Christmas is just a few weeks away. Grace your Christmas table with a traditional home-made fruitcake. Here are the steps to make a Christmas cake.
Ingredients
For the Fruit Mix
450 grams currants
175 grams sultanas
175 grams raisins
50 grams chopped glacé cherries
50 grams chopped mixed candied peel
Brandy
For the Cake
225 grams unsalted butter
225 grams soft brown sugar
2 tablespoon black treacle
1 tablespoon marmalade
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
4 big eggs
225 grams plain flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground mixed spice
50 grams chooped almonds
Things You’ll Need:
Bowl
Cake tin
Tea cloth
Baking parchment
Brown paper
Beater
Spatula
Skewer
Preparations
For the Fruit Mix
Put the fruit mix in a large bowl.
Add 3-4 tablespoons of brandy. If you don’t like to use brandy, you can substitute this with orange juice.
Place the tea cloth over the bowl. Let the fruit mix soak in brandy or juice over night or for 12 hours.
For the Flour Mix
After 12 hours, prepare the butter and flour mix.
Sift the flour and add a dash of salt.
Put half a teaspoon of spice and half a teaspoon of cinnamon.
For the Butter
Cream the unsalted butter and soft brown sugar together.
Add in 2 tablespoons of black treacle, a tablespoon of marmalade and a quarter of a teaspoon of vanilla.
Continue mixing until it becomes fluffy.
Steps
After preparing the butter mixture, lightly beat the eggs in a separate bowl.
Add the beaten eggs to the butter mixture a teaspoonful at a time. Doing this will prevent the mixture from incorporating air and avoid having a finished product that is a bit heavier than what you really want to achieve.
Add the flour mixture into the butter mixture.
Fold well to blend the 2 mixtures together.
Add the soaked fruits in.
Add the chopped almonds.
Mix well.
Baking
Grease the sides of the inner part of the tin.
Cover the insides with a baking parchment.
Wrap the tin in brown paper. This would protect the cake during baking.
Preheat the oven. Some people preheat their ovens to 150° Celsius (300° Fahrenheit) or gas mark 2 while others preheat their ovens to 140° Celsius (275° Fahrenheit) or gas mark 1. You can use either temperature. If you’re a beginner, try preheating your oven to gas mark 1.
Carefully transfer the mixture into the tin. Remember not to fill the tin so much.
Place the cake tin on the lowest shelf of your oven.
Bake the cake for about 3 to 4 hours.
After 3 hours, check if your cake is ready by sticking a skewer into the cake. If it comes out clean, you can already remove the cake from the oven. If not, bake it for another hour.
Check the cake every 20 minutes until it’s done.
Let the cake cool inside the tin for a quarter of an hour.
After 15 minutes, remove the cake from the tin and place it on a wire rack.
Let the cake cool completely.
Once the cake has cooled completely, use a skewer to make some holes in the cake.
Pour 3-4 tablespoons of brandy or orange liquer. Make sure to cover the entire surface of the cake.
Use a foil to wrap the cake.
Place the cake in an airtight container.
Frosting
You can decorate your cake in any way you want. One way of decorating your fruit cake is by covering it with frosting. This will not only make your cake look nicer but will also add more flavor to your cake.
Things You’ll Need
A cup of powdered Sugar
1 to 3 tablespoons of Milk.
Bowl
Spoon for mixing
Steps
Put the powdered sugar in a bowl
Add the milk and stir.
If the mixture is too thin add more sugar. If it’s too thick, add more milk.
Put the mixture in the refrigerator for about an hour.
You can add vanilla for flavor if you want to.
When the cake is totally cool, spread the frosting on the cake.
You can make swirls or leave the surface smooth if you want to add more cake decorations.
Frosting Tips
Lightly brush off crumbs on the cake before spreading your frosting.
You can make colored frosting by dipping a toothpick in a coloring and swirling it in the white mixture.
Make sure that the consistency of the frosting is not affected when you add food coloring.
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