Best, Booziest Christmas Cake, Ever!

There are some recipes I will never relinquish, AKA, my Chilli Jam. However, in the spirit of Christmas, I thought I’d share my beautiful Mum’s fruitcake recipe – best, booziest fruitcake ever!

I grew up watching my very talented Mum bake and decorate fruitcakes. Everyone always loved them. I now love to do the same, especially at Christmas time. And the best thing about fruitcake is it keeps for months in the refrigerator, so you’ll always have something to share with your visitors over the festive season.

So here it is, complete with old measurements (if necessary you’ll have to do the conversions):

Ingredients
8 oz butter
8 oz raisins
8 oz currants
8 oz sultanas
3 oz mixed peel
2 oz cherries
2 oz almonds

1 ½ cups plain flour
pinch salt
½ teaspoon mixed spice
½ teaspoon grated nutmeg
⅛ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
4 eggs

Rum and Stomp! Tawny

Method
Soak fruit in ¾ cup Rum, ¼ cup Stomp! Tawny. Keep soaking for a couple of weeks (the longer the better).

Choose tin - suits 23cm deep, round or 20cm deep, square tin.
Line tin well with 3 – 4 layers of buttered brown paper.

In a mix master, cream butter and sugar. 
Add eggs one at a time.
Add sifted dry ingredients in small amounts, alternating with soaked mixed fruit. For a spicier cake add more spice to taste.

Add cake to tin. Don’t panic, it will fill tin – fruitcakes don’t rise. Surface can be smoothed with a wet hand (best to do this if intend to cover with fondant).

Place in a cold oven and then turn oven on to moderate. Cook for 2 – 2 ½ hours or more depending on oven. If cake is over-browning cover top with foil or lower oven temperature by 10-20 degrees.

Fruitcake is cooked when inserted skewer comes out clean.

Once removed from oven cut paper off around edges of pan. Skewer quite a few holes through cake and liberally sprinkle with more Tawny and Rum mixture. I probably use about half a cup.

Then turn cake, in pan, top-side down onto foil; wrap cake and pan tightly with foil. Cover pan with a towel and cool completely upside down. This helps the top of cake sit flat and level, particularly helpful if you want to decorate.

Once cooled, cake may be kept in a container in refrigerator for many months.

So there it is, my Mum’s delicious, boozy Christmas cake! See, I will share some things. 😉

Amazing served after dinner with a wee Stomp! Tawny or Muscat.

Happy cooking, Merry Christmas and don’t forget to share your efforts on our socials @stompwines, #stompwines