Christmas cake

[Aurorie11]

I know it’s August and hot, but is it too early to make Christmas cakes?

Nope, in fact it's about right to give you good feeding time. We made ours last week, they're tightly wrapped in the back of the pantry and doused with a mixture of sherry, whisky and brandy every week :)

@yorkshirecountrylass thank you, normal make in October but got a couple of weeks off and cancelled holiday so got time on my hands

I said this year i would like to do my own, does anyone have a great recipe or is it not the done thing to share once you have perfected it??

I make mine on bank holiday Monday

@tigger001 Delia’s recipe is a good place to start

I do mine in October

They do extremely well in a slow cooker for about 7 hours. It keeps the heat down on your kitchen.

I do mine the first week of September and it's a Delia.

I do mine the weekend after Halloween, and always use Delia's creole christmas cake recipe, though with tweaks to the flavour combinations every year.

I've made Delia's Creole Christmas cake as presents over the past 2 years and believe me, I am now the most popular member of my family.

Also, interested to know what's the earliest you can do Delia's Creole cake? I am away this Christmas so would be delivering them mid Dec.

No, though I usually do mine on Stir Up Sunday, along with the puds.

I also do Delia’s classic Christmas cake, having moved on from Nigel Slater

I used to do Delia’s christmas cake but found the Mary Berry one much more moist

I do a boiled fruit cake, eg Nigella’s easy-action Christmas cake (perfect if you like crème de marrons, not if you don’t) or bbc good food one. I CBA with all the creaming and beating in some recipes, so I like the low effort!

Of course it's not too early. It's always been my traditional August rainy bank holiday activity as DP is usually working although he won't be this year as he's usually working at a music festival and we all know how that's going.

But seeing as it's traditional to use the top tier of a wedding cake as a Christening cake for the first DC, then a 4 month old cake is not even ready on that timescale.

Just out of curiosity is there a big difference between Christmas pudding and Christmas cake was thinking of making one for this year

Christmas pudding is easier, in that you only have to mix everything up, no creaming butter and sugar. But you then have to boil or steam it for 5-6 hours. Or (as per my recipe) leave it overnight and do it next day.

I always make Chr. puds, prefer them to cake TBH, and my recipe - an old GH one - is always popular, not too dense or heavy.

Making the orange and lemon zest was a PITA until I found a brilliant little gadget for the purpose, though. 🙂

ooh interesting that others do it this early.

I usually get mine done mid September once the Christmas bits start appearing in shops. But after feeling rather autumnal the last few days I think I will make a start on the Christmas Cake tomorrow.

DS has been watching Christmas movies all BH weekend so it only seems fitting to start soaking the cake.