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Christmas Twelve Night Cake
Traditionally, the Christmas cake is baked
about a month in advance, and some families enjoy the feeling of
festivity creeping up on them when the house is full of these divine
smells, spices, cinnamon, dried fruits and alcohol….its time for
Christmas again. Here is a simple yet fragrant and tasty recipe for the
Christmas cake.
To begin with, soak these fruits a few weeks in advance, to make the
fruits plumper and flavoured with alcohol.
500g sultanas
200g raisins
200g glacé cherries, halved
110 currants
110 cut mixed peel
110g roughly chopped dried figs,
110g roughly chopped dried apricots,
110g roughly chopped dried pitted prunes,
1 small orange, grated zest and juice
150ml brandy
Soak the fruits in the brandy, and over the next few weeks, mix with a
wooden spatula everyday, turning around to make sure every piece gets
well soaked in the brandy.
For the cake:
255g unsalted butter, at room temperature
200g dark muscovado sugar
5 medium eggs
300g plain flour
200g macadamia nuts, roughly chopped
Line the base of a 9-inch cake tin with glazed paper and preheat at 150
deg C.
Beat together the butter (at room temperature) and sugar till the mix is
pale and fluffy, then add flour in small quantities, just stirring it
in, taking care not to BEAT it in. Make sure every stirring engulfs air
into the mixture. Add the fruit mixture and the nuts, again, fold it in
gently.
Then spread out the mixture onto the bake tin, leveling with a spatula
or large spoon. Put the tin into the oven and bake for about 3 hours at
low heat, taking acre 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), feed
it with a bit of alcohol – sherry or brandy every 5 days.
For decorating it, you can slap down a sheet of marzipan (use about 500
grams of marzipan) and add glazed cherries, maybe marzipan figurines or
silver balls, even jam, depending on what you have in mind. Sieving on
icing sugar to the decorated top makes it the perfect cake for a white
Christmas. The decoration ideas for Christmas cake are unlimited in
number, but marzipan usually features in most of them, glazed cherries
too and sometimes, apricot jam.
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