Christmas Cake and Pudding

I make most of the family goodies. Cake is my Grandmothers recipe. I do not add any alcohol. Puds are from an ol d 'Good Food' magazine. Mince pies, choc. log , shortbread , ginger bread and Tunis cake.

Mamar2, i was given this recipe by a R.A.F chef and used it for many years to make little mini Christmas cakes with the children in my class ( for my own home i added Brandy)

15 oz unsalted butter

15oz really dark muscavado sugar
cream together
7 and a half eggs( yea, really)beat and add 1 at a time
15oz sifted flour
6oz ground almond
1 and a half tablespoon of mixed spice
1.5oz of sultanas, raisins and currants
mix together bake until done
ps
dont forget you can add nuts if you like and after its baked, every week i used to pour over a tablespoon of Brandy then the next week i would turn the cake over and do the same again until christmas. Yum

I love making my own cake, pudding and usually mincemeat and generally I use Delia's recipe, though occasionally I try something else.
In the past I've tried to get ahead by making cake and pud by the end of September so they have plenty of time to mature. These days I do it later, during October. This year we're away on holiday for most of October so I can't get going till we come home. I just haven't had time this month with other commitments and feel rather guilty about it (self-imposed: I know it's ridiculous and no one's holding a gun to my head). I need to get a lot done in November because DD2 is having major surgery at the end of that month and we will be needed to look after DGD.
I remember my mother putting charms in the pud, but my DH thought it was dangerous (!) so I'm not 'allowed' to do it.

I use the pressure cooker for my pud. Cuts the cooking time and it's easy. I love the rituals of making Christmas food and the spicy, fruity smells.

I've never made chutney - not really a chutney fanatic, but I'm willing to be convinced!

This has been a lovely thread. Enjoyed reading all your inputs. Thanks

I have finally realised that the time has come to make a smaller Christmas cake! I've always used MIL's recipe which makes a huge one but, in the old days, I used to share it with DD and DS and their families and MIL and DM. There just aren't enough of us now. Last year even DH who is a Christmas cake fiend didn't eat much of it. Down to half size or smaller this year I think!

Thanks everyone for the recipes. I made a cake last year & it was really dry. I'll check my settings Chocpud to see if I can receive PMs.

. Not 'alf!

Can you imagine doing that now jings ? There'd be an outraged thread on Mumsnet about awful MILs!

trisher my MIL gave me a Mrs Beetons. Probably for the same reason.

Willa45, your hummingbird cake sounds not dissimilar to a white Christmas cake recipe I have. It's not a keeper in that it needs to be eaten within a few days but it's delicious and it's a change. It has glacé pineapple and ginger in it, yum!

I love making Christmas cakes. When I was working I baked and sold them to my colleagues. Though the majority liked chocolate log cakes which they especially requested which is an oblong cake covered in marzipan and coated in chocolate - not the sponge I was used to. You can buy them in the bakers shops in the area too. Now I am retired and have left the area I intend to make one for Christmas but I need to take special care as GD is allergic to nuts!! So maybe chocolate on fruit cake,should be interesting!!??

Not true anyway!

My mum, silly autocorrect

My municipalities made an Xmas pudding with lots of sixpence in but then ran out of money for the gas meter and had to cut it all up to get the sixpences out! ?

Marmar2 - I tried to PM you with this recipe but all I got was a message saying you had chosen not to receive PMs. I am sure GMHQ can help you fix that.

I use this cake recipe from the BBC Good Food website

look at www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2607642/make-and-mature-christmas-cake

Make & mature Christmas cake

4.894735
Cooking time
Prep:25 mins Cook:2 hrs, 10 mins Plus cooling
Prepare this fruit cake in advance and feed it regularly with rum, brandy or whisky to build the flavour and keep it moist
Ingredients

1kg mixed dried fruits (use a mix of raisins, sultanas, currants, cherries, cranberries, prunes or figs)

· zest and juice 1 orange, zest and juice 1 lemon
· 150ml brandy, Sherry, whisky or rum, plus extra for feeding
· 250g pack butter, softened
· 200g light soft brown sugar
· 175g plain flour
· 100g ground almonds
· ½ tsp baking powder
· 2 tsp mixed spice
· 1 tsp ground cinnamon
· ¼ tsp ground cloves
· 100g flaked almonds
· 4 large eggs
· 1 tsp vanilla extract
1. Put the dried fruit, zests and juice, alcohol, butter and sugar in a large pan set over a medium heat. Bring to the boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 5 mins. Tip the fruit mixture into a large bowl and leave to cool for 30 mins.

2. Heat oven to 150C/130C fan/gas 2. Line a deep 20cm cake tin with a double layer of baking parchment, then wrap a double layer of newspaper around the outside – tie with string to secure.

3. Add the remaining ingredients to the fruit mixture and stir well, making sure there are no pockets of flour. Tip into your prepared tin, level the top with a spatula and bake in the centre of the oven for 2 hrs.

4. Remove the cake from the oven, poke holes in it with a skewer and spoon over 2 tbsp of your chosen alcohol. Leave the cake to cool completely in the tin.

5. To store, peel off the baking parchment, then wrap well in cling film. Feed the cake with 1-2 tbsp alcohol every fortnight, until you ice it. Don’t feed the cake for the final week to give the surface a chance to dry before icing.

Thanks for advice. Was talking to the DD in Oz this morning about it and she said 'oh, I would prefer a pudding, I only like the icing on a cake ......'. Sorry G but it's going to be a cake, my mind's made up

willa45 thank you! I hope you enjoy the cake. [cake]

Regarding storing the cake, I do the grease proof and foil wrapping. If I have a spare cake tin I put it in there but it's fine so long as the foil is tightly wrapped. I often don't bother to feed it and it's still tastes good.

Mine was a present from my late MIL jings think she thought it might help me look after her son better. (Fat chance!!!)

Almost getting excited now.

My Xmas puddings come from a 1993 Good Food magazine.

I swear that whatever Xmas cake recipe you use, they come out the same. Unless of course, you go for one of the modern Creole type ones. Which I don't.

I wrap the cake in greaseproof followed by tinfoil, followed cling film. Then put it in a tin. A square tin, because it is a square cake.

I've got an ancient cookery book called Farmhouse Fare trish. Recipes from Farmers Weekly. Bought it in my early twenties. I make the cake out of it. Yum.

I would post my Christmas pud recipe unfortunately there isn't one. I do a cross between the Good Housekeeping one and one from an ancient recipe book called the Farmhouse Kitchen and add a few trimmings. So it's always Guinness and some other booze-Brandy, Cointreau anything you have. One thing I would say look for one with grated carrot and apple, it makes a much lighter pudding. I try to add something different every year, great choice of dried fruit now so it might be dried pineapple or mango. I usually make 3 and they all get eaten, but I don't start till late October. Don't make cake there's only me who eats it.