- Serves 16 - Ready in 5 days! -
I make this cake only a few days before Christmas...Soak the fruit on 20th Dec, mix and bake the cake on 21st Dec, make the marzipan on 22nd Dec (the marzipan need to chill in fridge for 24 hours), marzipan the cake on 23rd Dec (it needs to dry for 24 hours), ice the cake on 24th Dec – the icing can then dry and harden ready for Christmas Day!
Gather together the night before…
500ml port (or 250ml orange juice and 250ml apple juice - they come in glass from your milkman).
1 mulled wine bag (or just use a cinnamon stick).
Peel (in large strips) from 1 satsuma.
6 whole cloves.
200g sultanas.
200g currants.
200g raisins.
200g dates or dried figs (medjool dates are often available loose from a greengrocer, chop them up and remove the stone), or use dried figs (stems removed and cut up).
150g dried cranberries.
100g pot dried mixed peel.
Gather together on the day of baking…
200g butter, room temperature AND coarsely-grated.
200g brown sugar.
4 eggs, beaten slightly.
250g plain flour.
1 tbsp cinnamon (yes, a tablespoon!)
1 tbsp mixed spice (yes, a tablespoon!)
1 tbsp ground ginger (yes, a tablespoon!)
Zest from a medium orange, finely grated.
Get cooking…
1. In a big, lidded saucepan - I use my 5 litre lidded casserole dish- put the 500ml of port (or the fruit juices if preferred), the mulled wine bag, the satsuma peel strips and the 1 tsp of whole cloves. Heat on LOW until boiling - this will take about 8 minutes.
2. As soon as it boils, remove the pan from the heat, turn OFF the heat and allow the flavours to steep for 15 minutes.
3. After the 15 minutes, remove the mulled wine bag, satsuma peel and the 6 cloves (count them so you definitely retrieve them all!) - discard or use to flavour a mulled wine / mulled apple juice drink.
4. Add the 600g of the small dark-coloured dried fruit (sultanas/currants/raisins), plus the 200g chopped prunes / figs, the 150g dried cranberries and the 100g of mixed peel. Stir well.
5. Cover with the lid and leave overnight in a cool-ish place or in the fridge. Stir the mixture a few times during the soaking period if you remember. HELPFUL TIP - take a block of butter out of the fridge today, so it is ready to use 'at room temperature' in the cake mixture when you continue the recipe tomorrow.
6. The next day, grease and line the base and sides of a deep, 20cm - 23cm (8-inch or 9-inch) circular, spring-form, loose-bottomed, cake tin. Line using a DOUBLE layer of greased baking parchment on the sides and base (grease it before putting it in place), PLUS a double un-greased layer wrapped around the outside of the tin too, which pokes up at least 3 cm above the top rim of the tin, secure it with cotton string. You can watch YouTube videos about how to double line a cake tin properly, I usually just wing it (as you can probably see from the photo below!)
7. Preheat the oven to 160 C / fan 140 C / Gas 3. Rearrange your oven shelves if needed, as the cake tin plus the sticking-up greaseproof paper will be taller than the cakes you usually bake, you don't want the greaseproof touching / almost touching the top of the oven, as you want the hot air to circulate well.
8. In the bowl of your mixer, cream together (beat) the 200g of coarsely-grated room-temperature butter and the 200g of brown sugar for 2 minutes. Keep stopping the mixer and scraping down the sides and around the base of the bowl, so the ingredients are thoroughly mixed.
9. Pour in the 4 beaten eggs, and mix the resulting sloppy mess with a metal spoon for 30 seconds or so.
10. Add the 250g of plain flour, the 1 tbsp cinnamon, the 1 tbsp of mixed spice, the 1 tbsp of ground ginger and the finely grated zest from the medium orange. Gently stir together just until there are no big floury patches - don't over mix or the gluten in the flour will make the cake tough.
11. Retrieve the over-night soaked fruit and stir the soaked fruit well.
12. Using a slotted spoon (or just large metal serving spoon which you tip to let the liquid run off), add the soaked fruit to the cake mixture and stir well but gently. If any port liquid remains at the bottom of the bowl, discard it / drink it - DON'T add the extra liquid to the cake.
13. Spoon the cake mixture into the prepared tin and level off the top, make a small dip in the middle and bake (at 160 C / fan 140 C / Gas 3) for 2 hours, until a skewer pushed into the centre comes out just clean – don’t overbake.
14. If the cake comes out looking lumpy on top, now is the time to cheat slightly and use a potato masher to gently flatten out any bumps (it's a wonderfully forgiving cake!).
15. Leave the cake to cool in the tin (stand it on a wire rack to speed up cooling) with a tea towel over it - this cooling will take hours, probably overnight.
16. Once cool keep the cake well wrapped in greaseproof paper (use the paper it was baked in) and in an airtight tin until needed.
Adapted from the ‘Make Ahead Mulled Wine Cake’ recipe by Jane Hornby of Good Food, LW kindly introduced it to me and for this I am thankful as it is the best Christmas cake recipe I've tried! Thanks also to www.instagram.com/southcoastcrafter for the tip about using a combination of fruit juices to make a non-alcoholic version of this recipe.
- See below for how to marzipan the cake and how to ice the cake -
Gather together for the Marzipan… it needs to chill for 24 hours before being applied to the cake!
400g ground almonds (or you can blitz flaked almonds with a handheld stick blender / food processor - but only for about 20 seconds, as any longer and they turn to oily sludge!).
200g icing sugar (sieved).
2 dehydrated egg whites (add the water as instructed on the packet - Sainsbury's version work well and are packaged plastic-free).
½ tsp vanilla extract (the Taylor & Colledge brand is fairtrade certified / the Dr Oetker brand is alcohol free).
(2 tbsp apricot jam - this is for sticking the marzipan onto the cake with.)
Get making the Marzipan…
1. Mix the 400g ground almonds and the 200g sieved icing sugar in a medium/large bowl. I used a mixture of ground almonds and blitzed flaked almonds, as I didn't have enough of the ground variety - you can see the flecks of larger particles in the photo below. I do like the texture added by a handful or two of blitzed flaked almonds. I didn't have enough ground almonds for the recipe, as I wanted to make extra marzipan to put into my new sourdough 'stollen' recipe.
2. Make up the the 2 dehydrated egg yolks in a tea cup, whisking for about a minute until smooth - persevere with this, they will be fine! Then add the ½ tsp of vanilla extract to the egg mixture and stir.
3. Tip the vanilla-egg mixture into the dry ingredients and stir well with a metal spoon, you will need to stir for at least a minute to distribute the liquid. If the mixture is still to dry to clump together when you squeeze it with your (clean) hands, then add another couple of tsp of warm water.
4. Gather the marzipan into a ball. Try not to eat it all at this stage, as it tastes delicious!
5. Chill in the fridge in a plastic food bag with the air squeezed out, for 24 hours . Afterwards please consider washing, drying and re-using the food bag.
Get using the Marzipan…
1. After the 24 hours fridge time, allow the marzipan to warm up to room temperature before using, as it is solid when it comes out of the fridge. If I'm in a hurry I microwave it on a low heat for half a minute or so, to warm it slightly. Then knead it for a minute.
2. Brush the cake with 2 tbsp of gently microwaved (warm) apricot jam - this acts like glue.
3. Roll out the marzipan to 5 mm thick using a rolling pin dusted in icing sugar onto a worksurface dusted in plenty of icing sugar (if the marzipan is very crumbly, try mixing it with a bit of the leftover apricot jam so that it sticks together better!)
4. Cut out a circle for the top of the cake (slightly bigger than the cake).
5. Lay the marzipan circle on top of the apricot-jam-sticky cake and trim off the excess with a dinner knife (see image below).
6. Re-roll the marzipan and cut out strips for the side - this marzipan is very happy to be squished and re-worked until it covers the required area.
7. Lay the side strips onto the apricot-jam-sticky sides of the cake and pinch the side and top seams together. The cake will look like a messy patchwork at first - persevere as you can smooth down the joins to give a neater (not neat!) finish - see the image below. Think of the marzipan as 'underlay' - once you get the icing 'carpet' on top, you won't see the joins. The marzipan is essential as it stops the fruitcake discolouring / softening the beautiful snowy icing, plus homemade marzipan tastes delicious. So, don't be disheartened that it looks hideous at this stage.
8. Dry the marzipaned cake for 24 hours under a tea towel so that the almond oils in it don't stain the icing.
Gather together for the Royal Icing…
3 rehydrated egg whites (add the water as instructed on the packet - Sainsbury's version work well and are packaged plastic-free. A Dr Oetker version is also available in most supermarkets).
675g icing sugar (sieved).
3 tsp lemon juice (or just use cold water).
1.5 tsp glycerine (this is ESSENTIAL to make the snowy peaks smooth and flexible – find it in supermarket baking aisles).
Get making the Royal Icing…
1. Sieve the 675g of icing sugar into the bowl of your food mixer.
2. In a tea mug, rehydrate the egg whites according to the packet instructions (Sainsbury’s give the best result I’ve found and are packaged plastic-free). Once rehydrated, stir briskly with a tea spoon for 30 seconds, so they froth up.
3. To the egg whites add the 3 tsp of lemon juice (or just water) and the 1.5 tsp of glycerine. Stir.
4. Add this liquidy mixture to the icing sugar and stir well, by hand at first until the loose icing sugar combines (so you don't get dust clouds) – you’ll need strong arms! At this point the icing will look too runny, DON'T WORRY it firms up once beaten…
5. Beat well with the mixer (for 1 – 2 minutes) until the icing is very stiff and stands up in peaks.
Get using the Royal Icing…
1. Stand the cake on a shallow, flat-based upturned dish so it is raised off the ground to make applying the icing to the sides easier.
2. Apply the icing to the marzipaned-cake with a flat metal palette knife or a plastic spatula, so it looks like drifted snow.
3. Remove the cake from the raised dish and place it on the display plate that it will remain on. Now pay attention to neatening up the icing where it comes into contact with the plate, so there are no gaps.
4. Add decorations - deer, trees, figures etc. I use the same decorations year after year. Add the decorations fairly soon after icing the cake, or the icing will be too hard to push them into!
5. Let the iced cake dry for 24 hours uncovered, then keep it in an airtight tin.
The Royal Icing is adapted slightly from the recipe in Mary Berry’s 'Christmas Collection’ book. Thank you to E for introducing me to this beautiful icing.