Donna Hay's Christmas Cake

This year, for my Christmas boxes, I decided to make Donna Hay's Christmas Cake recipe from her book, Christmas Feasts and Treats.  I chose it because the fruit component was easy to obtain - raisins, currants, dates and sultanas.  This meant that the cake itself was not as pretty to look at as the cakes with colourful fruits in them, but I am erring on the side of practicality these days.

The cake was straight forward to make, and contains brandy as the booze of choice to flavour it.  I used a commercial gluten free flour mix in the cake, as I was sharing the cake with a number of people who are gluten sensitive.

I did not ice the cake, as I find that people pick off the icing anyway.  That was another time saver which enabled me to concentrate on other things in my life. 

Here is a peek inside the cake:

One of my friends said she really enjoyed the cake with fresh cream, and she had not had Christmas cake for five years.  I'll count that as a win.

If you would like to make this cake, you will need:

450g raisins
240g sultanas
160g currants
160g Medjool dates, pitted and chopped
140g slivered almonds
180ml brandy
250g butter, softened
220g brown sugar
4 eggs
335g plain flour
1/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground allspice
2-3 extra tablespoons brandy

Put the fruit and the almonds into a large bowl and pour over the larger quantity of brandy.  Cover the bowl with cling film and allow to steep in a cool place overnight.

Preheat your oven to 140 degrees Celsius.  Line  a 20cm square cake tin with  a double thickness of baking paper.

Cream the butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer.  Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well between each addition.  

To the bowl of fruit and nuts, add the flour, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon and allspice and combine well. Add the creamed butter and sugar to the bowl of fruit and nuts, and mix until well combined.

Scrape the batter into the prepared cake tin and bake in the preheated oven for 2 hours or until cooked through.

Remove the cake from the oven and while it is still hot, pour the extra tablespoons of brandy evenly over the top of the cake.  Allow the cake to cool completely in its tin before turning it out to serve.