My time-honored Christmas Cake
It’s that time of the year! If you could smell my house right now… Cinnamon, cloves and cake!I uploaded my favorite and foolproof Christmas cake recipe, for you to try. It’s loaded with walnuts, citrus peel and booze!
Ingredients
- 220 grams mixed spoon sweets, chopped
- 240 grams raisins
- 90 grams glazed cherries
- 100 grams dried citrus peels, mixed peel
- 125 ml sherry or dark rum
- 250 grams unsalted butter, soft
- 200 grams brown sugar
- 1 sachet of vanilla sugar
- 1 Tbsp of orange zest
- 3 large eggs
- 320 grams all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp of baking powder
- ¼ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- ¼ tsp ground cloves
- 360 grams walnuts very coarsely chopped
To cover
- 2 Tbsp of apricot jam
- 1 kg almond paste
- 1 ½ - 2 kg sugar paste
Instructions
- Put the spoon sweets, raisins, cherries, dried citrus peels and sherry or rum into a glass container with a lid. Close and rotate to wet all the ingredients. Marinate for 24 hours, shaking occasionally.
- Butter and cover the base and sides of a 20 cm pan (the deeper the better) with non-stick paper. Preheat the oven to 175°C, fan.
- Cream the butter with the sugar, vanilla and zest until fluffy and white. Add the eggs one by one, beating for 1 minute after each addition.
- Sift the flour with the baking powder, soda, salt, cinnamon and ground cloves. Add the flour to the butter mixture and beat on low speed. Mix in the nuts and the sweets with their juices.
- Transfer the mixture to the pan. Bake for 1 hour. Cover the cake loosely with foil and bake for another 45 minutes, lowering the temperature to 160°C, fan.
- Let the cake cool completely in its pan. After 24 hours, remove it from the pan and with a pastry brush, brush all over with sherry, rum or cognac. Wrap with non-stick paper and then with foil. Repeat the procedure 2-3 times a week for 1-3 weeks.
- To coat the cake, turn it upside down on a serving platter. Cover the holes with marzipan. Spread the surface of the cake with jam. Roll out the almond paste and cover the cake. Wet lightly the cake with water using a pastry brush. Roll out the sugar paste cover the cake again. Decorate to taste.
- Happy holidays