Bakeday

[Ajhutch]

I'm a pretty keen baker so I thought I'd post up some of the recipes up here. Tomorrow I'm going to be making this years Christmas cake. I'm guided by Delia Smith's classic Christmas cake recipe ( https://www.deliaonline.com/recipes...mas-cakes-and-toppings/classic-christmas-cake ) but I tweak one or two things. I've found that other bakes with a heavy proportion of currants are very cake-y and personally I like the bigger juicy fruits in there, so I've ditched the currants and replaced them with extra raisins and sultanas instead. I've done this with success in bakes before. To add a splash of colour I'm going to use some golden raisins as well. So the fruit is 250g sultanas, 250g golden raisins, 300g jumbo raisins plus 50g glacé cherries and 50g candied peel.

Delia uses a dessert spoon of treacle which I don't have and wouldn't use elsewhere if I bought a tin, but I've got an open jar of H&B liquid malt extract so I'm going to chuck that in instead.

My dried fruit is soaking in brandy overnight and the the butter is out of the fridge to soften, will get started early tomorrow. My two year old will be helping with the stirring (until he gets bored anyway) and I need it baked, cooled and wrapped ready for an early bedtime as I have a very early start on Monday.

 

[Martybhoy]

Do you add alcohol each week?

I made my first one last year, on stir-up Sunday. Whilst cooling, I pierced holes in it, as you would a lemon drizzle cake. Each week I unwrapped it and brushed a tablespoon of Grand Marnier over it. It was immense.

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[sdt7618]

Love it, my wife is the baker, but we both love cooking be it food, bread, cake etc.

Feeding the cake is always a great job to do with the kids

Subscribed to this thread.

 

[Clint]

Yep good post! I do the Deliah cake every year..great idea subbing out the currants! Mine gets a great lashing of brandy for many weeks!

 

[Ajhutch]

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Here it is. Little bit of an uneven shape but I can deal with that when I marzipan and ice it. The jumbo raisins look really nice.


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[johnnyboy1965]

Looking good there aj.
A couple of tips...It looks a little "well done" around the edges...Make a collar from folded news paper and tie around your baking tin.
Every week, drizzle with quality spirit (rum or cognac) dont be cheap, use quality, turn it over every time. Wrap it in baking parchment.

Finishing/Icing...Do this at the last minute...Turn the cake upside down, so the bottom is now the top (this gives you a flat surface to work on).
Use white marzipan paste, fill any under spaces with this, level it up.
Brush the cake with a hot apricot glaze.
Roll out the white marzipan...width x height x 2.
Sorry, I missed a step...get a thick, quality cakeboard, not a flimsy Tesco jobby

 

[johnnyboy1965]

The reason your cake is slightly uneven is because one side of your oven is hotter than the other (I dont think that cake is uneven, Ive worked with worse).
Turn your cake around 90o every 30 mins or so.

 

[Ajhutch]

The reason your cake is slightly uneven is because one side of your oven is hotter than the other (I dont think that cake is uneven, Ive worked with worse).

Turn your cake around 90o every 30 mins or so.

That's a great tip, thanks! Don't know why that didn't occur to me. I built my lining up above the height of the tin probably a bit high as well which means maybe I couldn't get it spread out too well as well.

I agree about it looking a little dry around the outside as well, first fruit cake in this oven so I probably had it a bit higher than needed. I was out of brown paper so used greaseproof round the outside of the tin but don't think it did as much.


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[Ajhutch]

Do you add alcohol each week?

I made my first one last year, on stir-up Sunday. Whilst cooling, I pierced holes in it, as you would a lemon drizzle cake. Each week I unwrapped it and brushed a tablespoon of Grand Marnier over it. It was immense.

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Yes, brandy every week from here on out for sure!

 

[Clint]

Deliah says DON'T open the oven for the first few hours!!!

 

[chub1]

Love xmas cake,love marzipan,love royal icing and xmas pud.
Always used to make both.Alas i am the only one in the family who will eat xmas cake and it is one food that now gives me chronic acid reflux,sooooooooooo
don't bother any more:-(:-(:-(

 

[Ajhutch]

Love xmas cake,love marzipan,love royal icing and xmas pud.
Always used to make both.Alas i am the only one in the family who will eat xmas cake and it is one food that now gives me chronic acid reflux,sooooooooooo
don't bother any more:-(:-(:-(

That sucks, do you know whether it's one specific ingredient that gives you trouble? I've got some little one person casseroles that also work for small cakes and I'll be doing a no nuts cake for my sister at some point, I've also promised her the pudding won't have nuts in it.


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[Graz]

I make the Irish Whiskey christmas cake from Delia's "How To Cook" volume 1 most years, love it. It's iced with a slightly strange brown icing that uses black treacle and more of the whiskey. Sounds odd but it's so nice. I was trying to find a link to the recipe but it doesn't seem to be online.

My eldest has suddenly taken an interest in Christmas pudding making, though I'm not sure his weird concoction of Nutella, milk and sugar that had to sit in the fridge for a couple of days before being cooked will really cut it, but I think we'll have a go at making some this year and I'll rope him in to help.

 

[chub1]

That sucks, do you know whether it's one specific ingredient that gives you trouble? I've got some little one person casseroles that also work for small cakes and I'll be doing a no nuts cake for my sister at some point, I've also promised her the pudding won't have nuts in it.


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Seems that many things can set it off ,chocolate is worse:twisted:. Even some very hoppy beers can set it off as well:-(

 

[Ajhutch]

Today I made a fig and pistachio loaf cake with dark brown sugar and honey. I lined the bottom of the tin with Demerara sugar to get a nice crunchy caramelly top. It's a bit denser than a normal sponge because of the honey and a nice rich taste with the dark sugar.


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[Irishwizard]

It just needs LBC stamped on the side. I'll let you work that one out.....

 

[sdt7618]

It just needs LBC stamped on the side. I'll let you work that one out.....

:lol::whistle::thumb:

 

[Ajhutch]

It just needs LBC stamped on the side. I'll let you work that one out.....

I don’t get it......! :-?:-?

 

[Graz]

I don’t get it......! :-?:-?

:mrgreen:

London Brick Company I suspect :whistle:

 

[Ajhutch]

:mrgreen:



London Brick Company I suspect :whistle:

Oh right, hilarious. Well it tastes good


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