Easy Christmas Cake

There are two types of Christmas cake - unhealthy and very unhealthy...  This is an easy version for the time-pressed, marzipan-hating cook, and it is very simple to make.  If you are inspired, and have time, just omit the top fruit and glaze, and go for the full unhealthy option with marzipan and Royal Icing - I'll blog that next year when I have time!

Christmas cake is best cooked low and slow.  I also like to soak my fruit in tea for a day beforehand, so the little dried offerings regain their plumpness (especially useful if the fruit looks less appealing than it should do!).   It is Stir Up Sunday this weekend, the traditional (Victorian, anyway) time for cooks to make their Christmas cake and puddings.   It's a reference to the Collect for the last Sunday before Advent, which starts "Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people".

The timings for this kind of cake vary.  My original recipe (very old Good Housekeeping) said 150 deg for 3 3/4 hrs, but I've found 2- 2 1/2 hrs is enough, even at a lower temperature.  You know your oven.  Just watch it carefully, and make sure you put foil or paper over the top to stop it from going too brown.

Easy Christmas Cake

Easy Christmas Cake

1 ½ lb/675g equal quantities raisins, sultanas and currants

4oz/110g mixed peel OR 1 ¾ lb/800g mixed dried fruit

4oz/110g glacé cherries, halved

2oz/50g blanched almonds

8oz/225g butter at room temperature

8oz/225g soft brown sugar

Grated rind of 1 lemon and 1 orange

8oz/225g plain flour

1 pinch of salt

1 tsp ground mace, 1 tsp ground cinnamon

4 large eggs, beaten

2 tbsps brandy

Topping - approximate:

2-3oz/50-75g glacé cherries, halved

2oz/50g pecans

2oz/50g blanched almonds

Or you can use dried apricots, dried pineapples, walnuts, brazil nuts etc

¼ jar of warmed sieved apricot jam or commercial baking glaze

(marmalade, in extremis)

More brandy

First, line an 8” cake tin (or 9”, but the cake will be flatter).  You will have to use doubled parchment, both at the base and around the sides.  Then tie a ring of doubled newspaper around the outside of the tin.  Preheat the oven to 130-150 deg C. 

If you have soaked your fruit, dry it off as much as possible before mixing in the cherries and almonds.  Next, in a large bowl, cream together the butter with the sugar and the citrus rind, until pale and fluffy.  Slowly add the eggs, about ¼ a time and continue beating, adding a couple of tablespoons of the flour so that the mixture doesn’t separate.    Using a metal spoon, fold in about half of the flour, then the rest, plus the brandy.   Then fold in the fruit. 

Tip the mixture into the tin, smooth the top and decorate it with fruit.   Put another piece of folded newspaper into the oven, standing the cake on top, and add a little hat of paper as well.  Bake for about 2-2 ½ hours (it can take up to 3) and then check it.  The cake should be singing when it is ready!   Also, a hot knife or skewer will come out clean.

When the cake is taken out of the oven, immediately stab it with a knife and pour more brandy into it.  Inhale deeply….  Then heat up the apricot jam or glaze until it is melting, sieve out any bits and paste the cake top evenly.   Allow it to cool in the tin before turning it onto a wire rack. 

This cake likes to be fed every week with a little more brandy.   Store, wrapped in paper or foil in a tin.