Christmas Cake..........It's that time.............Who is signing up this year...............

[UCM]

You have a month or so to buy ingredients but this is a copy of what I wrote last year. Please use this thread to tell us of fantastic recipes and to add the general lovliness of anticipation

6oz sultanas
6oz raisins
4oz currants
4oz glacecherries
3oz mixed peel
1/4 pint sherry
6oz butter
6oz soft brown sugar
4 eggs
4oz SR flour
4oz plain flour
pinch salt
1/2 teaspoon mixed spice
1oz ground almonds

Mix together all fruit. pour sherry over and leave to soak for 1 week, covered. Stir frequently until required.

Grease & line a 7 - 8 inch cake tin

Method

Cream butter & sugar until soft & fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time. Fold in flour, salt & ground almonds. Drain off any liquid from the fruit and mix fruit into mixture stirring until well blended. Put into prepared tin, smooth top and bake just below middle of oven for 1 hour on gas mark 3. Then cover with foil and reduce oven to gas mark 2 and cook for a further 1.5 hours until firm to touch. Leave to stand in tin until nearly cold. remove from tin, prick well and pour over liquid from dried fruit. Wrap in foil or greaseproof paper and leave to mature until a few days before christmas, then marzipan & ice.

Tips: I don't like almonds so didn't use em. I also put some chocolate liqueur in with the sherry. also I don't like marzipan so didn't ice, but did make one for a relative which I did ice and it was easy. I have never made a christmas cake before and I have to say this recipe works like a dream.

Well ???????

But you gotta ice it, that's where the fun is, even if it ends up looking like a pile of poo!

Not if no one likes icing. In my case, no one actually likes 'Christmas Cake', but I will do it relentlesly because it's the done thing. I end up giving it away to a relative.

I'm the same UCM - no-one likes Christmas cake so I make one because one should and then give it away

UCM I joined your thread last year and made the cake you have posted. It was lovely. Should have made two really.

Don't think I can do it this year. We are travelling from October to January and won't get a chance I don't think.

M&S sell Christmas cakes you know.

Can i substitute Sherry becuase its rank?

Charlee

Yes use whatever you like. I used brandy in DH,mums,dads, MIL and BIL cake but i use orange juice in my grandads as he doesn't drink.

Oh goodie!

Do you think that it would work if I made a teeny tiny cake - if I halved the ingredients listed? I like making/having a Christmas cake but no one ever eats the darn thing!!

Still got puddings from last year so won't need to make fresh - we always make ours in August then keep them in the cupboard in greaseproof paper until Christmas.

None of us really like christmas cakes so I made 2 puddings last year and everyone loved them, they were gorgeous so I shall be making another 2 this year. Have to get around to making them soon and the mince for my mince pies.

tigerschick,

yes, i only make my mum a small cake.

I'll be making mine next week. It's my husband's birthday and he likes a Dundee cake or Simnel for his birthday, so I usually get the ingredients in and make that and the Christmas cake the same week.

Puddings we usually make around October, and mincemeat about the same time.

We do a mix of things. I do have favourite cake recipes that are tried and trusted, but I like to try different things too so every couple of years I'll try a totally new recipe. Same with the icing, some years I'll try something different like last year we did the glace fruit and nuts topping.

I usually also make a couple of Stollen, one for sometime over the Christmas period and one for the freezer.

Those of you who like to make Christmas cakes but are stuck with families who don't like them, try using your normal recipe but in smaller tins. You can buy 4-5 inch deep cake tins, or you can use tuna tins or the tins that pineapple slices come in (well washed out obviously!), just line the tins and proceed as usual, cutting the cooking time. The tiny cakes are great for school fairs and the like too, or for gifts - they look really great when iced/decorated and with a ribbon round the middle.

That's cake tins that are 4-5 inch in diameter!

Is it that time already? I love making Christmas cakes. I have a fab recipe from a book called The International School of Sugarcraft by Nicholas Lodge. Libraries usually have it. The cake is so moist and tasty. I use whisky or brandy. Last year DH made Christmas puds and we still have one left in the garage - may crack that open this weekend! Last year I made Nigella's mincemeat with rhubarb which was delish. Feel all Christmas-y now.

you don't sodding ice a Christmas cake - unless you're using it as a wedding/christening cake

But if you don't ice then it's just a cake.

it's a Christmas cake - and you can't eat the traditional wensleydale cheese with it with icing on it

No icing??
So this is out then?

BTW, I hate icing but have always felt compelled to do it as it is what we always did! Glad to see that it is far from necessary

I am in! I love baking (and eating!) christmas cake.

I think I'll do one along UCM's lines (altho perhaps with whisky rather than sherry?) and another for dd which will be alcohol free, egg freee and wheat free.

No icing?!?! You silly sods

I do a themed one every year, rich dark fruit cake, marzipan, royal icing, and then a Christmas "scene" on top - once I did a stable with Mary/Joseph/baby in manger, and a donkey, another year I did a group of children having a snowball fight, last year I did Santa sticking out of a chimney . This year I am probably going to do a frosty penguinny Arctic thing

No icing. Bloody puritans.

which recipe greny?

For any of you who want to know how to scale recipes up and down, there is a useful chart on the Delia Smith website though it is based on her recipe. The main thing to note that most recipes fill 8"/20 cm diameter round tins and that if you only want to make half that amount of cake you need a 6"/15 cm round tin. If you use a square tin, that's different again.

No icing...on a Christmas cake....what new level of madness is this? I'm shocked to my very (moist fruit, marzipan and royal icing) core.

sheesh and other exhertions of disbelief.

QofQ, you so can eat wenslydale with icing.

And then you have so say the obligatory little ditty (in a Yorkshire accent)

A piece of cake without the cheese is like a kiss without a squeeze.

And then you all laugh ...ha ha ha.