xmas cake recipe

elantan

hey everyone, i am gonna attempt my first ever xmas cake ...now i am useless in the kitchen (although i did make jam thanks to this forum) does anyone have a fail safe made for dummies recipe from start till the cake gets eaten recipe ...i read you have to pour brandy or something over it every week but do you have to how much do you pour? thanks

MRSMCAWBER

Hi there

I have just put a recipe on the thread a bit higher up...mollytrundle is the name of the poster (just to make it easier to find)...don't know how to do links

If you decide to give it a go..and it is easy and absolutely stunning feel free to contact me if you have any questions...

When you "feed" a cake...giving it alcohol after its baked i usually use...brandy, rum, port, cherry brandy... quite often mixed.. you stab holes in the cake with a skewer or cocktail stick..and i use a tbsp from my measuring spoons (as its nice n round )and all you do is drizzle the alcohol all over the top - probably 4-5 tbsp at a time..and wrap it up in greaseproof and then foil to keep it airtight.. just do that every few weeks...you will see the cake soak it up...
If that makes you a bit nervous..pour some alcohol into an egg cup and use a pasty brush and brush it all over the top and around the sides... and egg cup at a time should be fine....

Good luck and i hope you have fun making it...

elantan

thanks very much will have a look at the thread

elantan

ok literally had a quick peek and i noticed you have to soak the fruit for a month will it still be done in time for xmas this way as i also read (probably reading too much) that you have to make in sep/oct time for it to be ready?

MRSMCAWBER

Hi there

You only need soak the fruit for 1 month before you make it(it just says you CAN make it upto 3 months in advance- probably didn't explain it very well)..you can soak it for longer if you want... and once it is made you don't have to add any mor alcohol if you don't want..so from start to finish you can have this 1 done in 1 month..plus a bit extra for mazipanning and icing...

kethry

elantan -

if you're worried about the month's soaking, then you could do a lot worse with Delia's traditional recipe which only has 12 hours worth of soaking the fruits. It makes a lovely recipe, i used it (with a few variations to take account of having a larger tin) to do mom's christmas cake on Friday. I used it last year too, its a glorious cake. (and don't worry about timing too much - i won't be doing ours for another couple weeks yet, and i'll probably make some mini christmas cakes using the same recipe for presents a couple weeks after that - so that's getting towards the end of October!).

I ended up cooking mine at gas mark 2 for 6 hours (see note here about cooking at gas mark 1). I really do recommend wrapping the whole thing in newspaper. Last year i used brown paper, and only around the sides (not underneath or ontop), just covering the top with some greaseproof paper and the bottom wasn't quite cooked after 5 hours, i had to put it back in for another few hours after it had gotten cold, and the top was scorched. This time i wrapped the bottom and sides in a good couple layers of newspaper, covered the top in greaseproof paper with a hole in the middle for steam, then covered the very top (i.e. resting on the newspaper, not the cake) with another couple layers of newspaper. You do have to make sure that the newspaper isn't touching the oven at all, and there is a worrying sort of scorched paper smell while you're doing it, but it does work - if you look here (my blog), you can see photos of not only the lined tin, newspaper and all, but the cake when it came out of the oven.

HTH

keth
xx

elantan

thanks will be buying the things this week then ...now tins (see i tole you i am useless) am i better with one of these ones that the bottom isnt joined or am i better with one where the bottom is?

elantan

ohhh i can see me trying to do a few different cakes ...was thinking (after reading the hampers thread ...amazing by the way) of doing hampers next year this year is a kindve trial and error plan ...was planning on putting jam into them ( i am so very proud of my jam ) jam cakes and maybe some pickled onions etc would make a lovely hamper wouldnt they? anyway i am going on again ...what i'm trying to say is i might just try a few different recipes and give them as presents etc ...thanks

kethry

elantan wrote: »

ohhh i can see me trying to do a few different cakes ...was thinking (after reading the hampers thread ...amazing by the way) of doing hampers next year this year is a kindve trial and error plan ...was planning on putting jam into them ( i am so very proud of my jam ) jam cakes and maybe some pickled onions etc would make a lovely hamper wouldnt they? anyway i am going on again ...what i'm trying to say is i might just try a few different recipes and give them as presents etc ...thanks

that's what i was planning on doing! for dad, for example, a jar of jam (probably damson as i'm informed by OH that the damson goes rather well with cheese, believe it or not and dad is a cheese fan), a jar of chutney, a jar of pickled onions, a block of *good* cheddar, a block of *good* stilton, a bottle of port, a bottle of chilli vodka to put in his hipflask for when he goes walking, maybe, maybe a little book of crossword puzzles, something like that. Everything a grouchy old man needs to keep him happy on winter evenings.. LOLOL

I won't say what i'm doing for mum tho as i know she's starting to read these forums..

keth
xx

jess444_2

Hi,
I am thinking of making traditional christmas cake this year (last year made Nigella's chocolate christmas cake - was gorgeous but I was only one in the house to eat it and must have gained a stone!!) I was wondering about making small individual oned to give as presents. Does anyone know where would I find the small baking tins for these.

kethry

jess444 wrote: »

Hi,
I am thinking of making traditional christmas cake this year (last year made Nigella's chocolate christmas cake - was gorgeous but I was only one in the house to eat it and must have gained a stone!!) I was wondering about making small individual oned to give as presents. Does anyone know where would I find the small baking tins for these.

some people have used cleaned out empty baked bean tins, the large ones, or those heinz dessert pudding tins.. I think a few people have asked about this over on the Christmas thread, at least one i know of has actually done this on this thread and has been asked what tins she uses, but has just replied to it.. LOL.. she said she uses mini beans tins.

HTH

keth
xx