‘C’ is for Christmas Fare 2008!

I’m not quite sure where this year has gone, it seems to have flown by! It’s time again for baking my Christmas fruit cake and making up a batch of mincemeat for Christmas 2008. I like to make my fruit cake and mincemeat in October each year, to mature and develop all those Christmassy flavours. Here are my recipes that I have pleasure in sharing with you and hopefully you may try them out too this festive season!

Christmas Fruit Cake’08

Feeding the cake with brandy!

My cake will be fed leading up to the last few weeks of December by adding 1 tsp of brandy each week. This ensures for a rich matured moist fruit cake before applying the marzipan and icing in late December.

Christmas Fruit Cake’08

You will need to start soaking all the dried fruits three days prior to baking this cake to enable the fruits to swell and absorb the brandy and orange juice.

Ingredients
175g (6 oz) raisins
350g (12 oz) glace cherries, rinsed, dried and quartered
500g (1 lb 2oz) currants
350g (12 oz) sultanas
150ml (¼ pint) brandy, plus extra for feeding
Finely grated zest of 1 orange and lemon
Juice of 1 orange
250g (9 oz) butter, softened
250g (9 oz) light muscovado sugar
4 eggs
1 tbsp black treacle (molasses)
75g 93 oz) chopped mixed nuts
75g (2 oz) self-raising flour
175g (6 oz) plain flour
1 tsp mixed spice
½ tsp cinnamon
½ tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1 tsp cocoa powder
A large container with lid for soaking the fruits

You will need a 20cm (8 in) springform tin, greased and lined with a double layer of greased greaseproof paper and the outside of the tin double layered with brown paper and tied in the middle with string.

Method

Three days prior to baking the cake, add all the dried fruits to the container and pour over the brandy and stir in the orange zest and juice and then the lemon zest. Cover with a lid and leave to soak for three days, stirring daily.

Line the 20cm (8 in) springform tin as directed above and preheat the oven 140°C/fan 120°C/275°F/gas mark 1.

In a very large bowl, add the butter and sugar and cream together until fluffy and light. Add the eggs a little at a time until all incorporated then add the nuts and stir through. Add the flours, cocoa powder and spices and mix thoroughly until blended. Stir in the soaked fruit. Spoon into the prepared tin and level the surface, I like to leave a little dip in the middle of the mixture so the cake doesn’t dome in the middle when baked.

Bake in the centre of the preheated oven for 4½ hrs or until the cake the cake feels firm to the touch in the middle and is a rich golden brown, or a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Check the cake after 2 hrs baking and if the top is a lovely golden brown, cover with a circle of baking paper or foil to prevent the top from burning. Leave the cake to cool completely in the tin.

When cool, pierce the cake at intervals with a skewer and feed with a tsp brandy. Wrap the cake completely up in a double layer of greaseproof paper and a layer of foil. Store in a cool place for up to three months, feeding with 1 tbsp brandy every week.

Decorate with marzipan and icing in the last few weeks before Christmas.

Boozy Mincemeat

Boozy Mincemeat

I have been making this mincemeat each year ever since it appeared in The GoodFood Magazine in 2002 (you can find the original recipe here). This is a great recipe that imparts all those Christmassy flavours without much effort to achieve a fantastic moist boozy mincemeat for mince pies or last minute chocolate Christmas cake etc. I have altered the recipe slightly by using luxury mixed vine fruits and peel, glace cherries and vegetable suet. This recipe will keep from one year to the next but as Ruth Watson states; it is best used within six months.

Here is my adapted recipe for Boozy Mincemeat

Makes approximately 3.5kg (7lb)

Ingredients
3 x 500g (1lb 2oz) luxury vine fruits with added peel
200g (7 oz) glace cherries, washed and chopped
500g (1lb 2oz) Bramley apples or apple of choice, peeled, cored and grated
100g (4 oz) whole blanched almonds, chopped
350g (12 oz) Demerara sugar or soft brown sugar
100g (4 oz) dark muscovado sugar
1 rounded tsp ground cinnamon
2 rounded tsp ground mixed spice
1 large lemon, zest and juiced
125ml dark rum
125ml Disaronno amaretto liqueur
175ml French brandy

Method

In a very large bowl (I used my preserving pan), place in the vine fruits and peel, glace cherries, grated apple, suet, chopped almonds, sugars, spices, lemon zest and juice, and then lastly add all the alcohol. Mix thoroughly through together either with a large spoon or clean hands. Cover over with a clean tea towel and leave to stand for 24 hours giving the mixture a good stir as you pass by.

Next day pack the mincemeat into sterilised jars, (I used Kilner jars) and top with greaseproof paper jam covers. Seal the jars tightly and store in a cool place. This recipe will keep from one year to the next but as Ruth Watson states; it is best used within six months.