Christmas Cake

It’s only six weeks until Christmas! It’s time to get out to the malls to do your shopping before the stores get too busy, start listening to your favourite holiday songs, make your list and check it twice, and… start your Christmas baking!

Okay, maybe you’re thinking it’s a bit early to start your Christmas baking – but that’s probably because you haven’t factored in Christmas Cake. I will be honest with you, dear readers: Christmas Cake is not my favourite holiday treat. This is probably because I’m not the world’s biggest fan of candied cherries – as pretty and festive as they look, with their shades of bright red and green. Christmas Cake is for me, however, as firmly ingrained in holiday traditions as decorating our Christmas tree or going to see the Nutcracker ballet. I think Christmas Cake is one of the many tastes of Christmas, and I am of the opinion that as far as Christmas Cakes go, my grandmother makes the best one there is.

I have always vaguely known that my grandmother makes her Christmas Cake well in advance of Christmas – but when I got the phone call earlier this week inviting me to come over and help “stir the cake”, I learned that it is in fact six weeks before Christmas when she makes it. I also learned today that the stirring is quite the strenuous ordeal.

Christmas Cake is made in advance of Christmas because once it is baked and cooled, you wrap it in a brandy soaked cheesecloth and store it in a cool location until Christmas. The six weeks or so gives the brandy time to soak in to the cake to perfection – leaving the cake moist and flavourful. Something to look forward to: six weeks from now, I will be back at my grandparents’ house for Christmas dinner… and that dinner will end with a slice of this golden, red and green marbled cake.

As I typed out my grandmother’s recipe from her well-used recipe card, I asked her why it was titled “Light Christmas Cake” and not just “Christmas Cake”. She informed me that there is also such thing as a Dark Christmas cake, which is made with molasses and dark raisins, but we both agreed that the Light Christmas Cake is much nicer.

The process of making Christmas Cake is quite time consuming – my grandmother started it yesterday, when she prepared the fruit – and although we have baked the cakes today, they will need to cool overnight before she wraps them up tomorrow to store away for Christmas. So I apologize this is not one of Scrambled Eggs Etc’s simpler recipes – but a classic one to know, no less! 

THE RECIPE:

Day 1: Prepare the fruit

2 cups almonds

1 lb of red cherries, whole

1 lb of green cherries, whole

1 lb of glazed pineapple, cut in pieces

1 lb mixed glazed fruit

3 cups of light raisins (golden raisins)

1/3 cup white sugar

½ to ¾ cup Metaxa (or other Brandy)

1. You can either buy peeled almonds, and then they will be ready and save you some time – but if you buy regular almonds, as my grandmother did, you will need to peel them yourself. Put the almonds in boiling water for a few minutes. When you remove them from the water, you will be able to easily remove the peel. Next, place nuts on a tray in 325 oven for 10 minutes to lightly brown.

2. Cut red and green cherries in half, and put in large pot with glazed pineapple and mixed fruit. Save some nuts and cherries aside to decorate the top of the cakes.

3. In a pot, put 2/3 cup of water and 1/3 cup white sugar and bring to a boil. When water is boiling, add the raisins. Cover the pot and let simmer 5 minutes. Let cool.  When cool, pour over the fruit in the big pot. Stir Metaxa into the fruit. Leave overnight (with lid on the pot – and can sit out on the counter).

4. Leave your pound of butter out overnight in the wrapper so it will be soft for the baking the next day. 

Day 2: Baking

1 cup of flour

1 lb (2 cups) butter

2 cups white sugar

3 cups of flour

6 eggs

¼ teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons baking powder

¾ cup evaporated milk

1. Sprinkle 1 cup of flour over the fruit and stir into fruit. This will help keep the fruit separate so it will be easier to stir later.

2. Line the bottom and sides of pans with 2 layers of dampened parchment paper. We used 3 square pans – 1 large, 1 medium, and 1 small. The pans we used have removable bottoms, so I suggest using a springform pan (for the amount of batter this recipe makes, you will probably need two 9” springform pans) for easy removal. When I asked my grandmother where she got her cake pans from, she said she’s had them since she got married… so that was 59 years ago!

3. Cream butter well. Add sugar gradually. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.

4. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Add flour to creamy mixture alternately with milk, 1/3 at a time, ending with flour and mixing well.

5. Add the cake batter to the fruit and stir with a large wooden spoon until all fruit is well coated

6. Pour into tins (a little over half full) and smooth the top, and decorate with reserved fruit and almonds.

7. Before transferring cakes to oven, drop/bang cake pan on the counter to remove any excess air in the cake.

8. Bake at 275 degree oven for approximately 3 hours. Check them after 2 and a half hours. (Our smallest cake was ready in 2 and a half hours). Insert stick of spaghetti into cake to test if it is cooked – when the spaghetti comes out dry, it is cooked. Be careful that the spaghetti stick does not break in the cake! (This is a new tip I picked up from my grandmother today, rather than the tried and true toothpick test). 

9. Let cool in cake pans overnight.

Day 3: Wrap up and store away for Christmas! (Like a present!)

1. Remove cakes from pans and remove paper. 

2. Cut cheesecloth into pieces big enough to cover each Christmas cake. Dip cheesecloth into brandy and wrap it around the cake. Cover with saran wrap and then foil, and transfer to a cookie tin, and store in a cool place until Christmas (for approximately six weeks).

So, now that I’ve officially started my Christmas baking… expect more to come soon - there's a lot a girl can do in six weeks!