Christmas cake for someone struggling with solid food :-(

[Eskarina]

I have made my grandparents a huge Christmas cake for the last 5 or so years which they love (and find excuses why they "need" another at other times in the year). This year however my Grandma has been diagnosed with a degenerative disorder which is affecting her ability to chew and swallow, and will only get worse.
Any bright ideas of how I can give her the idea/flavour/sense of a Christmas cake in a way she can eat? As a guide she can still manage semi-solid foods like cottage pie or lasagne, so not onto total mush yet. I wondered about a cheesecake type cake, although I would have to find out if whole raisins etc would present a problem.

Thanks!

I had porridge with leftover brandy soaked mixed fruit yesterday and it was like Christmas pudding in a bowl, which I think shows that the fruit, spices and brandy do the trick quite nicely on their own. If you leave the vanilla out of a standard baked cheesecake recipe and add brandy soaked fruit and spices, I bet it'd be lovely. Or Nigella's Christmas spice cake is a lighter texture, has no fruit but tastes very Christmassy. Maybe that with some of her Sauternes custard to soften the texture a bit could work?

I think you're doing a lovely thing for your Grandma and I hope you find a solution.

Could you blitz up the raisins etc? Maybe make a Christmas pudding ice cream.

I was going to suggest Christmas pudding icecream too...

ice cream sounds lovely - also what about those nice jars you get which have fruit soaked in brandy. you can buy or make your own pretty easily I reckon. Could be nice spooned over the ice cream

Thanks so much for the ideas. Particularly like the custard suggestion as it opens up a lot more possibilities. Do love the idea of the ice cream, should have mentioned we live 200 miles away so it wouldn't survive the journey, but may have to make some for us!