CHRISTMAS CAKES

Who is looking forward to their Christmas pud this year?

We cannot wait! Our top baker in the office Gretel (our designer) has followed Mary Berry’s Christmas Cake recipe, she swears by it and we just cannot wait to finally get a taste. If you will be baking your Christmas deserts this year, we recommend Mary’s recipe below.

Ingredients

•  175g/6oz raisins
• 350g/12oz natural glacé cherries, halved, rinsed, and dried
• 500g/1lb 2oz currants
• 350g/12oz sultanas
• 150ml/¼pt brandy or sherry, plus extra for feeding
•  2 oranges, zest only
• 250g/9oz butter, softened
• 250g/9oz light muscovado sugar
•  4 free-range eggs, at room temperature
• 1 tbsp black treacle
• 75g/3oz blanched almonds, chopped
• 250g/9oz plain flour
• 1½ tsp mixed spice

 For the covering

• 3 tbsp apricot jam, warmed and sieved
• icing sugar
• 675g/1lb 8oz marzipan

For the royal icing

• 3 free-range eggs, whites only
• 675g/1½lb icing sugar, sifted
• 3 tsp lemon juice
• 1½ tsp glycerine

Preparation method

1.  For the cake, place all the dried fruit into a mixing bowl. Pour the brandy over it and stir in the  orange zest. Cover this with clingfilm and leave to soak for around 2-3 days, stir daily. 

2. With your tin, it should be a round tin with measurements 23cm/9in deep. Grease and line with a double layer of greased, greaseproof paper. Then preheat the oven to 140C/275F/Gas 1.

3. Measure the sugar, butter, treacle, eggs and almonds. Place into a very large bowl, beat well

(preferably with an electric free-standing mixer). You can now add the flour and ground spice, mix throughly until blended. Stir in the soaked fruit and spoon into the prepared cake tin. Don't forget to level the surface. 

Place in the centre of the preheated oven for about 4-4½ hours, or until the cake feels firm to the touch and is a rich golden brown colour. Check back around 2 hours later if the cake is a perfect colour then cover with foil. Push a skewer into the centre of the cake, the skewer should come out clean if cooked well. Leave cake to cool in the tin. 

4. When the cake has cooled, pierce the cake at intervals with a fine skewer, feed it a little extra brandy.  Wrap the cold cake completely in a double layer of greaseproof paper and again in foil. Store in a cool dry place for up to three months, feeding at intervals with more and more brandy. (Don’t remove the lining paper when storing as this helps to keep the cake moist.)

5. To cover the cake, you will want to start the week before you actually serve it. 

6. Stand the cake upside down, flat side uppermost on a cake board that is 5cm/2in larger than the cake size.

7. Brush the sides and the top of the cake with the warm apricot jam.

8. Dust a work surface generously with icing sugar then roll out the marzipan to5cm/2in larger than the cake surface. Keep moving the marzipan to ensure it isn't sticking to the work surface.If sticking occurs, dust the work surface with more icing sugar. 

Technique: How to marzipan a fruit cake

9. Lift the marzipan over the cake using a rolling pin, be careful. Gentle level and smooth the top of the paste with the rolling pin, the easy the maezipan down the sides of the cake. If careful your marzipan should cover the cake with no excess, however if there is any excess trim carefully with a sharp knife. Cover the cake loosely with baking parchment and leave for a few days to dry out before adding the royal icing.

10. For the royal icing, whisk the egg whites in a large bowl until frothy. Mix in the sifted icing sugar a tablespoonful at a time. You can do this with a hand-held electric whisk however keep the whisk on low speed at all times.

11. Stir in the lemon juice and glycerine and beat the icing until it is very stiff and white and stands up in peaks.

12. Cover the surface of the icing tightly with clingfilm and keep in a cool place until needed.

13. To ice the cake, place all of the icing on top of the cake, spreading evenly over the top and sides with a pallete knife. For a snow-peak effect, use a smaller palette knife to make a rough effect.

14. Loosely cover the cake and leave overnight for the icing to harden a little. Wrap and store in an airtight container until served. 

We hope you have a jolly time making this and we would like to see the pictures of your Christmas cakes. 

Love Ruby+Ed x