Countdown to Christmas Part II ......... Christmas Cake!

If you missed PART I of the Countdown to Christmas click  HERE!

great grandma Anna

Our family recipe for Christmas cake has been handed down through 3 generations.

It was the recipe my mother always used that was passed down from my grandmother and which probably came from her mother too.......all in that makes it roughly about 100 years old, times may change yet good recipes seldom do and now all members of the extended family who bake for Christmas use this recipe........it also makes a fine cake for a wedding!

The only change that has been made to the original recipe is the swapping of walnuts for pecans, personally I am not a walnut fan although I do love a good coffee and walnut cake which I will pick the walnuts out of......I like the flavour, just not the actual nut.......which seems strange as pecans are every similar in texture.

Pecans are a firm favourite in our family, that's the american coming out in us I suppose........ we do love a good pecan pie! that's another family recipe that will see the light of day on here too no doubt!
Pecans have come down in price significantly in the last few years, in line with their rise in popularity I'd suppose, and are available even in 'economy' supermarkets.





When it comes to putting cherries in my cake, my penchant is, the bigger and juicier the better! Cheap glacé cherries do not give as good a result but if you have nothing else then make sure you rinse off all the gooey glaze that they come in..... maraschino's work well but the big Morello cherries are the thing, I just adore biting into my piece of cake and getting a big cherry!

When it comes to choosing mixed peel for your cake there are a few ways you can buy it, you can get it already cut in fine dice which unfortunately can sometimes be a little dry and hard, you can get it in chunky strips which you can cut into smaller pieces yourself or you can go for the high quality glacéed fruits which I may warn you are extremely expensive although so delicious!.....go with your budget, you will be steeping it in brandy anyway!

Moisture is always an important factor when it come to Christmas cake, there's nothing as terrible as suffering through a dry cake post Christmas lunch at the in-laws!

keep your cake moist by:

• choosing good quality dried fruits......make sure they are not out of date
• sticking to the recipe!............ it's there for a reason!
• sticking to oven temperatures and cooking times
• covering the cake in the oven if it gets too brown too soon
• wrapping your cake correctly for storage
• lightly brushing your cake with brandy weekly
• turning your cake weekly
• storing in a suitable container to keep it moist once you have cut into it

So now that we have got all those tips out of the way let's get on with baking our cake!

CLICK HERE! to make your way to my Christmas Cake page.........see you there!

Do you have a historic family recipe?, if so I'd love to hear about.....feel free to leave a comment below!