One of our favourite Christmas traditions is to bake a Christmas cake and plan it’s final decoration.  I always aim to make it at least 5-6 weeks before Christmas but the earlier I do it the better.  

 

INGREDIENTS:

• 225g plain flour

• 1/4 tsp salt

• 1/2 tsp ground ginger

• Grated fresh nutmeg or 1/2 tsp nutmeg

• 1/2 tsp mixed spice

• 1 tsp ground cinnamon

• 200g unsalted butter

• 200g brown sugar

• 2 tbsp black treacle

• 1/4 tsp vanilla essence

• 4 eggs

• 800g mixed dry fruits

• 100g chopped mixed peel

• 150g glace cherries halved

• 100g blanched almonds, chopped

• Brandy (omit or use other alchohol if you prefer)

 

METHOD:

• Heat oven to 150c fan, or 170c for a conventional oven and then grease and line a 20cm square or 23cm round tin.

• Sieve flour, salt and spices into a bowl.

• In another bowl, cream the butter and sugar together and then add the treacle and vanilla, and mix until light and fluffy.

• Beat in the eggs alternating with a little of the flour mix so it doesn't curdle.

• Fold in the rest of the flour and then add the fruit and almonds.

• Pour in the tin and make a slight hollow in the middle.

• I always put greaseproof paper around the outside of the tin and put a piece on top of the cake tin to stop it burning around the edges.

• Pop it in the oven for a good 2.5 hours and enjoy the festive smell coming from the kitchen.  I find sometimes it takes longer and so I will check every 15 - 20 mins.  Normally it takes between 2.5 hours and 3 hours.

• Once it's on a cooling rack you need to use a skewer to put holes all over and then spoon a good few tablespoons of brandy in (if applicable).

Make sure the cake is completely cold before you wrap it in greaseproof paper and then foil before putting it in an airtight tub or cake tin.  Once a week from now until a week before Christmas I’ll open it up, turn it over, prick it again and put a couple more spoonfuls of brandy in.

Christmas cake for me has to have golden marzipan and royal icing but I often use fondant for ease and then I'll add royal icing for some decoration.  I'll marzipan the cake a few days before I do the fondant so it has plenty of time to dry out.  Before I had my son, the cake was always simple for family coming over but now I really try and get a ‘wow’ factor and love the decorating part.

My 2016 cake was my favourite so far with a simple white decorated cake which had a homemade gingerbread house on top.  I especially loved this one as I gave it stained glass windows and then put battery operated fairy lights inside which I turned on just before presenting it.  We had both families over for Boxing Day and as I walked in the kids mouths fell open and I’ll never forget my son looking at me with pleading eyes and whispering "can I eat it?" 

Note made in 2017: Since writing this blog post I thought it would be nice if we made individual cakes for teachers gifts so my son helped to bake the cake and then nearer the end of term we cut a third off and then cut the smaller piece into 3.  My son lovingly put the marzipan and fondant on before decorating it with festive cutters and then I wrapped them individually in cellophane and added beautiful ribbons.  Now that I was left with a lovely rectangular shape, I thought I would make a large gingerbread house and built it around the iced cake.  The result, if I may say so myself, was that it looked pretty impressive!  If you do try to make one, give the house a little back door and feed some battery operated fairy lights in.  The battery pack can then be kept at the back of the house and switched on before presenting to the family.  

Some more fun cakes I've made over the years include Santa getting stuck down the chimney, penguins playing with snowballs and a simple snowman.

Now my son has grown up, my daughter takes charge of the Christmas cakes and she really enjoys decorating day.  We still cut off and decorate individual cakes for teachers and family which is not only a lovely guft but also means I don't end up eating a huge cake!

Final note: I feel I should have some sort of disclaimer, like 'I hold no responsibility for any cakes burnt or undercooked'.  I've had plenty of disasters in the kitchen and like to have someone to blame when I get caught up watching something juicy on TV!  Just remember every oven is different so you need to do the skewer test a few times before taking it out of the oven for good.  (Oh and don't be alarmed if you can smell a burnt raisin, there's bound to be at least one that'll catch).