How do you know if your Christmas cake has worked??

[Thankyouandgoodnight]

I think the top may be a bit crunchy - does that mean the whole thing is shafted?

Stick a skewer in, if it comes out wet you should be OK. If it's sticky, then it's not cooked through.

You can cut the crust off the top if it really too crunchy.

I must admit, I've never actually cooked a Christmas cake, but my mum and big sisters used the skewer, (and cutting off burnt bits) in the past.

Am making mine tomorrow, first time I have made my own Xmas cake, though I do make a lot of cakes.
Any tips? It is quite an expensive thing to mess up.

I'm worried it's too dry. The recipe said min of 4 hours.

I checked at 3.5 and the skewer came out dry but i put it back in and turned the heat down again just incase there was something i didn't know .

it'll be fine! you've got plenty of time to keep feeding it. and the more you feed it the moister it'll be
honestly, just go with it

Thankyouandgoodnight, if it's dry poke holes in the bottom with a skewer and drizzle brandy in from time to time from now until Xmas. Cutting the crust off the top and flipping it over is also an old cook's trick, to make it look brilliant if you don't want to ice it. To check if its done, if you put a skewer in there and it has doughy stuff on when you pull it out it needs a bit longer.

Tips for making sure it doesn't overcook is to wrap 2 or 3 sheets of brown paper around the top with a bit of string. I think I got this tip from Delia Smith's Book of Cakes.

I made mine today and realised when I took it out of the oven, I'd put 4 eggs in instead of 5 . Just hope it's ok - it's the first time I've made one too!

If the top really is too crunchy, just slice it off. You won't see it once iced.

Mingming, just follow your recipe and it should be fine. Put a couple of layers of greaseproof/baking paper on the top to prvent it scorching.

Stick an apple corer down the middle once it has cooled slightly and taste! Then when it comes to icing fill the hole with marzipan!

Tanyou for the advice Suedonim. Cake has been made and is now out of the oven and is looking good.

Just keep feeding it brandy.

BoffinMum, at my cake decorating course the teacher said that christmas (or any long cook fruit cake) are the exception the rule with regards to flipping and icing. She claims they cut much more easily if you ice them right side up.

I have tried to scientifically deconstruct this statement with regards to how does a cake know if it upside down or not, and have been left wanting. However our cake lady is a Sage Old Bird and has probably cooked more fruit cakes than I have come upstairs to find something and then forgotton what I came up to get when I got to the top, so I inclined to ice the top.

I understand taht you need to wrap the cake. What do you wrap it in (dimwit emotion) - cling film, foil, something else? Airtight tin?
Any advice much appreciated.

Delia suggests wrapping it in two layers of silicone / parchment paper held together with a rubber band and then in foil or in to an air tight container (double wrapped in silicone paper but no need for the foil).

Yes, greaseproof/baking paper and foil or container is perfect. I leave the original paper in which it was cooked on the cake as well.

One of my cakes came to a sad end this time. I went home to the UK (I live in Africa usually) a few weeks ago and decided to get a flip to the front by making the cakes. I put the cakes into the oven on auto to bake for their four/five hours before I went to bed.

When I got up next morning, I could smell a very-well-done-cake smell. And then I heard the timer bleeping. I realised that I'd got confused between my ovens in Africa and the UK and had merely put the timer on, not the auto turnoff. at myself and There's no way a cake cooked for over 8 hrs can be resurrected, believe you me, although the one of the lower shelf was ok.

Oh I am also suffering christmas cake angst now. How do I know it's OK. I wont know until we cut the thing on Christmas day when it will be too late.

ATM I just keep chucking whisky and orange juice on it and sniffing it.

It'll be fine, honest!

We can fret together - I'm seriously considering adding rum and amaretto in addition to the brandy, to try and bully it in to submission.

I love Amaretto, delicious

Unfortunatetly I have already thrown the paper away that was around the cake while it cooked, so will have to wrap in some new greaseproof paper.

Mine's in new too. The stuff it was cooked in was basically separate floor and walls anyway, so not terribly sealing in that sense.

I meant the paper that lines the inside of the tin, not the 'overcoat' paper. It probably doesn't matter at all, I just like peeling it off later!

Ta, Slubber, I am sure you're right, this is probably a good tip from someone who makes more than one cake a year!

I dunno, have you tried to ask for its p45?

I know this is a really old thread but it's just what I need to know!

I have just baked my first Christmas cake. It's a well tried recipe and I do cook quite a lot but the top does look pretty dry. Should I do as suggested above and just keep feeding it brandy and hope for the best or risk cutting into it to check the texture so I can swifty make another if necessary.

Any thoughts from experts?

Keep feeding it :)

How often does everyone feed it, and when do you ice it?