Christmas Cake

I have only ever used my MIL's recipe Soutra the only thing I've changed is I use butter rather than her choice of hard marg. (a hangover from rationing?) and she always told me to wrap it in layers and layers of the Daily Express so it didn't burn. After years of experimentation I have found that any newspaper is equally effective and if you are careful with the temperature you don't need to use any

Re nut allergies, my eldest son, now 37 has a severe nut allergy which was scary when he was a child as nobody seemed to regard it as real. He was even given a coconut biscuit at school! Had to tell them that the clue was in the name. He has lived abroad for the last seven years and has managed well, even learning the Thai for "Please make my meal with cow's milk, not coconut milk." I agree that nut allergies do seem far more common these days though.

Decades ago my MIL then a young wife thought she might have a go at HER MIL's Christmas cake recipe.
She assembled her ingredients and then realised there was no mention of the quantity of flour so she consulted FIL.
I should add here that DH comes from a long line of men who never admit ignorance and will pronounce on any matter with self confidence and authority even if no experience or knowledge whatsoever. "if my mother doesn't mention flour then there isn't any" he said with assurance.
So MIL. took him at his word and produced a black sticky alcoholic fruity mess from the oven some hours later.
He still refused to admit any culpability when his mother explained that it should have been so obvious from the weight of the other ingredients that she hadn't thought it necessary to "state the obvious"!!!

With grandson being severely allergic to eggs and nuts- I've finally found an eggless Christmas cake recipe- so will be making it this week. So hard to bake without eggs and nuts, especially at this time of year. Hope it is a success.

Thank you Baubles I will give it a try.

Here you go crafting

www.gransnet.com/recipes/dish/5718-Christmas-cake-recipe

Christmas cake. I really only like the marzipan and soft white icing, the cake usually is far too heavy and sweet. We tend to have a slice or two of lightly warmed Stollen cake from Lidl's with a small spoonful of clotted cream or creme fraiche. Marzipan is surely the food of the gods, maybe with just a touch of Nutella... Pull yourself together, man, and get back to peeling those spuds!

Is there another thread on Christmas cakes? I used the recipe that janerowena has put on here, but minus the nuts as DH doesn't like them in a Christmas cake.

Now to feed it again.

Used a new recipe for my cake this year, smells divine but seems a bit puddingy on the base and I did it for more than the required time and the skewer came out clean so have to wait and see. Shall give it one more feed and then marzipan it perhaps the week after next.

Have also to make a gingerbread house. Do this every year for DGS's - one is 14 now and the other 10 so I asked if they thought they were too old the text came back "Never too old for a gingerbread house" Rod for own back comes to mind!!!

petallus if you brush the cake with melted apricot jam - just a thin layer - the marzipan will stick to that.

Baubles mentioned a cake in the recipe section. I'm not vey good at working my way round GN and though I have tried I can't find it. Can anyone tell me how to locate it please

Any tips on how to stick the marzipan to the cake?

My late sister gave me a wonderful christmas cake recipe which I used for years. It was not quite as dark as the usual cakes and always came out well. Could I find it this year? I spent ages looking and then gave up and used a cookery book. A week after I had cooked the cake I found the recipe. I was tempted to make another but there's only actually DH and I that are that keen on it, so one is probably going to be quite enough. I decorate mine with nuts and glacé fruit but I have promised DG that he can put icing on this one. That'll be interesting!!

I always use Delia's Christmas cake recipe but since I got my "new" oven a couple of years ago I've found I need to check the cake after about 3 hours and it's usually done in 3 1/2 hours, unlike old oven. DH decided he wanted to make the cake last year and wouldn't check it until Delia said and it was rather dry. Ovens vary so rely on your sense of smell !

Thanks everyone, for cheering me up! I love fruit cake so decided to cook a Christmas cake and eat it all myself if I have to. Cooked mine yesterday, using a recipe from Delia, which I used a few years ago. Did all the wrapping with brown paper and paper on top.

But all the fruit on the edges has gone hard even though I took it out after only 4 hours (recipe said maybe leave for up to 4 hrs 45 mins. Yes, I've already started shaving bits off.

Don't do anything. It will destroy her pleasure in giving. Just accept gracefully and when you have started eating it just write her a note saying how much you are enjoying it. Appreciation is worth more than a return gift to the giver.

Take a nice indoor plant arrangement round on Xmas Eve?

I always make my Christmas cake and take it to my daughters. Mine is at marzipan stage. However, a neighbour came to my door this week and handed me a Christmas cake. I was so very touched as I only moved into the road 9 months ago. Apparently her husband makes lots each year and it really made me feel 'accepted'. What can I do in return?

granny ust saw that today in Waitrose reduce from £10 to £7. For a fleeting moment I thought about buying it but valiantly carried on with my own shopping list. Will start with the chutney tomorrow, next day the mincemeat then the pudding and lastly the cake

Busy week

"send" has got nothing to do with me and everything to do with the Kindle.

Waitrose is selling a "kit" this year, I presume it includes all the ingredients. It send reasonable too - on sale:

www.waitrose.com/shop/ProductView-10317-10001-230983-Waitrose+Christmas+Cake+Kit

I might give it a go.

I might add that DGS has no allergies at all.

Without casting any aspersions on DS and DDiL, who are excellent parents, the children come before the housework and spend a lot of time outside grubbing in the garden. DGS is fascinated by slugs and snails ( puppy dog's tails, seem to have gone out of fashion, thank goodness).

My daughter reckons it is because children are not exposed to so many bugs as years ago with the fashion for ultra cleanliness, therefore not encouraging their immune systems to mature. Well at least that is what she tells herself!!, as they play around on the floor with the dogs, hair and mud included! Mind you the GC have no allergies so perhaps her theory is right.

I think the incidence of food allergies, especially nut allergy has risen enormously. I cannot remember any child having broad spectrum food allergies when I or my children were young. Occasionally you might find someone who had problems with strawberries or eggs, but even that wasn't common.

There is a family history of drug allergies and over reactions and a doctor also tied it in with a family history of eczema and migraine. Both DGC have bad eczema, far worse than previous generations, but the generations below me do not seem to have a problem with migraine.