcohol<\/h3>\n

The big part of the Christmas cake\u2026 the alcohol you use. You can vary this to again your preference but it\u2019s often a reasonably strong spirit alcohol that you need and want to use. I went for brandy in this recipe.<\/p>\n

You can use whiskey, rum, brandy, amaretto etc but you can honestly just pick your favourite, the cheapest, the nicest, etc\u2026 it\u2019s entirely up to you. You mix the alcohol into the fruit at the start of making the Christmas cake, and then you use it to feed the cake until you eat it.<\/p>\n

If you want an alcohol free cake, I tend to use tea to soak the fruit (but a lot of people use apple juice instead.). Brew the tea to the same quantity and soak the fruit in the same way. <\/p>\n

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Timings<\/h3>\n

So for me, the peak time to create a cake like this is 12 weeks before you want it. It takes a fair few hours to make on the first day, because the bake time is so long, but after that it\u2019s not that bad at all.<\/p>\n

I would say it takes about half an hour to make the mixture, and then its about 2 hours to bake the cake. It takes a few hours to cool down properly, and then you need to wrap the cake well.<\/p>\n

I like to feed my cake with a few tablespoons of brandy every two weeks up until Christmas. If you want to decorate your Christmas cake, you do not want to feed it just before as it will make it wet and sticky so slightly annoying.<\/p>\n

If you make your cake nearer to Christmas, that is totally okay. You really don\u2019t need to make it 12 weeks before, so don\u2019t stress if you can\u2019t make it this week.<\/p>\n

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Christmas Cake!<\/h2>\n\t\t
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One of the most iconic bakes that exists, the christmas cake... homemade and scrumptious filled with fruit, and soaked in brandy!\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n