Christmas Fruit Cake

Festive Baking Time

It will have been roughly

six weeks since my gorgeous

jewelled box of booze soaked

fruits have been waiting

patiently to be used,

and the time has come to

get out my favourite cake tin  

and get cracking.

This Sunday is Stir up Sunday,
the special day in our baking calendar 
that is dedicated to 
getting our groove on
with all our Christmas baking 
and preparation.

A perfect time get cracking with this
lovely recipe.

I have used a tin I bought in 

Lakeland many years ago,

 which has been lovingly 

re-christened 

the Christmas cake tin.

It's a good, strong 8 inch tin which always

seems to produce a lovely even bake.

Lakeland is one of those shops I

have to wander around,

 and come out of with some random purchase,

that I "had to have"

but didn't really need.

Miss. Bee  refers to Lakeland as a

"mam shop".

In other words,

there is nothing in there of any

faint interest to her!

One of my best tips I can give you when it comes

to baking a fruit cake is to

line your tin well.

Over many years of experiencing 

well baked disasters,

I have found spending a little time on

lining your tin well will pay

a huge reward at the end when you remove

the cake and find beautiful

golden brown sides to the cake.

Double line your tin with good quality

baking parchment and leave a collar

approximately 3 inches above the top of the cake tin.

This will shield the cake whilst baking.

Folding the sheet in half will give just about

enough height for this.

I fold the folded edge back over by about an inch

and make a small cut about a inch apart.

This will allow the paper to sit neatly 

around the base of the tin before you

put the base layer in.

I do find that about two hours 

into the baking process the top of

the cake can start to look done.

I tend to put a cover over at this stage just to

protect the cake from over baking.

The easiest thing for this is a 

piece of baking parchment

crumpled into a ball,

unroll it and then mould it into the

shape of the top of the tin.

Drop the cover down into the collar of

the lining parchment but do not force it down

onto the cake itself.

This will protect the cake without affecting

the baking process itself.

Now to get down to the cake.

This recipe is adapted from Ruth Clemens

a.k.a the Pink Whisk.

Ruth has shared some amazing recipes

over the years and this

has got to be the one recipe I cannot

recommend more.

It is simple to follow,

and the couple of little changes I have made

are insignificant to the original recipe,

but it  tastes delicious.

Ruth suggests a long, 

slow bake to really bring out the flavour

of the cake.

Having tried several ways of baking

fruit cakes over the years,

I have to agree that the slower bake really

does make a huge difference to not only

the flavour of the cake but also the texture.

You will need :

1 x soaked fruit

225g softened butter

150g light brown sugar

75g dark brown sugar

2 tbsp treacle

5 large eggs

285g plain flour

2 rounded tsp mixed cake spice 

1. Pre heat the oven to 110c(fan)/gas mark 1

Cream together the butter and sugars 

until they are light and fluffy.

2. Add the treacle and beat in well.

3. Add each egg and mix well before

adding the next.

I always break the egg into a little jug before adding
to the mixture.
This makes sure the odd bit of egg shell is avoided

4. Next add the flour and mixed spices.

Give it a last stir up and then you are ready 

for my favourite part,

adding the fruit.

5. Gently peel off the lid from your soaked fruit

and just take a second the 

inhale the amazing

smell that will be unleashed 

on your sense of smell.

It is one of those treats that will

evoke every memory of Christmas from your

childhood -

helping your grandmother to

make the Christmas cake in the 

kitchen when you were

a child,

being the chosen one to get the first

slice of the Christmas cake when it was 

cut on Christmas day,

my list could go on!

But I digress,

back to the preparation.

Scrape every last raisin and drip of licour

from your storage bowl into the cake mixture

and gently but firmly stir the mixture until

the fruit looks evenly distributed.

Pour into you prepared cake tin,

smooth off the top of the mixture

and bake in the oven for 

3 hours 45 minutes.

Yes I know it seems like a long time,

but trust me it really is worth it.

Plus the house will smell amazing

for a whole lot longer.

You now have plenty of time to clean up
and of course the most important
part of any cake,
cleaning the spoon.

'nom-nom'

Be sure to keep an eye on the baking.

I start checking mine after about 2 to 2.5 hours.

If the top starts to look dark brown it's time to

put the hat on!

(see above notes)

Keep checking the cake,

and when a skewer comes out clean,

remove from the oven and allow to cool

completely before removing from the tin.

Once fully cooled,

remove from the tin and it's ready for wrapping,

Lay out two layers of foil and 

two layers of greaseproof paper

like the picture below.

A cross of foil

now a cross of baking parchment on top of the foil

Remove the baking parchment from your cake 

but leave the base disc if you can

as this will help when you are

feeding your cake with the alcohol.

Pop your cake on top of the paper

and foil,

and give it a good basting with

your chosen alcohol.

I used rum, 

but brandy is another popular choice.

Wrap the cake and store in

an airtight container.

Pop it into a cupboard away from direct sunlight

and heat.

Feed it every 3 to 4 days for the next couple of weeks,

or until the cake will not absorb

any more liquid.

That's it - job done!

You can decorate the cake when you

are ready. 

There are so many options for

decorating from 

very traditional royal icing

to more modern fondant designs.

The internet is a wealth of inspiration 

when it comes to cake decorating,

and I would love to see your designs.

Until next time,

enjoy your day.

Bernice

x