Fruit cake

[nannycook]

Ok i've prepared my tin ready to make my 12inch fruit cake, double lined it with greasproof, gonna tie newspaper with string around the outside, is there anything i need to do as i haven't made a cake this size before and it will be in the oven for 6ish hrs? Also i have a gas oven, was thinking gas 2 ?

As my dh pointed out not a good idea to put paper on the outside, so left it off and set gas to 1, its in and cooking now and its a monster, really hope its gonna be ok.

Cakes cooked, it was actually cooking for over 6hrs, its a massive cake, 4inches deep, and the cake is level with the top of the tin, really wish i could taste it though! Hate not knowing what something taste like.

As i have never made a cake so big before, is there a chance it will go mouldy,? why do cakes go mouldy? The wedding is 9 weeks time, even though i cooked this for nearly 7hrs theres a tiny patch in the middle thats quite soft, will it be ok do you think? And worst still as its heavy when i moved it theres abit of a crack in the side, not happy!!!

Please, please can anyone give me the benefit of their experience!!

Sorry - don't want to ignore you but don't have experience... I guess cakes so mouldy if it's too damp, but with a fruit cake there might just be enough sugar in there to stop microbs growing. Don't people leave fruitcakes forever? Are you going to "water" it with some alcohol too? That might just kill any mould even thinking about growing...

Thank you for your reply, god knows why i even think it would so always been worried about it.

I would be worried it isn't cooked in the middle. Approx. cooking time for a 12" square fruit cake is 9-11 hours. I always use damp newspaper around the outside of the tin, but you can use Wilton Bake Even Strips if you prefer.

It will keep indefinitely, certainly for 9 weeks if it is properly cooked and you can 'feed' it with alcohol if the couple want/don't mind this.

Fruit cake keeps for ages if it's in a sealed container and the booze will act as a preservative. I'd definitely check the middle with a skewer to check if it's done. If it isn't done you might have to have another go. It's better to turn the temp down and keep it in for longer to make sure it's done but it can be a bit of trial and error as you don't want it too dry. I made my wedding cake too and my oven is really temperamental so I cooked it at my mum's as she knows her oven much better. It's electric though so can't really comment on a gas cooker. I did it with only about a month to go so if you've got 9 weeks, you've got a bit of time to have a go again (if you can afford the gas bill!!).

Thanks shuffle and midori, well the recipe i used came with cake tin (Paul Silverwood, and it said 6hrs, and after my tormebt u decided to cut it open, i wouldnt say it wasnt cooked more very moist, in fact it really is very nice just uncuttable to the point it just crumbled when put the knife thro, my work isnt complaining tho they now have alot of cake to get thro, just abit annoyedwith wasting all that money on ingredients and gas, big learning curve for me i'm afraid. Lessoned learned!!

You are better to put brown paper round the outside and you want to come up about 2 inches over the top of the tin

I also place a double circle of grease proof on the top of the cake with a hole in the middle about the size of a 10p and remove it for the last hour -it stops the cake catching on the top

Once it's cooked and cooled wrap it in greased proof paper then foil and it will keep forever!

I believe it's something to do with the sugar content acting as a preservative

Yep chicken idid all that, like midori said it wasnt cooked for long enough, i wont use his recipe again thats for sure, 6hrs cooking it said, more like double that!!

I use delia's celebration fruitcake recipe and its never failed me yet :)

Will take alook chicken, thanks for that.

Nannycook, if you have the silverwood tin, was the 6 hours for a 12" square with the dividers in, so 4 x 6" cakes? As I think the four cakes (although still 12" overall) take less time to cook as the dividers conduct heat.

I hate making big cakes, I do sponge in two halves, but you can't really do that with fruit.

Yes midori it is the silverwood tin with dividers, it didnt actually say that tho, in the recipe which is on the inside of the box it came in, said gas 1 6hrs, so quite misleading then? I'm not the brightest spark but i do know how to read a recipe, so annoyed as fruit costs the earth for the ingedients dont they, went out today and had to buy them all over again, grrrrrr.

You could try to put a flower nail in the middle (maybe two) and they will help to conduct the heat in the centre of the cake. I do this with very big sponge cakes and it does make a difference. Silverwood tins claim to cut down the cooking time overall even without the dividers but I haven't found that to be the case, so I wouldn't rely on their timings.

Mycat, will give that a go too i'm willing to try anything.

This time it came out fab, i used the recipe out of the Alan Dunn book, half the mixture and half the cooking time, totally different cake altogether. Thank the lord, started to lose my confidence abit!!