Christmas cake
“Perfectly moist fruit cake made with your own hands is an ideal gift.”
- 500g sultanas
- 300g currants
- 175g seedless raisins
- 150g dried cumquat slices or a cup
- good-quality bitter marmalade
- 150g mixed peel
- Grated zest of 2 oranges
- 120mL brandy
- 300g unbleached plain flour
- 1 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
- 1 tsp ground mixed spice
- 1 tsp salt
- 220g softened unsalted butter
- 200g soft light-brown sugar
- 4 large free-range eggs
- 100g blanched almonds
It was Timara, a young friend helping me, who said that her grandmother used cardboard instead of paper to stop Christmas cakes from scorching. We followed suit and for good measure added a dish of water to the oven shelf below the cake to help prevent it from drying out - success.
Method
Put all the dried fruit and the orange zest into a large non-reactive bowl and
mix thoroughly, then pour in the brandy and mix again. Leave for 24 hours at
room temperature, turning the mixture once or twice to distribute the brandy
evenly.
Preheat the oven to 140C and grease a 24cm round cake tin.
Flatten out a cardboard box and cut a round to fit the base of the cake tin,
then cut strips to line the sides. Position these in the tin, then add a
baking-paper lining, making sure the paper comes 10cm above the rim of the tin.
Sift the flour, spices and salt into a large bowl.
Using an electric
mixer, cream the butter and brown sugar until pale and thick and the sugar has
dissolved. Beat the eggs in a separate bowl, then slowly mix a tablespoon at a
time into the creamed mixture - do not hurry this process as the mixture curdles
easily. When all the egg has been incorporated, fold in the spiced flour very
gently, then fold in the dried fruit mixture.
Tip the batter into the
prepared cake tin and smooth the top. Make a pattern over the surface of the
cake with the blanched almonds and bake for 3 hours. (Standing a baking dish of
water on the shelf below will help ensure the cooked cake is moist.) Insert a
skewer into the middle of the cake - if it comes out clean, the cake is cooked.
It may, however, need up to another 20 minutes.
Allow the cake to cool in
the tin for 30 minutes before transferring it to a wire rack to cool completely.
Wrap the cooled cake in a doubled layer of baking or greaseproof paper and then
in a doubled layer of foil and store in an airtight tin.
