Has everyone already made their Christmas cake?

I still have a lovely Guinness Christmas cake recipe but haven’t made one for many years.

Maggiemaybe

When it comes to boozy cakes, it’d be hard to beat Delia’s Creole recipe, which I use every year. It doesn’t need maturing, so I usually start it a month before. I mix and match the booze, depending on what I need to use up.

I've made something similar, a recipe from someone who came to give a talk to our group once years ago.

I think it was called Jamaican Black Cake. The fruits are chopped as well as soaked in rum for some time.

No, I haven't made one this year (yet)
M&S?

We're preparing for stir up Sunday in our house. Luckily we have a few fans of Christmas cake and pudding in the family. I used to make Delia Smith's whisky Dundee cake which was also very good and doesn't need icing etc but now we have the GC's it's nice to decorate a cake.

I used to make a really good Christmas cake but I ended up eating most if it. I love it, but that’s not good for me. DH didn’t eat it, so all the more for me. Then my daughter made it, using my square tin, and gave me a quarter. Her family don’t eat it either so she has stopped as well. Now I buy a small slab from Aldi, just for a treat.

DH loved mince pies but I never had any success with making them and nothing could beat his mother’s. Then he had to give up eating them for health reasons. I hate them anyway.
Why is it that every event in December has to offer mince pies?

karmalady
If you and your DDs make Christmas cakes, you’ll have a lot of cake this year!
I’ve made Delia’s classic many times, and we’ve made the Creole cake and the last-minute one - all delicious. I’ve also made small cakes in tin cans to donate to a Christmas Fair. That would probably be a better size for us now and it’s not worth the effort any more.

For the past few years I’ve gone to the cake stall at the Christmas Fair myself. The cakes are made by 2 ladies and are absolutely delicious, available in a choice of sizes, and a fraction of the cost it would take me to make it. Sorted.

Flippinheck

I have never made a Christmas cake or a Christmas pudding as no one in my family likes very rich fruit cakes. I might buy one of M&S’s Dundee cakes and I will use my much missed SIL’s recipe to make a clootie dumpling for New year.

Same here, I am the only one in the family who likes Christmas cake, mince pies or Christmas pudding, I haven’t made any of these for 60 years.

I made mine with my two little GDs last week. They absolutely love weighing and mixing the ingredients using an oversized bowl inherited from my mother. It means that they can use their well scrubbed hands to mix it! I usually buy the ready rolled fondant icing and marzipan and then allow them to decorate it as they wish. I used to spend ages deciding how to decorate before they were old enough to ‘help’ but now I just hand them various shape cutters, decorations etc. For obvious reasons no one ever eats the icing but the cake is always delicious.

No, but I have bought one.

I have one made last December in the cupboard and am about to make its replacement.

I always make my Christmas cake (Delia’s recipe) at the end of August. Pudding on Stir up Sunday. I also make what we call a chocolate shed for family members who don’t eat dried fruit.

Stir up Sunday 23rd November in 2025.

I can remember I'd enjoy making Delia Smith's Christmas cake for several years, I have all her books including her Xmas ones. However, as it has become clear, all the younger members of the family are dried fruit dodgers, they like none of it! Christmas cake, pudding or mince pies represents food of the devil to their taste buds So I gave up the ghost a while ago. Even if we buy a Christmas cake, me and other half, will have a slice or two, and forget about it, and there it languishes in the tin most of the year. We both have acquired a taste for Stollen so maybe I won't even buy a traditional Christmas cake this year, although it does represent the taste of Christmas past, so much of the whole Christmas package is wrapped up in nostalgia.

When it comes to boozy cakes, it’d be hard to beat Delia’s Creole recipe, which I use every year. It doesn’t need maturing, so I usually start it a month before. I mix and match the booze, depending on what I need to use up.

Every Boxing Day when I was young, my grandmother would make her Christmas cake and pudding for the next year! As she used to prod them with a knitting needle and dose them with brandy throughout the year, I dread to think how we weren’t all completely sozzled! They were delicious though!

I have fond memories of my DGM making Christmas cakes and I quite liked the smell, but I’ve never made one - can’t stand dried fruit in anything.
Stir-up Sunday is Nov 23rd this year.

Ex dancer I Havnt heard the archers mention stir up Sunday yet, so there must be time.

Canadian gran I wouldn’t have a clue because I have never made a Christmas cake or pudding. There was one occasion when I had a go at mince pies though but havd no idea about dates but as it’s weeks to Christmas imagine you have plenty of time to make your cake ( but what do I know)

Half my family can't eat Christmas cake and the other half don't like them. We haven't had one for years.

Just made my cake yesterday. I use the Becky Excell GF recipe and it is delicious. It is a bit of a palaver though wrapping it in two layers of grease proof paper and two layers of tin foil. Pudding follows today so will be pudding sitting for the next 6 1/2 hours.

When IS stir-up Sunday Whitewave? For some reason I thought it was in September. Anyway I made mine yesterday but my mixer broke half way through.
It's turned out well all the same.

Nope, not yet though usually I make it in the October half term.
Why not yet? I didn’t have any brandy so asked DS if he had any spirit he didn’t like much that I could use. ‘Yep, lots’ he said, but it has yet to appear. Guess he’s sampling just to make sure first.

teazel2 Delia’s Christmas book has a light glance fruit recipe that includes pineapple, but gMattie’s sounds interesting.

grandMattie

Not yet, but I use an Australian recipe for a beautifully moist, pineapple laden, boiled fruit cake, to which I shall add extras.
Probably next week.

I would love the recipe!

Mary Berry has a Christmas cake calculator for different cake tins, I used it this year and it's just the ticket.

www.bbc.co.uk/games/embed/food-interactive-christmas-cake-calculator

I’m another who hasn’t made one for many years. I always used to use the recipe from our Domestic Science lessons at school for both cake and puddings which were always well received by the large number of extended family members who filled our home.

Nowadays the few of us who are still around don’t care for rich fruit cake or pudding so I don’t bother.

Yes two smaller ones this year, still 8” round.
I’ve also bastardised the recipe as I’ve gone along, really looking forward to taste test too!