I am a Christmas Cake Virgin - need an easy peasy recipe please!

[CeliaFate]

Title says it all! Never made one before - could someone link me to a fail safe, easy recipe please?

[Listzilla]

I find them all much the same as far as difficulty goes - they're actually all pretty simple, there's just a lot of ingredients! This one of Delia's is extremely popular so you'd get a lot of help with it here, and also some supermarkets are selling a 'cake-in-a-box' version which includes most of the ingredients, except maybe eggs and something else? So it's easy to shop for. I think the hardest part is lining the tin!

[CeliaFate]

Thanks. Now when do I start making it?!

[Whitershadeofpale]

If it's your 1st time the Nigella Chocolate Christmas cake (it doesn't taste of chocolate) is the easiest to make as it's just melt it all together in 1 saucepan. you don't have to make that in advance either and no feeding required. Good luck!

[Sparklingbrook]

Yes I saw a Christmas cake in a bag kit in Tesco yesterday. Didn't see price though. I quite fancy a piece of Christmas Cake now!

[HappyAsEyeAm]

I'm a cooking novice too, and so I have started on more traditional cooks and ecipes like Delia and Mary Berry. Either of those woudl be a good start for you, I think!

[YougreatPumpkinmousse]

The Delia one is perfect for beginners. Don't buy a kit, it contains all the dry ingredients (cost about £10) but you still need to buy butter, eggs, lemon/orange etc. so it works out very expensive for 500g of fruit, a bit of flour, a teaspoon of treacle and some brown sugar.

[CeliaFate]

Should I start it this weekend if it needs feeding?

[weblette]

I made this one at the weekend, dead simple and cooked really well.

If you want to marzipan and ice it, the sooner the better tbh as the marzipan needs to dry out.

[Binfullofmaggotsonthe45]

Hi,

I cooked the Delia classic Christmas cake last night - how on topic!!!

This is the one from her book Delia's Happy Christmas.

I soaked the fruit the evening before, I had trouble getting enough currants here (Switzerland) as everything seems to be named sultana! However I just chose a mix of everything that I could to the weight given on the recipe.

Last night I made & baked the completed cake mix. I actually made two cakes with the mix from one batch, using two smaller cake tins.

This was because I wanted to give my DS a cake to ice and decorate while I enjoy a nut and glace fruit topping on a marzipan base. Also at a 4 hour cooking time I didn't want to be hanging around till 1am. So a 21/2 hour cooking time and they turned out rather gorgeous!

The biggest faff is cutting circles of baking paper, lining the tins and tying brown paper round the outside. I cheated and used sellotape (at 140 degrees it doesn't burn). It's worth it in the end - get dh/dp to do this if you have one!!!!

I left them to cool and "fed" them with rum last thing, wrapped them in baking paper and foil and put them in two metal tins. I put a note in my calendar to feed every Friday with rum.

I did my Delia Chrissy pud on Sunday, luckily we have a built in steamer, but 9 hours is quite restrictive to keep an eye on any kind of steamer imo!

It looks fabulous though!

Mince pies this weekend - I use Nigellas recipe and put orange peel and orange juice (or tangerine) in the pastry - they are deliciously short and crumbly!

[Binfullofmaggotsonthe45]

Actually Delia has a last minute one too - made with a jar of mincemeat. I'd recommend getting her book - dh would do anything, and I mean anything, for a batch of her sausage rolls. :o