Christmas cake

Use real butter and very fresh eggs.

Make sure to feed the cake every couple of weeks with alcohol of some kind. Makes for a nice moist cake.

Yes as Grandmadinosaur says feed your cake. I've not made a cake for a few years but I always did this.

I never buy or make Christmas Cake. I am the only one in the Family that likes/loves it. Consequently previous years I have actually, between Christmas and the first week of January eaten an entire cake, so now don't have it in the house. I occasionally will buy a slice to eat with a coffee in a cafe but try to avoid it. It's like a drug!

I agree with you there notgran I’ve sliced it up and frozen mine previously. Saying that though it still seems to be calling me from the freezer!

Yes, soaking the fruit really helps. It plumps the fruit up and adds flavour. Also, following a good recipe, eg Delia Smith, Mary Berry, Good Housekeeping are examples. Use fresh ingredients.
Give it time to mature - so making it now is definitely a good idea, then feed it with extra booze (brandy, whisky etc - whatever you prefer) every week until Christmas.
Wrap well in grease proof paper and foil and store in an airtight container.
If you follow these instructions, it will be delicious.

Lots of good tips here; definitely soak the fruit, line the tin well so as to avoid burning around the sides, definitely use real butter, add a little brandy (or other alcohol) and feed it every couple of weeks. However don’t overfeed it as I made mine too sticky by doing that one year.
I haven’t made one this year as we’re going to New Zealand for several weeks over Christmas and it’s too heavy to take with us.

I’ve done mine and sadly it’s got * me anxious as I know I messed up the weights and have far too much fruit in it 🤷‍♀️
It’s cooked up okay but not certain it will taste so good.

dogsmother - you can't* have ^too much fruit!
Mine is all fruit - basically glued together with butter, eggs and a little flour.

It is delicious.

Cherylg, my advice is to double check your fruit for stray stalks and to give it all a wash. This will rinse off any grit/dirt and also some of the oil which is generally coating the dried fruit these days.

I use the best butter, the best fruit and the best eggs I can.
Unlike others I don't soak the fruit in alcohol - all my alcohol goes in after cooking. It is never dry - maybe that's all the butter in it!
Mine bake very slowly. 6 hours or more (depending on size). The recipe I use makes a lot of cake.

I would head straight for M & S.

Thanks notspaghetti. I do make one every year and cheat on the fruit, as I don’t like peel. But this for sure I’ve over compensated.

Must cost a fortune to make a Christmas cake these day?

Eat it with cheese.
My mother-in-law put cherry brandy in hers and it was and still is, the best Christmas cake I’ve ever tasted.

Watched a James Martin Christmas show the other night, an old one. He made a Christmas wreath cake using a Bundt tin.

I haven’t got one of those, but liked the look of his cake, he said it was a lighter version.

Would it be ok in a normal tin? I wouldn’t put the icing or the fancy fruits in the top, just leave it as a plain fruit cake.

I make sure not to over cook mine so keep testing with a fine skewer. I can’t bear dry cake where the fruit is a bit burnt and bitter!

I make one every year using my mother in law’s old Philip Harben (remember him?). I don’t like alcohol (yes I know very sad) so, after rinsing fruit and picking it over, I soak it overnight in tea (only just a little tea not lots!) then DH doses it a little at a time with alcohol after baking. He overdid it one year-it was like alcoholic bread pudding and I couldn’t eat it. We’re very controlled (!) eating it and it usually lasts well into spring

I have used a Delia recipe for years, but added my one twists over time.

Always the soak fruit on booze leave for about a week, agree Butter and fresh eggs and I "dress" it with Nuts not icing as no one in my family likes it.

I used this recipe for the bottom layer of my my daughters wedding cake, it also was the same recipe for her Christening cake.

I always make mine. My Grandmothers recipe. Never put any booze in it we like to taste the fruit, but make it a day before I bake it to allow the fruit to swell. It never hangs about.
Certainly cheaper than a similar size and decorated bought cake.

My mum wants to make her own Christmas cake this year. She’s 91 with memory problems so I’m going to help. The problem is she’s insisting on using the eggs that she already has, these eggs are already 3 weeks out of date ! Will the cake be edible and how long would it be safe to eat it ? Any ideas gratefully received.

How about cooking a Christmas cake at home and quietly swapping hers for yours. I would not fancy a cake made with out of date eggs

Katyj

Can you take some fresh eggs with you when you are going to make the cake, and ‘swap’ them for Mum’s without her seeing?

And take the old ones home with you. I would then break them into a bowl, check they look and smell ok, and use them for something else.

If they are watery and obviously past best, discard.

Eggs keep quite a while, IMHO.

I don’t fancy the cake either Dotty. Think swapping the eggs might work, she’s very slow with poor eyesight, but she’s not daft I’ll have to be quick 🤣

LOUISA1523

Must cost a fortune to make a Christmas cake these day?

A lot depends on whether you normally bake, what you bake and what sort of cake you want to make. If you're buying everything from scratch to make a rich fruit cake (and don't use everything you buy), then yes, it can be expensive. We usually have flour, butter, some sort of fruit and nuts and spices in the house so we just need to add to it. And we use up all the leftover spices and fruit for other things so the expense is spread out over months. We have the booze sitting around too, as people buy it as gifts but we don't drink so it all goes in cooking and baking eventually.

Newquay

I make one every year using my mother in law’s old Philip Harben (remember him?). I don’t like alcohol (yes I know very sad) so, after rinsing fruit and picking it over, I soak it overnight in tea (only just a little tea not lots!) then DH doses it a little at a time with alcohol after baking. He overdid it one year-it was like alcoholic bread pudding and I couldn’t eat it. We’re very controlled (!) eating it and it usually lasts well into spring

Although I do like booze, I don’t like boozy cakes, so I’d soak the fruit in tea, too - it works very well for Barm Brack, which I make occasionally.