After a week of soaking the fruits in alcohol…
…it is time to make our Christmas Cakes.
I was rather fascinated by the dried fruits (raisins, sultanas, glacé pineapple, glacé cherry and citrus peels) when I opened the plastic containers this morning. Not only a beautiful smell greeted me but the little shrivelled things had plumped up no end.
I felt bad because having woken up at 5 am and not wishing to disturb anyone who was still asleep, I crept downstairs to start the day without washing my face and applying any face cream. Since I don’t like stopping once I start work, by midday my face felt a bit like a shrunken dried raisin. Now I see the reason why Korean women wear these face masks to bed overnight. They must wake up with lovely hydrated faces.
The recipe below is for one 20 cm cake. I baked two cakes this morning and a further two are in the oven as I write. Fortuitously, and there is no other word for it, I have two 20 cm sized tins. This saves a lot of time as each cake takes four hours to bake.
For the Cake:
250g self-raising flour
250g Billington’s demerara sugar
250g unsalted butter, softened
5 large eggs
Dried fruits from the previous recipe
You will also need a 20 cm round loose-based cake tin, lined with baking parchment at the bottom and sides
How to Make:
Preheat the oven to 140°C, gas mark 1.
Place the flour into a large bowl, then add the sugar, butter and eggs.
Using anything from a wooden spoon to a KitchenAid electric mixer, beat the batter ingredients until everything is well mixed
Add the soaked fruits and stir with a spatula until all the fruit is evenly distributed
Spoon the mixture to the prepared tin. Level the top with a back of a spoon. Place the cake near the centre of the oven and bake it for 3 hours, at which point the top will be quite brown. Cover with a piece of foil so the top doesn’t brown further. Bake the cake for another hour, until the top bounces back when pressed
Cool the cake completely before turning out and removing the parchment
Store in a suitable container lined with parchment paper and wrapped in foil. I am very excited about this cake but hope to make it to Christmas before cutting into it.
Suppliers:
Dried fruits: Country Products
Cake tins: Silverwood
Baking parchment: Lakeland Limited