The Christmas Cake Collection

This year's cake awaiting 
its icing, plus a batch of 
strawberry tarts.








Every year I bake a rich fruit cake from the same easy recipe (see below), and exercise my imagination to decorate it in an original way. Here are some samples from past years...

My 2009 cake was decorated 
with 'cherries' made from balls of almond paste,  and coloured with red currant jelly, with green glace cherry 'leaves'.

The 2007 cake had stars and an angel cut from almond paste, silver balls and red cherries.

In 2010 the almond paste cut outs were animals and a star, and the glace cherries made flowers.

For 2011 - another take on cherry flowers and silver stars

  CHRISTMAS CAKE – EASY MIX*

Ingredients

1 kg dried fruit (two-thirds raisins; the rest currants, sultanas, mixed peel, glace cherries to taste)

¾ cup rum and/or sherry

2 cups flour

1 cup sugar

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp baking powder

¼ tsp salt

200g butter

¼ cup golden syrup

½ cup milk

3 eggs, beaten together

Method

Put the dried fruit in a large bowl, add the rum and/or sherry, mix well, cover with a plastic bag, and leave to stand for 24-48 hours, until the liquid is absorbed.

Prepare a 20-23 cm square cake tin by lining it with 3-4 layers of baking paper.

Heat the oven to 150 degrees C.

Mix the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt together and rub in the butter. (This is easily done in a food processor.)

Measure the golden syrup into a jug pre-heated with very hot water. Add the milk and mix it well with the syrup.

Add the dry mix to the dried fruit in its large bowl, and mix well. Add the wet ingredients and stir them in well.

Put the cake mix in the lined tin, pushing it well into the corners. Bake for 1 hour, then cover the top of the cake with aluminium foil to prevent it from getting too brown. Bake for another hour, or until firm.

Leave to cool completely in the tin before peeling off the baking paper.

* Based on Alison Holst's Easy Mix Christmas Cake recipe