This recipe requires you to start two days prior to baking. My classic Christmas Cake is beautifully fruity and moist when the time comes to eat it.
Ingredients:
225g Currants
225g Sultanas
225g Raisins
110g Cranberries
175g Glace Cherries (halved)
175g Apricots (quartered)
80g Mixed Candied Peel
5 tbsp Rum, plus extra for feeding
275g Plain Flour (sifted)
1 tsp Ground Fresh Nutmeg
1 tsp Mixed Spice
250g Stork with Butter
250g Dark Muscavado Sugar
4 Large Free Range Organic Eggs
70g Whole Almonds (chopped with skins left on)
1 tbsp Black Treacle
1 Lemon (grated zest only)
2 Large Orange (grated zest only)
Method:
Place the currants, sultanas, raisins, cherries, mixed peel, cranberries and apricots into a large bowl. Stir in the rum, mix, cover and leave at room temperature for two days, stirring occasionally.
Lightly grease a 23cm /9" deep round cake tin. Cut a strip of brown paper to fit around the outside of the tin, twice. Then secure with string. Place a circle of parchment paper on the inside bottom of the tin.
Pre - heat the oven to 140c / 275f Gas Mark 1
Now place the sifted plain flour, nutmeg, mixed spice, butter, sugar, treacle, eggs and citrus zests into a large mixing bowl and beat well. Gently fold in the soaked fruits.
Spoon the mixture into the prepared cake tin and spread out evenly with a pallet knife. Cover the top of the cake loosely with a double layer of parchment paper. Bake in the pre-heated oven for about 4-4 1/4 hour, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool in the tin.
When the cake is cool, pierce the cake all over with a fine skewer and give the cake it's first "feed" with spoonfuls of rum. You should then feed the cake with rum every 1-2 weeks leading up to Christmas. Wrap the cake with a double layer of parchment and a double layer of tin foil and store in a sealed tight cake tin.
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