Christmas Blog

It is not a very well known fact that the Christmas cake started out as porridge. Over time the recipe was infused with the finest of ingredients and honed to perfection and became a connoisseur’s delight. Traditionally, the Christmas cake is baked about a month in advance so that people can enjoy the feeling of festivity creeping up on them. Homes are full of delightful aromas of spices, cinnamon, and dried fruits. Here is a simple but nonetheless fragrant and delicious recipe for the Christmas cake.
Fruits ingredients

• 500g sultanas
• 200g raisins
• 200g glace cherries (halved)
• 110g currants
• 110g cut mixed peel
• 110g roughly chopped dried figs
• 110g roughly chopped dried apricots
• 110g roughly chopped dried and pitted prunes
• 1 small orange, grated zest and juice
• 150ml brandy

Cake ingredients

• 255g unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 200g dark brown sugar
• 5 medium eggs
• 300g plain flour

Fruits preparation

Soak the following fruits about a month before in brandy to have the fruits flavored with alcohol. Use a wooden spoon to stir the mixture every day to make sure that all fruits get well soaked in the brandy.

Cake preparation

Preheat oven at 150 C. Grease and dust the base of a 9-inch cake pan. Beat together butter and sugar till the mix is light and fluffy. Add flour in small quantities by folding it in to aerate it. Add the fruit mixture and again fold it in gently. Now pour the mixture in the pan and level the top. Put the pan in the oven and bake for about 3 hours at low heat, taking care not to brown it too much.

Once the cake is done, take it out and cool. The next day, make a few holes with a skewer and over the next few weeks - till Christmas, nourish it with a bit of sherry or brandy every 5 days.

You can decorate it with a sheet of marzipan (about 500 grams of marzipan) and add glazed cherries. You could alternatively use apricot jam to ice it.

Posted by admin on November 17th, 2006
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