Christmas Cake Booze

Chell

I am going to make Delia's Christmas cake recipe. It asked for Brandy. I have some QC medium sherry here. Could I use that instead or will the flavour be much better using Brandy?

troll35

Have to be honest I use whatever we've got. Our booze cupboard is usually quite sparce as we rarely drink anything other than wine or beer/lager. We made our cake yesterday and I used brandy, but in previous years I've used whiskey or sherry. I even used cherry brandy once which was very nice.

Chell

Thanks, no one drinks Brandy so its going to eb an expensive cake if I have to buy some just for it. The only reason there is sherry in the cupboard is because its been used for trifle.

PMSL, we could go Jamaican and have a Bacardi cake.

morganlefay

We usually have a cupboard full of ends of bottles of stuff so I can mostly find what that recipe asks for, but the list of stuff is very long and exotic - I think where it asks for brandy any other spirit would do, and rum would be fab, since I think you boil off some of the alcohol I don't think it matters - I doubt if many of your friends will say 'Hum I think you've used the wrong booze in this otherwise-delightful cake', are they ? But I think if possible I'd substitute spirits with spirits, and fortified wines/liqueurs with similar. But in the end it's your cake and if you make substitutions they might even improve it anyway. I bet it will be delicious whatever you do it with - as long as you just put enough in !

sallywl

We didnt have anything in when it came to making the cake so bought a small bottle of brandy for about £3 ish... which neither of us will drink so will last for a couple more cakes :P

kethry

two thoughts, if you don't want to buy a big bottle of brandy:

1) a couple of minatures might do the job
2) Tescos are selling a small bottle of brandy - about half the size of a 70cl bottle, for between £3 and £4. I bought one for our christmas cake and it did the job well - about a third of it for soaking in the fruit before making the cake, some for the cake itself and some for feeding - even stretched to OH stealing a glass or two. (although i'll be buying the litre bottle of brandy from Tescos tomorrow for just over £10 for the three xmas puds and 1 more xmas cake i'm making - and the OH gets the rest. hic! :rotfl:).

hope that helps!

keth
xx

newleaf

I have successfully used all kinds of booze, brandy, whisky, sherry, drambuie, cointreau, madeira, etc. in all kinds of combinations, in my Christmas cakes over the years. They always turn out fine. The only thing is, occasionally one will turn out really special and I can never remember what I put in it. Doh

moonrakerz

Lamb's Navy Rum !!

Pink.

Hi chelltune,

I've moved your thread over to the Christmas board as that's where the majority of Christmas cake threads are. Hopefully you'll get some more advice there.

Pink

piglet6

My dad is the official Christmas Cake Maker in our family and he always "doctors" his Christmas cakes with sherry rather than brandy by choice - everybody loves his cakes (and he makes several each year - usually in the double figures - for family and friends, plus various wedding cakes throughout the year!). I can't personally vouch for QC sherry (we tend to look out for and stock up on Harvey's Bristol Cream when its on offer - and it tends to always be on offer somewhere between September and December each year!;) ) but I'm sure QC will be fine...:D

He started using sherry because it was costing a fortune in brandy :eek: (the cheaper brandies can be pretty rough whereas he could get a nice quality sherry for cheap brandy prices ) - and he doesn't like to stint on the "moistness" of his cakes...!!:rolleyes:

Definitely give it a go with sherry - we wouldn't eat Christmas cake in our house any other way!!!:rotfl:

Piglet

Chell

Well I wasn't very money saving! I bought a half bottle of Brandy (it was ships own brand though). I spent £14 on ingrediants for the cake and thats without icing and marzipan!

Thanks for all your replies.