To ask what spirit you use in Christmas cake?

[QuestionableMouse]

First year making Christmas cake and I'm not sure which spirit to use. I'm not eating it so have no preference. I'm on a bit of a budget so cheaper is better!

Thank you!

Brandy to soak the fruit. Dark rum to feed the cake.

Brandy. One for you cake, one for me.

The more the merrier.
Baste it for weeks in brandy.

Everyone loves my cake

I use a mix of dark rum, brandy and fruit liqueurs.

I've tried it with everything, but my favourite is brandy -- just the cheap cooking stuff.

I soak the fruit overnight in brandy, add a bit more to the mixture, then feed the cooked cake with even more brandy every week till Christmas. I once had to, unexpectedly, spend Christmas Day on my own. I morosely cut my cake, had one small slice, and immediately got so drunk that I fell over and gave myself a nosebleed. Worst Christmas ever. 😂

Weird fact: I once used a Christmas Cake recipe that suggested using curry powder instead of the normal spices. I was really dubious, thinking it'd taste like a Christmas Bhuna, but it was delicious! Not curry-ish at all, just perfectly Christmassy.

Brandy for me but I think a spirit that you enjoy drinking would be the best choice. So brandy, rum or whisky. Maybe sherry at a push but I would think that the alcohol content should be higher, same for amaretto or another liqueur which would be much too sweet for my taste anyway. I can't imagine gin or vodka doing much for a Christmas cake though.

Calvados. It was the only thing left in the back of the cupboard one year, it was so good I've used it every year since.

I think I'm just going to use brandy. I'm not eating it and i don't drink for medical reasons so it doesn't have to be to my taste. And because brandy seems quite traditional I'll stick to that, especially as the average age of the people eating it is going to be quite high. 😀 (Such a fab bunch of ladies, but you change something and they all go nuts. One of the care workers bought Typhoo rather than PG Tips for the lounge and there was almost a riot)

I can't imagine using curry in a fruit cake.

Usually a fairly sweet bourbon. Sometimes Scotch, never a smokey one though. Dark rum has also been known. It makes surprisingly little difference to the outcome.

Did a gin and tequila one a few years back when we were too poor to buy a bottle and had to use what was left in the back of the empty drinks cupboard - that was also surprisingly fine.

I can't imagine using curry in a fruit cake.

Honestly, neither could I, but it just tasted like the normal spices. I might muster up the courage to do it again this year. It feels so, so wrong but tastes so right!

Don't do it for these guests, though. If they can't handle a new teabag, I don't think they'd embrace curry cake. 😆 It'd be like that scene in Little Britain where David Walliams' character projectile-vomits at the fete.

Augustus we used to live next door to a Bajan family. Your post brought back happy memories of eating Black Cake and passing round the Cockspur.

My favourite recipe requires the fruit to be marinated in sherry for a week before making, then it's fed with brandy.

Spiced rum and fed every week with the same.

Haven't made one for years, but am going to do using Delia. What i can't work out from her recipe is if the glace cherries should be soaked along with the other fruit or not?

Calvados. It was the only thing left in the back of the cupboard one year, it was so good I've used it every year since.

I like to use Calvados, too.
But I do like the sound of SurfnTerf's sloe gin and plum brandy combo. I will definitely consider it for the future.

@scaryteacher If you soak the cherries they become little booze bombs. Your choice!

@SpoonBlender Tx, I will soak the cherries as well then!

Good move!

I just got all the cake ingredients today with the shopping (I'm going to try and do Mary Berry's Christmas cake) and I have a follow up question which is vaguely related... is brandy generally kind of rough, or is it just that my local supermarket is a bit downmarket? Because I think I expected to pay more than 7 euros for a 70cl bottle of 40% alcohol. And that was the most expensive one in the shop! They had one for 4 euro. I bet you could use it to clean your jewellery as well...

Spiced rum here - Lidl's version of Captain Morgan rum. I also soak the fruit for about a week before making the cakes.