TRADITIONAL IRISH CHRISTMAS CAKE HOW TO!

The #festive season has been in full swing and the #Christmas cake is a tradition I would never want to miss! A #boozy and #fruity cake it will make a beautiful Christmas #centrepiece! If you bake it for yourselves please tag me in your cakes!

Ingredients
50g sultanas
225g raisins
225g currants
100g glacé cherries, halved or whole
50g mixed candied peel, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon ground mixed spice or pudding spice
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essense
grated zest & juice of 1 lemon
grated zest & juice of 1 orange

100g slivered almonds
1 tablespoon Golden syrup
4 tablespoons Irish Whiskey
280g Irish butter
225g soft brown sugar
5 eggs
280g plain (all-purpose) flour
50g ground almonds
1/2 teaspoon salt

Method
Day 1 – Soak your fruit!
The night before baking add all the ingredients including the whiskey into a bowl and mix well. Cover and leave the fruit to soak in the whiskey and fruit juice for 12-24 hours.

Day 2 - Prep the tin!
Prepare the cake tin! (Watch for instructions on how to) Make sure you grease really well!

Day 2 – Baking the cake!
Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C). A bit lower – 280°F (140°C) – for fan ovens.
You want a long slow cook, so that the fruit does not burn – don’t worry if some of the external fruit blackens somewhat it’s part of the charm!

• Cream together your butter and sugar until it turns a pale colour and there are no hard sugar granules visible.
• Add the eggs one at a time, mixing each one in very well before adding the next, as the mixture can easily curdle at this stage. If it does curdle (which can happen) add a tablespoonful or two of flour, mix that in and then add a spoonful of flour with each subsequent egg.
• Mix the dry ingredients together and then fold into the batter using a spatula.
• Add the fruit and mix everything up well. The resulting mixture will be thick, sticky and heavy which is exactly what you need!

• Spoon the mix into the lined cake tin, take the back of your spoon and smooth the top out, focusing on keeping the edges higher than the centre.

• If you wish you can take a strip of grease proof paper and place it loosely over the top of the cake so it doesn’t burn/brown too much. I didn’t purely because I trust my oven!
• Bake in the oven and ignore it for at least 31/2 hours.
• After this time remove the cake from the oven and check using a dry mental skewer (I used a knife) If it is dry the cake is done and if not add the cake back to the oven for 20 minutes.
• It can take up to 41/2 hours

When the cake is done, set it aside to cool completely in the tin.

Day 3
Remove the cake from the tin and give it its first feed of whiskey!
Turn the cake upside down, poke holes at regular intervals over the surface of your cake to allow the whiskey to soak through and add a cap full of whiskey over the cake, making sure you get all the way to the edges.

Repeat this step every 7-10 days on the run up to Christmas!

You can leave the cake un-iced, some people prefer it that way, but traditionally it is iced with marzipan!