This year we had 2 Christmas cakes. They are still lingering even though we are in to the new year and I really don’t think I can face another piece.
We had two because I wanted to make a traditional one and feed it with brandy. The recipe I used was from the BBC Good Food magazine website & had 79 reviews giving it 5 stars. After reading the reviews I just had to give it a go & baked it on Stir Up Sunday. It really did make the house smell divine as it baked. I had intended to ice this but as time got close to Christmas I used Nigella’s cheat and brushed the top with melted apricot jam, studded it with nuts & dried fruit and brushed it again with melted jam.
The second one was for Nick – his requests were 1)No strong alcohol taste 2)No nuts 3)Solid icing. Again I used a recipe from the BBC Good Food magazine & soaked the fruit in tea. This one I baked the week before Christmas and it turned out very moist indeed. The icing was made from a recipe in the Mary Berry Ultimate Cake Book – I used fresh pasteurised egg white from a carton.
Next year I think I may try something different after listening to the Radio 4 food programme -Panettone or a Buche de Noel (Yule Log).
The second Christmas cake was particularly nice. I didn’t realise what went in to it, but it came out very moist and fruity, so it was a real treat. The one failing was that the icing was not particularly hard at first; I recall as a child almost tooth-breaking icing on my mother’s cakes. As time passed however, the icing got harder and ever more tasty.
With just a small slice now remaining, there is a dawning realisation that I have had a whole Christmas cake pretty much to myself. Must go out running. Immediately.