When Should I Start My Christmas Cake?
This could very well be a question on many people’s lips. You want to get a delicious Christmas cake just right in time, but surely now seems too early to start making it?!
The answer to that one is in fact no! Some say you should make your Christmas cake 6 weeks before eating, but the advice given on Nigella.com is that 12 weeks before is the optimum time to get baking.
Your Christmas cake should be fed every 4 to 6 weeks but in the meantime, after baking, it should be stored away in a secure, air tight container. To keep the freshness of your Christmas cake you can wrap it in a couple of layers of greaseproof paper or baking parchment and then wrapped in a layer of foil. You should then keep the cake in its air tight container away from direct sunlight. Foil should not be wrapped directly onto the cake as it can react with the fruit.
Christmas cake is one of the nation’s most loved and one of the most traditional types of food eaten around the festive period. We thought in this blog we would share one of our very own family favourite recipes, so here it is…
Ingredients:
12oz Self Raising Flour
1tsp mixed spice
4oz Ground Almonds
8oz Butter
8oz Caster Sugar
4 Eggs beaten with ¼ pint milk (or ½ milk and brandy)
8oz Currants
8oz Sultanas
8oz Raisins
4oz Halved Glacier Cherries
4oz Cut Mixed Peel
Method:
- Sieve together flour, spice and ground almonds.
- Cream butter and sugar, stir in flour mixture and eggs with milk (alternatively, a little at a time).
- Lastly add fruit. Mix thoroughly.
- Place mixture in a greased and lined 23cm (9in) round or 20.5cm (8in) square tin. Protect with brown paper (fasten a band of doubled brown paper round the tin 2-3 inches higher than tin, and also stand the tin on a thick layer of brown paper or newspaper. Cover the cake after 3 hours)
- Bake in a slow oven 150ËšC, 300ËšF, Gas Mark 2 for about 3 ½ to 4 hours
- The cake can then be iced and/or decorated as you wish long after cooling.
Happy baking!