Homemade Christmas Cake

ilovepugs

pollyskettle wrote: »

I've never tried, but I have heard people recommend fruit juice. Neither OH or I drink either, but I glug away at the christmas cakes each year and will randomly make a very alcoholic sherry trifle too (which I can eat as I make it egg free!)!

Hi, thanks for replying.Can anyone else help me with this.x

becs

Can't help with the alcohol question i'm afraid but i would have thought you couldn't really use anything else as things like fruit juice etc go off. I would just do the cak and not add any alcohol, it will be absolutely fine.

pollyskettle

A couple of places advocate soaking the fruit in either fruit juice or cold tea, but not feeding the cake.

There's an old MSE thread here, a delia forum posting here and a mumsnet thread here. It's also considered wise to make the cake later than you would an alcoholic cake as the brandy or whatever preserves the cake and prevents it going off.

I would have thought you would need to soak the fruit in something or it will suck all the moisture out of the cake mix and make it very dry and crumbly.

beverleychelmsford

I make a cake without alcohol every year as we have in-laws who don't have it for religious reasons. It works out just fine, though I do add a couple of tablespoons of water to mine to keep it moist.

Just leave the alcohol out of the recipe you've got and it should all work out. If you're worried though, why not do a little trial? Then you'll be stress free and be able to have yourself a festive treat early!

ilovepugs

Many Thanks to all who replied, happy cake making to all.xx :j

Rikki

Although I feed my cake with brandy I don't pre-soak the fruit in Brandy.

I soak my fruit overnight by covering them with boiling water. The fruit absorbs most of the water but what it doesn't I add to the mix

Enterprise_1701C

I normally make my Christmas cake and pud the first weekend in October, but had to make it early this year as we were on holiday, so I made it mid September. I do not pre-soak the fruit, but I do use decent fruit, not the value stuff, I find it makes a big difference. I also tend to put loads of cherries in mine and no mixed peal, and I use walnuts instead of almonds as my OH does not like almonds. Apart from that I use the same Mrs Beatons recipe my mum used, and I think hers used before her, so it is probably 100 years old or so and has had a variation or two along the way!

It gets fed every couple of weeks or so, and one year was decidedly over-fed bacause my OH decided to feed it as well!!! Nice though!

polr

I made mine last weekend and will feed it every fortnight or so until a week or so before. This year, instead of the measly 5tablespoons of brandy I added about 1/4 bottle + a load of Ameretto, the fruit easily took it and it smelled amazing when it was out of the oven...may not need feeding after all.

MrsRJG

I have been so inspired by seeing all these christmas threads that I have registered to this site! I am going to make my first christmas cake following the Delia recipe, but my friend who makes wedding cakes says to soak the fruit for a couple of days, didn't know if that helps anyone?! Wish me luck, am getting my ingredients this afternoon to make as soon as I get the tin (which I only bought last night!) am going to get my kids to help too, hoping to get them in the spirit of it too

Rikki

MrsRJG wrote: »

I have been so inspired by seeing all these christmas threads that I have registered to this site! I am going to make my first christmas cake following the Delia recipe, but my friend who makes wedding cakes says to soak the fruit for a couple of days, didn't know if that helps anyone?! Wish me luck, am getting my ingredients this afternoon to make as soon as I get the tin (which I only bought last night!) am going to get my kids to help too, hoping to get them in the spirit of it too

I hope that's just for the making and mixing and not partaking in the brandy.

You'll love making your own cake, the gorgeousness smell that takes over the house and the joy of eating your own made Christmas cake.

Welcome to mse too.