I looked at the calendar and got a shock today – only 6 weeks ’til Christmas and I haven’t started making Christmas cakes yet!
So, the first step: Boozing up the fruit.
I make a double mix up, so 2kg dried mixed fruit is needed. I usually get 1kg of premixed dried fruit and then make up the other kg of fabulous extras. So this year the fruit consists of:
- 1kg mixed dried fruit with cherries
- 300g glace cherries
- 200g chopped dried apricots
- 150g dried figs
- 200g chopped dried dates
- 150g crystallised ginger
Then for the alcohol. We don’t have any dregs of suitable spirits in the liquor cabinet this year so I procured a 2L flagon of sweet sherry.
This will be left for a couple of weeks to soak, then I’ll make up the cakes!
OMG! This is exactly what I need to be doing right now!!
For years I’ve wanted to make a christmas cake *properly* – weeks before Xmas so it has time to steep in alcohol or whatever. And every year I’d wake up on December 12th or some such and think ‘Damn it! I’ve missed it again!’. I have procured a recipe this year, however, so hopefully this week I can get my act together to start baking soon.
(Are you cakes gluten free?)
Yep, GF all the way. All I do is use a mix of flours (rice, corn and buckwheat last year, IIRC) and a teaspoon of xantham gum. Because the cakes are so heavy and have multiple eggs in the recipe, they don’t have the traditional GF problem of falling to pieces as quickly. Mmmmm…