Overcooked the Xmas cake. What can I do

[Imdoingitnext]

We have a fan oven and I made the mistake of cooking the Xmas cake at it's usual temp thats on the recipe but a fan oven is hotter. So I put cake in and went out and 2and half hours later checked and it's overdone and looks burnt a bit on top and dry

Short of using it for a doorstop what can I do to redeem it? - is it redeemable? Will I be shown up as a bad cook if I attempt to serve this cake to people.
Will it pull out their fillings or break their teeth? Should I start again?
Can I turn it into a tasty Xmas themed dessert?

All ideas/advice welcome

Could you slice off the to and poor lots of booze over it to moisten it? Then marzipan and ice as usual. I'd be tempted to fill a bowl with brandy and immerse it entirely for an hour or so!

Could you turn it into a Christmas cake trifle? Lots of cream and custard plus cutting off the worst bits….

Slice off the burnt bits and make Christmas Cake ice cream?

drill holes in it with a knitting needle or skewer or similar and drip alcohol into it ,repeat every few days .

Make an Eton mess or a baked Alaska?

You could try making a syrup - orange juice and booze, maybe sugar and feed it with that - like a lemon drizzle cake.

Cut off the burnt bits
Sluice with rum / brandy / sherry
Leave in a tin for a bit
Apply extra thick layer of marzipan and icing
Serve in small slices
Style it out.

If you’re going to ice it, just slice the burnt bits off. You could moisten with some booze and/or orange juice - but I’d boil the OJ first.

If you don’t want actual icing (nobody in this house ever wanted it) a covering arrangement of nuts on top can look like something expensive from a shop - brush the cake with warmed apricot jam first, and glaze the nuts with the same. A tartan ribbon around the sides is Christmassy and will cover any messy looking bits. (Speaking from experience here!)

Put it in the bin, go to any supermarket and buy an uniced one, marzipan and royal icing, pass it off as your own.

Or (as I do) buy a cheap iced fruit cake bar, because it is only really me that likes it as there is so much other sweet stuff at Christmas.

I have made many a ‘well done’ Christmas cake over the years. As others have suggested feed it with as much booze as possible. When you are ready to ice it trim off the worst burnt bits and slather in apricot jam and add marzipan and icing.

it is so hard to time the cooling just right. Even with Nigella’s trick of wrapping the tin in extra grease proof paper and newspaper I still tend to end up with singed edges. I often put a layer of tin foil over the top part way through to try and prevent that.

good luck am sure it will be delicious

The ingredients are so expensive it's worth saving it if OP can.

Dripping more alcohol into it might save it but be careful as it won't get cooked off so drivers need to be careful

I agree it's expensive, but adding booze and syrup and god knows what can be chucking good money after it... people will have a slice, it will still taste burnt and a bit dry. When offered again there will be lots of "oh, I'm too full, maybe later" and it'll get chucked in the bin anyhow.

My mum's cake suffered this fate regularly... lots of people in our family hate Christmas cake as a result, it was a revelation the first time I bought one!

Good point well made

Just before you're going to marzipan it, slice the top and edges off, then you can taste a bit and see the texture inside. If it's fine inside and doesn't taste burnt, just marzipan as usual. I wouldn't put alcohol in it, at least not much, just the usual brushing with apricot jam should be fine.

If you think it might be dry then freeze it and defrost. Not sure how it works or why, but it certainly helps!

Thanks for the great ideas. I'm relieved to see it's not just me that cocks it up. I've just cut a tiny slice from the cake and it tastes quite moist but a bit chewy on top so I'll have a think what to do today. It might be the alcohol solution although I quite fancy making a pudding of it

My MIL used a wooden box for the Xmas cake. When we got married OH made me my own wooden box using Oak. 46 Christmases later it's never burned.

I wonder if anyone else does this

100% this.

I did the same this year with my cakes. I moved into a new house this year and it has an aga which I am getting used to. I realise now I should have put the slidey thing in to stop the top of the cakes burning. I shall try and do the things suggested and see if I can salvage them..

It was only when I was about 40 that I finally cooked our family Christmas cake recipe correctly and discovered that the beloved taste of childhood was based on the fact that my mum routinely burnt ours. The key thing is to chop off any actual cinders and to feed with booze, then make sure you ice with proper royal icing in a nice thick 70s snowstorm style so you have that sharp sugar hit to counteract the burnt flavour. None of your fondant icing nonsense.

I did this last year and fed it with loads and loads of booze and iced as normal but it wasn’t great and I wished I’d started again as we all really love decent Xmas cake

my friend burnt one in the past and put it in the food processor with condensed milk and all sorts like cream cheese and made a cheesecake! She said it was amazing!

Please don't chuck it out for the birds...They've enough problems in winter without broken beaks.

My mum always turned ours to cinders...as a result I don't eat fruit cake.
Try "feeding" it with alcohol, but don't overdo it or it will fall apart.

I found Ginger wine good for cake feeding and keeping a cake moist - not too expensive and less alcoholic than other options

I used to have a tiny oven/ microwave combination, which burnt the top of every fruitcake I ever made. The oven was so small the top of the cake would almost touch the element. I would just slice the top off; it gives you a beautiful level surface to decorate.
If you don't want to add more alcohol black tea works well with a fruit cake.

Feed it with an embarrassing amount of brandy over the next few weeks, then trim off the burnt bits when you’re ready to marzipan and ice. Seal with apricot jam before marzipanning.