Christmas Cake Help Please!

[Carrie76]

My MIL always made a few Christmas cakes for the family. She passed away in January and my husband mentioned last night that it will be strange not having one of her cakes this year. I’ve found her recipe is it too late to make one? She used to give it to us when we visited the first week in December so I’m guessing it was made mid November.

It will be ok, possibly you'll notice a difference but not necessarily.
It depends on whether you are going to add any alcohol, to the fruit before cooking or down a needle into points of the cake on occasions afterwards. If you're topping with marzipan and icing, the marzipan layer needs some drying time without the icing top or oily patches will come through.

Definitely not! I made mine a few days ago and I'm speeding up the maturation process by feeding it with alcohol every day instead of every week I will probably slow down on it after about a week. Yours will be lovely I reckon.

Definitely still plenty of time to make one. Soak the fruit for 24 hours in whatever alcohol you use and then away you go ☺️. You've just reminded me I need to feed mine tomorrow and then better marzipan it 👍😁😋

You're still fine! Just marzipan it a day before you ice it.i often don't marzipan it until the 23rd.

Oh, and if you do run out of time then Delia has a last minute Christmas cake that you can make with mincemeat. I'm sure your husband will be really touched if you make MILs recipe though.

Jane Asher's last minute Christmas cake is excellent.

It won't be as mature but it'll still taste lovely.
I always make mine 1st October. Didn't make one this year though. A couple of years ago I made two and forgot about the other one after Christmas. It was on top of the kitchen cupboard for a year. It was amazing!!