Bakers! I want to do my first ever Christmas cake. When? How? Help!

[LabubuLabulabulabubu]

I want to bake a Christmas cake.

When should I bake it? How do I 'feed' it?

Can I use Ameretto? Its the only alcohol anyone likes.

Best recipe?

Thanks!

Darina Allen https://www.irishcentral.com/culture/food-drink/darina-allen-christmas-cake-recipe

Agree it definitely needs more alcohol. I just pour it in by eye lol.

For a flat top for marzipan and icing, just turn the cake over and ice the bottom.

Loads of great tips here. I have always used either Delia's recipe or Nigella's.

Top tips: when you take it out of the oven, chuck a load of whatever booze you're going to use on top of it, and wrap in foil immediately. The booze will evaporate with the heat, and then condense back onto/into the cake from the foil as it cools. This will make it beautifully moist, even if you left it in the oven a bit too long.

If you've never made a fruit cake like this before you might well look at your ingredients at the mixing stage and think it looks like far too much dried fruit and it will never mix into the egg/butter/flour. Persevere. It will.

I used to always bake it in October half term, but one year put the fruit in the booze to soak, and events overtook me, so I actually made it on stir up Sunday, so the fruit had been soaking for almost a month. It was excellent.

I use the Delia recipe but mine is a really old one and the cooking time was way too long so I needed to look at her newer recipes . Probably ovens now are better - certainly fan ovens are .

Line your tin, it takes a while but if you get a good smooth lining (I use parchment paper ) then you don;t get all the wrinkles and uneven bits . I put a layer of newspaper or brown paper round the outside and a piece of paper with a hole in it on the top .

I use Amarretto , and I make the almond paste so it goes in that too .
I did see a presentation on TV someone , a baker was talking about their cakes (small company) said they soak the fruit for a few days then not when it is wrapped as it can make the cake too soft . And to use the best fruit you can find .

I bought some Turkish sultanas (I don;t like currants or raisins) rather than the wizened ones in bags , soaked in Amarretto for 3-4 days , did a quick stab all over and dripped in more Amaretto then wrapped it .

I said this year I wasn;t going to do a cake as only I eat it and I get fed up with it taking up a work surface but I might do four mini cakes , marzipan/ice two and leave the other two plain ti have with cheese .

Bake it in mid November, feed it 2-3 times by making holes with a skewer and pouring on some brandy (I don’t overdo it because I’m not keen on brandy taste wise) then one week before Christmas cover in marzipan then let it dry for 48 hours before icing

I’ve used this one very successfully for the last 3 years and have substituted the alcohol suggested for amaretto.

pp who said that amaretto cake would not taste like Christmas cake, or course it does! It’s just extra marzipan flavour.

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/you-it-christmas-cake

This is the one I've always used, it's easy and loved by everyone. I make it 4-5 weeks before Christmas and 'feed' it with brandy weekly. I don't ice mine as I don't like marzipan or icing, I decorate it with almonds as shown.

You can't taste the alcohol much so I think it would be fine to swap but it won't be overpowering if not.

Fiona Cairns's recipe is the best I have tried. I have now made five Christmas cakes and two wedding cakes with it - perfect every time. I like it best when made two or three months in advance. https://www.fionacairns.com/recipes/fruit-cake
(Delia's Christmas book is great, though.)

If I wanted to use amaretto I would probably make the cake closer to Christmas. Amaretto is less alcoholic than brandy so I wonder whether that would affect how well it keeps. I think it is also sweeter, so a long feeding time might make the cake a bit sweet for my tastes.

I like the Nigel Slater small Christmas cake recipe. He suggests using really good quality dried fruit, golden raisins, sour cherries, apricots etc not just supermarket cheapies and it really does make a difference. It doesn’t make a huge cake ( not many fruit cake eaters in the family, more fool them) but it is delicious.

I am in the same position and made this one yesterday. I decided to use raisins, sultanas and glace cherries only for the fruit.

The recipe uses ground and flaked almonds as well as orange and lemon juice/zest. I didn't add any candied peel as I'm not keen.

The recipe also gets you to heat up the fruit mix, rather than soak it overnight.

The mix tasted HEAVENLY. it's a fantastic recipe and very straightforward.

General tip- make sure you have a cake tin for storage, foil for storage, baking paper and newspaper/string for cooking.

Classic Christmas cake recipe | Good Food https://share.google/wrjCMcgH2rY4C0eOx

Am thinking about whether to make one. Love it but realistically it would be only me eating it.

Had a go at frangipane mince pies 2 years ago-gluten free. Felt like the frangipane was undercooked- was disappointed. Made mincemeat myself too.

It keeps pretty much forever if you use enough booze. And you can also cut it into slices and freeze them.

I use Amaretto. Have done so for years and it works really well.

Mary Berry every time for me now, after defecting from Delia. I usually make mine in November and don't like it too alcoholic so only feed a couple of times. Use whatever booze you like, amaretto would be nice I think, I've used all sorts including pineapple rum.

There is a clever recipe 'cake calculator' on the BBC website that lets you put in the size tin you want to use and gives you the right quantities of ingredients and baking times. So no guesswork.

www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/classic_christmas_cake_04076

Ooh that's worth knowing- thanks. I always find shop bought too sweet

Another tip - buy your marzipan well in advance. One year I didn't and went to 5, yes 5 shops, which had all sold out!

Oh, that's very handy, thank you.

I love making them but it's only really me who eats it. Last year, I bought one of Lidl's oblong ones and it was really tasty. But if I could make one that size, it would be perfect.

I make a cake that has a tin of chestnut puree in it, and it’s DIVINE.

I buy things like mincemeat and dried fruit when it's reduced after Christmas - it's fine until the next year or two whatever the BBE date says. I'm sure I've had marzipan too, so it's probably luck of the draw, or they get it in when it's sold out and then people have given up and don't buy it.

Delia is your friend - just follow her recipe to the letter and you cannot go wrong.

Just be aware if you making a very small cake to protect the edges from drying out too much during baking.

Line the tin with extra layers of parchment or even, like my mum used to do, tie some greaseproof or brown paper round the outside of the tin. Stops the edges getting too well done.

Enjoy your cake!

The only change I make to her recipe is to double the amount of brandy that the fruit is soaked in, before baking, from 3 to 6 tablespoons. My copy of Delia's Christmas book is an old one, so all the measurements are imperial rather than metric. I noticed when searching for her recipe online, that obviously the measurements are now metric, but also that she has increased the amount of brandy anyway!

I’d agree with whoever suggested reducing the cooking times if using and old Delia cookbook.

Delia’s classic Christmas cake. Use brandy not amaretto- you don’t taste the brandy, it just helps wider flavour and preserves the cake.