Cook, writer and food stylist, Debbie's reputation for foolproof, delicious recipes is second to none. She is renowned for her dedication to seasonal home cooking and her love of all things rustic and authentic. Simplicity over cheffy is her motto!
See more of Debbie Major’s recipes
Debbie Major
Cook, writer and food stylist, Debbie's reputation for foolproof, delicious recipes is second to none. She is renowned for her dedication to seasonal home cooking and her love of all things rustic and authentic. Simplicity over cheffy is her motto!
See more of Debbie Major’s recipes
Subscribe to Sainsbury’s magazine
Rate this recipe
Print
Ingredients
For day 1
250g raisins
250g currants
100g dried cranberries
100g dried cherries
100g chopped mixed peel
100ml orange-flavoured liqueur, such as Cointreau, plus 3 tbsp for feeding
grated zest and juice of 4 clementines (about 8 tbsp)
For day 2
200g dark chocolate (at least 70% cocoa solids), chopped
200g self-raising flour
1 tsp ground mixed spice
½ tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp freshly grated nutmeg
200g soft salted butter
200g dark muscovado sugar
1 tsp vanilla bean paste or extract
3 large eggs
1 tbsp fine-cut marmalade
100g ground almonds
100g blanched hazelnuts, roasted and coarsely chopped
50g blanched almonds, roasted and coarsely chopped
Share:
Step by step
Get ahead
Make up to 3 months ahead, keep well-wrapped. Once decorated, store in an airtight container.
The day before baking the cake, put the dried fruits, chopped mixed peel, orange liqueur and clementine zest and juice into a large saucepan. Bring up to the boil, turning the fruits over as you do so, then cover and simmer for 5 minutes. Tip into a mixing bowl, cover and leave to soak overnight.
The next day, preheat the oven to 150°C, fan 130°C, gas 2. Move one of the shelves so that it is towards the bottom of the oven. Grease and line the base and sides of a deep 20cm round cake tin with baking paper. Tie a thick, wide strip of folded newspaper or brown paper around the outside of the tin and lay another folded newspaper on a baking sheet and put the cake tin on top (this stops the outside of the cake cooking too quickly).
Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of barely simmering water. Leave to cool.
Sift the flour and spices together into a bowl. Whisk the butter in another large mixing bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer until it is creamy, then add the muscovado sugar and vanilla and beat well for 5 minutes until pale and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, adding a tablespoonful of the flour mixture with the second and third egg to help stop the mixture from curdling.
Fold in the remaining flour mixture followed by the melted chocolate, soaked fruits and any soaking liquid, the marmalade, ground almonds and chopped nuts. Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin and level with a spoon. Push the handle of a wooden spoon halfway down into the mixture at intervals all over the cake – this helps keep the top flat.
Tear off a double thickness sheet of baking paper, large enough to cover the top of the tin generously, and cut a hole in the centre, about the size of a 10p coin. Lay on top of the cake tin, transfer to the oven, and bake for 2¾- 3 hours or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes away clean. Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin.
Remove the cake from the tin and discard the lining paper. Wrap in clean baking paper then foil, flat base-side up, and store in a cool, dark place. The next day, unwrap the cake and spike the base with a skewer. Drizzle over 1 tablespoon of the remaining orange liqueur and re-wrap. Repeat the feeding process twice more as the cake matures, leaving at least a week to dry out before decorating so that the icing won’t discolour.
Tip
DIFFERENT SHAPES AND SIZES: You can also bake this in a deep 23cm round tin, or a 20cm square tin. Both will take 21⁄4-23⁄4 hours to bake.
WANT A SMALLER CAKE? Halve the quantities and bake in a deep 18cm round tin, for 11⁄2-13⁄4 hours.
MAKE IT GF Use GF self-raising flour and add 1⁄2 tsp xanthan gum. The GF flour will need more liquid, so add the juice of 2 extra clementines (or 1 orange) when making the cake batter.
You might also like...
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
offerReceive three bottles of wine from the aficionados at Wine52 for just £9.95
offerReceive a craft beer case worth £27 from Beer52 for just £6.95!
winWin a set of The Lost Wife for your book club
winWin tickets to see The Phantom of the Opera, and a night at a four-star London hotel
Whoever finds the fava bean in their slice is considered to have good luck for the coming year. Additionally, a small trinket or figurine is sometimes hidden in the cake, and the person who finds it is said to be the "king" or "queen" of the celebration.
Christmas cakes are also commonly made with pudding while a fruit cake uses butter, however there are Christmas cake recipes that do contain butter. The traditional Scottish Christmas cake, also known as the Whisky Dundee, is very popular. It is a light crumbly cake with currants, raisins, cherries and Scotch whisky.
Leave to cool in the tin. Once it is cool don't remove the baking parchment as this keeps the cake moist. Wrap fully in more parchment and then in foil and store in a cool dry place.
Let cake cool completely before brushing with rum and wrapping in cheesecloth, followed by plastic wrap and tin foil, then storing in a sealed plastic bag in a cool, dry area. Remove wrapping and brush cake top and sides with rum once a week. Let cake “age” for at least 3-4 weeks before cutting and serving.
In the 1980s, a woman unmarried by 25 was dismissed as "Christmas cake" — thrown out on Dec. 26. These days the big number is 31, and women unmarried by that age are "New Year's Eve noodles," noodles being a typical New Year's Eve dish.
Wrap in greaseproof paper or foil and keep in an airtight container. Ideally, the cake should sit for at least a month to mature, but 2 or 3 weeks is also fine. Whilst it sits, you need to feed it with a sprinkle of 2 or 3 tablespoons of brandy, turning the cake each time it is fed.
What is the best alcohol to put in a Christmas cake? A reasonably strong spirit (such as whisky, rum or brandy) with a warm, fiery flavour or a sweet liqueur (such as cherry brandy or amaretto – NOT a cream liqueur) will compliment the flavour of the cake, and help to preserve the cake, so it will keep for longer.
Other good choices of booze include brandy, rum, or whiskey. Feel free to use one or a mix of these to best complement your fruitcake. Once you've chosen the liquor, bake the cake, poke holes throughout the whole thing, and pour a few tablespoons of the alcohol over it. Or, you can brush the cake with the alcohol.
It's possible to overfeed your cake, which will make it stodgy and wet. Our advice is to feed it once after it's initially baked, then no more than four times during the maturation period. Try a teaspoonful of whichever alcohol you've chosen before you begin feeding your cake to test its strength.
Plain flour is fine as the cake isn't going to significantly rise. You are looking to achieve a dense, moist texture that is evenly distributed with flavoursome vine fruits. Gluten free alternatives: opt for a combination of flours.
Unwrap and baste the fruitcake with rum every 1 to 2 weeks if you do not plan to store the cake long. You can sprinkle the rum directly over the cake or brush it onto the cake with a pastry brush.
A king cake, also known as a three kings cake, is a cake associated in many countries with Epiphany. Its form and ingredients are variable, but in most cases a fève ( lit.'fava bean') such as a figurine, often said to represent the Christ Child, is hidden inside.
It was customary to hide a number of small trinkets in the mixture, a bit like the twelfth night cake. These charms often included a silver coin which signified wealth, and a ring to represent a future marriage. Woe betide the guest who stumbled across a thimble in their serving…
A silver sixpence was placed into the pudding mix and every member of the household gave the mix a stir. Whoever found the sixpence in their own piece of the pudding on Christmas Day would see it as a sign that they would enjoy wealth and good luck in the year to come.
For a long time it's been common practice to include silver Christmas pudding coins, charms or tokens into Christmas pudding. Finding a Christmas coin in your slice of pudding is believed to bring good luck and especially wealth in the coming year.
Introduction: My name is Merrill Bechtelar CPA, I am a clean, agreeable, glorious, magnificent, witty, enchanting, comfortable person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
We notice you're using an ad blocker
Without advertising income, we can't keep making this site awesome for you.
Prep time: 40 mins 
