CHRISTMAS FRUIT CAKE & BOILED CHRISTMAS FRUIT CAKE

I have reached the age at which I should make a Christmas cake – generally I buy a good quality, expensive Christmas cake, and then forget to serve it on Christmas Day. I then cut it into pieces and freeze them, eating it in small portions for most of the year.

Christmas cake isn’t really for eating on Christmas Day. There are so many other wonderful desserts that are more weather appropriate and not so heavy to have on the day. Christmas cake is to be shared over an evening egg nog, some cumquat brandy, a limoncello or a nice red, and is particularly good with a sharp cheddar and some grapes on those lovely long evenings around Christmas. Just the thing in the lead up to Christmas.

So I decided that I had to start making an annual fruit cake. Here are the 2 different styles I tried. Firstly I chose a recipe that was someone’s  traditional family recipe that had butter and a good selection of spices in it and it became my starting point and the second one was called Glad Shute’s Christmas fruit cake from the ABC web site, a boiled fruit cake that is far less complicated and tastes just as good. The main difference is that the fruit is boiled in the alcohol so it speeds up absorption. This one, with modifications, has become my chosen one. Over and done with in a day. What could be better than that?

Whenever I make any type of fruit cake I ignore the fruit list, just totalling up the weight and using that quantity of the fruit that I like to eat – no peel and yucky stuff in my cakes!

For the alcohol, I use what is in the cupboard. This could include coffee liquer, apple & guava infusion, sherry, brandy, vanilla vodka, rum, actually whatever has a small amount of alcohol that will finish the bottle.

This is what I do for each cake:

TRADITIONAL CHRISTMAS CAKE (WITH NUTS)

Ingredients

• 1.4 kg chopped dried fruit – I have used a combination of dates, sultanas, figs, apricots, glazed brandied cumquat, craisons
• 350 g roughly chopped assorted nuts – brazil nuts, slivered almonds, hazel nuts, walnuts
• 1/2 cup of brandy (or sherry, rum, vodka infusions or combination of what is in the cupboard) for initial soaking, adding more if it is all absorbed (about 1 1/2 cups for the total recipe)
• 250g unsalted butter
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 5 eggs
• 2 cups plain flour
• 1/4 cup almond meal
• 1 tbs cocoa
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp ginger
• 1 tsp allspice
• 2 tsp coffee essence
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 1/4 cup brandy
• additional brandy, port and/or rum – to pour over cake after cooking.

Method

This takes 2 days to make – the first day (or more) is for chopping nuts and fruit and soaking it in the brandy/alcohol. The second day is for the cooking.

Day 1:

1. Measure out the fruit, nuts and alcohol, and put it all into a fairly large bowl or a watertight lidded plastic tub (turning the tub is easier than stirring), you need room to stir the fruit and brandy/alcohol together. It is a seriously large quantity of fruit and nuts. Leave it to soak and stir regularly, adding more alcohol if it is still dry.

Day 2:

1. Allow the butter to come to room temperature.

2. Prepare a 23 cm cake tin by greasing it well then lining it with a double layer of baking paper crossed over in the centre and let it extend up the sides, and a second strip on the side. I use spray oil as a glue to hold the paper in place. This will give a double lining on the inside.

Then wrap the whole pan in a double layer of brown paper. Place the pan on a large double layer of brown paper, folding and pleating the edges so they extend higher than the tin. Tie this firmly in place with string.

3. Check there is enough space in the oven for the pan, rearranging the shelves if necessary. Heat the oven to 130ºC at 100% steam.

4. Cream the butter and sugar well, then add the eggs one at a time.

5. Sift the flour and spices together and mix 3/4 of it into the creamed mix.

6. Get a really big bowl (I use a dish-washing bowl kept for tossing salads) and mix the rest of the flour mix through the fruit and nut mix, then add the wet mix and stir well.

7. Pack the mix into the pan and decorate the top with any nuts left around.

8. Cover the top with more brown paper, cook on the centre rack for 2 hours, rotating regularly.

9. Continue to cook until an inserted skewer comes out clean. Check every 15 minutes until cooked.

10. Remove from the oven and pour 1/2 cup of brandy over the top and leave in the pan to cool.

11. When cool remove the cake and wrap it in foil then plastic wrap. It should keep for a month or two.

12. Each week add an additional tablespoon of alcohol to the surface of the cake and rewrap it.

BOILED CHRISTMAS CAKE

This is virtually the same outcome, it just speeds up the fruit soaking part and if you have a stream oven the blending of the flavours is amazing.

Ingredients

Prepare the Fruit

• 1.4 kg mixed fruit (can include raisins, currents, glace cherries, some chopped dates, sultanas, apricots, dried figs)
• 250g butter
• 1 ¾ cups of brown sugar (dark brown, or coconut sugar optional)
• 2 tbs golden syrup
• 1 tbs coffee and chicory mix (optional)
• ¾ cup water
• 1 cup of sweet sherry (rum or brandy – rum needs additional sugar or golden syrup to compensate the sweetness)
• 2 tsp of cinnamon
• ½ tsp ground ginger
• ½ tsp mixed spice
• ½ tsp nutmeg
• ½ tsp ground clove
• Just a touch of white pepper

Make the Cake

• 1 tsp carb soda
• 1 tbs hot water
• 4 large eggs, whisked
• ½ cup sweet sherry
• 3 tsp vanilla essence
• 2 tsp limoncello or lemon essence
• 3 ½ cups plain flour
• pinch salt
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 1 cup whole blanched almonds
• 1 cup almond slithers
• 2 tablespoons sherry or rum for after the cake has finished cooking

Method

Prepare the Fruit

1. STEAM OVEN: Stir together all the “prepare the fruit” ingredients in a large, oven proof dish and run the oven at 100% steam at 100°C for 30 minutes then remove, stir again then leave to cool and let the flavours get to know each other better.

OR

Put the “prepare the fruit” ingredients into a saucepan and bring to the boil, let simmer for about five minutes then turn off heat and cover and leave to cool slowly. This takes a fair while

Make the cake

1. Prepare the tin as above – a 23 cm square tin will fill to the top.
2. When the fruit is lovely and juicy and cooled sufficiently, put it all into a bowl. Add the carb soda to the boiling water and stir through the fruit mix. It will fizz a little and change to a creamy colour.
3. Add the sherry, vanilla, lemon, salt and the whisked eggs and stir until all combined.
4. Fold in the flour, baking powder and nuts.
5. Put into the prepared tin, cover with a piece of baking paper and brown paper and tie on loosely.
6. Bake at 130°C (100% steam) for three hours rotating every 30 mins or so. Start testing with a skewer in the last hour to see when it comes out clean. Remove from oven when done. If using a probe set it for 93°C. The cake shouldn’t be overcooked or burnt. Wrapping helps this with such a long cook.
7. When done remove the cake from the oven, pour the remaining half cup of alcohol over the top of the hot cake, it will just disappear with a sizzle. Put the paper back over it and leave to cool until it is cool enough to handle.
8. I wrap it in a large bath towel and put it into a bed under the covers allowing it to cool slowly in the tin. It takes at least overnight but this step seems to maintain the moisture in the cake.
9. Remove from the tin when completely cool. Leave the silicone paper in place, and wrap it in plastic wrap until Christmas.
10. It freezes well so after Christmas I slice it into serving portions and freeze, ready for a nice red or to go on a cheese plate.