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!