Time To Bake
If there is one thing we enjoy at christmas it is a nice homemade christmas cake. We have been busy preparing and baking our cake ready for this christmas. Last year I prepared our cake about the same time of year and everyone that tasted it said it was very tasty and really enjoyed it.
This year we have been asked to make a cake for other family members as well so we have been busy preparing cakes for them too as well as our own so it is a good job we enjoy baking.
We love to bake our own christmas cake as we think you can not beat homemade cooking, especially at christmas time when you have family visiting it is nice to offer something home-baked.
Ingredients we used
1kg mixed dried fruits
Zest and juice of 1 lemon
Zest and juice of 1 orange
You can use any alcohol of your choice we used brandy
250g butter
200g light soft brown sugar
175g plain flour
100g ground almonds
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp mixed spice
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
100g flaked almonds
4 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
How We Made It
- We started off making our christmas cake by pre-heating the oven to 130c, we then added the dry fruit, butter, sugar and brandy in a large saucepan, set over a medium heat, we then brought it to boil, we then lowered the heat and left it simmering for about 5 minutes.
- While the fruit was simmering we double lined a cake tin with grease proof paper.
- After the fruit mix had been simmering for about 5 minutes we tipped it into a large bowl and left it to cool for about half an hour.
- Once the fruit mix had cooled off we then added the rest of the ingredients stirring the ingredients in well, we then put the mix into our tin, covered with grease proof paper and tied with string to keep it covered, then placed it into the oven for 2 hours.
- Once the cake had been in the oven for 2 hours we removed it and allowed it to cool off, we poked holes in it with skewers to make pockets for when we add our alcohol.
- We will be adding alcohol to our cake by pouring over two table spoons of brandy every fortnight. We have wrapped our cake in cling film, we will be icing our cake and decorating it a week before christmas.
This is our adults only cake due to the alcohol in the cake, we will bake a separate cake for the kid’s nearer christmas.
We are still thinking on a theme for our cake this year. Do you bake your own christmas cake ?
You are so organised! Fortunately my mum makes ours although she makes a Dundee cake as no-one likes the icing or marzipan on a traditional Christmas cake!
You’re absolutely right – you can’t beat home baked cakes (and pastries!). My son made a Christmas cake at school 2 years ago. Yep, lucky us! Well, they prepared the cake at school. We had to bake it at home because they take soooo long to bake. I must say, it was incredible. So delicious. Better than shop bought in every respect – taste, texture, moistness etc. We added brandy too. Well, you’ve just got to, haven’t you! Tracey x