The sight of a Christmas Cake always brings back childhood memories of us children all sitting together and helping our mother chop dried fruit - which was carefully hidden from us ‘gluttons’ till then. We would take turns mixing the batter, sifting the flour, beating the eggs (painstakingly with a fork in those pre-blender days) and lining the cake tins with brown paper. Then, once the lot had made it to the oven, we would get to lick the bowl clean. The smell of the baking cake would slow fill the whole house. Later, with Christmas Carols playing in the background, we would start decorating the Christmas Tree.
Here is the recipe of a Christmas Cake that I have been making for 2 decades. The results have always been good. A traditional Christmas Cake is a rich plum cake, and it tastes best if the fruit is soaked for 4-6 weeks – to impart the perfect flavour, as well as to ensure that the Cake stays fresh for several months. The quantities given in this Recipe make 3 cakes weighing about 1.25kgs each.
Stage 1 - Soaking the Fruit:
Ideally start this step 4-6 weeks before the baking. If soaked for just 4-5 days, the cake should not be made in a very large quantity, as it would not have the same flavour and may not stay fresh for more than a few weeks.
Fruit ingredients:
Candied peels 175gms
Glace cherries 175gms
Sultanas 500gms
Black Currants 500gms
Raisins 350gms
Almonds/Cashewnuts 125gms
Total 1825gms
(you can alter the quantities and proportions depending on the fruit you have, as long as you keep the total quantity the same; of course variety also helps add colour and texture).
Wash, clean and immediately dry the fruit (unless using imported pre-cleaned fruit). Do not soak the fruit in water when washing, but rinse and remove immediately, drying it on a clean cloth, mopping up excess water as fast as possible, and then thoroughly drying it in the sun. If the fruit is not absolutely dry, your cake is likely to spoil or catch fungus. Specific to the almonds, wash them well, then boil them till the skins are loose, remove the skins and dry out the nuts completely. Then chop into small pieces. All fruit must be chopped into small pieces. Unchopped fruit, especially if the raisins or sultanas are large, will cause the cake to break when it is cut - I sadly found out the hard way. Soak the chopped fruit in around 300ml of rum, brandy or whisky (or upto 500ml if you prefer a really rummy cake!) in an airtight jar; and then keep it in a cool dry place away from the sun. Shake it daily, to ensure the even distribution of flavours.
Stage 2 - Mixing and Baking:
Ingredients:
Flour 500gms
Eggs (beaten stiff) 10
Butter 500gms
Soft brown sugar 500gms
Orange rinds (grated) 2tsp
Lemon rind s(grated) 2tsp
Black treacle 2tbsp
Salt ¾ tsp
Mixed spices 1tsp
Grated nutmeg 1tsp
Coffee paste 2tbsp
Rum/Brandy/Whisky 4-6tbsp (not required if the fruit mix has enough)
Sift the flour. Separate the egg whites from the yolks, and beat the egg whites stiff – till they resemble little mountain peaks. Beat the yolks well too, and then keep aside. In a large bowl, coat the soaked fruit with a tablespoon of the sifted flour (this prevents it from sinking to the bottom once you add in the fruit later). In a separate large bowl, cream together the sugar and butter (which must be soft, so ensure it is at room temperature) till it is light and fluffy. Then beat in the grated orange, lemon rind and black treacle and mix well. Black treacle imparts both flavour and the dark colour. Beating with a wooden spoon, gradually add the beaten eggs a little at a time, with a sprinkling of flour at each stage - to stop the mixture from curdling. Then stir in the yolk mixture, the remaining flour sifted with salt and spices, and the coffee paste (also for colour). Lastly, stir in the soaked fruit a little at a time, till the mixture is of a uniform consistency and colour. Add enough rum to make a batter that will drop easily when shaken from the spoon (not required if you have already used enough rum in the fruit soaking and the batter feels ‘consistent’). A word about this cake batter: it is quite heavy compared to a normal cake batter, so it is not recommended to use a hand-mixer, which may burn out (again, lesson learnt the hard way!). A good tip is to rope in male family members for the stirring. Our cake is made only on the day that my husband is free! The mixing process takes upto 45 minutes, before you have the batter ready. Now, preheat your oven to 170C/325F/Mark3. Turn the batter into the baking tins (you will need 3 or 4, depending on the size of your tins), which have been well lined with greaseproof paper (or brown paper smeared with butter, or even the wrapping of your butter). It is a good idea to have cut the paper to fit the tins before you begin the mixing, to speed up things at this stage. The deeper the tin, the longer it will take to bake, but the better the cake will turn out - as against a tin with little depth, which may tend to dry out faster. Bake at 170C/325F/Mark3 (about 50-60 minutes). The Cake is done when a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Test this only once the cake has risen, is giving off a lovely smell, and has a brown colour – as opening the oven unnecessarily must be avoided. Authentic Plum Cake baking is done by repeatedly reducing the heat every 30 minutes, from a starting heat as mentioned above to 150/300F/Mark2, and then to 140C/275F/Mark1. In case the entire lot is baked as one cake, a 5” deep baking tray is required, and it needs close to 4-5 hours of baking. I prefer baking 3-4 smaller cakes, for about an hour.
Finally, cool the cake for about 2 hours, then carefully shake it out of the tin and allow it to cool completely. Once cooled, wrap it well in cling film and place in an airtight container. The Cake that you plan to cut immediately can be kept out at room temperature, and the others that you wish to store must be put into airtight containers and placed in the refrigerator - where they can stay for upto one year! Wish you good luck, & may the Christmas spirit bless your home.
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