I had a request on Twitter the other day for a Christmas cake recipe. I have used a wedding cake recipe for this purpose since 1960. I have also made at least three, 3 tier wedding cakes with it over the years.
3 Tier Wedding Cake
Cake size 12 inch 9 inch 6inch
Mixed Fruit* 50ozs 30ozs 10ozs
Mixed Peel, chopped 10ozs 6ozs 2ozs
Prunes** 5ozs 3ozs 1oz
Dates 5ozs 3ozs 1oz
Cherries 5ozs 3ozs 1oz
Cooking Apple, diced 1 ½ ½ (small)
Nuts*** 5ozs 3ozs 1oz
Ground Almonds 5ozs 3ozs 1oz
Nutmeg ½ tsp ¼ tsp ¼ tsp
Mixed Spice ½ tsp ¼ tsp ¼ tsp
Grated Lemon rind 1 ½ ¼
Butter 15ozs 9ozs 3ozs
Caster Sugar 15ozs 9ozs 3ozs
Eggs 10 6 2
Plain Flour 19ozs 11ozs 4ozs
Whiskey 9tblsps 6tblsps 3tb tblsps
* I use Sultans & Raisins
** Try glazed pineapple, mango or papaya
*** I use Almonds, walnuts, pecans or a mixture of all three
Preheat oven to 100°C
Grease and double line each baking tin. Wrap a double layer of brown paper around the outside of the tin, securing it with string.
Clean the fruit; add the nuts, cherries and peel.
Sift flour and add the spices.
Beat the eggs.
Cream the butter and sugar add a little of the egg and a spoonful of the flour and mix well. Repeat until all the egg and flour have been added.
Add the ground almonds and mix through, then add the chopped cooking apple.
Mix in the fruit a handful at a time.
Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin, making a slight depression in the centre. Bake for the required time.
Bake 12 inch cake for 6 hours
Bake 9 inch cake for 4-5 hours
Bake 6 inch cake for 1hour 45 minutes
Towards the end of cooking time, test the cake by inserting a skewer into the centre. When it comes out clean, the cake is ready. If the top of the cake starts to become too brown, cover it with a double thickness of greaseproof paper. Remove the cake from the oven and allow it to cool in the tin on a wire rack.
Prick top or cake and pour over the whiskey, wrap in greaseproof paper and then a layer of foil. Store in a tin with half an apple. The apple will need replacing after a couple of weeks.
Or….or….buy one from the Lyons club and help charity… I remember my mother making cakes and puddings weeks before Christmas and nobody ever liked fruit cake. Such a waste.
Baino – The preparation and baking are all part of the fun. Trouble is I have nobody to bake it for these days. Elly & George are savoury kids, dips and nibbles are more their line!
I can’t help being a savoury kid – I baked for hours last week, making pumpkin pies and cheesecakes for the US ex-pats for Halloween, and I maybe tasted 3 monthfuls of what I made – just not big on the sugary stuff.
For Ed’s party yesterday I made some amazing dips, I must send you the recipe for the caramelised red onion hummus, I think you’ll enjoy it!
Elly – Yes please, caramelised red onion hummus sounds good.
Sounds lovely. When I was a child my grandmother used to spend days baking cakes and making puddings for Christmas. I wonder how many people bother these days ? … Must go .. I’m off to Sainsbury’s. 🙂
The last time I made this was for Daughter’s wedding cake, 3 layers. Enough I said, never again.
As to Elly, funny about this hummus, I made this yesterday but added red pepper and a fresh garlic clove to the carmelized red onion. Yum+++
XO
WWW
Oh and you’ll laugh GM – our family would have FRIED Xmas cake along with a bellybusting breakfast on Boxing Day to the disgust of ma and da.
The only way we truly liked it. Makes me sick to think of it now.
XO
WWW
Big John – Did your grandmother sing as she did so? My granny had a song about the making of the puddings. It went through the ingredients and she sang it to jog her memory in case anything was forgotten. Alas, I cannot remember the words. 🙁
WWW – In our house sliced pudding was fried… in that stuff that never passes my lips – butter! I preferred to have mine cold. Jack told me his father, a coal miner, would have Xmas cake between two slices of bread in his piece tin (lunch box). This cake was Jack’s favourite so I always made the middle tier for his birthday each February.
Except for the peel, this sounds wonderful, and I suppose you could add more fruit in its place. I never saw a recipe for a small Christmas cake before. I’ll have to save this one for sure.
Excuse my thickiness but what’s the purpose of the brown paper wrapped around the OUTSIDE of the tin ? It rings a very faint bell of my Aunt ( the family Christmas cake baker) doing something similar but back then I wouldn’t have thought to ask anything beyond ” can I lick the mixing bowl ” .
Alice – Once you have the correct weight of fruit, the mix is up to you.
paulo1- The extra brown paper around the outside of the tin, helps prevent the cake drying out round the edges or burning. I always made the sleeve about double the height of the cake tin. In fact I saved the brown paper and string and used it year after year for quite some time.
I don’t remember my grandmother singing, Grannymar, but I do remember that she could “swear like a trooper”. 🙂
Big John – My granny had a few of those too! 😆
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