Light Madeira Christmas Cake

 

A few weeks ago, my dad requested a fruit cake. He is a big fan of all the older recipes, fruit cake, bread and butter pudding, Russian slice etc. He would pick these over a brownie or a cupcake any day!

So it being the festive season and all, I made a Christmas cake. I actually made this the week before Christmas (even though it recommends "maturing" of a month), so it was much more crumblier than a fully matured cake would be. I'm not the biggest fan in the world of fruit cakes but I gave it a whirl anyway. It actually wasn't so bad, my dad on the other hand looooooved it. He gave it a big thumbs up so if your a fruit cake lover, I'm sure you'll enjoy it too.

 

Recipe for Light Madeira Christmas Cake

 

Ingredients

• 300g plain flour
• 100g self-raising flour
• 300g butter,room temp
• 300g caster sugar
• 5 large eggs
• 50g ground almonds
• 75g cherries
• 150g raisins
• 150g sultanas
• 75g cut mixed peel
• 1/2 tsp almond essence
• 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
•  3 tbsp whiskey

 

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease a 23cm round or 22cm square tin. Line the bottom and sides with double greaseproof paper. Tie a collar of paper on the outside with some string, this should be 3cm higher than the tin.
2. Quarter the cherries,toss in the ground almonds. Lightly whisk your eggs and essence. Sift both flours together.
3. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the whisked eggs gradually, add a tsp of flour with each addition and beat thoroughly.
4. Fold in the remaining flour, cherries, fruit and whiskey.
5. Turn into prepared tin and smooth. Bake for 1 1/2hrs. Cover with a thin sheet of cardboard after 45mins to prevent over-browning.
6. Leave in the tin for 4hrs, turn out, cool on a wire tray. If you wish, pour 4 tbsp of whiskey over the top of the cake. Do not remove paper but wrap in more greaseproof paper and store in an airtight tin for up to a month to mature before use.

I'm sure if you left it for the full month maturing to would be even better. Note to self for November 2013 :)

Shirley x