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Recipes
| Christmas Cake, Wedding Cake, Christening Cake |
| This is a rich, dark fruit cake suitable for all the above occasions. As this recipe makes enough mixture for one 7” square and one 9” square (3” deep) cakes, I use my washing-up basin to mix it in! Many thanks to my godmother Joyce Whittall for sharing her wonderful 80 year old recipe with me. The 2 cakes together serve up to 100 people in small wedding cake amounts, or about 40 with more generous slices!
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| Ingredients |
700 g plain flour (all purpose)
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp soda bicarbonate (baking soda)
1 tsp salt
¾ tsp ground mace
¾ tsp ground nutmeg
¼ tsp ground cloves
½ tsp ground allspice berries
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500 g citron peel, can be chopped in TM – see Step 2
500 g raisins
500 g almonds
500 g red glacé cherries, cut in half if you wish, preferably natural colour
500 g currants
500 g mixed peel
500 g dates, chopped
120 g green cherries (or more red cherries if preferred)
4 pineapple rings, cut into small pieces, with their juice
120 g strong coffee
120 g orange juice
120 g brandy
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500 g soft brown sugar
1 tsp real almond extract or 12 apricot kernels
1 tsp real orange oil or thinly peeled strips of orange skin from 1 large organic orange (no pith)
1 tsp real lemon oil or thinly peeled strips of lemon skin from 1 large organic lemon (no pith)
1 tsp real vanilla extract or 1 vanilla pod cut in 3 pieces
12 eggs
450 g strawberry jam – can be made in TM, see recipe in “Fast and Easy Cooking”
500 g unsalted butter, cut in chunks
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| Method |
1. Weigh flour into TM bowl and add spices. Mix together by pressing the Turbo button briefly a few times. Pour out into a bowl, set aside.
2. If the citron peel is in whole pieces, place into Thermomix bowl and chop at Speed 6 or 7, for a few seconds, repeating as necessary. Check by looking through the hole in the lid until it is chopped to your liking.
3. Place a large basin (not the one with the flour & spices in it) on top of the TM lid and weigh into it the dried fruits, almonds, cherries, peels, pineapple, coffee, orange juice and brandy. Stir well, cover and set aside to soak for 24 to 48 hours.
4. If you are using any of apricot kernels, vanilla pod, orange skin peelings or lemon skin peelings, add them to 200 g of the sugar and grind 1 minute/Speed 10.
5. Mix eggs, jam, oils if using, vanilla extract if using, butter and remaining sugar 30 seconds/Speed 5 until smooth. You may need to take off the lid and scrape down the sides once or twice. Using the spatula to help in mixing is also useful. Pour this mixture over the fruit in the basin and mix thoroughly with a large spoon. Add the flour and spices mixture and mix thoroughly. Spoon into the cake tins, leaving 1 cm at the top to allow for expansion. Bake in a very slow oven (no fan) 120°C/Bake in the Simmering Oven of the Aga for 12 to 24 hours until done. Once cool, remove from the tins and wrap closely in greaseproof paper and foil.
6. After one week, unwrap to poke holes into the top of the cake with a skewer, and pour 2 Tbsp brandy over to sink into the holes. Re-wrap and store. You may repeat the application of brandy 2 or 3 times if you wish. |
| Janie's Tip: | | This cake keeps well for several months. (I kept the top layer of my wedding cake, made from this recipe, for 3 years until the christening of my first child and it was still delicious! If you do keep an iced cake for a year or more, you may have to peel off the icing and marzipan and replace them with new.) When you plan to marzipan and ice the cake, unwrap and leave loosely covered for a few days to allow the surface to dry a little first.
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