What’s your best Christmas cake recipe?

[Barbarara]

Which recipe do you use? Do you tweak it?
Looking for inspiration.

I kind of use a mix or the Mary Berry and Delia Smith's classic Christmas cake recipes. I use whisky for soaking the fruit and for feeding. Never failed me.

I always do Delia and double the brandy

I use Delia’s Classic recipe, and it is always lovely - apart from the year when I set the oven too high and didn’t realise until it was burned to a crisp. I did consider trimming off the burnt bits, but I’d have been left with a cupcake!

I use Felicity Cloake's How To Make The Perfect Christmas Cake (from her Guardian column, I think it's still Google-able).

But.

We use a mix of golden/dark/spiced rum. (Careful not too much spiced, the vanilla might get overpowering. The rest is just what we have in the cupboard )

I'm not too exact on the proportions of each fruit. I prefer sultanas to currants, for some reason, and tend to use the whole container of cherries, and just make sure the total weight of fruit is correct.

I also use Nigel Slater's very easy recipe for homemade marzipan, with which nothing shop bought is comparable.

Delia's Creole Christmas cake. Amazing.

Delia with whatever fruit and booze is to hand. Then feed feed feed with more booze.
Ice the top only as no-one wants a lot of icing.

Quite partial to a Dundee cake for a lighter option.

Levi Roots Caribbean Christmas Cake!

Laced with rum, jam-packed full of fruit and nuts, you can't beat it.

Another vote for Delia's creole cake. I just use it as a guideline though; I take the total weight of fruit she uses and make that up with my own preference (masses of cherries, sultanas and mixed peel; no raisins or currants for me, ever!), the same with the alcohol (last year was brandy, port, cherry brandy and amaretto, I think) and extra spices. It's consistently given me the best christmas cakes I've ever made.

I did this James Martin one, last year, and it was pretty delicious. The ground almonds gave it a lovely texture.
www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2607642/make-and-mature-christmas-cake

I sort of follow Delias but caster sugar not brown, sultanas not raisins or currants, double the cherries and loads of mixed nuts chopped a bit .

Soaked in Amarreto and feed top.

And YES to make your own marzipan .. so much nicer (off to search up Nigel Slater's recipe)

I’m fascinated by the tweaks. I have no confidence as a baker and I don’t know what’s ok to change and what is sacrosanct. The Christmas cake probably isn’t the place for me to start

I usually do delia's whiskey cake

Tried making my own marzipan last year for the first time and was disappointed. Might try Nigel Slater this year

I looked up Nigel Slater ( Ooh Err Missus ) but there's no alcohol and the eggs are raw .

I made the Delia almond paste (with Ameretto) but a couple of years ago did one that heated the eggs and sugar in a Bain Marie while whisking.
It was nice , not sure if the extra faff was worthwhile though (the heating not the making my own)

With tweaking, it's a good idea (when unsure, or if cooking something expensive) to tweak like for like.

So you might change from one sort of sugar to another, or one sort of booze to another, or different sorts of fruit, or different sorts of flour, while keeping the overall proportions of the recipe the same. This sort of tweak shouldn't cause anything disastrous to happen to your cake. It's considerably more courageous* to decide to double the number of eggs, or take out the butter, or use twice as much fruit to sugar than what the recipe suggests.

*I'm a big fan of Yes, Minister.

@Tableclothing thank you. That makes a lot of sense.

I use nigellas easy action Christmas cake (yes, that’s what she calls it) which is a boiled fruit cake recipe. Very straightforward and delicious. You can sub in whatever spirits and dried fruit you like

I do Delia’s classic cake with some of my own variations. Last year I did half caster and half soft light brown sugar and golden syrup instead of treacle, which made the cake less dark and extra cherries instead of peel. I also made it egg free so replaced the eggs , following instructions from someone on mumsnet, a mixture of egg replacer and flax eggs. It doesn’t need to be egg free this year so will just do it normal. Also Delia has instructions online how to alter the recipe for different size tins

Another one for Delia's Creole Christmas Cake! Let's all go round hers for Christmas! I actually am not usually a fan of fruit cake but hers is lovely!

I use Nigella’s Christmas cake (the traditional one, which is in both Feast and Domestic Goddess. It has alcohol, almond essence but no nuts, and mounds of soaked dried fruit. Turns out really well every year.

Sainsburys 5 ingredient Xmas cake usually.
Then I add brandy, walnuts, hazelnuts, cherries and whatever else takes my fancy.