Christmas is coming, the geese are getting fat...please put your Christmas cake in the oven!
So I did mine last weekend so I can seep it in alcohol on a weekly basis for 3 months. I love the taste of Christmas Cake. Not many people may age seem to like it but my Mamma made loads each year so I was exposed to it from a very young age and I learned to like it and now I love it.
I use a recipe I got from the BBC Food website but I add a few extra steps in based on words of cookery wisdom from my Mamma.
These are my additional steps:
I use 200g of glace cherries rather than 150g as I like the taste of them.
My Mamma recommended that I soak my fruits (the 800g of mixed dried fruit, 100g mixed peel and 150g of glace cherries, although I tend to use 200g of cherries) in red wine. I soak them for one-three days, whatever is most convenient at the time of baking, but my Mamma is adamant you should leave them for three days. I cover the bowl with cling film and leave it in a cupboard. I use a sweet, Greek, red wine called Mavrodaphne. It is glorious; another thing my Mamma introduced me to. If you like a sweet wine I highly recommend it. At the end of the soaking period I strain the red wine off but my Mamma says she incorporates it into the cake mix, her Christmas Cake should come with a warning not to drive after consumption!
When mixing the dry ingredients I like to add nutmeg along with the Cinnamon and Mixed Spice as I like my fruit cake to be unmistakably Christmas-sy!
Another trick my Mamma taught me is to wrap the outside of my baking tin up in brown parcel paper. As the cake is on the oven for 3, maybe more, hours she says this helps to stop the cake from burning. You can secure the paper with string and I recommend using at least two layers of paper.
So far in my baking life I have made three fruit cakes, one I seeped in normal brandy but the other two I seeped in Cherry Brandy and the results were amazing. If you like a sweet and moist cake I would suggest you use Cherry Brandy or similar liqueur that you like. If you like a drier cake then stick with the normal brandy. This year I am seeping mine in Jack Daniels as my partner likes this, fingers crossed it works well!
I seep my cake every Sunday with 2 tablespoons of whatever alcohol I am using. I will do this right up until a week before decorating. The BBC recipe suggest icing you cake with royal icing, this is something I have not tried yet. I like working with ready to roll icing (fondant) so I use this. I'll be posting some photos with advice and suggestions on how to do this in December when I ice my cake.
One final step you should most definitely add to the end of baking your cake is one I learnt, not from my Mamma, but from my Grandpa. He would always appear at the end of baking to 'test' the mixture! So don't forget to eat the leftover mix from your mixing bowl- it tastes delicious and is a nice little prequel to all the Christmas-sy goodness that waits! It'll soon be December!
Enjoy! xoxo
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