Christmas Cake

You are in for a treat. Today we have Christmas cake à la Amanda Darrach Filippone. Perfect for “do it yesterday” Classics and for every personality type that loves Christmas feasts. The Pixies will be on Christmas vacation for the next three weeks. Yes, three, there are twelve days of Christmas and it ends on January 6th, aka, Epiphany, which will also mark our Grandpa’s 93rd birthday!:

No mixed peel or glacé cherries here, this is the good stuff – Christmas cake you’ll actually look forward to year after year. The cake is best made on Stir Up Sunday (traditionally the last Sunday before the season of Advent), and then brushed with brandy or sherry every couple of days until it “ripens,” just in time for Christmas. But if you’re coming to the Christmas cake game later in the season, don’t be deterred. Even a few days make a difference, or just give the cake a healthy dose of the brandy or sherry before decorating and serving.

Decorate, if you wish to embellish at all, just before you serve the cake, with a brush of heated and strained preserves to help the marzipan adhere, then a layer of marzipan to even out the bumps, and then a thin sheet of rolled fondant. I like to roll out the fondant scraps and use a snowflake-shaped cookie cutter to create a few snowflakes to scatter across the surface à la Nigella Lawson – the fondant decorations stick down easily with a dab of water.

Serve your Christmas cake in wedges with a good piece of stilton and some port. The cake keeps, covered, throughout the Christmas season and beyond, if you can make it last that long. 

Christmas Cake

For a 9-inch round cake pan

  • 2 cups dried figs, stemmed and roughly chopped
  • 2 cups pitted prunes, roughly chopped
  • 1 cup dried cherries (you may substitute dried cranberries if necessary)
  • 1 cup currants
  • 2/3 cup black raisins
  • 1 ½ cups golden raisins
  • ¾ cup brandy or sherry
  • 2 sticks unsalted butter, plus a little more for the pan
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • grated zest of one lemon
  • grated zest of one orange
  • 4 eggs
  • 2 tbsp marmalade
  • 2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 tsp ground ginger
  • ½ tsp allspice
  • ½ tsp cinnamon
  • ¼ tsp grated nutmeg
  • ½ tsp salt
  • sherry or brandy for brushing on the cake

For decorating the cake if desired:

  • 1 cup apricot preserves or marmalade
  • 1 lb marzipan
  • confectioner’s sugar for sprinkling the work surface
  • 2 lbs fondant

Place all of the fruit in a large bowl, add the brandy or the sherry, cover and let the fruit soak overnight.

Preheat the oven to 300 F. Melt a couple of tablespoons of butter and brush over the inside of the pan. Line the inside of the pan with baker’s parchment that comes a good 4 or 5 inches above the rim of the pan.

Cream the 2 sticks of butter and the brown sugar together until slightly lightened in color and fluffy. Add the lemon and orange zest and then the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each, and then add the marmalade. Sift the flour, ginger, allspice, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt together. Add the fruit and the dry ingredients to the butter and sugar mixture, alternating in three batches each, and combine thoroughly.

Put the cake batter into the cake pan and smooth the top. Bake in the center of the oven for 3 – 3 ½ hours until a wooden skewer or toothpick comes out clean.

Let the cake cool for 5 minutes in its pan, brush with a few tablespoons of sherry or brandy, and wrap immediately, still in its pan, with the parchment above the rim of the pan and then with a double-thickness of kitchen foil. Trapping the heat and the steam now keeps the cake soft and moist for the long haul.

When the cake is completely cool, remove from the pan, and wrap in parchment and then in foil. Store in an airtight container, and remove to brush with more sherry or brandy every couple of days. 

Just before serving, melt and strain your preserves, brush over the cake, cover with rolled marzipan, building it up and smoothing the edges wherever necessary to create a smooth surface for the fondant, and then roll your fondant, using confectioner’s sugar to stop it from sticking to the work surface. You may need to use a rolling pin to beat your fondant a bit before it becomes malleable. Drape the fondant over the cake, trim and tuck in the edge, and re-roll the scraps for cutting snowflakes if desired. Scatter them over the cake’s top and sides randomly. They adhere with a dab of cool water.

Store your Christmas cake covered, in an airtight container in a cool place. It lasts a good long while.