Last minute Christmas cake recipe
Posted by Fiona Nevile in Christmas, Desserts | 297 comments
Over the years we have tried various Christmas cake recipes but the best by far was the one that we made last year, a week before Christmas. We wanted a cake packed with fruit but not a dark heavy traditional type of Christmas cake. We’d had to force down too many slices of these in the past.
My Mother used to make us these and bring one each Christmas. Then she decided to buy them. These were worse and not disguised by being fed with lashings of brandy. We’d cut a few slices at Christmas, give her half the cake to take home at the end of her stay and the rest would linger in the larder for weeks and eventually been tossed out with the rubbish. We tried feeding one particularly disappointing one to the birds one year, and even they turned their beaks up at it.
“Make a Christmas cake if you want. But I won’t be eating it,” said Danny, settling in a large armchair to watch the rugby. Faced with this challenge I was determined to bake a cake that even D couldn’t resist.
I skimmed though all our books and found a recipe for a Christmas cake that sounded lighter than usual and tinkered with the ingredients. I replaced the darker ingredients, molasses, stout and muscavado sugar with lighter alternatives. We didn’t cut it until Boxing Day, when I spotted Danny sneaking into the kitchen for a second slice. Slightly paler than a traditional cake, it was packed with fruit, tasted wonderful and kept well. The last slice was tucked into my lunchbox at the end of January.
If you fancy trying a more traditional recipe, here are two links to sites with Christmas cake recipes that look good:
There is a Mary Berry recipe here http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/apricotandbrandychri_77766.shtml
Delia Smith has a range of recipes here http://www.deliaonline.com/search/?qx=christmas+cake
Last minute Christmas cake recipe:
Equipment:
8″ round cake tin (4″ deep), baking parchment.
Ingredients:
- 450g raisins
- 285g sultanas
- 110g currants
- 180g glacé cherries (halved)
- 110g ground almonds
- 225g unsalted butter (room temperature)
- 225g soft brown sugar (pale)
- 285g plain flour (sieved)
- zest of a lemon
- 5 eggs
- 2 tsp of mixed spice
- 2 tbsp of pale runny honey
- 200 ml of beer (I used Speckled Hen)
- 4 tbsp of Irish Whiskey/Whisky/ Brandy – when the baked cake has cooled
Method:
- Preheat oven to 160c (140 fan)
- Line the base and sides of the 8″ cake tin with a double thickness of baking parchment. Cut the paper an inch deeper than the tin so that it is sticking above the top rim.
- Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy (I use an electric mixer for this).
- Beat the eggs well and add them gradually to the mixture, a little at a time, beating them well. If the mixture curdles beat in a teaspoon of the flour before continuing.
- Using a tablespoon, gently fold in the flour, lemon zest and spices.
- Fold in the beer and honey and stir gently.
- Add the fruit and ground almonds and stir gently.
- Transfer the mixture to the cake tin and make a hollow in the centre of the mixture (roughly 2″ wide and 1″ deep).
- Bake in the centre of a preheated oven for about 2.5 hours depending on your oven, it may need a little longer. Check that it is cooked by inserting a skewer into the middle – this should be clean when removed. The centre should feel firm and springy if touched.
- Turn out onto a wire rack. When it is cold, make a few holes in the top and bottom of the cake (using a skewer) and feed the cake with the Irish whiskey (brandy would be fine as an alternative).
- Wrap the cake in baking parchment and store in a tin or cover with foil until you need it.
- If you would like to make your own marzipan – it’s very easy and so much better than bought. My recipe is here
Tips and tricks:
- If you are going to cover the cake with marzipan and ice it, put the marzipan on a few days before it is iced so the surface of the marzipan can dry. Otherwise the marzipan can bleed through and stain the icing.
- I sliced off the top of my cake before putting on the marzipan so the top would be flat. Or use the base as the top.
Leave a reply
Hi!
I have just made this cake for the first time – haven’t tried it yet but it looks pretty good. This was a practice run, and I’m taking it home to my parents this weekend. I’m sure it will go down a treat.
I used Hobgoblin instead of Speckled Hen and am sure it will come out fine. I had to mix everything by hand as I don’t gave an electric whisk… My arm ached afterward, I’ll tell you that! Was a bit worried it wouldn’t be airy enough, but the cake rose like a champ, phew. In fact, the ‘make a hollow’ bit didn’t work at all, so I have rather a dome-shaped cake, but that doesn’t matter. I’ll just cut off the excess for the cake I make just before Christmas. 🙂
I also ended up cooking the cake for about four hours as the knife kept coming out sticky; it’s not scorched on top, though, so it’ll be fine.
Thanks for the recipe, can’t wait to taste our finished article!
I’m looking online at the moment for Christmas cake ideas and found this post. I’m sure to give this a try this Christmas and I hope to be able to show you my final cake, if it looks right!
Hi
I have just stumbled across your recipe and I think I may just have to try it out. I made a cake a couple of years ago from my Grandmother’s old recipe and it was very rich…two months of feeding with brandy!!
I have a 14 month old son now so I do not have the time to spend on such a tradition! I am going to attempt it next weekend. Will let you know how I get on!
I will be attempting this recipe but would like to leave out the cherries,do i just add more of the other fruits??
Hi Lorraine
Yes just use the same weight of other fruit.
Hi,
I am planning on making this cake for my family this year having never attempted a christmas cake before. It sounds delicious. My only query is, my Mum does not like nuts so I will be making this a nut free recipe. Should I add addtional friut or something else to make up the missing ingredient?
Thanks,
Nikki
Hi Nikki
Yes add something of similar wieght – how about candied fruit for a different texture?
This is a last minute Christmas cake so don’t make it before mid December!
Hi Donna
Brilliant that the recipe turned out so well for you! I didn’t have the time to make one this Christmas and am missing it.
Hi Claire
Thank you so much for coming out of lurksville.
Happy New Year to you 🙂
Hi Sarah
You can dive straight in!
The reviews on this cake made me try it, in fact it is the first Christmas cake I have ever made. I have made the cake and fed it some brandy. Do you have to wait awhile before you eat it, or can you dive straight in?
Thanks.
Sarah.
Hi Fiona,
I’ve been reading your blog for a while now, but your lovely Christmas recipes have driven me out of lurksville!
I cooked your crimbo cake and pud recipes and they both went down a storm with my family over the festive season. My mother-in-law said it was the best Christmas pud she’d ever had! Thank you for that one.
I cooked two puddings and by Boxing Day both had gone (this is a first in our house, they normally linger in the back of the cupboard until March and then get chucked out)!
The Christmas cake is still going strong, but is rapidly diminishing daily. They will definitely be a part of my Christmas repertoire in the future.
Happy New Year! love Claire x
Thanks you so much for this lovely recipe.
I have never made a Christmas Cake before, I can’t believe it was so was so easy and tasted so yummy. I fed mine with Rum and everyone commented how lovely and light and moist it was.
Hello Beatrice
I’m really envious. I bought all the ingredients but ran out of time so it will have to be a New Year cake!
Hi Carol
The great thing about this recipe is that you can experiment with the ingredients and it always seems to turn out well. This is the only fruit cake that I like 🙂