When are you going to make your Christmas cakes?

[OldWintersSong]

When are you going to make your Christmas cakes?

I want to make and feed with booze until Christmas, or finish before and leave to mature.

Not too late at all.

Stir-up Sunday is an informal term in Catholic and Anglican churches for the last Sunday before the season of Advent. It gets its name from the beginning of the collect for the day in the Book of Common Prayer, which begins with the words, "Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people". But it has become associated with the custom of making the Christmas puddings on that day.[1] Wikipedia.

Never - I can’t stand any part of Christmas cake! The horrible sweet icing sets my teeth on edge, I don’t like the texture of marzipan and the cake itself is far too dense and heavy after a full roast dinner.
Instead, I make a chocolate chestnut log in late November and freeze it (basic choc swiss roll recipe, but fill it with sweetened chestnut puree before rolling up), then thaw it on the 23rd Dec and ice it with melted Nutella. I roughen it with a fork to resemble bark, and add a little sprinkle of sieved icing sugar as “snow”. A sprig of holly from the garden as decoration, and we eat it on Christmas Eve after dinner.

I don’t marzipan or ice mine.

Modern Xmas cakes are yummy.

I double marzipan mine. (For balance) Royal icing I could take or leave but the marzipan is essential Christmassing in our house.

I like the sound of your chocolate chestnut log @Babdoc

I enjoy a little bit of marzipan in stollen. That's enough of the stuff for me.

@Babdoc that log sounds delicious.

When you line your tins for Christmas cakes do you line the edges or just grease edges and line the base? I'm useless at lining the edges and end up with wonky sides but I'd like to make some smaller cakes as part of a gift, I'm worried it would just stick to the sides 🤔

The lining of the tins is my most unfavourite bit but it makes a huge difference to the outcome . I do it the day before so I don't have to swear when I'm meant to be enjoying the Cake Making
I use a baking parchment , folded to give a double thickness then fold over the long edge-about a centimetre .

Round cakes are easier just snip into the folded edge so it sits neatly on the base . For square ,do sharp creases on the corners and cut into the fo;ded edge so it overlaps neatly
I do a double layer of paper on the base too . ;ightly brush the tin with oil to stick in place ) I told you it's a faff)
Double layer of thick paper (brown paper /newspaper) tied with string .
the outside . I put a square of parchment with a hole cut in the centre on top of the paper collar .

It does protect the edges from burning and gives you lovelly neat sides to marzipan.

You might like this one too; I've been making it for years. www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiysp-xsJn7AhVCTEEAHfiIDGgQrbMEegQICBAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sainsburysmagazine.co.uk%2Frecipes%2Fchocolate%2Fspiced-choc&usg=AOvVaw0v9egPRSsQBOhPOQefQFCE

Late to the party I know but I make 8-10 cakes each year for friends and family using an old waitrose recipe which I divide between 2 x 6 inch tins. I always use double the amount of brandy to soak the fruit and soak for at least 5 days.

I use (Lakeland) baking paper circles x2 for the tin base and baking paper strip on a roll whizzed around the inside of the tin twice and stuck in place at both ends with a dab of soft butter. Easy peasy!

I bake 2 cakes at a time stood on a baking tray on top of a double sheet of brown paper and wrap the outside of each tin with a double layered strip of brown paper and tie with string, sheet of grease proof paper over the top of the tins for 3 hours of baking and then remove for last half hour.

All the brown paper is reused each year and stashed in the bottom of the baking drawer. And I leave the baking paper on the cakes when I take them out of the tin and wrap in a layer of foil and store in ziploc bags until ready to marzipan (again ziploc bags reused every year). Tbh I probably only feed them 2 or 3 times before marzipan and icing and that's enough. I also use Tate and lyles royal icing sugar mixed as per the packet as I prefer it to the egg white version and just in case as have very elderly relations!

Hope that's helpful to someone

I'm going to make Nigella's chocolate fruit cake this year as it's delicious. And I don't usually eat fruit cake but will scoff loads, plus it doesn't need feeding. Just wondering how long it lasts though? Is it too early to make it now, given that there isn't that much alcohol in it and it doesn't get fed?

Today! We were away over half term or I'd have done it then.

I always made the Christmas cake with my grandmother and then I made the one at home with my mother. Years and years down the line and there is only me that likes it. It lasts until spring unless I feed it to the birds. My children do not like fruit cakes or mince pies (yes they are bonkers I know) So I have a question :-

Who sells the best Christmas cake as I will be buying a small one. Would it be Waitrose? What would the panel recommend ?

It depends on how much you want. And how boozy, and if you like currants (Waitrose one last year... full of nasty seedy little things!) or mixed peel (M&S is very peely). We always have so much stuff over Christmas that a big one does not get eaten. So we now just buy a little bar one. Does 6 or so slices. Perfect. Best ones for us are Tesco or Asda. (Both seem the same).

Mines been in the oven for 4 hours, just an hour to go....

I confess to cheating and using the M&S kit - but I soaked the fruit in cognac even though they were brandy soaked already! It's had 2 feeds now and is smelling very Christmassy.

@BeyondMyWits

Thanks for that. I had already bitten the bullet before I read your post and bought the Waitrose one. I am now going to get the ASDA one to eat before Christmas !

Made mine today. SIL came over & we split the ingredients between us so it was pretty cheap to make.

Looking forward to a nice boozy cake at Xmas.

Oh.... sorry... hopefully they may improved the recipe since...

I have made mine today. 2 small loafs. I thought I would buy one, is just me that eats it and couldn't be arsed.
I got a slice from waitrose. It ended in the bin. Tasted burnt.
So I made my version of it. No peel, very light spices that includes vanilla, soaked in cherry brandy and some pecans.
Just an hour soaking as decided to make and bake them today.
They are cooling right now and smell like caramel and almonds.
I will feed them once a week. I will not ice them as they are only for me and don't want the extra sugar layer.

I ended up making mine today, although it's not really my Christmas cake as it'll be eaten well before then. It's still cooling at the moment but the house smells amazing!