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CHRISTMAS CAKE 6 oz. glace cherries 12 oz. seedless raisins 12 oz. sultanas 6 oz. currants 4 oz. mixed candied peel 2 oz. finely chopped angelica 6 oz. chopped walnuts 12 oz. butter 12 oz. sugar 7 eggs 12 oz. flour 1 tsp. salt 1 tsp. mixed spice (optional) Some hours before making the cake the following prepara- tions are necessary. Halve the cherries. Put all the fruits and the nuts into a casserole. Mix them well together with your hands so that the different spices are well distributed. Cover loosely with paper or foil and put into a warm oven (240 degrees) until the fruit is well heated through. You might toss the fruit over once or twice to allow the heat to penetrate. This heating makes the fruit sticky and prevents it from falling to the bottom of the cake. It also plumps the fruit and makes it juicier. Never roll fruit in flour. This tough- ens the fruit and makes the cake dry. And don't wash the fruit. You are removing the natural sugar. When the fruit is well heated through and is sticky, take it out of the oven and let it get quite cold. Warm fruit added to a cake mixture would melt its way down to the bottom before the mixture had set in the oven. Now, back to the cake. Cream the butter and sugar together until white and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time with a teaspoon of flour for each egg. This prevents the eggs from curdling the mixture. Beat well between each egg. Sift the flour with the salt and fold into the egg mixture. Lastly, fold in the fruit and nuts which you have separated by running your fingers through them. Put the mixture into a high 10-inch cake tin that has been oiled and well lined, sides and bottom, with two thicknesses of greased paper. The mixture which you flatten in the tin, should not come up to more than 2 inches from the top. Trim the lining paper level with the top of the tin and rest an inverted tin plate or a lid over the tin. Put the cake in a slow oven (300 degrees). Reduce to 280 degrees after 1 hour and continue the baking for another 5 hours, about 6 hours in all. This is a recipe from our database at Cookbooks On/Line! 1,000,000+ free recipes and free software at: http://www.cookbooks.com Accuracy is believed to be good, but is not guaranteed. This recipe posting is intended for personal use only. You can print a copy for yourself and/or your friends, but you cannot publish it or post it to any Internet or other public site without our permission. |