Christmas cake Recipe

Make Christmas cake, On 25th December We all celebrate with some tasty,delicious cake, here the recipe of Christmas Cake. Bake this festive fruit cake in advance of Christmas and feed it regularly with rum, brandy or whisky to build the flavour and keep it moist.

Ingredients
1kg mixed dried fruit (use a mix of raisins, sultanas, currants, cherries, cranberries, prunes or figs)
zest and juice 1 orange
Orange

zest and juice 1 lemon
Lemon

150ml brandy
Brandy

, Sherry, whisky or rum, plus extra for feeding
250g pack butter
Butter

, softened
200g light soft brown sugar
175g plain flour
100g ground almond
½ tsp baking powder
Baking powder

2 tsp mixed spice
1 tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp ground cloves
100g flaked almond
4 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract

Method

1. Put the dried fruit, zests and juice, alcohol, butter and sugar in a large pan set over a medium heat. Bring to the boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 5 mins. Tip the fruit mixture into a large bowl and leave to cool for 30 mins.
2. Heat oven to 150C/130C fan/gas 2. Line a deep 20cm cake tin with a double layer of baking parchment, then wrap a double layer of newspaper around the outside – tie with string to secure.
3. Add the remaining ingredients to the fruit mixture and stir well, making sure there are no pockets of flour. Tip into your prepared tin, level the top with a spatula and bake in the centre of the oven for 2 hrs.
4. Remove the cake from the oven, poke holes in it with a skewer and spoon over 2 tbsp of your chosen alcohol. Leave the cake to cool completely in the tin.
5. To store, peel off the baking parchment, then wrap well in cling film. Feed the cake with 1-2 tbsp alcohol every fortnight, until you ice it. Don’t feed the cake for the final week to give the surface a chance to dry before icing.