Christmas cake

NotSpaghetti

Yes, LOUISA1523 very expensive... and more so if you make your own almond paste.

I’ve made two every year for donkeys years, one for us and one for friends.Not this year though, as add the price of ingredients and electricity , baking for 3. -4 hours and it’s not worth doing.It will be an M&S one or Tesco.

Hollystears I use a boiled fruit cake recipe. So quick and easy.

I don’t bake now, but my mother’s boiled fruit cake recipe took some beating.
Nothing could be moister.

A few years ago I discovered Lydll sell a mixture of dried fruit in brandy. Using my usual recipe I substituted the main bulk of the various fruit required with an equal weight the brandied fruit. I then added extra sultanas as they are far more succulent than currants plus almonds,whole peel if I can get it, plus the usual extras. Plus a lot of brandy. Feed it as the weeks go by and it is lovely.

Could I use mead to feed my cake? we have some in which we dont really like as a drink. Thoughts please?

notgran

I never buy or make Christmas Cake. I am the only one in the Family that likes/loves it. Consequently previous years I have actually, between Christmas and the first week of January eaten an entire cake, so now don't have it in the house. I occasionally will buy a slice to eat with a coffee in a cafe but try to avoid it. It's like a drug!

I am the same. I made a 6" cake for me last year and it kept calling me. I love my hm christmas cake, the taste, the smell, the goodness in it but no matter how I resolve, I cannot spread the eating over winter. Sadly no cake in my house this year

I need to avoid these cake threads too, my resolve almost shattered when I realised that I could make one from my stores today. I won`t, definitely I won`t

Yes, making your own cake is not a cheap option. However, you know exactly what has gone into it, and the taste (by and large) will be better than some bought ones.
The thing is, that if you do any baking and cooking at home anyway, then you are already likely to have many of the necessary ingredients already in your store cupboard and others can be bought over a period of time to help spread the cost (I’m thinking of the fruit, spices and possibly alcohol if you put any in your cake).
I know there is the cost of fuel to factor in, too, but it is just an occasional treat.

I made one for the first time last year, with some advice from those here on Gransnet. I just did a half recipe because I am the only one that likes it, and I admit, it turned out very nicely! A loaf pan was just the right size.

No marzipan or icing, just the fruitcake. It had about 1/2 oz of dark rum added weekly, and it was just right.

Mine will come from M&S as usually and DD will feed it with brandy every week till just before Christmas when she and DGD will marzipan and ice it.

Yes, LOUISA1523 very expensive... and more so if you make your own almond paste.

LOUISA1523

Must cost a fortune to make a Christmas cake these day?

Strangely, although I enjoy baking, I've never made my own xmas cake before, but I did a rough costing of how much it would be, and it came to more than £20. I think I'll stick to the one I usually buy from Aldi, which is lovely, and just over £5 if I remember rightly.

I have made Delia’s recipe every year but use dark rum instead of brandy. I have made a 5 inch square cake this year. Elder son and his partner don’t eat anything with dried fruit so they get a chocolate log. They don’t eat Christmas pudding either, so I make them one or two ice creams. I have quite a selection of square cake tins. I got bored with round cakes! So, rather than an 8 inch round sandwich cake say, I make a seven inch square sandwich cake. I bought square plates too!

Newquay

I make one every year using my mother in law’s old Philip Harben (remember him?). I don’t like alcohol (yes I know very sad) so, after rinsing fruit and picking it over, I soak it overnight in tea (only just a little tea not lots!) then DH doses it a little at a time with alcohol after baking. He overdid it one year-it was like alcoholic bread pudding and I couldn’t eat it. We’re very controlled (!) eating it and it usually lasts well into spring

Although I do like booze, I don’t like boozy cakes, so I’d soak the fruit in tea, too - it works very well for Barm Brack, which I make occasionally.

LOUISA1523

Must cost a fortune to make a Christmas cake these day?

A lot depends on whether you normally bake, what you bake and what sort of cake you want to make. If you're buying everything from scratch to make a rich fruit cake (and don't use everything you buy), then yes, it can be expensive. We usually have flour, butter, some sort of fruit and nuts and spices in the house so we just need to add to it. And we use up all the leftover spices and fruit for other things so the expense is spread out over months. We have the booze sitting around too, as people buy it as gifts but we don't drink so it all goes in cooking and baking eventually.

I don’t fancy the cake either Dotty. Think swapping the eggs might work, she’s very slow with poor eyesight, but she’s not daft I’ll have to be quick 🤣

Katyj

Can you take some fresh eggs with you when you are going to make the cake, and ‘swap’ them for Mum’s without her seeing?

And take the old ones home with you. I would then break them into a bowl, check they look and smell ok, and use them for something else.

If they are watery and obviously past best, discard.

Eggs keep quite a while, IMHO.

How about cooking a Christmas cake at home and quietly swapping hers for yours. I would not fancy a cake made with out of date eggs

My mum wants to make her own Christmas cake this year. She’s 91 with memory problems so I’m going to help. The problem is she’s insisting on using the eggs that she already has, these eggs are already 3 weeks out of date ! Will the cake be edible and how long would it be safe to eat it ? Any ideas gratefully received.

I always make mine. My Grandmothers recipe. Never put any booze in it we like to taste the fruit, but make it a day before I bake it to allow the fruit to swell. It never hangs about.
Certainly cheaper than a similar size and decorated bought cake.

I have used a Delia recipe for years, but added my one twists over time.

Always the soak fruit on booze leave for about a week, agree Butter and fresh eggs and I "dress" it with Nuts not icing as no one in my family likes it.

I used this recipe for the bottom layer of my my daughters wedding cake, it also was the same recipe for her Christening cake.

I make one every year using my mother in law’s old Philip Harben (remember him?). I don’t like alcohol (yes I know very sad) so, after rinsing fruit and picking it over, I soak it overnight in tea (only just a little tea not lots!) then DH doses it a little at a time with alcohol after baking. He overdid it one year-it was like alcoholic bread pudding and I couldn’t eat it. We’re very controlled (!) eating it and it usually lasts well into spring

I make sure not to over cook mine so keep testing with a fine skewer. I can’t bear dry cake where the fruit is a bit burnt and bitter!

Watched a James Martin Christmas show the other night, an old one. He made a Christmas wreath cake using a Bundt tin.

I haven’t got one of those, but liked the look of his cake, he said it was a lighter version.

Would it be ok in a normal tin? I wouldn’t put the icing or the fancy fruits in the top, just leave it as a plain fruit cake.

Eat it with cheese.
My mother-in-law put cherry brandy in hers and it was and still is, the best Christmas cake I’ve ever tasted.

Must cost a fortune to make a Christmas cake these day?