Christmas Cake 1

If you have missed stir it up Sunday but still want a home made Christmas cake, then this recipe is for you. The cake is easy to make, and gives a rich moist treat that doesn’t need hours of cooking or weeks of ageing and feeding. This is a fast bake chocolate fruit cake.

If you want to take it up a notch then you can spend a little more time in the kitchen and apply a mirror glaze. This may look daunting, but if you break it down and make it over a couple of days it reduces the stress. Get all of the details in part two of this recipe.

Otherwise a layer of bought marzipan and fondant icing will still wow those around you. Or, quite frankly, just eat it as it is!

Step 1 - Stew your fruit

• Tip the mixed fruit into a heavy-bottomed pan on the stove

• Cut each soft prune into quarters and then roughly chop once more, add to the pan

• Cut the cherries in half (or buy them ready chopped!) and add to the pan

• Add the butter, sugar, molasses and spiced rum

• Zest the orange, and add the juice

• Give everything a good stir and bring to the boil

• Simmer for 10 minutes until you have a rich sticky fruity mess, and your kitchen smells of Christmas

• Turn off the heat and leave to marinate overnight

 

Step 2 - Bake your cake

• Preheat your oven to 150C fan / 170C regular / gas mark 4

• Grease and line a 20cm springform tin

• Give the fruit a good stir

• Add the spices, cocoa, eggs, flour and baking powder to the pot and mix

• In a small food processor blitz the almonds to break them down a little and tip into the mix

• In the same processor blitz the dark chocolate to a fine powder and add to the cake mixture

• Give it a good last stir and tip into the prepared tin

• Bake for an hour

• Test with a skewer, bake for a little longer if it isn’t coming out clean

• Leave to cool completely in the tin

For a simple decoration paint with apricot jam, cover in marzipan and fondant icing. You could just tie a christmas band around the sides and cover the top in dried fruit, painted with warm apricot jam for a tasty glaze.

If you would more of a challenge, proceed to part two (coming later this week).

 

 Ingredients - The cake

• 250g mixed fruit

• 150g soft prunes

• 100g glace cherries

• 100g butter

• 100g dark muscovado sugar

• 60ml molasses (or dark treacle)

• 100ml spiced rum

• 1 orange

• 0.5 tsp mixed spice

• 0.5 tsp ground cinnamon

• 1.5 tbsp cocoa powder

• 2 large eggs

• 75g self-raising flour

• 50g toasted flaked almonds

• 50g dark chocolate

• 0.5 tsp baking powder