I went mad yesterday. Seriously mad. No really, like, I-want-to-thank-my-family-friends-and-boyfriend-for-supporting-me-through-this-hard-time, mad.
It was my day off and I’d decided to make a couple of Christmas cakes. Not too wacky- this is the right kind of time to make them, which is why this recipe is coming to you now.
But, upon waking, my train of thought went something like this:
“So I’ll do the first part of these cakes when I’m up/dressed and then finish it later.”
“Could be quite time consuming, I should find a podcast to listen to.”
“Or music! Could put on one of my iTunes playlists as I make these Christmas cakes….”
“Christmas…”
“C-h-r-i-s-t-m-a-s….”
“Music...and Christmas…”
“Christmas...music….”
“CHRISTMAS MUSIC! MUST BUY AN 84-TRACK CHRISTMAS ALBUM FROM AMAZON IMMEDIATELY AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH”
At 11am, on Monday the 29th of October, my mother walked into the kitchen to the sight of me dancing to Cliff Richard’s Mistletoe and Wine whilst chopping dried fruit.
And then Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree.
And then In Dulci Jubilo.
I also made mince pies and scoffed a lot of them. I have no regrets.
ANYWAY.
You should make a Christmas cake this year. They are fairly time consuming, but 90% of the time it takes to make them, you can spend asleep. Or being productive if you like. But I choose sleep.
The idea with Christmas cakes is that you make them now-ish, you wrap them up, feed them booze (I’ll get to that later), ice them just before Christmas and then eat them! It is SO WORTH making them yourself. You can decorate them how you like, you can alter the ingredients to your own preferences and you get the self-satisfaction of presenting it at Christmas as this crazy-impressive thing that actually isn’t that impressive.
I'm going to break this recipe into 3 parts. Parts 1& 2 will be in this post, and part 3 will be in a month or two's time when I've iced the things.
Oh, p.s. if the ingredients look like a larger amount than what's in the recipe, that's because I doubled it to make two cakes.
PART ONE: The Fruity Bit - do this bit the night before you want to make the cake.
Ingredients:
- 450g (1lb) currants
- 175g (6oz) sultanas
- 175g (6oz) raisins
- 50g (2 oz) glace cherries, rinsed, dried and finely chopped
- 50g (2oz) mixed candied peel, finely chopped
- 3 tablespoons brandy
- Chop and weigh out the dried fruit and mixed peel into a mixing bowl. You can alter the fruit you use if you like, just keep the weights the same. For example, I had nowhere near enough currants. So instead of going to the shop like a normal person, I made up the weight with leftover currants and raisins, as well as dried prunes and dried apricots. It's fine.
- Thoroughly mix in the three tablespoons of brandy.
- Cover with a clean tea towel and leave to soak for 12 hours.
PART TWO: The Cakey Bit - do this a month or two before you want to eat the thing.
Ingredients:
- 225g (8oz) plain flour
- half teaspoon of salt
- quarter teaspoon of freshly grated nutmeg
- half teaspoon of mixed spice
- 225g (8oz) unsalted butter, softened
- 225g (8oz) soft brown sugar
- 4 eggs
- 50g (2oz) almonds, chopped (the skins can be left on)
- 1 dessertspoon of black treacle
- grated zest of 1 lemon
- grated zest of 1 orange
- Preheat the oven to 140C. Oh, and you'll need about 5 hours spare...
- Whisk together the butter and sugar in the largest bowl you have until it's light and fluffy.
- Whisk the eggs together in a separate bowl and add them to the butter and sugar a spoonful at a time. Whisk the mixture thoroughly after each spoonful until all the beaten egg is incorporated. Don't worry if your mixture looks a bit weird at this stage. It might split but adding the flour might fix this. This may or may not be the reason that there's no photo of this stage...moving on.
- Sift the flour, salt and spices into the butter-sugar-egg mixture and fold them in with a metal spoon. Try and keep as much air in the mixture as possible.
- Now fold in the boozy fruit, lemon and orange zests, chopped almonds and treacle until fully incorporated.
- Take an 8 inch round cake tin (or a 7 inch square one) and line it with greaseproof paper. Spoon the cake mixture into the tin and spread it out evenly with the back of the spoon. Get a load of brown paper and wrap it around the cake tin, fastening it with string. Also, cover the cake mixture with a double layer of greaseproof paper with a 50p size hole in the centre. All of this helps to protect your cake from burning in the oven.
- Bake the cake on the lowest shelf of the oven for 4 and a half/4 and three quarter hours. It can sometimes take about half an hour more than this. Don't open the oven until after 4 hours. To test if it's done, gently press the top of the cake. If it springs back, it should be done.
- Cool for 30 minutes in the tin before transferring it to a wire rack.
- This cake can be fed! To do this, used a skewer/toothpick/fork to make a few holes in the top and spoon brandy into the holes. Do this once it has cooled and then every now and again until when you want to ice it. Wrap the cake in greaseproof paper and then again in tin foil.
- Sit back, relax, and await my instructions on icing your magnificent creation. You bring the brandy, I'll bring the soundtrack.
