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 ???????

Can I join too!! Never heard of a Christmas cake without icing but have heard the thing about the kiss without the squeeze but didn't know it meant christmas cake and wenslydale. The things one learns on MN

My mum always does royal icing spiked up to look like snow. One year she thought she would add a splash of blue colouring to give it a "whiter than white" look. PMSL, you can guess the rest.

I'm in on this.

I usually make mine october half term (same time we start making chrissy cards - may start earlier this year).

But now you have made me think, I will start with the fruit buying.

We luuurve the marzipan and icing in Clary towers yum yum yummy.

Word of warning on the pudding front, I made one a couple of years back, followed the recipe and storage instructions to the letter, and when we unwrapped it to put it back in the basin for steaming it was BLUE!!!! Luckily my Mum had bought one from M&S as they were selling theirs off cheap on Christmas eve so we weren't puddingless!! But apparently, puddings going mouldy is quite common! So if you want to make your own, buying a back up might not be a bad idea (you can always use it to make Xmas pud icecream if you don't need it). Incidentally, the first one I ever made I did in DS at school and my Mum froze it; we ate it about 10 years later - and it was delicious!!!! (and nobody was ill - from pudding anyway)

We haven't got self-raising flour in Germany. What can I replace it with?

to 2boyzmum

im no cook but i think if you dont have Self Raising Flour in Germany, you use
Plain Flour and Baking Powder but not sure of Ratio needed. You normally use a teaspoon of B.P but cannot remember how much ounces of flour against a teaspoon sorry

Ellielulu, I'm glad, somebody heard my call with the thread having closed for a while. So here is another question: I'm not so sure about the gas mark. What's gas mark 2 and 3 in degrees Celcius?

Ok I do not bake!!! But I want to join in so it needs to be really idiot proof
How deep is the cake tin supposed to be? I have a small square one but its not very deep.

My dh is the one who usually does the Xmas cake, but if its ok with you, I will let him be an honorary MNer for the cake baking! Tis the season of goodwil to all, afterall! I'll tell him when he comes back from the pub, what he's doing and I'm sure he'll have some nuggets of wisdom to part with you all!

If anybody wants a different recipe, this one is my mum's - she won a competition with it last year so it should be nice!

9 oz Butter
9 oz Sugar (6 oz light muscavado, 3 oz molasses)
1tbs Dark Treacle
5 large Eggs
4tbs Brandy
¼ tsp Vanilla
9 oz Plain Flour
½ tsp Salt
½tsp Mixed Spice
½ tsp Cinnamon
¼ tsp Nutmeg
15 oz Currants
12 oz Sultanas
9 oz Raisins
6 oz Peel
4 oz Ground Almonds
6 oz Cherries (Quartered)
Rind 1 Lemon

6 tbsp Brandy to brush on after cooked

to 2boyzmum

did put regs on before but must not have posted is soz

140 c = 275 f gas 1
150 c = 300 f gas 2
170 c = 325 f gas 3

ount me in! so much better than the shop bought varietys, and always makes christmas feel so much more....christmasy:D

Well girls, are your currants fighting your raisins for the lilos in a pool of autumnal alcohol yet?? It's not long now you know.

Tell me tell me - what should I have done by now? I haven't even found a suitable alcohol to put my fruit in, or a tin to put my cake in?

I'll definitely be baking a cake, but may not use this recipe - like to spend days rootling through all my books trying to remember which one I made last year and whether or not we enjoyed it! Think my best recipe is an Australian Women's Weekly one, but I'll have to look to be sure.

Plus, on the pudding side one year I didn't get round to it and felt awful as my Nan sort of passed on the tradition to me just before she died , and then I found a 'last minute recipe' in a magazine and it was easily the most delicious thing I've ever tasted ! Slightly lighter than the traditional one and a bit more citrus-y but just yummo scrummo!!! Will post recipe if anyone is interested ...?

I usually ice, but we all pick it off except my DD. I love marzipan but not the white stuff so much. If you're organised enough at the cake making moment you can decorate the top with whole almonds and glace cherries etc and bake the design in with the rest of the cake. I always forget this and run out of cherries etc ... sigh!

The worst bit about fruit cake making is the whole wrapping in brown paper 5cm above the tin malarky. Does UCM's recipe call for all that or not? Might be tempted to change allegiences if it meant escaping my yearly battle with paper and string!

Hungry, my mum swears by double wrapping the cake in brown paper as she insists it makes a huge difference. Sorry!

I'll be making our cake & pudding - but I'm so bloody busy at the moment that I'm not sure when I'll be able to do it. (Very late at night no doubt, like all the DCs birthday cakes).

I'm going to have a go. Just put the fruit to soak.

Planning to make mine October half term week. Should I be soaking my fruit now?

Made mine yest but thing its a little over cooked, my oven is very untrustworthy. We shall see at xmas not making another one. Any one have have a good recipe for xmas pud, nutty one please.

I made the mistake of telling my sister that I was making a christmas cake soon. She is now asking if it's made every time we MSN so the pressure's on!! DS has been ill constantly for almost four weeks now, so my excuse is that it's very hard to make a cake with a small child stuck to your leg with superglue. I know, it's a rubbish excuse..

This is my first time attempting it, so I'm joining in, but will have lots more questions than helpful hints. I'm looking at making pudding too but will have to get through the cake first and see if I survive! What's the "wrapping with brown paper" part that sounds so ominous? I don't recall seeing THAT in the recipe - and DH just mentioned to make sure I have greaseproof paper. Oh, this does not bode well at all! trudging off to reread recipe one more time

I'm not sure how it works but my mum double wraps it in brown paper (the posting type, not greaseproof). I will get instructions from her...

Myself, DD and DS made ours last Sunday (even DH had a stir).

Followed mostly Delia recipe, same quantity of fruit in total but diff fruit (included dried apricots, dates and cranberries) - used way more booze than specified to soak said fruit (as really you should). Also increased nut quantity including some brazil nuts.

Smelt and looks lovely

Is now back in tin with greaseproof paper awaiting feeding. May do as Nigella suggestion and turn each time i feed (normally i just feed it from one direction).

Triggles - the wrapping in brown paper could be one of two things. You need to put a double layer of brown paper round the outside of the tin when the cake is in the oven to stop the sides burning and also I recall sitting the tin on brown paper as well to protect the bottom of the cake. Fix it with a couple of pins. I used newspaper once when I didn't have any brown paper, and it did the trick, but the house smelled like the chippy for ages after.

Or it might be in reference to wrapping the cake for storing while it matures. I wrap mine in two seperate layers of greaseproof paper and then in tinfoil before putting in an airtight biscuit tin.

Now everyone will come on and tell me that this is completely wrong.