Going to cook my Christmas cakes tomorrow

[Sticky Fingers]

I am a little late for my Christmas cakes, normally cook them in August, I follow a Mary Berry recipe but never stick to it. I always add something.

When do you start yours?

 

[TastyReuben]

I've never made one of the Christmas cakes that get started this early and fed with booze every so often, but it's on my list. I'm very much looking forward to yours.

 

[Sticky Fingers]

This is a rich fruit cake and fed with Brandy or Rum over the months leading to Christmas, not a lot or it will get soggy.

I will post a pic's at stages until finished

 

[Hemulen]

^ Nice, Sticky Fingers. Waiting for the pics.

^^ Same, TastyReuben.

I'm waiting to transform into a fruit cake myself, though. Some people (like my late grandmother) bake fruity Christmas cakes here but most cakes are lighter and seasoned with allspice, cinnamon, ginger, orange zest and cardamon and are baked just a few days before Christmas (or frozen). I reckon that fruity Christmas cakes in the UK are stored for months (in room temperature) and frosted before serving(?). One exception here is Christmas date cake which is baked a few weeks earlier; sometimes it is brushed with coffee or spirits (once) but seldom covered with sugar crust.

At Christmas we use dried fruit mainly in snack mixtures and kisel (sauce thickened with potato starch) which goes with rice porridge. My family tends to buy Christmas bakery products from a nearby cookery and baking school* as we focus on the 2-storey gingerbread house (which usually doesn't stay put and causes row and havoc), ham, veggies and fish dishes. Same old same old - *but no year is the same.

OT: Sticky Fingers, is your avatar an eagle-owl? The Finnish national football team is called "huuhkajat" = eagle-owls/horned owls (Bubo bubo) as an owl called "Bubi" (along a Finnish sportscaster Bror-Erik Wallenius) had its nest at the football stadium and was often seen sitting on rooftops in the center of Helsinki. Link (Bubi interrupted a Finland-Belgium football game).

 

[Sticky Fingers]

Hemulen I will type the recipe as soon as I have time and post it with any additions I make.

My avatar is an owl unsure of type of Owl. I took the picture at a bird of prey centre Newent U.K. https://www.icbp.org/your-visit/

 

[Sticky Fingers]

[Mod.Edit: Recipe has been moved to a new thread as per forum guidelines (MG)]​

​

Recipe here: Mary Berry's Classic Rich Christmas Cake​

 

[Sticky Fingers]

Cakes Made

 

[Sticky Fingers]

Just out of interest this was last years cakes

 

[Morning Glory]

Just out of interest this was last years cakesView attachment 47734

They look great!

 

[CraigC]

Nothing like fruit cakes that can be re-gifted for years to come!

 

[CookieMonster]

a proper fruitcake is gone by March.
bake yer own. xxxx Farms kiosks products are not a fruitcake.

Nothing like fruit cakes that can be re-gifted for years to come!

 

[TastyReuben]

I can attest that a proper homemade Christmas cake, made in the British style, is a wonderful thing indeed.

 

[Burt Blank]

Well done to you Fingers mate. It's one of those things we mean to make in January 2021. A quality rich fruit cake like yours is one of the great British tastes.Bravo.

 

[Burt Blank]

Just out of interest this was last years cakesView attachment 47734

Splendid Bravo! This years cakes showed good skill in the bake getting a level top.

 

[Burt Blank]

When do you start yours?

Fingers mate, my wife and I have colluded in making cakes for 20 yrs. I did the easy stuff making the cake canvass, my wife is the real talent. Her greatest feat was to sculpt a replica of my big brothers Jacuzzi complete with him and his wife sitting in it. I sunk a bowl into it with a small fish tank bubble maker. I have no talent for presentation.