Quick n Easy Christmas Cake

Hello and welcome to my blog, SCRUMMMY FRIDAY

With Christmas only 6 weeks away (ahhhh!) I thought I’d share a fairly easy Christmas cake recipe that I use every year and without a doubt the best tasting and reliable recipe.

It is best to make it about 5 or 6 weeks before Christmas, this gives the cake time to mature. MMM YUMMMY!

It’s really not that hard and pretty quick. Stick with it and you won’t regret it at Christmas. So here goes…

This recipe will make an 8 inch cake, but what I like to do is make a 1lb loaf size, for myself, and some mini cakes (I get the cases from a ‘well known’ supermarket in packs of 10)

Here are my mini cakes all wrapped up, with handmade gift tags, ready to give as Christmas pressies!

Tools Needed

Large Mixing Bowls

Wooden Spoon

Greaseproof Paper

1lb loaf tin

Mini Loaf Cases

Rolling pin

Ingredients

The Cake

500g Dried Mixed Fruit with Mixed Peel

(You can buy separate dried fruit, but the is a quick recipe)

50g Glace Cherries (Halved)

45ml/ 3tbsp of brandy (For a non-boozy cake use orange juice instead)

225g of Plain Flour

Pinch of salt

225g of Unsalted Butter, Softened

½ tsp of Cinnamon

½ tsp of Mixed Spice

1 tbsp of Cocoa

225g of Dark Brown Sugar

4 Eggs

100g Mixed Nuts (roughly chopped)

Decorate

Apricot Jam

1kg box of Marzipan

1 kg box of Fondant Icing

Method

1 – The day or two before baking the cake, soak the dried mixed fruit with peel in a bowl with the brandy. Cover and leave to soak up the brandy.

2 – Grease and line your tin with greaseproof paper. Make the paper stick up above the tin by about 1 or 2 inches. For the mini loaf, lightly grease the case.

Pre-heat oven to 150 degree C.

3 – Beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add eggs (one at a time whilst beating)

4 – Add chopped nuts, glace cherries and the boozy fruit, plus any liquid left over.

5 – Sift flour, spices, salt and cocoa into a bowl, then add this to the mixture.

6 – Spoon the mixture into your tin and mini loaf cases. Gently tap on a work surface to disperse air bubbles.

7 – Put in the oven for approx 30 minutes for the mini loaf and 1 to 1 ½ hours for the 1lb loaf tin or until a skewer comes out clean when inserted in to the cake.

8 – allow the 1lb tin to cool slightly before removing from the tin and transferring to a wire rack. The mini loaf cakes can stay in there cases on the wire rack.

9 – Once cooled completely, wrap in tin foil (not too tightly and it needs the air)

Then store in a cool place (like a spare room) in an open box (DO NOT SEAL! this will make the cake go mouldy)

Then once a week feed your cake(s) with a little brandy.

10 – A few days before Christmas, you can decorate your cake. YAY!

11 – Remove cake from greaseproof paper. Warm the apricot jam in a saucepan (this just helps to spread it) Spread all over cake. For the mini loaf cakes spread on top. I use the back of a teaspoon.

12 – Lightly dust the work surface with icing sugar. Remove marzipan from its packet and gently knead it to soften it up. Then roll out to size to cover the entire cake. For the mini loaf cakes enough to cover the tops.

13 – Do the same as the marzipan with the Fondant. Trim away excess from the bottom of the cake.

14 – Now for the really fun part…decorating the cake!

This I will leave entirely to your creativeness, as it is your cake, it should have your mark on it!

If your good with a piping bag, them pipe a boarder, if not then I suggest and pretty ribbon around the bottom. Use cookie or fondant cutters to cut some fondant decorations, like traditional holy leaves or snowflakes. How about making a 3D snowman/family for the top. However you decorate it, this is your cake and I would love so much to see what you have baked. Please do show me!

Em x