Christmas cake nightmare!

[bacon]

This has been my 3rd cake and I'm having a disaster as Ive been aiming for a moist cake hence Ive tried the boiled type and now the pink whisk long soaked fruit type.

And I am wondering whether pre over soaking fruit makes the cake claggy and too moist hence little rise and makes the batter too heavy and sticky. On Ruth Clements Pink Whisk she soaks her fruit for many weeks and then adds the juice of two 2 oranges making a hell of a lot of additional juice in the batter.

I'm a pretty confident baker and have a tested oven. My skewer is coming out clean but on chipping away a few bits noticed this horrible texture.

We did eat the last cake (simmer type) which was nice but far from a good cake.

This is what I conclude. If soaking the fruit then no excess fluid should exist - should the fruit juices be totally expelled?

I cant understand how some mixes contain so much mix yet they still stipulate 20cm tin. Last years mix rose very well - too much and the center had to be checked can if I did go back to this recipe then I should remove a cupful of mix before popping into oven.

So many of you keep going back to Delia's traditional - which I do like as it contains almonds. She cooks hers for 4 hours on 140 deg yet many of the ones using the soaked fruit are 2 hrs. Delias only contains a few tbsp of fluid too.

SO really is Delia the only safe tried and tested recipe?

Hi,

I've made the Delia cake this year. It's been wrapped in a tin for two weeks now.

Yes I thought the fruit looked dry after the overnight presoak, but a lot of the moisture is coming through the black treacle and ratio of fruit to cake mix I think.

I baked exactly to instructions using a baking paper cover with hole cut, and wrapped the tin in a generous layer of brown paper. i think this allows the long baking time without losing too much moisture. Also this year I twice sieved the flour and made sure I had thoroughly whipped the butter/brown sugar to the palest colour to keep the air pockets in the cake mix as much as possible. I think careful folding of the fruit into the batter to ensure thsi helps too.

Cake wasn't too dry once cooled. I fed it last Sat and it now has a delicious moist texture. I'll feed it twice more before icing which I think will be the secret to keeping the moisture. It's also wrapped in plenty of paper, foil and a cake tin!

I have made the Delia cake most years. And it comes out well. 4.5 hours may be a long time if your oven is hot...and I think that once I left it in a bit long (think I went to the pub and was longer than expected!) You don't soak the fruit in a lot of brandy...it certainly isn't swimming in it. I will be doing delia again this year....when I get some time. I know I am on MN now, but was working until 15 mins ago, and am too knackered to think about cakes now.

I've said this before somewhere, in Delias Christmas book she has a lovely looking last minute cake that she makes with a jar of mincemeat.

Perhaps that would be an option op?

I have had a bit of a Christmas cake panic this year, but actually it's turned out OK. I used the Delia method of making the cake with the Mary Berry recipe.

It could very well be the excess fluid in your recipe. The dried fruit should be soaked but if there is any excess fluid I think it should be drained off thouroughly. And I wouldn't add the orange juice just the zest.

I also did the very tedious adding of egg to the butter/sugar mixture one tablespoon at a time which works as it didn't curdle.

As long as you feed it with either brandy or orange juice it should be moist enough.

Mary Berry recipe uses 3 table spoons of brandy which I thought was a bit stingy so I chucked a bit more in. All the liquid was gone after 2 days of soaking.

Hers is 4 hours too like Delia but I think that time is for a conventional oven so for my fan it would be around 3 hours.
I also put a little tray of hot water in the bottom of the oven becuase apparently it helps with the moisture (no idea if it works).

Also if you follow Delia's recipe as long as you use the total weight given for dried fruit you can use whatever you like, I added more dried apricots and less currants and I didn't have enough glace cherries so I made the weight up in apricots.
I also substituted the almonds for pecans.

Funny how I know so much about christmas cakes but my own wasn't great so I have another one in the oven right now and hoping it will be much better!!

I like the almond taste so I would substitute candid peel (hate with a passion) and other dried fruits for chopped up almonds, also adding almond extract to boost the flavour. Not a fan of glace cherries either, sour cherries and dried cranberries are better.

What I dont want is that black over-rich wind producing mush that hangs around for days bunging you up.

Feel so annoyed with wasting top quality ingredients so far. So much for being organised I started my cake making 3 weeks ago.

Substitute anything you don't like with what you do like just keep to the weight ie same total weight for dried fruit and nuts.

Try using light brown sugar (like I did then panicked because I had picked up the wrong packet but it turned out well) with a little bit of treacle (or not) for something a little lighter instead of dark brown sugar or muscovado.

Make sure a lot of air is incorporated so it's lighter - add the beaten egg to the sugar/butter mix one tablespoon at a time and whisk in between so it doesn't curdle and is lighter. Then sift the flour in holding the sieve high or even sift it twice, and fold in very gently you should have quite a lumpy mixture not a smooth whisked batter. And fold in the fruits etc very gently until just incorporated.

Let us know how you get on!

Just fed my cakes this morning (always do it early am, less temptation to pour a rum and coke).

Have to say, they are deliciously moist after three weeks. The smell of rich cake is enough to drive me insane...

Nearly had a shark feeding fenzy moment where I wantedto cram the whole cake into my mouth in a big bite, luckily nosey neighbours walking their dog past the window diverted me

I think they were shocked enough to find an open bottle of rum and me with a glassof it and crazy morning hair!