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 Mildred
Love your piggie decorations. Great tip about the blow torch to colour the marzipan, thanks.
I hadn’t thought about it before but of course yellow yolks would make yellow marzipan. How do you get white marzipan (is it simply no egg yolks?).
Thanks for dropping by.
Hi Sue,
I’m so pleased that the recipe was a success. I used Scotch whisky this year to feed mine. The recipe is easy to make and not to heavy to eat. I take a slim slice every day to work for my afternoon tea break.
Thanks for taking the time to make a comment.
Found your recipe while searching for last minute cake and then made two of them, one went into work for my colleagues and each one of them said it was the best cake they had had. compliments all round, thank you it was so easy and i fed it with Brandy on a regular basis for a couple of weeks before i iced it.
We just marzipanned our cake on top last year and added some marzipigs! (http://www.themildredmittensmanufactory.co.uk/TeatimeCelebrationCake.html).
You can obtain a nice effect from toasting the marzipan with the kitchen blowtorch, highlighting the decorations if you wish.
Our marzipan was very yellow last year because the egg yolks were from our own hens fed on a good diet, including some corn on the cobs! By contrast, our marzipan this year is very pale using eggs from Waitrose, even though they are organic/free range. If you really prefer to see yellow marzipan you can of course add some natural food colouring!
Hi Peter
You don’t have to ice the marzipan. But icing it stops the marzipan from drying out. Lots of Christmas cakes are not iced. If this is so the marzipan is often just on the top.
I think that the shop bought marzipan will be yellow. You can colour marzipan and I’ve seen white marzipan on cakes but I don’t know how you make it.
You don’t have to leave it for 2 days. The colour of the marzipan might bleed through onto the icing but it won’t spoil the taste.
I have made three Xmas cakes from a different recipe, but is very similar to yours and they are very nice as well. I have never tried covering them with marzipan before, so I got some readymade stuff from the shop. Do you have to ice the marzipan or can you leave as is? Also is the colour of marzipan white when you apply it to the cake? If you have to leave it for a couple of days, I won’t worry about it this year as it is Xmas Eve but I will use it to experiment with.
Your recipe for the cake and the marzipan sounds pretty good so I will try it after Xmas and see what it is like. Also have a merry xmas and happy new year.
Regards, Peter.
Hi Polly,
Thanks for dropping by and leaving a comment! This is the only cake that I make and I always enjoy baking it.
I do hope that it works out for you!
Sorry, I knew I had to look up my blogspot name. There it is. Very despondent it is at the moment.
I am going to make it tomorrow. I am dead excited about it. I am going to substitute all sorts of things that I’ve got in the house, like Calvados! The Rayburn is the perfect temperature. Just going to soak some fruit now. I will convert all the grams into ounces, I think, as I am OLD. And then I’ll post them back to you for other oldies.
It’s YEARS since I baked. Suddenly can’t wait.
P
Hi Crystal,
I’m delighted that the cake worked out for you. I am going to marzipan mine tonight too.
The cranberry sauce is very good with a creamy cheese like camembert. I hadn’t thought of baking it – brilliant idea for a starter.
Really pleased that you are enjoying the site.
Happy Christmas to you and all your family!
Thanks Fiona for saving my sanity! I made the cake which looks fab and am marzipanning it (using your recipe) today. Have also made your cranberry sauce too which is lovely…I think it would complement a nice baked camembert beautifully!
Thanks again for saving Christmas for me. I’m only sorry I discovered the site so recently as I’m catching up on all the older articles in too-small dribs and drabs with being so busy at the mo!
Best wishes to you and your family for Christmas, and to all my fellow readers.
Crystal