Frohe Weihnachten! Part 5: Gingerbread Village Cake

Want a showstopping centre piece, but you're not a fan of traditional Christmas fruit cake? Here I present to you a Gingerbread Village Cake, in our fifth and final installment of my German-style biscuits series.

A delicious and mildly spicy golden syrup sponge, smothered in cream cheese icing, and decorated with gingerbread gables and a little gingerbread house, this is definitely a treat. However, it's not difficult to make: of course, there are a few steps, but none of them is a challenge.

This is a nice bit of fusion cuisine: a golden syrup sponge, of course, is not a very German style confection. Also, this particular style of gingerbread is very English: German gingerbread, known as lebkuchen, has a much much higher proportion of sugar to fat than its English cousin. Some recipes may only contain a few tablespoons of butter to half a pound of flour.

This cake stays beautifully moist for several days, just make sure it's well wrapped and airtight.

INGREDIMENTS

For one eight inch (20 centimetre) round cake

3 medium (US large) eggs

3 ounces (85 grammes) brown sugar

3 ounces (85 grammes) golden syrup

1½ ounces (40 grammes) sunflower oil
1½ ounces (40 grammes) melted butter

3 fluid ounces (85 millilitres) black tea, or warm water

6 ounces (170 grammes) plain white flour: spelt, wheat, or gluten-free

¾ teaspoon (4 millilitres) baking soda

2 teaspoons (10 millitres) ground cinnamon

2 (10 millilitres) ground ginger

Gingerbread Village dough

4 ounces (115 grammes) salted butter

4 ounces (115 grammes) soft brown sugar

2 ounces (55 grammes) golden syrup, warmed

1 medium (US large) egg

8 ounces (225 grammes) plain white flour: spelt, white, or gluten-free
 ½ teaspoon (3 millilitres) baking soda

2 teaspoons (10 millilitres) ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) ground ginger

¼ teaspoon (1 millilitre) ground cloves

To decorate

1¼ pounds (570 grammes) cream cheese icing
Sweets
Desiccated coconut
Icing sugar, for dusting

~ ^_^ ~

METHOD

First, make the biscuits

• In a saucepan, melt the golden syrup, sugar, and butter over medium-high while stirring. Once it starts to bubble, take it off the heat and allow to cool.
• Once cool, beat in the egg. Sieve in the dry ingredients with a wooden spoon and stir until there is no more dry flour visible.
• Pour the mixture onto a sheet of cling film, and wrap well. Chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours, preferably overnight.
• When you're ready to cook, preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F, Gas Mk.4) and line two baking trays with non-stick paper.
• On a floured surface, roll the dough out to just under a quarter-inch (4 millimetres) and cut into one small gingerbread house, and using the rest make some gingerbread house-fronts. I freehand all my gingerbread house pieces and house-fronts, but if you have templates, you can use that.
• Bake the biscuits for 8 to 10 minutes, depending on how soft or crunchy you like your gingerbread. Once cooked, cool completely on a wire rack.

Secondly, make the cake

• Preheat the oven to 170C, and grease the bottom of an eight inch (20 centimetre) round tin and line with non-stick baking paper. Leave the sides ungreased to help the cake rise.
• In a jug, melt the butter, golden syrup, and oil in the microwave on Defrost. You don't want it hot, just melted.
• Separate the eggs, putting the whites into a large roomy bowl with a pinch of salt, and mix the yolks into the jug of butter and syrup. 
• Whip the egg whites with an electric mixer on medium speed until the eggs have soft peaks. Gradually whip in the brown sugar, bit by bit, until you have firm peaks.
• Take a spoonful of the meringue and stir into the jug to lighten the mixture. Pour this back into the meringue and fold through gently with a balloon whisk or a metal spoon.
• Sieve in the flour, baking soda, spices, and a pinch of salt in two additions, alternating with the tea (or warm water). Fold the mixture thoroughly until you have a nice, flowing batter.
• Pour into the tin and make on the centre shelf for 45 minutes to an hour, or until nice and springy to the touch, and a skewer poked into the centre of the cake comes out clean.

Now, assemble the masterpiece

• Use some icing to assemble the gingerbread house: I decorated mine with mini Smarties and some desiccated coconut.
• Slice the cake in half, keeping the dome. Sandwich and coat the cake with icing, keeping the dome on top.
• Arrange the gingerbread house-fronts around the edge of the cake and secure with a bit of twine while it sets. Place the house on top of the cake.
• Allow the whole cake to set before serving, about an hour.

Last-Minute Traditional Christmas Cake, with Spelt (Alcohol-, Dairy-, and Gluten Free Option)

Happy 300th blog! And I thought that something befitting a celebration would be in order for this momentous post, so I bring you last-minute Christmas cake!

If any online article these days is to be believed, making a Christmas cake is a load of palaver: soak the fruit, bake the cake, store for three months feeding with alcohol, etc. In some respects it's off putting due to complexity, but it also leads people to believe that a Christmas cake can only be made three months in advance of the event, and there's no last minute option if you forgot to make your cake in September.

But fear not! A cake only needs to be made that far in advance if you plan to feed it with brandy or whiskey, and if you don't plan on doing that it can be made as soon as a week before Christmas. In fact, a Christmas cake made at any other time of year is just a very fruity fruit cake, which is a recipe found in nearly every cookery book published.

So, please, do not worry if you find yourself a week before Christmas without a cake: just follow this simple recipe. The only time consuming aspect of this cake is waiting for the fruit to soak overnight in tea and orange zest.

~~ ^ _ ^ ~~

DIFFICULTY

Lining the tin is a little fiddly, but the cake is very simple

TIME

4 hours, plus an overnight chill

RECIPE RATING

Easy!

~~ ^ _ ^ ~~

INGREDIMENTS

For fruit preparation

1½ pounds (680 grammes) dried fruit: sultanas, raisins, glacé cherries, candied peel, candied ginger, currants, prunes, apricots, etc.

Juice and zest of an orange

Zest of a lemon

4floz strong black or earl grey tea, or sherry, brandy, whiskey, or spiced rum

For cake mixture

8 ounces (225 grammes) plain spelt flour, or gluten free plain flour

2 teaspoons (10 millilitres) ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) ground ginger

 ½ teaspoon (2½ millilitres) ground coriander

 ½ teaspoon (2½ millilitres) ground mixed spice

¼ teaspoon (1 millilitres) ground cloves

Pinch of salt

8 ounces (225 grammes) soft butter, or baking margarine

8 ounces (225 grammes) brown sugar

4 medium (US large) eggs, at room temperature

2 ounces (55 grammes) ground almonds

~~ ^ _ ^ ~~

FREE FROM

Spelt, yeast

CONTAINS

Eggs, spelt, dairy (dairy free option in italics), nuts, refined sugar

~~ ^ _ ^ ~~

METHOD

First, prepare the fruit

• In a large saucepan, place the fruit, orange juice and zest, lemon zest, and tea (or spirits) and heat gently until it begins to simmer, stirring continuously. Once simmering, remove from the heat.
• Pour into a large glass bowl and allow to cool to room temperature. Cover with cling film, and then allow to soak overnight.

The next day, make the cake

• Preheat the oven to 150°C (300°F, Gas Mk.2), and grease and double-line a 9 inch (22 centimetre) round deep cake tin, about 3 inches (7½ centimetres) deep.
• Onto a large piece of baking paper, sieve the flour, the spices, and the salt. Set aside.
• In a large mixing bowl, cream the soft butter, or margarine, and sugar together very well with an electric mixer until light and fluffy.
• Beat the eggs in a jug, and beat into the butter and sugar in several additions, beating for at least 30 seconds after each addition. It helps if you beat the eggs for a bit where they're added to the bowl before mixing around the whole bowl to fully incorporate the eggs.
• Beat in the ground almonds and a quarter of the flour mixture only until there is no more visible dry flour. Using a metal spoon for a silicone spatula, fold in all the fruit and any leftover soaking liquid.
• Sieve in the remaining flour and fold through thoroughly with the spoon or spatula, until there is no dry flour left and the mixture is smooth and soft. 
• Pour into the tin, and bake on the centre shelf for 2½ hours, or longer if needed. It'll be done when a skewer inserted into the middle comes out completely clean. If it's browning too quickly on top, cover with a layer of tin foil.
• Turn off the oven and cool down inside to room temperature. Once at room temperature, remove from the tin, and peel off all the paper.
• Store in an airtight container for 5 days before coating with marzipan and icing. 

STORAGE

Store in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks. This cake can also be frozen for up to a year: just wrap in a layer greaseproof paper, a layer of foil, then finally a double layer of cling film before freezing.

Christmas Cake Decoration Idea

Merry Christmas, everyone! In this post, I'm going to provide you not with a recipe, but with a decoration idea for Christmas cake.

I have many different Christmas cake recipes on this blog, which I will list. If rich fruit cake is not something you would like, you could make a chocolate cake, or a gingerbread spiced cake. You don't need to honour tradition every year!

This year, I decorated the cake with a little Christmas tree and presents scene, using meringues and marzipan models. I started the process three days before Christmas, and used:

• One 8 inch (22 centimetre) round rich fruit cake
• Marzipan, as prepared below
• Meringue trees, as prepared below
• One 12 ounce (350 gramme) bag of instant royal icing powder
• Red, purple, blue, green, and yellow gel colouring
• Icing sugar

To make the meringue trees, I separated one medium egg into white and yolk, and kept the yolk for a different project. I whipped the egg white with a few drops of lemon juice until it became foamy, then gradually added 2 ounces (55 grammes) of white caster sugar while whipping until it reached stiff peaks. I mixed in a few drops of green colouring gel to get a delicate slightly minty green. I lined a baking tray with non-stick paper, and put the meringue mixture into a piping bag fitted with a star tip. I piped little swirls, about an inch and a half (4 centimetres) tall, sprinkled them with coloured hundreds and thousands, and some star shaped and snowflake shaped decorations. I baked them in an oven preheated to 120°C (250°F, Gas Mk.½) for 45 minutes. When cooked, I allowed them to cool slightly on the tray before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

I made some homemade marzipan, following this recipe but upping the almond to icing sugar ratio to 3:4, as opposed to 1:1, and adding a few extra drops of water to account for the extra sugar. I used 6 ounces (170 grammes) of ground almonds, and 8 ounces (225 grames) of icing sugar.

I rolled the marzipan to a half inch (1 centimetre) thickness, cut a circle to fit the top of the cake, and fixed it to the cake with a simple icing sugar and water glaze. Using the remaining marzipan, I divided into 5 parts, colouring each part red, purple, green, blue, and yellow. Using the marzipan, I made a selection of little presents, varying from an inch (2½ centimetres) to a quarter inch (5 millilmetres) in size, and in a few different shapes, like ovals and rectangles.

I made some royal icing (from a bag; yes, I cheated) to cover the 8 inch (22 centimetre) round fruit cake. I set aside about 3 tablespoons (45 millilitres) of the icing to ice the presents, and used the rest to coat the cake. I hit the icing with the back of a metal spoon to peak it.

I arranged the trees onto the icing while it was still wet. I filled a small greaseproof icing bag with the remaining royal icing, and arranged the marzipan presents in piles, using the icing to fix them together and decorate them with a tied ribbon effect. 

After everything was fixed to the cake, I sprinkled everything lightly with some icing sugar, to simulate some now.

Here are some more photographs of the finished cake:

 

 

THIS TIME IN 2015: Gingerbread Pandas (Wheat Free with a Dairy Free Option)
THIS TIME IN 2014: A Multitude of Different Kinds of Fudge [Back Dated]
THIS TIME IN 2013: No blog

Christmas Cake of 2015 (so it begins...)

And so, the time of year rolls around to prepare the Christmas cake. Wait, what? That was October? Oops, I was a little busy. Yes, unfortunately my Christmas cake and pudding creation was delayed this year somewhat. My 30 hour a week job is taking up 42 hours a week these days, and I have very sadly been struggling significantly with depression. I did it: I said the 'D' word.

Over the course of the last 10 years, I've struggled on and off which depression, usually triggered by a sudden life change. Those have been abound recently, which has resulting in my spending most of the time that I'm not at work in bed. I haven't been baking unless utterly necessary, which means my kitchen has been getting kind of neglected. I cannot wait to be better, but it's not looking like that's going to be any time soon.

But anyway! Enough of the super dismal talk of mental illness. Back to baking!

So I made the Christmas cake this week, and this time I did things a little differently. I definitely have taken after my Grandma in this department: Mum says Grandma used to try a different recipe for Christmas cake every year, but never wrote them down, so she'd never be able to remember what she'd done.

I decided to go a little less alcoholic than usual: typically, I soak the fruit in basically a whole bottle of sherry. However, this time I soaked it in hot Chai tea that was spiked with a little spiced rum instead (Lidl's knock-off Captain Morgan is a Godsend), inspired by Delia Smith's recipe for Creole fruit cake.

This recipe also takes a little inspiration from the recipe for Christmas cake on the Odlums official website, that used a melted method instead of a creamed method.

FREE FROM
☑ Soya (check for soya lecithin)
☑ Yeast
☑ Wheat

CONTAINS
☒ Dairy (use ingredients in italics for a dairy-free version)
☒ Nuts (use ingredients in italics for a nut-free version)
☒ Eggs

INGREDIMENTS
Makes one 8 inch (20 centimetre) round cake

For the fruit, the night before:

• 12 ounces (340 grammes) mixed dried fruit of your choice: currants, raisins, sultanas, candied peel, glacé cherries (rinsed thoroughly and chopped), prunes (chopped, etc.
• 4 ounces (115 grammes) ground almonds
• 8 fluid ounces (240 millilitres) hot tea: Chai or Assam work best
• One shot (42 millilitres) spiced rum or whiskey
• 2 tablespoons (30 millilitres) brown sugar

For the cake mixture:

• 6 ounces (170 grammes) plain white spelt flour
• 2 teaspoons (10 millilitres) mixed spice (or, if you want to be adventurous and make your own: 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon, half a teaspoon of ground ginger, a quarter teaspoon of ground coriander, and two pinches of ground cloves)
• 6 ounces (170 grammes) light brown sugar
• 6 ounces (170 grammes) butter or margarine, cut into pieces
• 3 medium eggs
• Grated zest of half a lemon
• Grated zest and juice of half an orange

HOW-TO

• In a large glass mixing bowl, put the dired fruit, ground almonds, brown sugar, hot tea, and whiskey. Cover with a tea towel and allow to soak overnight.
• The next day, prepare your cake tin. Grease and flour the inside, and then line the bottom and sides with baking paper. Preheat the oven to Preheat your oven to 150°C (300°F, Gas Mk.2, or moderately cool) and set the rack in the centre of the oven with plenty of room to spare from the rack 
• In a saucepan, heat the remaining sugar, butter, lemon zest, and orange juice and zest. Melt over a medium-low heat until all the sugar and butter have melted together. Bring to the boil and cook for about 1 minute.
• Pour the melted mixture onto the soaked fruit and mix well. Allow to cool to a touchable heat.
• Once cool, beat in the eggs, one at a time, alternating with a tablespoon of flour. 
• Sieve in the remaining flour with the spices, and mix well with a wooden spoon or spatula.
• Pour the mixture into the prepared tin, and cook for at least 1½ hours before testing with a wooden cocktail stick. If there is still mixture stuck to the stick, cook for another 15 minutes. In total, the cake could take up 2 to 2½ hours to cook.
• Once cooked, remove from the oven and cool in the tin on a wire rack. Don't turn out of the tin until it is fully cool.

To store, wrap in greaseproof paper and either foil or clingfilm until decorating. I recommend covering with marzipan and icing about 3 days before Christmas.

Christmas Cake 2014!

Like I do every year, I started making the Christmas cakes in September as is tradition. I macerated the fruit for a week, then began the mass production of wheat and dairy free cakes. I made 4 successful cakes in total, but I messed up the first one by accidentally mixing baking powder into the flour by force of habit; that one we're eating as a tea brack.

I've always loved Christmas cake, and this year it's just as delicious as ever. I did, however, subsidise some of the sherry with cold strong tea to make it go further, as I was macerating 4 pounds (2 kilogrammes) of fruit in one go to make a load of cakes.

They have gone into storage, wrapped in cling film then tin foil, to mature until December when I will cover them all in marzipan and icing.

Here is the recipe for the cakes, it's a slightly modified version of last year's one (not much, just a little)

FREE FROM
☑ Soya (check for soya lecithin)
☑ Yeast
☑ Wheat

CONTAINS
☒ Alcohol (use ingredients in italics for an alcohol-free version)
☒ Nuts (use ingredients in italics for a nut-free version)

INGREDIMENTS
Makes 1 8 inch (20 centimetre) round cake

For the fruit preserve:

• 4 ounces (115 grammes) dried currants
• 4 ounces (115 grammes) raisins
• 3 ounces (85 grammes) sultanas
• 3 ounces (85 grammes) glacé cherries
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) candied mixed citrus peel
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) slivered almonds
• For a nut free version, simply replace that ounce (30 grammes) of almonds with another fruit of some sort.
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) brown sugar
• 1¾ fluid ounces (50 millilitres) rum, spiced or plain
• 5 fluid ounces (150 millilitres) dry sherry
• For an alcohol free version, just use 7 fluid ounces (200 millilitres) cold strong tea instead of the rum and sherry.

For the cake mixture

• 4 ounces (85 grammes) butter or block margarine
• 4 ounces (85 grammes) soft brown sugar
• 2 medium eggs
• 4 ounces (115 grammes) white spelt flour or gluten-free flour mix
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) ground almonds
• For a nut free version, just replace this with an ounce (30 grammes) of cornflour
• 2 teaspoons ground mixed spice
• Pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence or almond essence

HOW-TO

First mix all the fruit preserve ingredients together in a glass or ceramic bowl. Mix thoroughly, and leave somewhere cool (but not in the fridge) for a week before preparing the cake, stirring daily. For best results, the cake should be made at least a month before serving, so by extension the fruit mixture should be prepared about a month and a half in advance.

When the fruit has soaked:

• Prepare your cake tin. Grease and flour the inside, and then double line the bottom and sides with baking paper. Preheat the oven to Preheat your oven to 150°C (300°F, Gas Mk.2, or moderately cool) and set the rack in the centre of the oven with plenty of room to spare from the rack above it.
• In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until light and creamy with a wooden spoon or electric hand mixer.
• Beat in the eggs, one at a time, until fully incorporated. Add the vanilla or almond essence, and then the ground almonds.
• Sieve in the flour, spice and salt and mix in until the flour has just disappeared.
• Add the fruit preparation and combine thoroughly.
• Pour the cake mixture into the tin and bake for 1½ hours.
• Start checking for doneness after about an hour and a quarter. The cake is baked when a skewer inserted into the thickest part - usually the middle - comes out completely clean. If it isn't, continue cooking but don't cook for more than 1½ hours in total; it'll be dry and chewy.
• Once cooked, allow to cool completely in the tin before taking out and transferring to a wire rack.

THIS TIME LAST YEAR: Free-From Gingerbread Men

The Grand Christmas Cake Creation of 2013 Starts (plus Wheat-free Fruit Cake Recipe - Part 2)

And I'm back with part two of the Christmas cake creation! Click here for part one where I made the fruit preparation.

So, my fruit has been marinating/macerating/steeping/lacing/whatever for about a week now, and it has drunk up all the lovely alcohol and sugar. It's proper nice, I can tell you that for nothing! The smell of the sherry, rum and fruit together is just magical!

Now the time has come to mix the fruit with the cake mixture. The cake is a standard creamed sponge cake, known as a Victoria sponge or pound cake, and mixed in equal parts with the fruit preparation. You should have a pound in weight (450 grammes) each of cake mix and fruit mix, which are then combined and baked. My first cake of the year came out very nicely!

The cake mixture is as follows.

FREE FROM
☑ Soya (check for soya lecithin)
☑ Yeast
☑ Wheat

CONTAINS
☒ Dairy (use ingredients in italics for a dairy-free version)
☒ Nuts (use ingredients in italics for a nut-free version)
☒ Eggs

INGREDIMENTS
Makes one 8 inch (20 centimetre) round cake

For the cake mixture

• 3 ounces (85 grammes) butter or block margarine
• 3 ounces (85 grammes) soft brown sugar
• 3 medium eggs
• 4 ounces (115 grammes) white spelt flour or gluten-free flour mix
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) ground almonds
• For a nut free version, just replace this with an extra ounce of flour
• 2 teaspoons ground mixed spice
• Pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence or almond essence
• 1 pound (450 grammes) of fruit preparation

HOW-TO

• Prepare your cake tin. Grease and flour the inside, and then double line the bottom and sides with baking paper. Preheat the oven to Preheat your oven to 160°C (320°F, Gas Mk.2½, or moderately cool) and set the rack in the centre of the oven with plenty of room to spare from the rack above it.
• In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until light and creamy with a wooden spoon or electric hand mixer.
• Beat in the eggs, one at a time, until fully incorporated. Add the vanilla or almond essence, and then the ground almonds.
• Sieve in the flour, spice and salt and mix in until the flour has just disappeared.
• Add the fruit preparation and combine thoroughly.
• Pour the cake mixture into the tin and bake for 1½ hours. Half way through cooking, reduce the oven temperature to 150°C (300°F, Gas Mk.2, or moderately cool).
• Start checking for doneness after about an hour and a quarter. The cake is baked when a skewer inserted into the thickest part - usually the middle - comes out completely clean. If it isn't, continue cooking but don't cook for more than 1½ hours in total; it'll be dry and chewy.
• Once cooked, allow to cool completely in the tin before taking out and transferring to a wire rack.

This of course is covered with marzipan and icing, but that's for closer to the time... be patient...

The Grand Christmas Cake Creation of 2013 Starts (plus Wheat-free Fruit Cake Recipe - Part 1)

To skip the inane ramblings, scroll to the bottom for the recipe

Today is the day where I begin making the Christmas cakes! I love this time of year: I love autumn and winter more than any other season, as we have warm, comforting dinners, long evenings and Halloween. I get so excited when August happens (as here in Ireland, autumn starts in August) and my excitement grows as the autumn months turn into winter months. I feel at my most creative and productive during this time of year...

And yes, I know it's September and that we shouldn't even be thinking of Christmas yet, but I'm all in favour of forward thinking, especially when cake is involved. But mainly, I'm starting on the Christmas cake now because it's the way it's done traditionally.

So let's get traditional up in this:

A Christmas cake should be a rich fruit cake, which is a cake that has a 50% weight of dried fruit, ie. once you make up your cake mixture you mix in the same weight of prepared dried fruit. Any less of percentage fruit is seen as light fruit cake which, due to its higher amount of cake versus fruit, can't be preserved as easily or for as long. This rich fruit cake is made months in advance using the dried and preserved summer and autumn fruits.

After the cake is baked slowly for a long time it can be fed, which is where the baker of the cake sprinkles it with an alcoholic spirit or fortified wine, such as sherry, once a week until it needs to be decorated. This was devised as a preservation technique, back when folk didn't have airtight containers or fridges, as the sugar an alcohol in the cake would make it inhospitable to mould and bacteria, allowing it to keep for longer. Using a fruit cake makes traditional decoration - with marzipan and royal icing - easier, as it won't go stale as you allow the marzipan and layers of royal icing to dry over a few days.

Making a rich fruit cake more preservable wasn't just for Christmas, but also for wedding cakes: back in the day, the small top tier of the couple's wedding cake would be kept until for the baptism of their first child, which back then would've usually been within a year of marriage. Of course, once upon a time, these kinds of cakes were just for the wealthy.

But nowadays we live in a different world. Access to butter and dried fruits and berries is easier (you can just nip down to Tesco), and the more traditional and natural methods of preservation are no longer necessary. In fact, if you freeze a rich fruit cake, after wrapping it in foil and greaseproof paper, it can be kept for up to three years, which is good news for nowadays couples who leave the babies until a few years after marriage, if at all. However, people still do it the traditional way just out of taste: people like booze.

Now, out of moral choice, I don't drink alcohol, and I also try to avoid desserts made with or including alcohol. As such, I don't feed the cake with alcohol over the months, but making it ahead of time allows the flavours in the cake to develop and mature, making for a way tastier cake when you cut it open on December twenty-fifth. As for preservation, I just keep it in an airtight box, and any left over is frozen.

So, how do I make the cake?

The way I make Christmas cake has been commented on as being 'bizarre' or 'unconventional', because I make a whole pile of fruit preparation in one go... in a bucket.

Yes, into a plastic bucket I throw a pound each (450 grammes) of currants and raisins, half a pound each (225 grammes) of prunes, glacé cherries and sultanas, and quarter pound each (115 grammes) of mixed peel and slivered almonds. This amounts to exactly 4 pounds (1.8 kilogrammes) of dried fruit, however when I do it there's probably more: if there's any little bits of leftovers in the packets, I just throw them in too... no point them languishing in the back of my cupboard forever. To the fruit I add 4 ounces (115 grammes) of brown sugar and 1 bottle (70 centilitres) of dry sherry and a miniature bottle (5 centilitres) of rum, and the alcohol will cook off during the cake's stint in the oven. This sits and soaks for a week, stirring daily.

This is a ridiculous quantity of fruit, I know, but I mass produce Christmas cakes because I give them away - fully decorated - as gifts for families. Last year I made six cakes, and all bar one got a home (as for the one that didn't, it was supposed to go to my boyfriend's family, but our relationship didn't make it to Christmas).

But enough theory, onto practise! This is how to make enough fruit preparation for 1 8 inch (20 centimetre) round cake.

FREE FROM
☑ Soya (check for soya lecithin)
☑ Yeast
☑ Wheat

CONTAINS
☒ Alcohol (use ingredients in italics for an alcohol-free version)
☒ Nuts (use ingredients in italics for a nut-free version)

INGREDIMENTS
Makes 1 8 inch (20 centimetre) round cake

For the fruit preserve:

• 4 ounces (115 grammes) dried currants
• 4 ounces (115 grammes) raisins
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) sultanas
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) glacé cherries
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) candied mixed citrus peel
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) slivered almonds
• For a nut free version, simply replace that ounce (30 grammes) of almonds with another fruit of some sort.
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) brown sugar
• 1¾ fluid ounces (50 millilitres) rum, spiced or plain
• 5 fluid ounces (150 millilitres) cheap sherry
• For an alcohol free version, just use 7 fluid ounces (200 millilitres) cold strong tea instead of the rum and sherry.

HOW-TO

First mix all the fruit preserve ingredients together in a glass or ceramic bowl. Mix thoroughly, and leave somewhere cool (but not in the fridge) for a week before preparing the cake, stirring daily. For best results, the cake should be made at least a month before serving, so by extension the fruit mixture should be prepared about a month and a half in advance.

Stay tuned for part two next week where I assemble the cake, using cake mixture and this fruit preparation!