Christmas Cake Recipe
Christmas this year is going to be different. Enjoy the food and the preparations with your household. I think we will all appreciate the simple things more – like a good Christmas Cake!
Food doesn’t have to be complicated to be delicious. You’ll want to spend as much time as possible with your family bubble, not hiding away in the kitchen slaving away over the food. Won’t you?
Easy Christmas Cake Recipe
The key to a stress free Christmas is to prepare as much as you can in advance recipes so you can sit back, relax and enjoy more time with your guests, with the assurance that you’re already for Christmas. This Christmas Cake recipe was shared by Just Ingredients – an online company supplying wholefoods, herbs and spices directly to your door
Essentially Christmas Cake is a fruit cake with a variety if delicious ingredients. Just mix them all together and give it a long, slow bake
Christmas Memories
There is much mystery around Christmas Cake making and many people develop their own traditions with the decorations. My Mum always used to do a wonderful snow scene that I could get quite lost in. It had fir trees and a santa sleigh and a snow man. I enjoyed imagining what was happening across that cake!
The delicious slice of cake on Christmas day evening – when you are still full from dinner but want that undeniable taste of Christmas! And who has a slice of cheese with it too?
Easy Christmas Cake Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 kg mixed dried fruit
- 250 g butter
- 200 g brown sugar
- 175 g plain flour
- 100 g ground almonds
- 100 g flaked almonds
- 150 ml of a spirit of your choice brandy or sherry works best
- 2 teaspoons mixed spice
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 orange zest
- 1 lemon zest
- 4 large eggs
- Extra brandy or sherry for drizzling on baked cake
Instructions
- Place the dried fruit, zest, butter, sugar and alcohol in a large pan
- Stir well over a medium heat until combined well and boiling.
- Lower the heat and allow the mixture to simmer for 5 minutes or so.
- Decant the mixture into a large bowl and leave to cool. Leave this for around an hour to cool.
- While the mixture cools preheat the oven to 150°C or gas mark 2.
- Line a 20cm cake tin using greaseproof paper, and surround the outside of the tin with two layers of newspaper. You can secure this with string.
- Add the rest of the ingredients to the fruit mixture in the bowl. Stir all the remaining ingredients in, making sure there are no lumps of flour.
- Place in the prepared tin.
- Use a spatula or spoon to level the mixture off so that is fills the space and is level.
- Place the cake mix in the oven and cook for 2 hours.
- Remove the cake from the oven and poke a few holes in the top. Be careful as steam may come out.
- Drizzle with a good splash of alcohol and set to one side.
- After it has cooled, peel off the surrounding paper and wrap the cake in cling film. This can keep for months, but we’d recommend topping it up with alcohol every fortnight or so.
Other Christmas Recipe Ideas
Chocolate Cake
– For those who aren’t a fan of classic Christmas cake make a chocolate cake. This will be a sure favourite with those with a sweet tooth.
Mince Pies
– Prepare mince pies but before baking wrap them up in cling film and put them in the freezer. These will keep up to 3 months and you simply have to pop them in the oven at Christmas. Make your own mincemeat too!
Christmas Muffins
– These delightful fruit and brandy cakes can be made quickly and are great as a cake or a pudding
Pickled Veg, Chutneys and Jams
– Do you always stock up on condiments at Christmas time? Well you can create homemade versions this year that are prepared well in advance.
A fantastic easy recipe very moist and full of flavour I added the juice from the lemon and orange as well and it was delicious