Christmas cake mistake

I don’t like sultanas so always swop them out for raisins. Your cake will be delicious. 😋

Dizzyribs

I often use just sultanas or just raisins, it depends what I have in and how I feel.
Just don't feel you have to ice it to "cover it up". Around here its considered very pretentious to ice your Christmas cake - it should stand on it's own merits without all that sugar to mask the taste and be served with white Wensleydale.

Pretentious?? Where is that a thing?
I don’t make a 🎄cake any more, but when I did, I no longer iced it (the icing was hardly ever eaten) just brushed it with warmed apricot jam and arranged assorted nuts in a pattern on top, brushed with more apricot jam. With a tartan ribbon tied around it, it used to look very nice, though I do say so myself…

Not many in this family are keen on fruit cake, though, which is why I no longer bother. 🎄pudding, on the other hand - however many I make, they’d all go - my old GH recipe always goes down well, even with people who think they don’t like Christmas pudding. It’s not nearly so dark, dense and heavy as the shop versions.

Maggiemaybe

It’ll be grand, Christmas cake mix is very forgiving. I always make Delia’s Creole Christmas cake, well sort of, as over the years I’ve used a wide variety of fruits depending on what I fancy, and every type of alcohol under the sun depending on what I have or what needs using up. It’s always good. Two years ago I put my cake in the oven, had a leisurely cuppa, tidied up the kitchen, then found the pack of butter that should have gone in was still sitting on the table. The cake had been baking for an hour. I hoiked it out, beat it all up again and back in the oven it went. It turned out fine - nobody would ever have known!

I love Delia’s creole cake too, just boozy fruit held together with a spot of cake!
This year I saw a bag of ready soaked fruit in Lidl so bought it and adapted a Jamie Oliver recipe. It called for dried fruit etc and grated apple so just made the weight of the bag up to what was needed with extra fruit. And used a coffee stout. It worked and looks amazing. No brandy to feed so it’s getting Amaretto 🤣

I found the melted butter in the microwave, after i had put the cake in the oven. it had been there long enough for bits to have 'set'. I carfully stirred the butter into the cake mix in the tin and put it back in the oven and it came out as if the butter had gone in from the beginning.

Some mistakes turn out to be an improvement. I once baked fruity flapjack to take to work on my birthday - so a big batch. It was amazing and everyone said so. One colleague said it was "To die for!" When I got home I realised why. I'd weighed the oats in batches as there were too many to fit in the scale pan in one go. I'd forgotten to add the last lot of oats so the mixture had more fruit and butter etc to the quantity of oats. Best flapjack I ever made! I hope your Christmas cake will turn out that way too or undetectable..

paddyann54

It must be a gran thing ,Ileft the eggs eaten,in a bowl beside the oven and baked the rest of the ingredients without them.It crumbled as I released it from the tin.My OH has pic king bits off it al day ,he says it tastes great ,shame it’s just a pile of crumbs.
I did bake a second one and it’s fine .

I've left the eggs out of bread and butter pudding and ended up with bread in hot milk. And even left the mushrooms out of mushroom risotto - it was a bit of a shock to see the pile of sliced mushrooms sitting on the table as I was dishing out the risotto 😁😁

madalene

Today I made my Christmas cake. Well I had some help as I’m waiting for spinal surgery and my hand, arm, and fingers are very painful. Anyway, that’s by the by, I discovered I’d made a mistake with the ingredients. I accidentally added a double lot of raisins, as opposed to raisins and sultanas. All the other ingredients were correct, in the correct quantities. I felt really cross with myself as I’d got all the ingredients out and ready last night. I just accidentally measured out two lots of raisins instead of one lot of raisins and one lot of sultanas. I was really cross with myself when I discovered, I’d simply taken out the wrong packets.

Anyway, does it matter? Everything else is correct, and both raisins and sultanas are grapes, just raisins are red grapes and sultanas are white grapes. Do you think it will make any difference? Not that I can do anything about it even if it does. The cake was mixed when I noticed and so I just put it in the oven to bake.

I guess it’s a first world problem, but as I often bake, and enjoy it, I’m annoyed with myself for making such an elementary mistake.

Do you know what ? You may just find it's the best Christmas cake you have ever made.It should be a nice surprise and a slight change from the usual, it certainly won't have spoiled it !

I often use just sultanas or just raisins, it depends what I have in and how I feel.
Just don't feel you have to ice it to "cover it up". Around here its considered very pretentious to ice your Christmas cake - it should stand on it's own merits without all that sugar to mask the taste and be served with white Wensleydale.

Ziplok

Your cake will be absolutely fine madalene.

Yes. Raisins have more depth of flavour than sultanas.

Your cake will be absolutely fine madalene.

Retroladywriting

paddyann54

It must be a gran thing ,Ileft the eggs eaten,in a bowl beside the oven and baked the rest of the ingredients without them.It crumbled as I released it from the tin.My OH has pic king bits off it al day ,he says it tastes great ,shame it’s just a pile of crumbs.
I did bake a second one and it’s fine .

You could mix the crumbs with some melted butter and use as a cheesecake base. Or freeze them (quickly before OH eats the lot!) to put over ice-cream for Christmas.

Or freeze and use as a crumble topping.

I baked some scones which weren't a great success so I crumbled them, added some more butter and used it as a crumble topping very successfully.

paddyann54

It must be a gran thing ,Ileft the eggs eaten,in a bowl beside the oven and baked the rest of the ingredients without them.It crumbled as I released it from the tin.My OH has pic king bits off it al day ,he says it tastes great ,shame it’s just a pile of crumbs.
I did bake a second one and it’s fine .

You could mix the crumbs with some melted butter and use as a cheesecake base. Or freeze them (quickly before OH eats the lot!) to put over ice-cream for Christmas.

Norah

It will be lovely.

I change Christmas cake fruits often, just not the total amount.

Yesterday I baked savory squash bread pudding, doubled the shallots, forgot the green onions, added extra kale - still gorgeous.

Oooh, that sounds lovely. Do you have a recipe which you wouldn't mind sharing?

If anyone says that it tastes different, say airily " I'm trying a new recipe- what do you think?"
I speak with authority on this subject. The phrase has covered my mistakes on many occasions.

It won’t make any difference. It will be lovely.

I hope it didn't get wasted, paddyann, it would probably be lovely with custard 🙂

Beaten in the bowl

It must be a gran thing ,Ileft the eggs eaten,in a bowl beside the oven and baked the rest of the ingredients without them.It crumbled as I released it from the tin.My OH has pic king bits off it al day ,he says it tastes great ,shame it’s just a pile of crumbs.
I did bake a second one and it’s fine .

Nandalot

It will be absolutely fine. Like Frey5, I never put in currants, mixed peel or cherries, (we don’t like these). I just make up the amount with raisins and sultanas.

Most recipes include more currants than raisins and sultanas but I'm not so keen on currants so put in equal amounts of each, to the correct total.

One year I made a Jamaican Black Cake instead - delicious.

It won't make any difference. No-one will notice.

I prefer raisins to sultanas.
They're both from grapes - red or white.

Nobody will notice, not even you, or you may find you prefer it!

I’m sure it will be absolutely fine. Don’t tell anyone and they’ll never know!

It’ll be grand, Christmas cake mix is very forgiving. I always make Delia’s Creole Christmas cake, well sort of, as over the years I’ve used a wide variety of fruits depending on what I fancy, and every type of alcohol under the sun depending on what I have or what needs using up. It’s always good. Two years ago I put my cake in the oven, had a leisurely cuppa, tidied up the kitchen, then found the pack of butter that should have gone in was still sitting on the table. The cake had been baking for an hour. I hoiked it out, beat it all up again and back in the oven it went. It turned out fine - nobody would ever have known!

It won't make any difference whatsoever .Don't even mention it before you give people a slice and see their positive reaction !
I always swop sultanas for raisins and currants .
Years ago I ran out of lots of ingredients and just made the weight up with extra nuts and cherries .
The one thing that I do differently is to cook the fruit cake at no 1 gas all night having put a double layer of turkey tin foil around the baking tin .
I turn it up to no 2 just to get a golden colour .

Thank you all for your responses. I also believed the flour, fat, fruit ratio was what was important GrannyGravy. I think I learnt that at school in Domestic Science. The recipe I always use isn’t an old family one, although my son sometimes uses that one, nor is it a school one, although I did make a Christmas cake at school one year. I got this particular recipe from a Cooking class I attended many years ago. I just went for fun with a neighbour. Actually it could be there I learnt about flour, fat, fruit ratio, I’m not sure now.

Anyway, I’ve just taken it out of the oven. It looks good, a little darker than usual, but I may have added a bit more black treacle because it’s supposedly got be a tablespoonful but it’s always difficult to measure a tablespoonful of treacle because it’s so sticky.

Anyway thank for all your reassurances. The cake looks fine.