Christmas Cake
Dec. 12th, 2006 09:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shewhomustI like rich fruit cake, and I like the one I bake best of all, because it is sticky and indigestible and has all the things I like in it. Over a number of years I have perfected a strategy which brings together two recipes: the method and the spicing are based on a recipe from Jane Grigson's English Food, while the sugarless cake mixture is based on "Alli's Cake" from a leaflet of Christmas recipes printed - long ago - on orange paper by the late lamented Maggie's Farm (our local wholefood co-op).
Part of the secret is that the fruit is prepared the day before, and left to stand, becoming plump and moist (and there might be alcohol involved as well). So this post will be written in installments, to give me a single set of notes to refer back to.
Adapted from the Country Christmas Cake recipe from Jane Grigson's English Food, reduced to approximately two-thirds quantities:
Mix it all up in the big bread bowl, and leave it to stand overnight.
And while I was at it, I put 3 or 4 oz of dried apricots to soak, ready for the next stage.
Based on "Alli's Cake" recipe from an old leaflet from Maggie's Farm, quantities increased by half and ingredients modified with reference to Jane Grigson's recipe and personal taste.
There are two sets of ingredients, wet and dry:
Put the apricots and dates in a pan with 6 or 7 fl oz of water, and simmer for 15 minutes or until they reduce to a pulp. Cook off any excess water. Leave to cool.
Meanwhile prepare the dry ingredients, and line a tin with double layers of greaseproof paper. Butter or oil it. Warm oven to mark 3, 325°.
Blend the fruit mixture, add the butter, blend again. Add the eggs one at a time. Mix the resultant gunk into the fruit, and the dry ingredients into that. Then spoon it into the tin (and the good news is that these quantities precisely fill my square tin, which is what I was aiming for) and bake.
ETA (2015) Seriously? "precisely fill" the square tin? As in: fill it to the brim, perhaps. At the point this year where I thought the tin was full enough, I greased a 6-hole muffin tin, spooned a generous spoonful into each hole, and still had more left over to pile into the main tin. Not that I don't enjoy having the little bonus buns to eat straight away: delayed gratification takes you only so far. But next time I may reconsider these quantities, and bake the main cake in a loaf tin (or two).
Alleged timings: 2 hours at mark 3, turn it down to mark 2 (300°) for another hour (the duration of Torchwood, give or take). This - subject to correction when we try to eat it - seemed about right: I gave it maybe 10 or 15 minutes beyond the final hour.
The top of the cake was quite cracked when I took it out of the oven, so I didn't bother with the stabbing it with a skewer bit, and just poured some cognac over it.
Leave it to cool, and next morning remove the greaseproof paper, wrap it in fresh paper and then in foil (or put it in a tin) and mature until ready.
I notice I haven't put any nuts in this cake: was that sheer negligence - did they fall down the gap between the recipes? - or is it a sign that I'm not that bothered about having nuts in my Christmas cake? The plan is to cover it with marzipan and then decorate with nuts, but these plans don't always come to fruition.
Part of the secret is that the fruit is prepared the day before, and left to stand, becoming plump and moist (and there might be alcohol involved as well). So this post will be written in installments, to give me a single set of notes to refer back to.
Adapted from the Country Christmas Cake recipe from Jane Grigson's English Food, reduced to approximately two-thirds quantities:
- 1 lb 6oz mixed dried fruit: the usual raisins, currants, sultanas (for a moment there I thought we hadn't any sultanas...), plus I like chopped prunes, and since I haven't any glacé cherries I tossed in a bag of dried cranberries
- 8 oz chopped candied peel, chopped stem ginger, glacé cherries if you have them or other glacé fruit (I found some dried papaya and used that...)
- or adjust the proportions of these two items to suit your taste
- grated rind and juice of an orange and a lemon
- the rest of the jar of marmalade - not quite 2 tablespoons full
- 6 oz stewed apple
- a little cognac or whatever comes to hand: the recipe says "sweet brown sherry"
Mix it all up in the big bread bowl, and leave it to stand overnight.
And while I was at it, I put 3 or 4 oz of dried apricots to soak, ready for the next stage.
Based on "Alli's Cake" recipe from an old leaflet from Maggie's Farm, quantities increased by half and ingredients modified with reference to Jane Grigson's recipe and personal taste.
There are two sets of ingredients, wet and dry:
- 3 or 4 oz apricots, soaked.
- 6 oz stoned dates
- 5 oz butter
- 4 eggs
- 10 oz plain flour (white, wholemeal or a mixture)
- 2 oz ground almonds
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- spices: 1 teaspoon each ground cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves - or to taste. I used rather less cloves, and added allspice and cardamom
Put the apricots and dates in a pan with 6 or 7 fl oz of water, and simmer for 15 minutes or until they reduce to a pulp. Cook off any excess water. Leave to cool.
Meanwhile prepare the dry ingredients, and line a tin with double layers of greaseproof paper. Butter or oil it. Warm oven to mark 3, 325°.
Blend the fruit mixture, add the butter, blend again. Add the eggs one at a time. Mix the resultant gunk into the fruit, and the dry ingredients into that. Then spoon it into the tin (and the good news is that these quantities precisely fill my square tin, which is what I was aiming for) and bake.
ETA (2015) Seriously? "precisely fill" the square tin? As in: fill it to the brim, perhaps. At the point this year where I thought the tin was full enough, I greased a 6-hole muffin tin, spooned a generous spoonful into each hole, and still had more left over to pile into the main tin. Not that I don't enjoy having the little bonus buns to eat straight away: delayed gratification takes you only so far. But next time I may reconsider these quantities, and bake the main cake in a loaf tin (or two).
Alleged timings: 2 hours at mark 3, turn it down to mark 2 (300°) for another hour (the duration of Torchwood, give or take). This - subject to correction when we try to eat it - seemed about right: I gave it maybe 10 or 15 minutes beyond the final hour.
The top of the cake was quite cracked when I took it out of the oven, so I didn't bother with the stabbing it with a skewer bit, and just poured some cognac over it.
Leave it to cool, and next morning remove the greaseproof paper, wrap it in fresh paper and then in foil (or put it in a tin) and mature until ready.
I notice I haven't put any nuts in this cake: was that sheer negligence - did they fall down the gap between the recipes? - or is it a sign that I'm not that bothered about having nuts in my Christmas cake? The plan is to cover it with marzipan and then decorate with nuts, but these plans don't always come to fruition.
