Last Minute Christmas Cake

Well maybe you couldn’t make this Last Minute Christmas Cake literally at the last minute! But if you haven’t made your christmas cake yet and you think you have left it too late, think again! With this recipe you don’t need to ‘feed’ the cake so you can have it ready in a couple of days!

To make this cake you soak the dried fruit before baking so you can still get a rich, dark, homemade fruit cake on your Christmas tea table. Even if you think you have left it too late. Obviously the longer you leave the fruit to soak the better. Leave your fruit to soak for at least 12 hours but up to four days is best!

As you can see from the picture above I put a lot of glacé cherries in my cake. That is what I love about this recipe! It gives you quantities of the dried fruits but you can adjust them to suit your tastes. For example the recipe has mixed peel and I hate mixed peel so I don’t put it in. The recipe calls for about 2lb in combined weight of all the fruit so you can easily add more or less of the ones you prefer. You could even add different dried fruits. This year I’ve used some dates in mine and last year I added some figs.

When you get started make sure to properly grease and line your tin, as the cake is quite deep and you will struggle to get it out of the pan if you don’t.

I love this picture I took when I was adding the treacle! 

Just look at that fruit now it’s been soaking in the sherry for four days! My Last Minute Christmas cake is always my first bit of Christmas baking. I put Michael Bublés’ Christmas album on and I really start to feel like Christmas is on it’s way! Because I have to tell you that I LOVE Christmas! Those people who say that it’s just one day just don’t get it! The build up for me, is the best bit. The baking, the decorating, shopping for gifts and spending time with your families. I love it all.

All ready to go into the oven!

So here is the baked cake ready for icing. I’ll be sharing how I ice my Last Minute Christmas Cake with you in December but for now it’s wrapped up all snug in a cake tin getting yummier every day! I really think you should give this cake a try. If you normally buy your Christmas cake from the shop I promise you this one is so much better. Let me know if you’re going to give it a go in the comments section below!

Lianne x

Print

Last Minute Christmas Cake

Ingredients

• 1 lb mixed dried fruit including peel
• 4 oz sultanas
• 4 oz currants
• 4 oz raisins
• 4 oz glace cherries
• 1/2 pint medium sherry
• 6 oz unsalted butter
• 6 oz soft brown sugar
• zest of one orange and one lemon
• 3 eggs
• 1 tbsp treacle
• 2 oz chopped almonds
• 4 oz plain flour
• 2 oz self raising flour
• 1 tsp mixed spice
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

Instructions

1. put the fruit and cherries into a bowl and pour in the sherry. Cover the bowl and leave for at least 12 hours but 3 or 4 days is better.

To make the cake

1. preheat the oven to 150c/130c fan oven. Grease and line an 8 inch cake pan.
2. Cream the butter and sugar together, and then stir in the orange and lemon zest, eggs, treacle and almonds.
3. Sieve in the flours and spices and mix everything together until blended. Finally stir in the soaked fruit and sherry.
4. Spoon the mixture into the cake pan and smooth the top.
5. Bake for two hours and then reduce the heat to 140c/120c fan oven for a further one and a quarter hours, or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.
6. If at any point the cake seems to be getting too brown on top, cover the pan loosely with foil.
7. When the cake is cold, wrap it well in greaseproof paper and store in an airtight container or tin.

I’m linking Last Minute Christmas Cake to Cuddle Fairy & One Yummy Mummy’s Holiday Foodie Linky for 2016

Pin Last Minute Christmas Cake for later

Looking for more Christmas ideas? Why don’t you follow my Christmas | Food board on pinterest!

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