Boozy Christmas Cake
As far as Christmas traditions go, it doesn’t get more traditional than a Christmas cake. Spiced, sweet, fruity and boozy, this might just be the ultimate Christmas cake recipe.
Ingredients
150ml littleseed extra virgin British rapeseed oil, plus extra for greasing the tin
280g plain flour
650g sultanas
300g raisins
200g dates, chopped
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp salt1 tsp ground cardamom
1 tsp mixed spice
120ml molasses
180g golden syrup
4 medium free-range eggs, beaten
50g grated carrot
finely grated zest of 1 orange
finely grated zest of 1½ lemons
4 tablespoons of a spirit of your choice - brandy, whiskey, amaretto, cherry brandy, orange liqueur take your pick!
We use a lot more than this as I like the cake to taste nice and boozy! But this is what the recipe calls for
Method
Soak the fruit in the spirit overnight it plumps the fruit up and gives it that warming and boozy taste we like at Christmas.
Preheat the oven to 140°C/120°C Fan/Gas 1. Grease a 20cm square or 23cm round cake tin with a little rapeseed oil and line it with 3 layers of baking parchment.
Sift the flour into a large bowl, add the sultanas, raisins, dates, bicarb, salt, cardamom and mixed spice and stir well. Add the molasses and golden syrup and mix them in thoroughly. Stir in the beaten eggs, then the rapeseed oil. Add the grated carrot and orange and lemon zest and give it all a good old stir until everything is well combined.
Spoon the mixture into the prepared baking tin – it should reach about three quarters of the way up the tin. Cover the top with a sheet of greaseproof paper and put the cake in the preheated oven. Bake for 2 hours and 15 minutes, then test it with a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake. If the skewer comes out more or less clean, the cake is cooked. If not, put it back in the oven for another 15 minutes, then test again. The cake might need up to 2 hours and 45 minutes, depending on your oven and tin.
Once the cake is cooked, take it out of the oven and leave it to cool in the tin. Then transfer it to a wire rack and allow to cool completely. Wrap the cake in greaseproof paper and foil and store in a cool, dry place until Christmas.
As we like to make our Christmas cake extra boozy, we feed it once a week. Make some holes in the top with a skewer and carefully pour over some more spirit. Allow it to soak in, then wrap the cake up again.
Prep Time
30 minutes
Cooking Time
2 hrs 45 minutes
Recipe Notes
We really recommend having a slice of cheese (something hard crumbly and tangy like Wensleydale) with a slice of this cake. If you haven’t tried this before, it’s a taste sensation.