luxury tried and tested christmas cake recipe please

[PurpleHeather]

If you are making your cake pretty with marzipan and icing

TURN IT UPSIDE DOWN


This gives a nice flat surface

[PurpleHeather]

[Tin Shed]

I have always made Delia's Creole Christmas cake as it is really easy and really good.

http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/creole-christmas-cake,1295,RC.html

[honeybee]

I love making my Christmas cake, but am rather late this year, the job is usually done in September but my timekeeping is a bit behind this time around, and the fruits are soaking in brandy as we speak.

As there are plenty of recipes I wont add mine, but it is a fantastic cake, very moist, but that could be the many additional splashes of brandy that it recieves between now and December  :P

[littlebabybird]

honeybee
please post yours as well
lbb

[carolinej]

Has anyone got a vegan christmas cake recipe?

My son is a vegan, so I am always on the lookout for something new.

Lots of shop bought christmas puds are vegan now, but most other stuff is 'specialist' and costs an arm and a leg :o

[honeybee]

Ok here it is LBB

Christmas cake, best made in September

500g luxury mixed dried fruit
250g vine raisins
75g flaked almonds
75g mixed peel
100g glace cherries
50g chopped walnuts
grated zest of one lemon
4 tbsp brandy....(well thats what it says on the recipe but I just shove glugs in :P)
250g granulated sugar
250g butter
4 eggs
150g plain flour
1 tsp ground mixed spice
75g ground almonds

1. Prepare 8 inch cake tin,line base and sides with double thickness baking paper and let it go 5cm above sides.

2. Place all fruit, peel,nuts and grated zest in bowl, pour over brandy and soak overnight.

3. Preheat oven to 150, gas mark2
Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy, add eggs little at a time,beating well inbetween, try to prevent curdling but if it does curdle add a little flour.

4. Stir in fruit and nuts and any liquid and stir well, then fold in flour and ground almonds and mixed spice

5. Spoon mixture into tin, spread evenly.
Add a band of brown paper to outside and above  tin and tie with string.

6. Place in oven for 3-3and half hours at 150c, Gas mark 2 until cooked, test with skewer.
Leave to cool fully in tin then put on wire rack.


Wrap up well and feed brandy each week until cake is at legless stage, this is a MUST!

Recipe still works easily if fruit and nut type/amounts are changed to suit taste as long all ingredients balance at the end. (For instance I never put in the chopped walnuts as my son hates them) and add extra ground almonds to make up the quantity.

This is a beautifully moist cake, enjoy!

[Kea]

I had a family recipe 'Great Grandma Price's' to be exact which my mum used for Christmas Cakes and family wedding Cakes and made in lots of different sizes. But for me it never turned out well. A few years back the Sainsbury's magazine printed some chef's family recipe (Irish i think) and i have never looked back it works everytime, it has grated apple in it. I'll have to look it out as I'm about to make it anyway. Unfortunately Sainsbury's doesn't seem to put their recipes online like Waitrose.

[littlebabybird]

Unfortunately Sainsbury's doesn't seem to put their recipes online like Waitrose.

have a look here Kea
http://www.sainsburys.co.uk/food/recipe/default.htm

[Kea]

Thanks lbb but I've tried searching for it there before, I've just tried it again but it's not there. Sainsbury's doesn't list all the recipes it publishes in it's magazines. Quite good recipes too. I bought the magazine and saved them for the recipes but my husband was complaining about the magazine mountains! I've decided i will never cook all the recipes in the magazines I've collected so I've been throwing them away. Waitrose get's 10/10 all their recipes get put online from the cards you can pick up in store to the paid for magazine.
I'll have to find it and type it out.