Classic Christmas cake
12
A little effort
Total time:
+ up to 2 days soaking and cooling
Get ahead with your festive baking and rustle up our gently spiced fruit cake, covered in marzipan and fondant icing. This classic Christmas cake serves 12
Skip to ingredients
- 600g currants, sultanas and raisins
- 100g glacé cherries
- 50g mixed peelchop a couple of whole pieces if you can
- 50g glacé ginger or crystallised gingerroughly chopped
- 100g glacé or diced pineappleroughly chopped
- 60ml Cointreau or Grand Marnier
- 60ml ginger wine
- 2 tbsp Angostura bittersthe orange version is good
- 225g light muscovado sugar
- 250g buttersoftened
- 225g plain flour
- 1tsp ground ginger
- ¼ of a whole one nutmeggrated
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 100g whole blanched almonds
- 4 eggs
- 1 orangezested
CAKE DECORATION
- 2 tbsp apricot jammixed with 1 tbsp water and sieved
- 500g marzipan
- corn flourfor rolling
- 4 tbsp vodka
- 500g ready-roll fondant icing
Nutrition: per serving
- kcal924
- fat29.9g
- saturates12.4g
- carbs156.2g
- fibre3.4g
- protein10.5g
- salt0.57g
Method
step 1
Soak the dried and glacé fruit in the alcohol and Angostura bitters for up to 2 days.
step 2
Heat the oven to 140C/fan 120C/gas 1. Line an 18cm square or 20cm round cake tin with 2 layers of baking parchment. Beat the sugar and butter together then sift in the flour and spices and mix briefly. Add the vanilla, almonds, eggs, orange zest and the fruit and alcohol mix and stir together. Spoon into the tin and make a dip in the centre with the back of a spoon so that when the cake rises in the middle you get a at top. Bake for 3-31/2 hours then cool in the tin in the oven.
step 3
Peel off the paper and brush off any crumbs, then brush the top with the jam. Roll out the marzipan on a work surface dusted with corn flour until it is big enough to cover the cake. Lift it over the cake using a rolling pin and smooth down all the way around. Trim any excess. Brush with vodka then roll out the icing and cover in the same way. Trim the icing around the edges and neaten. Roll out the icing off-cuts and cut out different sized stars, brush with a little vodka and stick to the cake. Finish with a ribbon.
