This is the second post in my Christmas box series for this year. What would Christmas be without a Christmas cake? Do not despair if you have not started making one yet and you would like to - in his book, Bake It Great, former Great British Bakeoff contestant Luis Troyano has a terrific two-day Christmas cake, which can be made at the last minute. The recipe is also available on Google books here.
I started making my Christmas cake late this year myself. Normally I make it in about July, but this year, I even missed Stir It Up Sunday, and did not make my cake until well into November. Accordingly, Luis' two-day version, which involves boiling the fruit in alcohol rather than soaking it, was perfect for me.
My cake ended up being a bit brown on the bottom, but luckily, the too brown layer sliced away easily, leaving perfect, tasty fruit cake.
Instead of icing my cake with fondant, which would have been very fiddly given the bumpiness of this cake, I used royal icing to decorate it:
It looks pretty good to me - suitably frosty. I should have made the icing a tad thicker, as it remained a little moist and melted my holly and berry sprinkles, but that's OK. The taste was great, at least from my perspective.
I cut the cake into chunks to give to my friends as part of their Christmas boxes.
Stay tuned for more Christmas box posts.
6 comments:
My mom is the Christmas cake baker in our family - I've never made one. But I do love to eat them!
I've never made a fruit cake as early as July but now I feel as though I should! Or just use this recipe instead ;)
Always nice to have a short cut when needed...and it sounds like this one worked out very well indeed. I love how you decorated it, just so lovely for the holidays, and even a little beyond!
I have never made a Christmas Cake before, is it like a fruit cake? Your fondant looks wonderful.
Diane, it is indeed a fruitcake.
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