Christmas Cake (Irish)

There are hundreds of different recipes for Christmas Cake, all with slight variations on the same theme. In all cases is it a moist, rich, slightly spicy cake crammed with fruit and nuts, which is traditionally baked at least 6-8 weeks before Christmas, and then ‘fed’ whiskey regularly in the run up to the big day. The finished cake will usually have both marzipan icing and white icing or frosting. This is definitely not a quick ‘throw in a mixer, bake and eat’ sort of cake - especially if you plan to ice it properly. It is quite a hassle, but it certainly is worth the effort and no Irish Christmas would be complete without 'the cake'.

North American butter is a good bit lower in fat and higher in water content than Irish butter. This matters for baking. Kerrygold Irish butter is available in some places in North America, if you can find it use that. Otherwise Plugra is a good alternative. In any case, you want salted butter.

Fruit:
1 lb sultanas
½ lb raisins
½ lb currants
4 oz glacé cherries, halved or whole, not chopped
2 oz mixed candied peel, finely chopped
½ tsp. ground mixed spice (equal parts ground allspice, ginger, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg)
½ tsp. fresh cinnamon, grated
½ tsp. pure vanilla essense
1 lemon, freshly juiced
1 lemon, freshly grated
1 orange, freshly juiced
1 orange, freshly zested
1 large or 2 small apples, finely grated
3 oz slivered almonds
1 Tbsp. golden syrup or corn syrup
4 Tbsp. Irish Whiskey

Batter:
10 oz Irish Kerrygold butter
8 oz soft brown sugar
5 eggs
10 oz all-purpose flour, unbleached
2 oz ground almonds
½ tsp. sea salt

Utensils/Equipment:
2 large mixing bowls, an eclectic mixer (eg a kenwood or similar), an 9″ round or 8″ square cake tin, with straight sides. You also need silicone or greaseproof paper, brown paper and string.

Day 1

Prepare the Fruit:
The night before you intend to bake the cake, put all the ingredients down to and including the whiskey into a bowl and mix well. Cover and leave the fruit to soak in the whiskey and fruit juice overnight. Lift the cover now and again just to relish the amazing smell. Do NOT be tempted to skip this pre-soaking as it adds immensely to the moistness of the finished cake.

Prepare the Cake Tin:
You could prepare the cake tin at the same time, or do it the following day. It is quite hard to describe this procedure - but here goes.

First line the tin carefully with the silicone or greaseproof paper smeared with butter. Let the paper extend a little over the top of the cake tin.

Then fold a length of brown paper so that you have a rectangle of paper several layers thick. Wrap this paper around the outside of the tin and tie it securely in place with string.

Your tin should now be almost invisible - sandwiched between a layer of brown paper on the outside and the silicone paper layer inside.

Cut an extra piece of silicone paper, fold in two, and cut a square or circle about the size of your cake tin. In the centre of this double sheet make 2 cuts about 2″ long in the shape of a cross. Set this and the tin aside for the next day.

Day 2

Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C). A bit lower - 280°F (140°C) - for fan ovens. You want a long slow cook, so that the fruit does not burn.

Put the butter and sugar into a bowl and whisk with the mixer until it turns a pale colour. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing each one in very well before adding the next, as the mixture can easily curdle at this stage. If it does curdle - don’t panic, just add a dessert spoonful or two of flour, mix that in and then add a spoonful of flour with each subsequent egg.

Mix the flour, ground almonds and salt together and then fold into the butter/sugar/egg mix - don’t use a mixer for this. Add the fruit and mix everything up well - again by hand or with a wooden spoon, no mixer.

The resulting mixture will be thick and quite sticky.

That’s it - spoon the mix into the lined cake tin, smoothing it out as you go. When it is all in, smooth the surface using a large metal spoon dipped in cold water, so that the mix is slightly higher around the edges of the tin than it is in the centre.

Tuck the square of silicone paper with the cross shaped cut in it loosely over the top of the cake - this will stop the top from browning too much.

Put the cake into the oven and ignore it for 3½ hours. Don’t be tempted to even peek - just leave it there and savour the fabulous aroma that will fill the house!

After the 3½ hours, take the cake from the oven to check if it is cooked. Do this by inserting a metal skewer or probe into the centre of the cake - if it emerges dry the cake is done, if not, put it back in the oven for another 30 minutes. It can take up to 4½ hours - it is very variable, even with the same oven.

When the cake is done, set it aside to cool completely in the tin. Leave it till the next day to remove.

Day 3

Carefully remove the cake from the tin by easing a palette knife between the cake tin and the lining paper. Then peel the lining paper off the cake.

Feeding the Cake:
Now it is time to give the cake it’s first ‘feed’ – of whiskey. Turn it upside down and pierce it in 5-6 places with a thick skewer. Pour about half a teaspoon of whiskey into each hole – it won’t be very accurate, but don’t worry about it, it’ll soak in anyway. You will repeat this feeding process every week to 10 days in the run up to Christmas – maybe 4-6 feeds in all.

Storing the Cake:
Christmas cake keeps for ages, certainly months, if wrapped and stored properly. Wrap the cake completely and fairly tightly with silicone or greaseproof paper held in place with string or an elastic band. Then wrap this in tinfoil or put into an air tight tin. You will have to unwrap and then re-wrap each time you feed the cake which is a bit laborious but worth the effort.

Decorating Your Christmas Cake:
You can leave the cake un-iced, some people prefer it that way, but traditionally it is iced with two layers: a marzipan layer first, followed by a layer of white royal icing. This can be done in the last week or so before Christmas.

It is then decorated in one of many possible ways – families tend to each have their favourite. Some pipe icing decorations onto the cake, or write “Happy Christmas” on it, some make coloured marzipan holly leaves and berries, others use cake ornaments like Christmas trees, snowmen or Santa. You can also go for a fairly simple approach, just icing, a ribbon and a few simple decorations on top.

If you want to decorate the cake, take some honey or warmed apricot jam and spread it on the surface, then put a marzipan layer first, followed by a layer of white royal icing. Add other Christmas-themed sugar decorations and consume after at least 24 hours following the decoration phase.

Marzipan Icing:
This should be added about a week in advance of Christmas, though it can be done earlier. Shop bought marzipan is fine, but really it’s very simple to make and the home made version is much nicer. You can flavour it a little for one thing - I like a slight orangey tang - and pre-made icings tend to be made with cheap artificial ingredients rather than expensive almond. If you are worried about using raw eggs, make a cooked marzipan, but the amount of sugar in the icing really makes the eggs quite safe.

1 lb ground almonds
1 lb caster sugar
¼ tsp. pure almond essence
2 Tbsp. whiskey
2 eggs
¼ tsp. ratafia essence (pure almond extract)

Crush all the lumps out of the almonds and sieve the caster sugar, mix both well together. Beat the eggs, keeping back a little of the egg white, add flavourings and whiskey to them. Pour into the almonds and sugar and mix to a fairly stiff paste.

Turn on to a sugared board, kneed and roll out. Brush the cake with the white of the egg and put on the almond paste.

White Royal Icing:
1 lb confectioners' sugar
½ lemon, freshly juiced
2 egg whites
½ tsp. glycerine

Sieve the confectioners' sugar. Beat the whites of the eggs a little, add half the sugar and beat for about 10 minutes. Cover with a wet cloth and leave to rest. Mix the remainder of the sugar, strained lemon juice and glycerine. A few drops of water coloured with blue colouring may be added to the icing to improve the colour. Use to coat and decorate your cake.