Traditional Christmas Cakes come in lots of shapes and sizes.
But most of them such as stollen, panetonne and this Scottish version, which is our family favourite, all have in common large quantities of dried fruit enriched with spices and or alcohol.
They hark back to a time when these were precious commodities in the midst of a bleak winter and their deep richness would have stood out against the sparseness of December and January fare
At their best, Christmas cakes are luxuriantly moist without being heavy or sickly sweet and I think this recipe which we've been using for over 40 years definitely ticks all these boxes.
It's actually based on a Dundee fruit cake from my mum's wonderful old Bero cook book but includes a large glass of sweet sherry that wasn't in the original :-)
We make ours on Stir Up Sunday ... the last Sunday before Advent ... along with the Christmas pudding and the mincemeat and then start icing it on about the 20th or five days before it will be first be eaten.
When we were children we used to enormous Christmas teas with ham, pork pies and stilton cheese followed by Christmas cake, yule log, trifle and mince pies but these days we're late risers ... am I the only mum who actually has to wake her child on Christmas morning? ;-) ... and just seem to manage a slice of this lovely cake ...
If you're looking for more Christmas ideas do check out the wonderful links from other bloggers at the bottom of this post ...
And do share your favourite recipes for Christmas cakes and puddings ...
Ingredients
For the Cake
- 10 oz Butter
- 10 oz Soft Brown Sugar
- 5 Large Eggs
- 1 Tablespoon Black Treacle
- 10 oz Plain Flour
- 14 oz Currants
- 10 oz Sultanas
- 10 oz Raisins
- 2 oz fairly finely grated orange, lemon & lime peel
- Soak all the dried fruit & candied peel in a glass of sweet sherry over night
- Cream butter & sugar
- Stir in treacle and beaten eggs
- Sieve and stir in the flour
- Mix in the dried fruit and candied peel
- Put the cake in a lined tin ... 9 inch round or 8 inch square ... and cover the top with a double layer of brown paper interleafed with a layer of greaseproof paper
- Cook for 4 to 5 hours at 135-150c / 275-300f
- As soon as the cake comes out of the oven wrap it in foil in it's cooking tin to cool
- When the cake has cooled, remove from foil and tin, wrap in clean foil and put in a good storage tin
For the Almond Paste
- 8oz Icing Sugar
- 8oz Caster Sugar
- 16oz Ground Almonds
- 2 large eggs
- 5 ml vanilla essence
- Sift icing sugar
- Mix caster sugar and ground almonds
- Add the vanilla essence and keep adding the beaten eggs until it all comes together into a dough which is stiff enough to be kneaded
- Cover the fruit cake with a very very thin layer of sieved marmalade or apricot jam or egg white
- Roll out the almond paste into two pieces to fit the sides and then the top
- Leave the almond paste to settle for at least 24 hours and ideally 2 or 3 days before icing
For the Royal Icing
- 4 large egg whites
- 2lb icing sugar
- This will make enough for one lot of rough snow storm icing ... which I always find easier after a stiff drink ;-) ... or two layers of smooth icing. If you're doing two layers, you need to leave the first layer for 24 hours before adding the second so you could make the icing in two lots.
- Double or even triple sift the icing sugar.
- Separate the eggs, gently stir them and then mix in half the icing sugar and beat firmly for a good five arm-aching minutes. Set aside for 30 minutes covered with damp cloth or greaseproof paper.
- Slowly stir in the rest of the icing sugar until the spoon will temporarily stand in it for smooth icing or it will form stiff peaks if you're doing rough icing
- You can either ice straight away with it ... or even better ... let it sit in an airtight container for 12 hours before using
If you enjoyed this post do follow me on Pinterest ...
0 comments