Christmas cake, hate it or make it?

[Joshie1]

Originally Posted by Diz

Yes always make a Christmas cake using a very old recipe from the BERO book which is the same one as my mum always makes. Unlike it seems everyone on this thread I have never added booze or fed it with any. Never occurred to me and not sure I or DS would like the taste although I think DH might.

I always ice it but straight onto the cake no marzipan as we all hate it

Do make Delia’s Christmas pudding with stout in it. It is lovely and light and great with cold pouring cream (or custard if you are DS)

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While I do add brandy to the fruit before making I never feed it. Had a bit of a disaster one year due to over feeding I think adding to the fruit for a few days before baking just helps plump out the fruit a little bit.

I don’t actually taste the brandy when the cake is cooked but it does add a certain something to the scrapings from the bowl
.

[BabyM]

Love Christmas cake. Made my Delia one last weekend.

[bLaZeR666_uk]

Wifey always makes one... Delicious... Its one of Nigella's (Really easy to make and super tasty as it has chocolate and tia maria in it - takes about 20 mins to make and a bit longer to cook

[archibald]

Well I am surprised at a third of the Dibb being haters - what is there to hate? Lots of boozy fruit and cake, perfect with a strong cup of tea. What is wrong with you people?

Am thrilled that 1 in 3 cakes made is with Delia. I'm sure she'll be very happy. She does have a lovely reassuring recipe though. I have a lot of love for Delia.

[cdavenport]

Hate it but I make it for my mum and husband. 😀

[Michyloulou]

I love Christmas cake & have made a few in the past, but in more recent years have bought one from Sainsbury’s (as it costs so much for the ingredients). I like royal icing on my cake (I’m not a fan of fondant). The only part I don’t enjoy is Marzipan, however DH doesn’t like icing, so we cut these bits off & swap!

[djewkes]

I’ve stopped making a big Christmas cake and now make 4 little ones (4 inch) plus a taster. One I almond paste and royal ice (fondant isn’t icing to my mind and spoils a good cake) for Christmas... the other 3 get iced for birthdays and Christmas and occasionally just eaten through the year, I feed them regularly...
There’s only the 2 of us at home and this saves us getting left with Christmas cake in March...
the recipe is from an old M&S cookbook called Cakes and cake decorating that I’ve had for donkeys years and it’s a really nice recipe...

[Ruth]

I love Christmas cake but unfortunately neither DH or DS do so, up until a couple of years ago I hadn’t made one for donkeys.

My mother used to make about 8, though some of those were individual ones (made in the tins you would get sponge puddings in that boiled in a pan of water on the top of the stove) for the spinsters of the parish. Stir up Sunday was quite a workout! Prep began at least 2 weeks before that. MUST, and I still do it, is wash the fruit first and let it dry on clean tea towels - have you seen the oil and grit that is left in the sink afterwards? I’d rather not eat that thanks. Then it all went into a BIG bowl and was given a good drink, brandy and sherry, covered and stirred daily, more ‘liquid’ added as the fruit plumped up. The smell when they were cooking was gorgeous.

Since my son became a ‘country boy’ by meeting a girl whose family have a farm I have been making the cake again though with a slightly different but quicker recipe. It was from the Waitrose weekly paper and by Martha who was on GBBO. Difference is the fruit, once washed of course, gets put in a big pan, alcohol added and is then heated gently, resulting in lots of plumpy loveliness. Ready to bake next day.

It has gone down very well with the farmers! I always bring a portion of it home and had a slice of last years earlier this week - its kept beautifully.

My preference is thick marzipan and thin icing.

Happy Christmas baking everyone x x

[chris123armit]

Hoping to put my fruit in to soak this week 😉
Got a nice American fruitcake recipe

[Jakey Neverland]

I noticed Costco so a huge one with royal icing for 11.99 this week. If I was not the only person who are it, it would have been in my trolley.