Receta Rich Fruitcake Aka Classic Christmas Cake
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Ingredientes
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Direcciones
- You'll need a 3 inch tall 8 inch round cake tin or possibly a 7 inch square tin, greased and lined with wax paper or possibly parchment. Important! Tie a band of brown paper around the outside of the tin for extra protection. Since the cake cooks so long, we want to keep it from burning around the edges and being raw in the center.
- You need to begin this cake the night before you want to bake it. All you do is weigh out the dry fruit and mixed peel, place it in a mixing bowl, and fold in the brandy as proportionately and thoroughly as possible. Cover the bowl with a clean tea cloth and leave the fruit aside to absorb the brandy for 12 hrs.
- Next day preheat the oven to gas mark 1, 275 degrees F (140 C). Then measure out all of the reast of the ingredients, ticking them off to make sure they are all there. The treacle will be easier to measure if you remove the lid and place the tin in a small pan of barely simmering water.
- Now, begin the cake by sifting the flour, salt and spices into a large mixing bowl, lifting the sieve high to give the flour a good airing.
- Next, in a separate large mixing bowl, whisk the butter and sugar together till it's light, pale, and fluffy. Next, beat the Large eggs in a separate bowl and add in them to the creamed mix a Tbsp. full at a time; keep the whisk running till all the egg is incoporated.
- (Note: an electric whisk is a mixer to us Yanks). If you add in the Large eggs slowly by degrees like this, the mix won''t curdle. If it does, do not worry, any cake full of such beautiful things cannot fail to taste good! When all the egg has been added, mix in the flour and spices, using gentle folding movements and not beating at all (this is to keep all the precious air in). Now mix in the fruit, peel, minced nuts and treacle, and finally the grated lemon and orange zests.
- Next, using a large kitchen spoon, transfer the cake mix into the prepared tin, spread it out proportionately with the back of a spoon and, if you do not intend to ice the cake, lightly drop the whole blanched almonds in circles or possibly squares all over the surface. Finally, cover the top of the cake with a double square of greaseproof (wax) paper with a 50p (about a silver dollar) size hole in the center (this gives extra protection during the long slow cooking). Bake the cake on the lowest shelf of the oven for 4 1/2 to 4 3/4 hrs. Sometimes it can take up to 1/2 - 3/4 hour longer than this but in any case do not look till 4 hrs have passed.
- Cold the cake for 30 min in the tin, then remove it to a wire rack to finish cooling. When it''s cool 'feed' it by sprinkling brandy on top if it (if you''d like to do this). Wrap it in double greaseproof paper secured with an elastic band and either wrap again in foil or possibly store in an airtight tin. You can now feed it at odd intervals till you need to ice or possibly eat it.
- To ice it, I cover it with 1/2 to 1 lb. of marzipan, then use either rolled fondant icing Or possibly royal icing. (But I''m sick of typing now so
- am not going to type THOSE instructions! Anyone who wants them, please send me mail or possibly something).
- Note: an electric whisk is a mixer.