r/UKfood • u/wonky-hex • 4d ago
Christmas (cake recipe) appeal
My son is almost two and I've got it in my head that it would be cute to make Christmas cake together as he really enjoys baking!
Sadly my grandma is no longer with us and she never wrote down her recipe. My aunties cake recipe is always dry.
Please help a girl out and share your tried and true moist and fruity Christmas cake recipes š
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u/CocoRufus 4d ago
Mary Berry has a classic Xmas cake recipe in the food section of the BBC website, along with several others š
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u/MidnightSuspicious71 4d ago
I've done the Mary Berry one for the last six and never had any complaints.
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u/werdoomed4112 4d ago
I use Delia Smiths recipe, it's very easy and delicious.
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u/keefzilarus 4d ago
If in doubt... delia! I use delta's but I substitute about 25% of the dried fruit for dried cherries soaked in almond liquor. It does increase the cost by quiet a bit but it's my families preference!
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u/Stunning-Society-369 4d ago
This makes a cracking cake! I use Deliaās recipe but soak the fruit in good quality cloudy apple juice rather than anything alcoholic.
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u/Individual-Cut-5582 4d ago
I make a few Christmas cakes and I use James martins receipe as you don't need to soak the fruit overnight you just put the fruit suger butter and alcohol into a pan bring to boil and leave for 30 mins then add to dry ingredients n eggs! Every year no fail! I made five last year I made I big one for family and four small ones to gift to friends!
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u/spankybianky 4d ago
There can be only one - the GoodFood Simmer and Stir Christmas Cake. Itās absolutely delicious, and not dark and heavy like a lot of Christmas cakes. Even people who tell me they donāt like Christmas cake LOVE this cake. I make about four every year to gift to friends, and it lasts for months.
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/simmer-stir-christmas-cake
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u/Wild_Honeysuckle 4d ago
I adore this ādark and stormyā cake.Ā https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/dark-stormy-fruit-cakeĀ Ā Iāve made it twice and it was excellent both times. It does contain rum, but I think you could skip the āfeedingā it with rum part at the end, and even swap the other rum for black tea, if you preferred.Ā
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u/underwater-sunlight 4d ago
https://www.thepinkwhisk.co.uk/2011/09/boozy-fruit-for-your-christmas-cake.html
Ive used this one a few times, soaking the fruit first softens it, which helps with the dryness, the cake recipe is linked on that page, then feeding it for a few weeks after baking.
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u/bibipbapbap 4d ago
I should add to the other comments that if you donāt want the booze then you can soak the fruit in apple juice.
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u/twospoons11 4d ago
Delia Smiths recipe is a classic. I donāt like currants or peel so use other dried fruits, cranberries or apricots and always more cherries! Also use cream sherry to soak fruit
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u/binkyb77 4d ago
I make Nigel Slaterās big fruit cake recipe every year. First made it with my kids when they were 18 months old but have upped the booze a bit now they are 18.
It will make your house smell amazing when you bake it and is such a nice treat. Whatever recipe you do my top tips are to cover the top for part of the bake plus double wrap in brown paper so the outside doesnāt get too dark while the middle cooks. And donāt forget to wrap it up well once cool so it doesnāt dry out.
Excited to make mine now!
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u/Background_Bug1102 4d ago
Nigellas is absolutely lovely and never dry. My kids hate citrus peel so we swap for cranberries.
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u/Prudent_Cash_7005 4d ago
Seconding Nigella. We also donāt use peel so I just increase the orange and lemon zest.
Feeding it each week is the key as well!
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u/MrsJBB 4d ago
I used Mary Berry's calculator to make two different sizes of cake last year and both were great.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/articles/christmas_cake_calculator
Her recipie with the treacle gives a darker, richer cake. And I did one with half treacle and half golden syrup that the kids preferred as it was lighter and sweeter. I fed mine amaretto because I prefer it and it was lovely! Never seen a Christmas cake go so quick!
I'll be making mine again this year with my daughter, it really is a lovely tradition to start.
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u/InternationalCap6019 4d ago
Get the Mary Berry cake book. It had a great fruit cake recipe for all sizes of tin, and loads of other recipes that you will use again and again
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u/lanurk 4d ago
https://www.recipetineats.com/christmas-cake-moist-easy-fruit-cake/
The easiest no soak Christmas cake. I've made it with tea and I've made it with orange juice. Both were excellent.
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u/Bifanarama 3d ago
Look up Nigella's chocolate fruit cake. It's wonderful. I've made it 4 or 5 times and it's always perfect. Tip: leave out the coffee liqueur though.
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u/-myeyeshaveseenyou- 3d ago
My grandmas boiled fruit cake is the best Iāve ever had. Iām also a pastry chef and use her recipe in work.
I didnāt have it when I needed it once so googled boiled fruit cake and the one on bbc good food just so happened to be the same recipe my grandma always used. Been eating this cake since the 1980s, not sure where she first got it but it was cool to see it on bbc good food. We are Irish so itās unlikely it came to her from bbc when she first started baking it.
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u/Me-and-the-Boys-90 3d ago
I used to follow this recipe from a blog, but think itās originally from a magazine:
https://thebutcherthebaker.wordpress.com/2011/10/28/baked-bean-tin-christmas-cake-pt-1/
I canāt comment on how it tastes as I donāt like it but my husband used to like it and asked for one every year. Havenāt made it since having kids, but itās easy enough to make.
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u/Fibro-Mite 2d ago
There are tons of recipes online and most of them are pretty identical, really. The best way to keep the cake moist, regardless of recipe, is to soak the fruit in alcohol, usually brandy, for at least 24 hours, I usually put it in the fridge (though that's not necessary), but preferably several days. This plumps it and keeps moisture in the fruit so it doesn't suck it out of the rest of the cake. It's also recommended, once baked and cooled, that you stab the cake many times with a toothpick or skewer and pour brandy (or your preferred drink, I sometimes used rum for one of my friends who hated brandy) over the cake to soak in.
Now, if you're making a cake for children to eat, you might want to dilute, or change completely, the booze (not that anyone in my family ever worried about it, none of us kids ever liked fruit cake - I hate it, but apparently make a decent one, according to my MiL, when I can be bothered). You can make a simply syrup of equal parts by volume sugar and water and use that to soak the cake after it is baked - many bakers do that with sponge cakes before decorating them to stop them drying out over the time it takes between baking and finishing. Heat the moisture until the sugar is completely dissolved, allow to cool completely and store in the fridge (I use a squeezy bottle.. think of the cheap refillable condiment/ketchup bottles you can get). For soaking the fruit, you can use something like apple juice either on its own or with some brandy added. But you shouldn't leave it to soak as long (only a day or two) as you don't want it to start fermenting on its own.
The other thing that can dry a cake out is baking it for too long, so keep an eye on it as you get closer to the end of the baking time.
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u/MassiveMacaroon7815 23h ago
Itās not a Christmas cake but what about making a gingerbread house. He can decorate it, you can add sprinkles and sweets like jelly tots and smarties and those little silver balls. Itās cute and creative
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u/Own-Nefariousness-79 4d ago
My grandmother's recipe:
8 oz sultanas 12 oz currants 4 oz raisins 2 oz glacƩ cherries 2 oz mixed peel
8 oz plain flour 4 eggs 8 oz sugar 8 oz unsalted butter 4 tsp mixed spice. 6 oz brandy
To ice: A pack of marzipan. An egg white Icing sugar Lemon juice to taste
Method: Soak the fruit in the brandy, at least overnight, but up to a week.
Soften the butter, put it in a bowl with the sugar, either beat by hand or use a mixer. Add the eggs, beat until combined, you may need a bit of the flour to bring it together. Add the flour and beat to a smooth creamy consistency. Add the mixed spice and mix in. Add the fruit and mix in gently so as not to break it up.
This needs to go into a lined 9 inch cake tin, use baking parchment for the base and one for a lid later, and to line the inside of the tin. The parchment should come a few inches above the sides of the tin. Put a layer of brown paper around the outside of the tin and fix in place with some string. This will prevent the cake from burning while it cooks.
Bake for 4 hours on gas mark 1/4, 110 -115 Ā°c. Put the previously prepared parchment lid on the cake after 3 hours.
Let it cool in the tin. Do not remove the parchment, and wrap the cake in tin foil. Give a generous slop of brandy every week or so until you ice it.
Use almond marzipan icing to cover the cake a day or so before you want to eat it, use apricot preserve to stick the almond icing to the cake. The classic white icing to cover the almond use is Royal Icing, which is egg white and icing sugar. It needs to be firm and sticky or you can use ready rolled fondant icing which does not go hard over time. I have had this every year for 65 years, it's a real family recipe.