Video:How to Make Classic British Christmas Cake

Transcript:How to Make Classic British Christmas Cake

Steps for Making British Christmas Cake

To begin our Christmas Cake I've put all the dried fruits, the candied peel and the cherries into this bowl, and in here I have the flour, the lemon zest and the spices and then these two need to be mixed together. Then in another large bowl we're going to add the softened butter and the sugar and then with an electric hand whisk we're just going to mix these together until they're really creamy and fluffy.

More Steps for British Christmas Cake

Next into here we need to put this lightly beaten egg, we're just going to add this a little bit at a time, don't rush this process. And then into here we're going to add back in all the mixed fruit and the flour, we do this in about three parts. Into here we're going to put about 3 tablespoons of brandy. And now that's all mixed in, we come to our cake tin.

Before Baking the British Christmas Cake

I've got a 23cm loose bottom cake tin here and I've lined it with greaseproof paper, on the bottom and around the sides, and around the outside of the tin a double layer of newspaper which has ben tied with string, this is to insulate the cake in the oven. In goes our cake mixture, pressing down gently to make sure there are no air pockets around the edges and then in the centre I'm just going to make a slight indent. This is so when the cake rises it comes out flat. And finally, this is quite important, if you've any bits of cake mixture stuck to the edges of the greaseproof paper, just wipe them off, otherwise they burn and it stops the cake from rising.

Baking the British Christmas Cake

This now needs to go into a low oven, that's about 150 Degrees Celsius standing on a double layer of newspaper. If you have a gas oven, then make sure you keep the newspaper away from the flame. It's going to go in the oven for about four and a half hours. So here's our lovely Christmas Cake it's had four and a half hours in the oven, and it's been taken out of the tin and left to go completely cold. What we need to do now is we need to skewer the cake and then sprinkle it with a little brandy. You need to do this about once a week in the run up to Christmas, we'll wrap the cake now in aluminium foil, store it somewhere nice and cool, preferably in an airtight tin, and about a week before Christmas it will be ready for icing.