Serves: n/a
Approx cost: n/a
Approx calories (per serving): n/a
Approx preparation and cooking time: ~1 week preparation, ~3 hours cooking time
[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #0B0B61;”]Ho ho ho, I hope you’re all getting into the Christmas spirit. Well, of course not everyone celebrates Christmas so for those of you who don’t then I hope you’re having an awesome December. For those who do however, today’s post is going to be all about cake. An English Christmas Cake to be more accurate,to signify the beginning of my run-down to Christmas. I’m posting this quite late, but I had to finish it off myself. You’ll need to allow about 7-10 days to make this before you intend to eat it. Why, you ask? Because during these days you’ll be glugging brandy over the cake every couple of days to get the fruit inside really plump and moist. If you decide to make an alcohol free version then you can easily make it the day before and eat immediately, though bear in mind that it will not keep fresh so long. I’m going to write up my “version” of the recipe below. I haven’t changed much – Delia Smith is a real British institution so I wouldn’t mess with perfection too much, however, her cake was much too big for my needs, and I also did a bit of fiddling with the ingredients. The result is a very manageable cake which is perfect for a family who just want to have one or two slices of cake themselves and maybe share some with their close friends, instead of having this vast slab of cake sitting in a tin until February 😉
I haven’t hidden the fact that I’m really not a big fan of English Christmas Cakes. English celebratory cakes in general are devoid of any kind of “fun”. No matter what the occasion is – Weddings, Easter, Christmas – we’ll eat a giant, heavy, sweet fruit cake, steeped in alcohol. It all gets a bit much sometimes. I guess the Brits really love dried fruit… just look at our Christmas pudding as well. It’s kind of like a Christmas Cake, but steamed… and people eat both in the same day! That said however, I’ve never made my own Christmas Cake before and this year I’m so happy I did – it was a very rewarding experience. I’ve made hundreds of cakes before, but nothing felt quite so significant as this one – plus making it really put me in the mood for Christmas too!
The recipe list is as long as your arm, and it’s not the cheapest of recipes (although if you shopped smart you could probably get a few good deals on the ingredients). Not only that but it requires no small amount of preparation time but if you’ve never tried it before I think it’s totally worth it! In other news, I’ll be posting more festive recipes in the run-up to Christmas so stay tuned for those. Enjoy the cake everyone and have a great day!
Ingredients
For the cake
- 220g Currants (if you don’t have this quantity of currants make up the difference using raisins and sultanas)
- 80g Sultanas
- 80g Raisins
- 20g Candied Lemon and Orange Peel
- 30g Candied Cherries
- 4 tbsps Brandy + ~8 tbsps for later “feeding”
- 120g Plain Flour
- 1 tsp Nutmeg
- 1 tsp Cinnamon
- 120g Butter
- 120g Brown Sugar (ideally dark brown muscovado. If unavailable use demerara)
- 2 Eggs
- 20g Whole Almonds, chopped
- Grated zest from 1 Lemon
- Grated zest from 1 Orange
- 1 tbsp Black Treacle (Molasses)
For the icing
- ~250g Marzipan
- ~ 400g Icing Sugar + extra for dusting
- 2 Egg Whites
- 3-4 tbsps Apricot Jam
- 1 tbsp Lemon Juice
Instructions
Step 1 to be done 24 hours in advance
- 24 hours in advance, place all the fruit (currants, sultanas, raisins, candied cherries) and peel (candied lemon and orange peel) in a bowl and pour in the 4 tbsps of Brandy. Mix well and cover with a clean cloth, before setting aside somewhere cool and dry.
- The next day start by pre-heating the oven to 140 degrees Celsius then mix the butter and sugar together. Once it is well blended, beat in the eggs and then finally mix in the flour, nutmeg and cinnamon to form a thick batter.
- Transfer the batter into the bowl which contains the fruit. Add in the chopped almonds, orange and lemon zest and black treacle (molasses) and mix well until the everything is well blended.
- Grease and flour an appropriately sized tin. You can use any style of tin, though I find a loaf is best. I used a tin 21cm long, 11cm wide and 7cm deep – the cake does not rise much so do not worry if it only just comes above he mixture. Transfer the cake mixture into the tin and smooth out to fill the tin evenly.
- Place into the oven for about 3 – 3.5 hours until a rich golden colour. Be sure not to undercook it. I think I left my cake in the oven for about 3 hours, though because the size is smaller than the original recipe (which recommends 4 hours) you may need to try and adapt depending on your oven. The cake will be very dense and compact – this is normal. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin for about 30 minutes, before removing it and placing it on a rack. When completely cooled, stick the cake all over with a skewer to create small holes. “Feed” the cake by pouring over one or two tablespoons of the extra brandy. Wrap the cake in baking paper and then wrap again with tin-foil. Store the cake somewhere safe where there are no temperature extremes and remove from its wrapping every 2 or 3 days to “feed” again, with more brandy. You can continue like this for some time – indeed, some people making their Christmas cakes 4 or more weeks in advance of Christmas – or you can just feed it once. The choice is entirely up to you, though for best results, try to maximise the feeding.
- When you ready to finish up the cake start by spreading 3-4 tbsps of Apricot jam over the cake surface (this is so the marzipan adheres properly!) and then dust a surface with icing sugar. Roll out the marzipan to a thickness of about 4mm – 6mm and drape over the cake so all sides are covered (if you made a round cake you may find it easier to ice only the top!). Press gently onto the cake, trimming away the bottoms and sealing the corners. Don’t worry if you tear it at all – this will be covered again in the next step.
- Next, add the egg whites and lemon juice to a large bowl and whisk until combined and starting to froth. Add in the icing sugar and continue to whisk until you get a quite a stiff consistency. If you cannot reach this texture, add a bit more sugar.
- Apply to the cake and allow to set before serving. Will keep for a *very* long time, many weeks usually. Personally I don’t eat the icing usually – maybe a scrap or two, but it’s not really my thing! Enjoy 🙂
Beautiful looking cake that. Honestly, I love looking at fruitcakes (I mean the real cakes, not people) but I've always only managed to eat a slice or even half a slice, and that's without the marzipan and icing even! I love the aroma of the fruits and the brandy, just sniffing them is enough …. fruitcake sniffing, is that a crime these days? This is a good sized cake for folks like me.
Thanks Ping – I had to chuckle at your comment 😀 I totally agree… looking and sniffing at them… it's a real experience, but my goodness they're SO rich. I find it hard to eat much! I heard that some people like to eat them it with a mild, white we have in England, called "Wensleydale". I tried it once and actually it's a pretty nice combination!
Wensleydale, eh? Ok, will give that a go if I can get my hands on it. Maybe I can get my brother inlaw to bring some when he next visits. Thanks for the suggestion. You might make a convert out of me yet 😀
Oh, I have just seen your discussion (sorry for interrupting). I have actually tasted Wensleydale cheese once! It was very good. (I have bought it in a British grocery shop in France). I would have never thought of serving it with a Christmas cake!
Psst, SIssi, the English are a little odd. 😉
But in this case, I believe it'll work. I really need to get my hands on this cheese or perhaps a substitute … any suggestions, Charles?
Hi Ping – yeah, Wensleydale cheese, or another one called "Cheshire" cheese work really well with Christmas cake. As A_Boleyn mentioned, if you can find White Stilton that also works well. If you lived in France, you could have it shipped to you from England from a British online store but since you don't you'll probably need to try and fine a good cheese vendor!
My local cheese merchant has this, I believe. In fact, aren't there several different versions/fruits that may be included? Or do you mean a more savoury, blue cheese version?
Hi A_Boleyn… it sounds like you're thinking of white stilton (or maybe a local Canadian variation of the variety, since I never saw White Stilton outside of England). White Stilton isn't as well known as the blue Stilton, and has no "mould" veins running through it, though it's often studded with fruit – apricot, and cranberry are the ones I've seen. It's not too different from Wensleydale, so you could probably try it
Charles, bravo! This really is a magnificent feat.
Like you, I have never been an overzealous fan of English style cake but no matter, accomplishing this kind of grand festive dessert, is really amazing! After all, we’re here to learn and expand our repertoire of possibilities and take some risks, so I think it’s great that you took on this project and shared it with us. And I have to say, your cake looks really beautiful too – covered in a cloak of winter white. My husband, (who likes to pretend his English), loves fruit cake… one day, I will have to be brave and make him one as a surprise. And this one would be a pretty wonderful place to start. Thanks Charles.
Hi Kelly – if you already have enough food planned for Christmas I'd recommend either looking up "Simnel Cake" (for easter) or "Dundee Cake" (no particular occasion) – they're both heavy, rich, dark fruit cakes which I think your husband would love!
Next Christmas I might try making the infamous Christmas pudding and steaming it for 12 hours (omg) – that'll be a fun post 😀
Do you make your Christmas pudding with 'hard sauce'? (at least that's what my father-in-law's English mom called it…) – I've never made it, but I'm told you have to stir the hard sauce (which is quite hard ;0) for ages…good for the arms!
"hard sauce"? Hm, I've never heard it called this, though when my mother made the pudding she would usually make it a week or two in advance and leave it covered in a bowl in a cool place. I think it was "good luck" for everyone in the family to have a turn stirring this and it was indeed very difficult to stir the mixture so I guess it's probably the same thing.
Ah, you know, I didn't realise what hard sauce is until now. Brandy Butter! Yeeeah! Definitely. You can't have Xmas pud without the butter! 😀
I'm not celebrating xmas as such, but I'm still going crazy with the baking..My husband is Brit so since we've got married, I started making this along with the mincepies!!
Here is mine, adopted from Delia Smith + my touch http://multinationalcook.blogspot.com/2010/12/chr….
You don't need to be Christian to adopt this cake. It think it's just a brilliant idea that the whole world should discover!
Hi Nada, thanks for coming by – I just visited your site and saw palmiers on the first page!!! I'm in love already 😀
I loved looking at your cake – it looked so pretty! Do you make your own mincemeat? Are you able to get halal suet, or do you use vegetarian suet? Thanks a lot! I'm going to subscribe to your page now 🙂 Lots of fun things there!
Ah this is the famous icing you talked about! )
The cake looks really great, and I guess tastes even better.
Its interesting how different Russian and English cakes are. I never saw the icing before came to Ireland, we don't do something like that in Russia. Our cakes are covered usually with cream or chocolate or even jelly!
I had to add so much freaking icing sugar before I could get it to firm up! I think I could have even made it more stiff tbh! In my opinion, Russians are doing it right – cakes should be covered with chocolate… humans wear clothes, cakes wear chocolate – it's "natural" 😀
Hehe ) What about cream decorations? Our cakes usually look smth like this http://img-fotki.yandex.ru/get/5502/foretchatte.c…
It's my favourite one, it has some very tasty chocolate on top… Never knew the secret of making it, but I miss it a lot here…
Any idea what the icing is called (in Russian or English)? Looks like a ganache tbh – half/half of cream and chocolate, maybe with some butter added to give it a higher sheen…
Hi Charles! My goodness, I love this fruitcake. Lots of dried fruits and I would love to have a slice of this with a cup of tea. It's very interesting to roll out the marzipan and then cover it with icing. I didn't know if you do that it can last weeks!
Thanks Nami – I rolled the marzipan a little thinly I think – I was worried that it wouldn't cover the cake though 🙁 To be honest – the amount of fructose, from all the dried fruit, and the alcohol, is what conserves the cake the longest. The icing and marzipan is like an extra "protection"! Hope you're having a nice trip in Taiwan! 🙂
Charles, I am so grateful for this English Christmas cake. I have been meaning to make it for so many years and even though I have several British cookery books, somehow I didn't have the courage. And, you know, nothing motivates me more than a friendly blogger's recipe 😉 Especially if it looks so luscious and is accompanied by beautiful and helpful making-of photos. Thank you very much!
(By the way I'm not a fan of icing either, but marzipan + apricot jam layers sound great!)
Hi Sissi, thank you – I hope you can get around to making one. You could even half this recipe again and make a tiny one. The icing – I usually picked it off, but this time I've been eating it all because actually I didn't put it on too thickly. Often when you buy cakes from stores they have half a centimetre of marzipan, half a centimetre of icing… it's too much! This is a nice balance though 🙂
It's no wonder that I have never been a big fan of English Christmas Cakes, I've never had a recipe like this one! I love feeding the cake with brandy. Yum! (in Canada, we call them fruit cakes and they are usually 90% fruit and 10% cake, really too rich to enjoy. My mom used to make one that omitted most of the fruit but contained a good dose of coconut which really lightened up the entire cake. No booze of course (we were too young:-()! Honestly, anything wrapped in marzipan and then icing is likely delicious. I'll take a little espresso with my slice, please!
Hi Eva – I love the idea of substituting some of the fruit for coconut! Perhaps not in a Christmas cake, but maybe I'll try and do something like this when I make a fruit cake next year! I found that since I used demerara sugar, instead of dark brown sugar the flavour was a lot lighter, and the colour too. I'm actually quite enjoying this cake 🙂
It certainly looks delicious and festive too.
This is really impressive Charles! I've never seen how an English Christmas cake is made before now. And guess what? I have a can of that black treacle!!!! I've had no use for it yet, but I might have to put this on our Christmas menu. I think the kids would enjoy the dried fruit especially. 🙂
Thanks Kristy. Maybe make a small one if you try it – In my experience, people who never tried it before often find it quite sickly and too much… although I had a friend who tried it on Saturday and seemed to love it!
A stunning and ambitious endeavour. I even know where I can get the marzipan … no, no, bad A_Boleyn!!! 🙂
Thanks A_Boleyn! This time next year maybe I'll even be brave enough to try making a Christmas Pudding! 😀 Haha 🙂
I caught the tail end of the Christmas episode of the BBC program Victorian Farmhouse where they made a steamed pudding. It looked fascinating especially when they turned out the one made in the copper mold, though the Christmas 'bombe' type steamed pudding was impressive as well. 🙂
I'm looking forward to your effort because I'm sure it will be as professionally made and described in detail as the Christmas cake above.
Beautiful cake, Charles, it looks delicious!!!!!! Just wish I could have a taster right now
Thanks! Surely you're going to be cutting into your own soon though? Or did you not make one this year?
Woah woah woah, this cake looks fabulous. So impressive, and what a wonderful holiday dessert. I'm slowly but surely getting in the Christmas spirit! 😉
Thanks Caroline! After your Thanksgiving treats, I'm looking forward to seeing what sort of things you'll be making for Christmas!
What a great recipe to kick off your Christmas recipes! This is very impressive. And the layers of goodness on top of that soaked cake of jam, marzipan and icing…wow!!
Cheers Linda – I'm slowly working my way through the cake! The good thing is, it takes about a million years to go "bad", so you don't need to rush to scarf it down 🙂
This is really amazing Charles. I am so tired of seeing fruit cakes lol, that I welcome this interesting and delicious looking English Christmas Cake. I also love the frosting. I definitely have to save this recipe :). Thanks for this recipe
Thanks Kay – the frosting was a lot of fun – a perfect bowl of white, like snow 🙂
Great tutorial Charles, enjoyed the step by step and the write up. I'm still not a fan or raisins, but the booze part sounds fun.
Cheers Greg – too bad you're not keen on raisins – I suppose you could always try swapping them out with something like apricots!
Charles, I'm pretty sure the fruit studded cheese I saw was Wensleydale. Like the ones here.
http://www.clawson.co.uk/products/fruit-blends/we…
Though they may also have White Stilton embeded with ginger, I think. I'll have to write down the kinds the next time I go to the market.
Huh – I guess I was away from England too long. I've never seen fruit wensleydale before… seems to be something that happened in the last 10 years or so I guess, but it looks delicious. I bet the cranberry one especially would go well with the cake 🙂
I bought some cranberry Wensleydale (and a piece of Huntsman cheese) at the cheese monger's today. They also had blueberry and some sort of mango version. Will report on the taste as soon as I get a second victi… I mean taste taster, to join me in the great experiment.
Awwww, Charles, what a heart-warming post this is!:) I love the sight and the sound of the good ol' Christmas cake, and how making it has put you into the Christmassy mood;)
Guess that's how the whole tradition of making festive cakes came about, and looking at your cake already makes me want to fast forward to Christmas!!:D
I am celebrating Christmas and I am definitely in the mood already!;)
Thanks so much Christy – I'm looking forward to seeing the type of food you will eat over Christmas 🙂 I'm definitely feeling real festive now!
I'm sensing an alcohol theme here — and I like it!!! I love your detailed instructions and photos. I'll tuck this recipe away for next year.
Hehe, indeed Barb – the longer you keep it, the more alcohol you're going to add. I suppose in theory you might reach a point of "critical mass" where the cake is more brandy than it is cake… haha, that would be pretty funny 😀
This cake is very similar to what we call a fruitcake in the states. I LOVE fruitcake but it has to be a GOOD fruitcake. We don't put icing on them, but some cooks, like my mother, do soak them in brandy for a few days before serving. I really liked my mother's! 🙂 The picture of all of the dried fruit and nuts makes this recipe very appealing to me. Talk about a lot of depth of flavors and textures! Congratulations on making it this year. It obviously was well worth it.
Thanks MJ – I enjoyed it so much (the baking process I mean). The cake – well, I still don't think it's my favourite food in the world, but I appreciate it a little more now that I see the effort involved in it 🙂
This looks SO rich but good, I bet it's the kind of thing you only have a small slice of 😉 It looks like a lot of hard work that paid off! Cheers!
-Jen
Thanks Jen – definitely, you don't want a thick wedge of this… no way 😀 A thin slice, nice cup of tea, it's perfect. Anymore and you begin to start hating yourself :p
I love fruitcake and make one every year. Your recipe sounds so similar to what I make except that I use pecans…it is what I grew up eating. Your Christmas cake looks so festive covered in the marzipan and icing.
Thanks Karen – I love the idea of pecans! Maybe if I make it again next year I'll play about with different nut types and more fruits a lot more! Thanks for the ideas!
Fruitcake is not very popular here. It gets a bad rap because most people have not had a GOOD fruitcake, they've only ever had one of the mass-produced "doorstop" variety! I love a good fruitcake, and this one is a beauty! You did such a lovely job of it, Charles.
Hehe, thanks Jean – I chuckled at your description of "doorstop". Makes me think of many English fruitcakes in general. I'm slowly eating it, although as I said above, you can't eat too much at one time. There's still a lot left, even of this small one, but the good thing is it doesn't go off quickly 😀
I can't say I've ever really tried fruit cake… it kind of scares me. But yours looks great! And things always taste better when you make them yourself 🙂 I'm glad you shared this recipe, along with your holiday cheer!
Haha, what’s so scary about fruit cake, Stefanie? 😀 I have to say, I prefer lighter, more fluffy fruit cakes though!
Hey Charles, Just wanted to tell you that I’d made this the other day for my mum and her friends and nurses at her retirement home and it really was very good! Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to get a pic of it. I was quite fortunate to even get a taste at all! I’d taken it there, had some Christmas lunch with mum, strolled out and it’s almost all gone! I omitted the icing and covered it with sugarpaste and decorated it a little. Forget Christmas, I think I’m going to make one for the new year! AND keep that for myself. Oh, and I’d found some Wensleydale cheese too! Happiness! It’s gonna be a great year ahead 😀
Have a great holiday!
Oh wonderful, thank you so much for letting me know Ping! Did you like the Wensleydale cheese too? I’m really surprised the cake was so popular… I find many of my friends can’t stand it. Obviously you mum/friends and nurses all have excellent taste 😀
I hope you have a wonderful new years 🙂
Oh, sorry, I meant I’d found where I could get Wensleydale but haven’t got around to buying some … yet. When I make the next cake, I definitely will. You know, this would be the first and only CHristmas cake that I really like and I can tell you, with so many English aunts and relatives, I’ve had a great many. Or maybe my tastes have matured … whatever it is, you did it! By jove, you did! 😀
I’m so happy – and indeed, you have better taste than most people I know! So few people seem to like this cake so to find someone who thinks it’s wonderful is a really nice feeling 🙂 Have a wonderful new year!