A Tale of 2 Cakes!

 It's that time of year again where the construction of the Christmas Cake begins, I use a slightly modified version of Mary Berry's Classic Christmas Cake, I've made it for a few years now and it's a cracker!! All Organic ingredients obviously which makes it a tad expensive, Organic Brandy ain't cheap, though I think this bottle is on it's third year so not to bad!!! First stage, which I did last Thursday is to soak the dried fruit mix in the Brandy!! The smell after the third day is awesome and the fumes means everyone has been fairly merry last couple of days!!😁 

A mixture of Sultanas, Raisins, Currents, Glace Cherries and Apricots in Brandy

The second cake to make, is a Red Velvet Cake, not made one before, but a request from the youngest offspring who is down for a visit so thought I would have a go at it, some interesting ingredients with Vinegar, Buttermilk and Vegetable Oil all included, I added some Red food colouring which is cheating a bit, but there you go!!!

So the wet ingredients do look nice and red!!

Looks slightly less red in the tins!

Bit of cracking on the top

Looking ok on the rack

Cover in the frosting, Margie had to be called in at this point to rescue proceedings as I was getting in a right mess!

Looks disturbingly like Corned Beef!!

The verdict was, not bad, too much frosting, but authentic Red Velvet taste!! So qualified success and not bad for a first attempt!!

That was yesterday, back to the main event, having made a successful bid for petrol first thing,whoop!! I could relax and give the Christmas Cake my full attention. The fruit has plumped up nicely in the brandy!

Soaked fruit, may spend the rest of the day sniffing it!

Tin  preparation is down to Margie utilizing her full set of engineering skills!

Amazing job!!

Basically you mix the wet ingredients (Butter, Eggs, Dark Muscovado Sugar and Black Treacle ( I put Black Treacle in all my fruit cakes makes em taste great)) together, add the dry ingredients (Flour and Mixed Spice)  then stir in the soaked fruit and plop in the tin!!

Organic Butter

Cook for 4.5 hours at 120 fan!!

Smells Greaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat !!

Cooked Cake

Cool in the tin, feed with Brandy, wrap in greaseproof and foil, feed regularly with more Brandy and should be perfect to cover with homemade Marzipan and Royal Icing just before Christmas!!!!